Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 18:26:49 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Nicaragua


"Of the many Latin American international brigades which fought 
alongside the FSLN, the Brigada Simon Bolivar was always a 
maverick. Organized in Colombia by the Partido Socialista de los 
Trabajadores (PST), it embraced combatants from Chile, Uruguay, 
Venezuela, Mexico, the USA and other Latin American countries, 
subscribing to varied ideologies. The combatants entered Nicaragua 
during the last days of the war on the Frente Sur [Southern Front, 
bordering Costa Rica]. Other sympathizers actually attached 
themselves to the Brigade after 19 July [1979]. More than anything, 
the freedom with which they operated indicated the FSLN's early 
problems of imposing centralized military authority on irregular 
fighting units and the Brigada Simon Bolivar took advantage of the 
post-war chaos to dress in FSLN uniforms and carry red and black 
flags in order to convince people that they spoke with FSLN authority. 
The PST leadership encouraged a simplistic move to socialism, 
exhorting workers to strike and peasants to seize private land. As the 
Frente became aware of the threat of a newly arrived foreign group 
posing as an alternative revolutionary leadership, it called leaders of 
the Brigade in for meetings where it stressed the need for 
internationalist units to be integrated swiftly into the single Sandinista 
military command. The response was aggressive. When the FSLN 
arranged a meeting with all Brigade members on 14 August, it found 
itself confronted with a demonstration of 1,000 workers who had been 
brought there -- supposedly by an FSLN contingent -- in the belief that 
they were to lobby the Sandinista leadership on wages and trade union 
questions. The demonstration was the last straw, and the Frente 
expelled sixty non-Nicaraguan members of the Brigade to Panama."

(George Black, "Triumph of the People", p. 334-336. This book has 
earned a reputation of being one of the most reliable histories of the 
Nicaraguan revolution.)

Louis:

I don't expect Carlos to concur with George Black's description of the 
activities of the Brigada. All I would ask is that he furnish me with the 
author/titles of 5 out of the 50 history books on the Nicaraguan revolution 
that he said mentioned this outfit. I want to see something that depicts it in 
terms that are more consistent with Carlos's outlook.

Spanish titles would be fine. I am lucky enough to work at an 
institution that has one of the finest research libraries in the world. 
There appears to be something in the vicinity of 150 books on the 
Sandinista revolution, both in English and Spanish. I am anxious to 
check out a viewpoint other than George Black's. Rigorous scholarship 
is absolutely necessary in a controversy like this.

Carlos likens the activities of the Simon Bolivar Brigade to Che 
Guevara's expedition to Bolivia and the Cuban army's intervention 
into Angola against the counter-revolution. These were activities that 
ran counter to the Bolivian CP and the Angolan government, he says. So 
what's the big deal of Colombians, etc. going to Nicaragua to 
overthrow the Sandinistas?

This is a false analogy. Che and Fidel Castro collaborated with the 
Bolivian CP in advance of Che's trip there. Sadly, Che was betrayed 
after he got there. The facts are that Che went to Bolivia under the 
mistaken assumption that the Bolivian CP would provide logistical 
support. Mistaken as this was, this is not the same thing as the kind of 
unilateral political action taken by the foreign nationals of the Bolivar 
brigade. There in fact is no relationship whatsoever.

With respect to the Cuban army, nobody questions that it was invited 
in by the Angolan government. The idea that the Cuban army acted in 
any fashion in Angola in a way that the government interpreted as 
hostile to its interests is ludicrous. I am shocked that Carlos can relate 
this in any way to the confrontational actions of the Simon Bolivar brigade.

Finally, Carlos wants to know where I did solidarity work: NY, Chicago, etc. 
so he can check my references. This is a slap in the face to me that I 
deeply resent. Carlos poisons the atmosphere of this list when he raises 
such a question. This is the type of question I get from a prospective 
employer on Wall St., not a comrade. We simply have to move past these 
types of innuendos. I am interested in a political debate and this type of 
thing only muddies the waters.


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