Foreign Policy Contra-diction

THE BEGINNING of the end for the Nicaraguan contras is in sight. On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution, by a vote of 11-9, to prevent President Reagan from releasing the final $40 million of the $100 million contra aid package passed last year. Now it's time to capitalize on this victory and force a broad reversal of United States' Central American policy.

The time could not be more ripe. Ronald Reagan, with his sale of arms to Iran, has proven his foreign policy morally bankrupt. He has discredited himself by resorting to underhanded methods of diplomacy devised in the White House basement in order to evade the will of Congress. The forthcoming Tower Commission Report threatens to expose him as a blatant liar What's more the contras themselves are engage in a damaging power struggle which threatens to rip asunder the United Nicaraguan Opposition, as well as the President's policy.

While the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's vote to cut off aid to the contras is a positive step, the resolution it passed, sponsored by Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Lowell Weicker (R-CT), nonetheless perpetuates a fundamental flaw in the United States' Central American policy. The Dodd-Weicker resolution would eliminate the contra's final $40 million aid installment, allocate money to remove the contras from Honduras, and contribute funds to the Contadora negotiation group. However, Dodd-Weicker would also reinstate $300 million in economic aid--with no human rights guidelines attached--to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica.

CONGRESS MUST begin to place human rights guidelines on all economic aid pumped into Central America. In the past, as much as 75 percent of the economic aid sent to Central American "democracies" has been used for military purposes. Guatemala, for example, has used our economic aid to further its genocide of the indigenous Indian population. And U.S. economic aid plays a vital role in bolstering the El Salvadoran military, its death squads, and its bombings of peasant villages in the northern part of the country. Lest we forget, much of the "humanitarian" aid sent to the contras has never been accounted for.

Human rights guidelines would help Congress insure that economic aid is not used to shore up military repression. The $300 million in new aid that Dodd-Weicker provides to military "democracies," however, lacks human rights guidelines and is consequently open to abuse; it would continue to subsidize war in Central America.

In the future, the United States should refuse to send economic aid to Central America without strong human rights guidelines. The left must use its present strength not only to eliminate contra aid, but also to forge a new foreign policy in Central America. For the United States' current war in Central America involves not only the contras, but also the El Salvadoran, Honduran, and Guatemalan military.