The US, Iran and the Middle East

The very mention of his name sends shivers down the spine. Business Insider’s report on his appointment says it all: “Trump’s man to handle the Venezuela crisis was convicted in the Iran-Contra affair and fought to cover-up the worst massacre in recent Latin American history.” The massacre referred to was the murder of nearly 1,000 people in the village of El Mozote in El Salvador perpetrated by forces trained and equipped by – guess who? – the US.

This was during the Reagan administration when US policy went into financing, training and equipping death squads, including the Contra mercenaries against Sandinista Nicaragua. Such a policy between 1980 and 1990 led to the murder of at least 50,000 in Nicaragua, 80,000 in El Salvador and 120,000 in Guatemala.

Elliott Abrams played a central role in these atrocities in his capacity as US State Dept assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs (1981-85) and assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs (1985-1989).

The dates neatly coincide with US policy, “steered by Abrams,” that led US-organised mercenary troops to murder over 250,000 people in only three countries in Central America. Many consider these to be conservative figures. The victims were overwhelmingly unarmed and poor civilians as well as teachers, doctors, peasants, workers, students, women, nuns and priests, including bishops such as El Salvador’s martyr Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was assassinated while saying mass in the cathedral. This wave of murderous repression was always “supplemented” by widespread rape.