Sandinista runs for mayor of New York

The New York Times had a really interesting and well-written story on New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio about two weeks ago that has been causing quite the stir. During the Cold War of the 1980s, the US was supporting right-wing governments and militaries in El Salvador and Guatemala while at the same time funding a right-wing counterinsurgency in Nicaragua against the left-wing Sandinista government. Many US citizens sided with those groups (FMLN and URNG) and governments (Sandinistas) against which the US government and President Reagan were fighting.

Some citizens raised awareness of the atrocities being committed by the troops that the US was training (School of the Americas). The Catholic Church opened many basements to house refugees from Central America who fled to the US (sanctuary movement). A number of Americans traveled to the region to stand in solidarity with the poor and oppressed (Maryknoll missionaries, Fr. James Carney, CRISPAZ). Others raised funds and purchased weapons for the FSLN, URNG, and FMLN and drove them south from Texas and elsewhere in the country.

Bill de Blasio appears to have been one of those Sandalistas (sandal wearing foreigners) who traveled from the US to Nicaragua at the age of 26 to participate in the creation of a more just society under the Sandinistas. He moved there in 1988 to help distribute food and medicine. He also participated in raising money for the Sandinistas while working in New York.

As he seeks to become the next mayor of New York City, Mr. de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, has spoken only occasionally about his time as a fresh-faced idealist who opposed foreign wars, missile defense systems and apartheid in the late 1980s and early 1990s. References to his early activism have been omitted from his campaign Web site.

But a review of hundreds of pages of records and more than two dozen interviews suggest his time as a young activist was more influential in shaping his ideology than previously known, and far more political than typical humanitarian work.

I haven't read all the coverage but de Blasio seems to be defending his support for the Sandinistas during the 1980s and distancing himself from the group following la pinata, the pact with Aleman, and the consolidation of the party around Daniel Ortega. From my perspective, that seems to be a reasonable perspective. De Blasio supported the Sandinistas when they stood for the creation of a more just future even if how they went about creating such a future wasn't the most ideal way of doing so. They've made mistakes in the postwar and the Sandinista government of today isn't the party of the 1980s, let alone the 1990s.

As you can imagine, he has been attacked for traveling to Nicaragua during the 1980s and distributing food and medicine to the poor. He has been criticized for not being aware of some of the crimes that the FSLN committed during the 1980s and not being critical enough of the FSLN in the post-war period. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the coverage has been unfair totally omitting the terrorism of the Contras, the illegal operations of President Reagan and his merry men, and the regional and international context of the 1980s.  
It's not just Latin America that hasn't come to grips with its Cold War history.

[You can read some positive/negative responses from Stephen Kinzer, Adam Martin, Juli Weiner, Paul Berman, and Ronald Radosh.]