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REGION REACTS TO IRAQ WAR.

Article Excerpt
Reaction to Washington's war in Iraq drew mixed, but generally downbeat, reaction throughout the region. Spokespeople from the spectrum of civil society voiced concerns reflecting the economic and moral consequences to their countries, while others feared for their independence. Government leaders met to agree on a unified message of support for the increasingly isolated US administration but failed to do so.

The presidents of Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica met in Roatan, Honduras, for that purpose and to put together a strategy for a scheduled April 11 meeting in Washington with US President George W. Bush about the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), but Guatemala's Alfonso Portillo and Costa Rica's Abel Pacheco would not sign on to a unified declaration of support for the war. Those who did join in faced some anger and dismay at home.

Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, for instance, was welcomed by an indignant opposition party, the Frente Sandinista para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN), which called the president's support "ridiculous and anti-national." The party asked him to reverse his foreign policy, calling Bush's incursions "brutal, unjust, in violation of human rights and of international principles," and asking that he "distance himself honorably from the list of countries that are "enemies of peace."

However, Carlos Sequeira, chief of Bolanos's negotiating team, spoke of pressing realities in the relationship with the US, "a tremendously important partner." He said that the...

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