International

The Last Word: On the Expulsion of US Diplomats

Envío team

“The diplomat in question [Kathleen Barmon] has publicly said in effect that all the unions affiliated with the United Federation of Honduran Workers (FUTH) are tools of the Soviet Union to achieve political objectives.’ You must be aware, Mr. President, that for a diplomatic functionary to make such statements is to foment… social confrontations in our country from abroad.”

President of the National Excecutve committee of the United Federation of Honduran Workers (FUTH) protesting statements made in Honduras by US labor attaché Kathleen Barmon, April 17, 1989, cited in Barricada, May 26, 1989.

“The unfortunate statements of representative Barmon once again ratify our condition as a neo-colonial country, without independence in its domestic affairs, without decision making power over what concerns national life… In another country, where dignity is not for sale…, Mrs. Barmon would be packing her bags.”
Victor Manuel Ramos in a lettr to the Honduras daily El Tiempo, April 20, 1989, cited in Barricada May, 26, 1989.

“The United States seems to be a case of an unredeemed country, irreversibly committed to contempt for the norms of civilized coexistence and engaged in the destabilization… of governments which, like Nicaragua, insist on being treated with respect…

“The objective of these pople is to foment disturbances and confrontations with the very difficult economic readjustment policies which Nicaragua is obliged to take to save an economy severely battered by eight years of war against our people…

“Here in Nicaragua we are going to continue taking the necessary measures to defend our sovereignty and indepednce and we will go on accepting the consequences of that patriotic attitude.”
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto, speaking at a press conference following the expulsion of the two US diplomats, May 25, 1989.

“They were doing what diplomats normally do: meeting with people and learning about what’s going on in Nicaragua… They were meeting with people in Chinandega. It was a chance to get out of Managua, something our officers hadn’t had a chance to do recently.”
US charge d’affaires John Leonard at a press conference following the expulsion of two US diplomats, May 25, 1989.

“And so in Chinandega, two gringos also appeared… What was a labor attaché of the US Embassy at the level of Central America doing in Nicaragua? And what was a secretary of economic and commercial relations doing in Nicaragua? What economic relations do we have with the United States? The only economic relationship we have with the Yankees is the relationship which they have created by blockading our economy…

“We can solve the teachers’ salary problem right away. How? If the Yankees take the $66.7 million which they have allotted to the 11,000 or 13,000 contras in Honduras and deliver it to the people of Nicaragua…”
President Daniel Ortega, speaking to teacher at the Olof Palme Convention Center, May 31, 1989, cited in Barricada, June 2, 1989.

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