The Right Books

In 1989, with the Contras degraded below fighting capability by the irresponsibility of the Democratic Congress, it may be that the cause of freedom in Nicaragua can best be served by the emergence of a handful of prophetic writers bearing witness (as it is the function of prophetic writers to do), in accordance with the old saw about the pen being mightier, et cetera. If so, two or three of them may already have made their appearance in an obscurely published, but highly readable, small volume called Voices against the State: Nicaraguan Opposition to the FSLN (Institute of Inter-American Studies, North-South Center Publications, University of Miami, P.O. Box 248123, Coral Gables, Fla. 33124; $12.95), edited by Steven Blakemore and with a foreword by Arturo J. Cruz, director of the Nicaragua Research Project and a senior research associate at the University of Miami.

Senor Cruz served as a member of the Sandinista junta in Managua, and later as its ambassador to Washington; the beginnings of this book, he recalls, are in a telephone call to him from Professor Blakemore, who suggested “the importance of compiling an anthology of articles by Nicaraguan liberals to describe how the current Sandinista regime has betrayed the ideals of many of us who were among the original supporters of the Revolution. In many areas of political and civic life, the ideals for which we fought and worked—freedom of press, free elections, human rights, and so on— have been repressed or distorted in ways which were never anticipated or desired.”

CW

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Chilton Williamson Jr.

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In 1989, with the Contras degraded below fighting capability by the irresponsibility of the Democratic Congress, it may be that the cause of freedom in Nicaragua can best be served by the emergence of a handful of prophetic writers bearing witness (as it is the function of prophetic writers to do), in accordance with the old saw about the pen being mightier, et cetera. If so, two or three of them may already have made their appearance in an obscurely published, but highly readable, small volume called Voices against the State: Nicaraguan Opposition to the FSLN (Institute of Inter-American Studies, North-South Center Publications, University of Miami, P.O. Box 248123, Coral Gables, Fla. 33124; $12.95), edited by Steven Blakemore and with a foreword by Arturo J. Cruz, director of the Nicaragua Research Project and a senior research associate at the University of Miami.

Senor Cruz served as a member of the Sandinista junta in Managua, and later as its ambassador to Washington; the beginnings of this book, he recalls, are in a telephone call to him from Professor Blakemore, who suggested “the importance of compiling an anthology of articles by Nicaraguan liberals to describe how the current Sandinista regime has betrayed the ideals of many of us who were among the original supporters of the Revolution. In many areas of political and civic life, the ideals for which we fought and worked—freedom of press, free elections, human rights, and so on— have been repressed or distorted in ways which were never anticipated or desired.”