Originally Posted by vienna
I think someone from the US has got to go and visit a country or area where the freedoms and perks of being a US citizen are unknown in order to fully appreciate what a great country this is; in 1965, I spent the summer in a Central American country run by an iron-handed dictatorship and the experience made a life-long impression on me and also gave me a life-long appreciation for my homeland of the US, flaws and all; the dictatorship mas propped up by the US government (the CIA was using that country as the base for its Caribbean/Latin America base of operations after they were booted out of Cuba by Castro); there was a lot of antipathy towards the US as a result, particularly in the capitol city; the only real advantage we Americanos had was that the government ordered the military, who also functioned as the police force, to keep hands off Americans; there was one time I was walking through the capitol with a guy from the house where we were staying; we were approached by a trio of Guardias (who, by the way, were always in full battle dress and heavily armed); since I was only 14 years old at the time, they turned their attention to the adult with me and demanded his ID papers; the guy gave the Guardias his papers, and then one of the Guardias demanded my papers; I responded, in English, that I did not have any papers; the look of shock on the Gaurdias face was priceless; one, who spoke some English, asked "Are you an American?", and I responded "Yes."; there was a rapid terse whispering among the Guardias and they gave the ID papers back to the adult I was with, turned and left in a bit of a foul mood; the guy I was with explained the Guardias had a habit of demanding ID papers, getting them , and then claiming the person had no papers, but for a fee/ransom, they would sell the ID papers back, otherwise they would jail the person, and, if you did not have the money, or what they considered enough money, to buy back your own ID, they would very most likely beat you before they arrested you; the guy I was walking with said, if I had not been with him when the Guardia showed up, and the fact I was an American, a taboo for them, he would have probably been at the mercy of those thugs...
While I was there, there were also a couple of other incidents I witnessed...
There was one nationwide newspaper in the country and its editor was highly critical of the Dictator and would often draw down the wrath of the Dictator or his cronies; one day as I was walking through the central plaza, I saw a large crowd moving towards the newspaper building; it seemed the Dictator did not like the newspaper's latest editorial and had dispatched troops in APCs to bring in the editor for a "discussion"; as soon as the citizens got wind of the troops approaching the building, they massed and formed a human barrier around the building and defied the troops to try and seize the editor; after a short standoff, the troops pulled back and retreated...
The second was something that occurred just around the corner from the home we were staying in; there was a hotel around the corner of the block and an opposition candidate for President was holding a meeting there; Guardia troops, in APCs, one with a small cannon mounted, showed up outside the hotel, and, with the cannon aimed at the room where the candidate was holed up, 'requested' him to come out and join them on a trip to meet with the Dictator...
The newspaper its citizen defenders wasn't clobbered by the Guardia troops mainly because the Dictator knew the US government would only tolerate so much and he needed their power to prop him up against his adversaries; the same applied to the Presidential candidate 'invited' to the meeting; the US liked the idea of a token 'opposition' so the image and false-front of some sort of democracy was maintained for the US taxpayers back home, so every time the candidate was arrested, he was eventually released, more or less unharmed, because the Dictator knew it was in his best interests not to rile up up his main support; the rather vexing thing was no one was ever going to oust the Dictator via an election, since he had rigged each and every election raised against him; even when there was US pressure for him to allow 'free' elections, he merely had a puppet run in his in his stead, again rigging the election so his guy handily won and the Dictator continued to hold the reins, behind the scenes; the US was fully aware of the blatant charades, but as long as the US Cia maintained its foothold in that region of the world, with little to no interference, they turned a blind eye...
Its like that old saw: sometimes you don't know what you've got til its gone, or til you see what not have something, like freedom, is really like...
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