The first stop on the President's trip is Nicaragua, where U.S. relief efforts have helped sweep away resentment still smoldering over Washington's support for the long-ago contra war. U.S. troops that arrived just before Christmas on a relief mission faced hostile rhetoric from former President and Sandinista Party leader Daniel Ortega, who called them potential spies who would spread aids. But Nicaraguans cast aside their skepticism as they watched the soldiers rebuild roads, bridges and clinics. Even the daughter of Augusto Sandino, Nicaragua's nationalist icon whose guerrillas fought occupying U.S. Marines in the late 1920s and early '30s, declared that times had definitely changed. "Before, the gringos came to kill us, but now they come to help us, so we have to thank them," says Blanca Sandino, 60. "Today they are friends."

Clinton's Nicaragua tour includes a stop at the single worst disaster site of Hurricane Mitch, Posoltega, where an avalanche of mud and boulders from the collapsed Casita volcano buried at least 2,000 villagers. Then he travels to El Salvador, where he is scheduled to visit during March 7 national elections, in which Marxist guerrillas, once at war with the government, are fielding a presidential candidate. Clinton is to arrive in the region on election night and stay part of the next day in San Salvador.

Clinton's next stopover is Honduras, where he'll meet President Carlos Flores and Reyes will get her two minutes of face time. The widow claims that out of political revenge against her late husband, who belonged to the opposition National Party, Tegucigalpa was denied access to any of the international aid that flowed into the country after the disaster. She fumes, "Tegucigalpa has been used to sell the tragedy of Hurricane Mitch, but we've not received 1 cent from the Honduran government." Honduran authorities insist that once nationwide priorities such as bridge mending and medical care are attended to, they will direct aid to the capital.

Further delays in aid, especially in financing reforestation projects, could harm Central America even more. The ravages of Mitch have left the region vulnerable to smaller storms that buzz saw in from the Atlantic with murderous punctuality. Heedless development policies have created a possibility for dangerous replays: Central America is chopping down 4% of its forest cover each year, and this environmental devastation was an important factor in making Mitch the killer of the century. pi

Questions

1. Why did Bill Clinton visit Central America?

2. In what ways did the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch defy expectations?

Answers

Continue >