THE RIGHT BOOKS

The Puebla Institute is a lay Catholic human-rights group, founded in 1982 by Humberto Belli, a Nicaraguan lawyer, sociologist, and former editorial-page editor of La Prensa, the opposition newspaper shut down at last by the Sandinistas in June 1986. Over the past four years, the institute has published a number of instructive works pertaining to the left-wing takeover of Nicaragua; and now it has launched a bimonthly publication, Nicaragua in Focus, whose concern, in the words of its editor, Joseph E. Davis, is with “the defense of religious and other human rights in Latin America, particularly Nicaragua, where the Catholic Church (as well as some of the smaller Protestant bodies) has struggled to maintain its independence in a Marxist revolutionary state.” The first number consists of an introductory essay by Mr. Davis, and excellent articles by Douglas Payne, who is Assistant to the Director of the Center for Caribbean and Central American Studies at Freedom House, and Nina Shea, Washington Director of the Puebla Institute.

In launching a magazine about Nicaragua, Davis tells us, two considerations were foremost. The first was the need of Christians in Nicaragua for outside support; the second, the unclear picture many, if not most, Americans have of the civil-rights picture there. Although certain people in this country have concluded that the Sandinistas have lost all concern for what the United States thinks, Davis finds no evidence to support that view.

CW

About the Author

Chilton Williamson Jr.

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The Puebla Institute is a lay Catholic human-rights group, founded in 1982 by Humberto Belli, a Nicaraguan lawyer, sociologist, and former editorial-page editor of La Prensa, the opposition newspaper shut down at last by the Sandinistas in June 1986. Over the past four years, the institute has published a number of instructive works pertaining to the left-wing takeover of Nicaragua; and now it has launched a bimonthly publication, Nicaragua in Focus, whose concern, in the words of its editor, Joseph E. Davis, is with “the defense of religious and other human rights in Latin America, particularly Nicaragua, where the Catholic Church (as well as some of the smaller Protestant bodies) has struggled to maintain its independence in a Marxist revolutionary state.” The first number consists of an introductory essay by Mr. Davis, and excellent articles by Douglas Payne, who is Assistant to the Director of the Center for Caribbean and Central American Studies at Freedom House, and Nina Shea, Washington Director of the Puebla Institute.

In launching a magazine about Nicaragua, Davis tells us, two considerations were foremost. The first was the need of Christians in Nicaragua for outside support; the second, the unclear picture many, if not most, Americans have of the civil-rights picture there. Although certain people in this country have concluded that the Sandinistas have lost all concern for what the United States thinks, Davis finds no evidence to support that view.