A Double Standard

BLATANT HYPOCRISY might be the best way to describe U.S. policy in Central America after Administration officials admitted last week that Washington is bankrolling efforts to destabilize Nicaragua's leftist regime. For months, Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. has claimed that alleged Soviet meddling in El Salvador makes economic and military aid to Duarte's government a necessity. As one State Department official said. "Let's face it, there are a lot of things we don't like about helping Duarte but we can't just let the Russians do what they want in another country. This outside influence is the root of the problem and has got to top "Leaving aside the argument that economic injustice and not Soviet expansionism constitutes the center of the Salvadoran mess, this point loses whatever validity it had in light of Washington's double standard

First, the Washington Post reported that President Reagan approved a $19 million plan for the U.S. to create and supervise a 500-man paramilitary force made up of Latin Americans that will attack vital parts of the Nicaraguan economic infrastructure such as dams and power stations.

Then, The New York Times quoted top Administration officials as saying Washington already provides millions of dollars in funds to moderate political and economic opponents of the Sandinistas.

White House and State Department spokesmen have since confirmed the existence of the covert and program to Nicaraguan moderates. And one official said Reagan has agreed in theory to the creation of the paramilitary force though the details have yet to be worked out.

These revelations take on an even more ridiculous aura in light of the excuse the Administration put forth for not backing the Mexican peace plan for El Salvador. "The Mexican plan," a senior government official said Saturday, "lacks a crucial element--a commitment by the Nicaraguans that they'll keep the hell out of their neighbors affairs."

Coupled with the knowledge that Washington turns the other cheek to the training of counter-revolutionaries in Florida, direct U.S. efforts to tumble the government in Managua lend credibility to the Sandinistas' claim that the recent Nicaraguan military build-up is for defensive purposes. They also unnecessarily heighten tension in a region that has more than enough to spare.

Indeed, it is becoming increasingly clear that U.S. initiatives in Central America are doomed to fail--and fail disastrously. In El Salvador, the extreme right appears likely to win this month's election. The dominant figure in Salvadoran politics would then be Republican Nationalist Alliance leader Roberto D'Aubuisson, who former ambassador Robert White calls a "pathological killer." D'Aubuisson has vowed to intensify the fight against leftist guerillas, making the prospect for a peaceful settlement virtually nil.

At the same time, the Nicaraguans will probably become more dependent on the Soviet Union and Cuba. "We would like to have good relations with the U.S.," a Nicaraguan official said. "After all, America is the big power in the region and we need them, but they refuse. What are we supposed to do?"

The attempt to destabilize the Sandinista regime--frighteningly reminiscent of the Bay of Pigsfiasco--is just the latest in a series of U.S. foreign policy blunders in Central America that are both morally repugnant and practically ineffective. But it adds insult to injury in the form of hypocrisy. We must lower the standards we set for other nations or live up to them ourselves.