March 22, 1990

Senator Patrick J. Leahy
Chairman, Foreign Operations Subcommittee
S.128 The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Leahy:

I write to urge your support for the emergency economic aid programs proposed by the Administration for Nicaragua and Panama.

For reasons of geography, history and recent U.S. policy, both Nicaragua and Panama have loomed very large in U.S. public awareness and have assumed importance far beyond their size. Perhaps most significantly, the economic crises facing the Nicaraguan and Panamanian people today are the result in no small measure of policies of our government. Having imposed an economic embargo on both countries and having promoted, in the case of Nicaragua, an armed insurgency against the outgoing government, and, in Panama, U.S. military action, our country bears a significant responsibility to come to the aid of the people caught in the middle, the majority poor of both countries.

The response of our government to these two critical situations in which U.S. policy has been so deeply involved will be noted with greatest care not only in Central America but throughout the hemisphere.

I urge the most generous and rapid response possible to the emergency needs of the Panamanian and Nicaraguan people.

Sincerely,

Monsignor Robert Lynch
General Secretary

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