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Harry Shlaudeman, recen tly appointed by...

Harry Shlaudeman, recen tly appointed by... image
Parent Issue
Month
October
Year
1990
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
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Agenda Publications
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Harry Shlaudeman, recently appointed by President Bush to be Ambassador to Nicaragua, is a seasoned diplomat who has in the past taken on several CIA assignments throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Shlaudeman most recently served as the U.S. Special Envoy to Nicaragua during the period immediately following Nicaragua' s February elections. Prior to that he was Bush 's liaison to the contras. And before that he was Reagan's "trouble shooter" on Central America.

Shlaudeman has entered the post with a plan to shape Nicaragua's political landscape. According to Nicaragua's pro-government Radio Corporacion, Shlaudeman warned U.S.-backed President Violeta Chamorro that foreign aid to her new government would be jeopardized if she retained Sandinista General Humberto Ortega as head of the armed forces. the U.S. has indeed been slow to deliver the aid it promised during her campaign. It was also reported that Shlaudeman attended a meeting during Nicaragua's June labor strike at which Vice President Virgilio Godoy called for the creation of right-wing vigilante groups to break the strike.

Shlaudeman has served a long career as executor of State Department and CIA policy in Latin America. He has, for three decades, overseen the destruction of democratic movements and has helped craft the machinery of repressive regimes.

The Pledge of Resistance, a national grassroots organization committed to ending U.S. intervention in Central America, has undertaken a campaign to expose Shlaudeman's record. The group believes that Shlaudeman's record must be exposed before he is able to continue in Nicaragua the U.S. government's pattern of imposing repressive regimes throughout Latin America.

Dominican Republic

Shlaudeman's first CIA assignment (under State Department cover) was as a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo from 1962-64. He then served a year in Washington as Chief of Dominican Affairs. During this period U.S. involvement in the Dominican Republic including backing a military coup, rigging a presidential election, and launching a full-scale invasion. 

In 1963 poet and socialist Juan Bosch was elected President of the Dominican Republic. Just seven months later the U.S. backed a coup which removed Bosch from power. In 1965 Bosch was allowed to return to the Dominican Republic and run for president again. When a rigged election prevented him from winning, the country appeared to be moving toward civil war. Shlaudeman was the Dominican point person in Washington when the Johnson administration ordered an invasion by 20,000 U.S. Marines to "restore democracy .. . protect U.S. citizens... and prevent a communist takeover."To no one's surprise, when subsequent elections were held, the U.S.-backed candidate won.

Chilé

Shlaudeman next served under Nixon as the U.S. Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission in Chile from 1969-73. In that position he participated in efforts to undermine popularly elected President Salvador Allende's project of bringing the majority of Chileans out of poverty. 

Three months before the 1973 overthrow of Allende, Shlauderman was brought back to Washington to serve as Deputy Assistant for Inter-American Affairs. In that capacity he helped coordinate the final steps of the coup. On September 11, 1973, the Chilean armed forces, with the full support of the U.S., bombed the Presidential Palace, murdered Allende, and took power. Thousands of Allende supporters were rounded up and murdered in the National Stadium. After Allende was overthrown, Shlaudeman oversaw the consolidation of the Pinochet dictatorship while lying to the American public and Congress about the U.S. role in the coup. A reign of terror ensued in which 30,000 Chileans were killed. Another 100,000 languished in prison, many of whom were brutally tortured, and many more "disappeared."

During his 1975 confirmation hearings to be Ambassador to Venezuela, Shlaudeman claimed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the U.S. role in Chile before and during the coup, 
I know nothing, and I do not believe that there was any attempt to subvert or overthrow the Chilean government; nor was there any involvement by the United States in a coup." This was countered by a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report which called the CIA's involvement between 1963-73 "extensive and continuous." The committee documented that covert activities "covered a broad spectrum, from simple propaganda manipulation of the press to large-scale support for Chilean political parties, from public opinion polls to direct attempts to foment a military coup."

Argentina

Shlaudeman later served as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs during the first two years and as Ambassador to Argentina during the final three years of Argentina's "Dirty War" (1976-83). In this period 30,000 Argentines were "disappeared" by their own government. Shlaudeman, as Washington's point man, maintained diplomatic relations with, and therefore lent legitimacy to that government.

In 1974, Juan Peron, the populist president who likened himself to Mussolini, died. He left in his place a fascist-led military, an empowered working class, and an urban, armed opposition movement. Peron's wife, Isabel took over after his death and ruled until she was overthrown by a military coup in 1976. The new regime dismissed the Congress, placed all labor unions and universities under government control, and proceeded to rid the country of all "subversive" thought.

The horrors of the "Dirty War" are considered to have surpassed that which was experienced in Chilé in the aftermath of the 1973 coup. The engineers of the reign of terror in Argentina were rooted in a fascist ideology and had among their ranks veterans of Hitler's Nazi forces.

At first the victims were opponents of the regime; later they were random civilians. The regime's allempts to keep the atrocities hidden led to the commitment of further atrocities. Tortured bodies were found in unmarked graves and on rivcr banks. Then-Ambassador Shlaudeman did nothing to denounce these crimes.

Not only did the U.S support the Argentine military, but beginning in 1980 it enlisted Argentine neo-Nazis to train the military forces of U.S. client states in Central America. Shlaudeman played a key role in establishing the relationship between the Argentines and the contras.

Central America

From 1984-86, as U.S. special envoy to Central America, Shlaudeman continued his participation in the U.S. war on Nicaragua - this time in the diplomatic arena. As such he represented the U.S. at the 1984 Contadora group talks. The Contadora Group - Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela - was attempting to draw up a nonaggression pact for Central America. This ran contrary to U.S. plans, which were to wage war on Nicaragua and continue militarizing the region. Through skillful maneuvering, Shlaudeman managed to block the signing of the pact.

At the same time Shlaudeman represented the U.S. in the Manazillo Talks - the only direct negotiations held between the U.S. government and the Sandinistas during the entire 10-year U.S.-sponsored war against Nicaragua. After the ninth meeting the U.S. broke off the talks saying the Sandinistas were putting forth inappropriate proposals for bilateral negotiations. More likely, as documented in Roy Gutman's 'Banana Diplomacy," the talks were broken off due to Washington's belief that they would not result in any significant change in Nicaragua's internal political situation. Either way Shlaudeman promoted the failed diplomatic gestures of an administration intent on pursuing a war against Nicaragua. 

Now Shlaudeman has returned to Nicaragua - this time as ambassador. Register your opposition to his appointment to Nicaragua by writing or calling: James Baker, Secretary of State, 2201 C St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20520.

For more Information write: Pledge of Resistance National Resource Center, 422S Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA 94609.

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