GERRY STUDDS. from Massachusetts. and my colleague. BARBARA MIKULSKI from Baltimore. and I had the privilege and the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica and Nicaragua and into Honduras. and. while in Central America. to keep an eye on and listen carefully to the problems that we face in El Salvador and Guatemala. I was privileged to be taken by Charles Boazch to a refugee relief coordinator in Honduras. to the hill country between Honduras and El Salvador. I found there things that our State Department and our CIA were not admitting. I found 25.000 to 35.000 refugees. I found people who were fleeing the violence in El Salvador. but not. as was suggested by our Embassy. fleeing the guerrillas from the hills. In fact. the death. the rape. and the torture and the crop burning that was described by the peasants and the refugees that I talked to was all committed by the very government and by the very military that we are now extending our lethal bullets and aid to. I think the United States has a responsibility in Central America not to repeat the mistakes we have made for the last 50 to 100 years. I think the United States has a responsibility to use its good offices in Central America to seek peace and to seek a political solution.
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refugee refugees