Former Congressman Charlie Wilson, who died last week at the age of 76, is known mostly for his activities in support of the Taliban, who afterwards managed to evict the Soviets from Afghanistan.
The author of this article from Nicaragua’s La Prensa, apparently a former member of Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front who eventually switched sides and joined the U.S.-backed Contra rebels, recounts his experience meeting the Congressman a few years before Wilson’s involvement in Afghanistan.
For Nicaragua’s La Prensa, Luciano Cuadra Waters writes in part:
I can’t say that our first meeting was cordial. An official of the U.S. Foreign Service introduced us, having assured me that the Congressman would be a terrific ally for the cause of the Freedom Fighters [the Contras] if we “worked him well.”
We hit the first rough spot when he was told I had once been an official at the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) Interior Ministry. He immediately exclaimed – with a bitter expression and in an angry voice – the question that usually came first to the lips of people like him:
– What made you join them?
– I wanted a change – I replied.
– You wanted a change? Well, you’ve got it – he said in an even more acrid tone. – And now why are you here?, he continued.At this point I knew we weren’t getting anywhere, and so I decided to answer him in my own way:
– Thanks to people like you who in the past have supported worthless governments …
Months later, while participating in a Texas meeting of organizations against communism, the organizers permitted me give a speech in which I briefly explained that there were Nicaraguans like us, who wanted to win the war in our country – and not at the negotiating table. After the speech, Charlie was among those who approached me to shake my hand.
Yesterday, international news agencies announced that he passed away at a hospital in his native Texas. In a few days, a part of history is going to be buried in that state. Let it be God and not history that will judge him.
Rest in peace, Charlie Wilson.
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