Evangelists in Nicaragua

To the Editors:

In “Who Are the Sandinistas?” [NYR, May 12], Michael Massing states that Jimmy Swaggart was the first evangelical preacher allowed to visit Nicaragua since the Sandinistas came to power. In fact, while a few major US evangelists have been turned away, several others have held revivals in Nicaragua in recent years. The latter include the California-based Alberto Mottesi (1984), Oklahoma faith healer Larry Jones (1985), and Puerto Rican faith healer Yiye Avila (1987). This is not to mention the 2400 Nicaraguan evangelical pastors who, despite occasional tribulations related usually to the war, have continued to hold forth under Sandinista rule.

David Stoll

Department of Anthropology

Stanford University

Stanford, California