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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2001 Bush's reactionary 'diplomats' Whether or not Bush can now get all his proposed foreign policy appointments approved, given the razor-thin Senate majority switch from Republican to Democrat, they nonetheless show his imperial mindset, especially in the western hemisphere: Otto Reich is Bush's choice to be assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, the main Latin American policy position. Reich ran a major arm of Reagan's domestic propaganda machine, salting U.S. papers with "positive" articles about the CIA-backed contras. Reich also helped in the crafting of the ultra-reactionary Helms-Burton Act tightening the embargo on Cuba. John Negroponte is Bush's candidate for UN Ambassador. When he was ambassador to Honduras, 1981-85, Negroponte was a major figure in covering up atrocities carried out by the Honduran military, in order to maintain U.S.-contra bases there. Elliott Abrams was appointed by Bush to be National Security Council director for "democracy, human rights and international operations." When he served Reagan as assistant secretary of state for Latin America, Abrams was infamous for baldly denying atrocities carried out in Central America by U.S.-backed forces, such as the 1982 El Mozote massacre of civilians in El Salvador. Abrams was also convicted in Reagan's Iran-contra conspiracy. |
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