Sir, – It's very strange when an editorial expresses an opinion about a country that ignores the likely views of the majority of its inhabitants. This is what you did in commenting on Nicaragua ("The Irish Times view on Nicaragua – struggle continues", August 6th), apparently basing your editorial on a petition signed by 50 Irish people, most of whom are unlikely to have visited Nicaragua in the last year. If they were to do so, as a group of UK trade unionists did a few weeks ago, they would find that the country I live in is at peace, and most Nicaraguans are relieved that the violent protests have stopped and that the damage caused is being repaired.
The editorial (and presumably the petition) repeat various myths. First, the protesters were not “unarmed”; they had vast numbers of homemade mortar guns as well as conventional weapons, or else how would their violence have resulted in the deaths of 22 police officers and 48 government supporters? Second, there were not “more than 500” victims, there were 253 directly related to the conflict. Third, violent protesters do not “remain in prison”: their release under a generous government amnesty was supervised by the International Red Cross. And finally, the country is far from the “brink of total economic chaos”: people are working hard to recover the 5 per cent growth rates Nicaragua was enjoying before last year’s three months of violence.
What Nicaragua now needs is support from those who knew it in the 1980s, and of course from The Irish Times, not ill-informed criticism that is likely to put off the investment and tourism which it is now able to welcome again. I know. I talk to family and neighbours about these issues on a daily basis in Masaya, one of the cities most affected by the violence. – Yours, etc,
JOHN PERRY,
Masaya, Nicaragua.