Carlos Midence *, June 14th 2021
Nicaragua is currently a country clear about the fact that its vital processes must move forward, directed towards the future, however, it also is a country fully aware that to understand itself, it has look backas well, that is, look into its historical-memory.
In this context, it is important to point out that historically we have made progress in coping with what we might call the colonial wound. We understand colonial wounds, not only as traumas that involve aggressions, impositions, looting, attempts to humiliate us and slow us down our progress, but as a political and epistemic vantage point (of thought and knowledge), from which we can re-energize and understand ourselves, both as Ouramericans and as revolutionary, sovereign, free and dignified Nicaraguans.
Nicaraguans can state this with complete knowledge of the facts, using both historical records and current events. There are many historians of various nationalities (Wallace, Selser, Friedman, Pozas) who affirm that Nicaragua has been and continues to be the country most intervened, attacked, and threatened by the United States, in all times and circumstances, even more so than Mexico, despite the latter's proximity to the imperial/colonial country.
We are talking about all levels of violence, force or coercion against our country: intervention, invasion, meddling, interference, military aggression, threats. In Nicaragua, imperialism/colonialism has tried all forms of onslaught, including transmuting them, re-applying them from other places (like the Philippines) or initiating them in our lands later to transplant them to other latitudes. Carlos Fonseca, in the mid-twentieth century, said that Nicaragua had resisted "more than 450 years of foreign aggression, of which more than a century were Yankee aggressions." This fundamental reflection, today, adds up to more than 500 years of foreign aggression, of which more than 150 years have been perpetrated by the United States.
As soon as we gained our independence, we began to fall victim to constant attacks and attempts at control on the part of that country. History records that of the filibuster William Walker, as among the first, however, before this one, we had already suffered three others, among which is the bombardment of San Juan del Norte, an area of our territory that the Spanish could not control, but that the United States and Great Britain arbitrarily disputed.
The U.S. aggressions against Nicaragua have had and continue to operate via multiple pretexts and forms: economic, perimeter security, resources, geopolitical, commercial, securing areas of interest, curbing influences, tamping down the country's threshold of autonomy or even overcoming, through aggression, the so-called "Vietnam syndrome", the latter was also the real reason for the invasion of Grenada (Br. Bruce Franklin). He has rehearsed all the subterfuges, but it is not possible to comment on all of them.
There is another significant element, which is important to talk about, primarily in the interest of understanding, not only the historical framework, but the current moment our country is living through. Let us ask ourselves: what has been the behavior throughout history of the so-called "elites, oligarchies, divine castes" and even of certain groups of political agents in Nicaragua, in relation to these intervening actions carried out by imperialism/colonialism?
Having reviewed the historiography, we know that they have not only been complacent, but also defenders, promoters and reproducers of the schemes that imperialism/colonialism has wanted to impose. After independence, these elites, or what Pierre Bordieu refers to as "the distinguished ones", who in Nicaragua, include the Chamorro, Díaz, Sacasa, Cuadra, among others who mimic them, and who have begged, consented or celebrated foreign interventions, specifically when they have concluded that they cannot dispute power democratically via institutional mechanisms.
They have constantly invoked intervention, invasion or interference in our political, social and economic processes, processes which must be resolved through our own regulatory framework. They do so by making shameless, false excuses, trying to hide the fact that this has actually always been their way of doing things. This was inoculated into them from their very origins. We refer to:
1. Feeling dependent on the influence of the so-called centers of power.
2. Developing chronic inability to resolve and manage internal contradictions through their own models, which is proof of the domination exercised by a colonialist model, of which they have considered themselves heirs.
3. This colonialism or colonial wound inculcated in these elites a mentality that makes them believe that foreign is better than local.
Now, both for these "divine castes", as well as for certain agents, this has been a nefarious recurrence: whenever they are not capable of internal dispute or political debate, they beg for the interference of the power that has been erected itself judge and police of the world, thereby causing irreparable damage, both in human, economic and social terms, provoking in addition, an incalculable regression that has limited Nicaragua's political and autonomic advances, until it has become dependent on the designs established by the matrix of imperial / colonial power.
We have already said that this has been an ignominious and repetitive behavior on the part of these groups, which is currently being extended to other actors. They have acted assiduously without control, without regard and without consequences for themselves in times past, whereas the people have always suffered the consequences of those interferences.
It is here, at present, that the Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace, (Law 1055) fulfills its function. This law sets the limit, the brake on these stateless, patrician, shameful attitudes of those who ask for interference in the internal affairs of the country and who, with this attitude, not only put stability at risk, but also undermine democracy, institutionality and the Constitution of the Republic, that we Nicaraguans have given to ourselves, falling in this manner, into an ignominious foreignness that deprecates what is ours.
The function of this Law is to ensure the sovereignty of the country, strengthen the condition of the Nation-State, make our juridical-constitutional framework prevail, one through which we must move as a society and which establishes our frameworks of coexistence in a guaranteed way.
The irony of the matter, in terms of the campaign that has been undertaken against our country, due to the application of this Law of the State, which has made it possible to dismantle the structure that financed the coup, of those who tried to depose by means of violence and bloodshed the legitimate government of Nicaragua; is that the United States itself has and continues to apply laws against its citizens when they have opposed participating in wars of intervention, aggression against other peoples. In other words, while Nicaragua applies laws to curb individuals or groups that request aggression against its people, the United States applies laws to force its citizens to participate forcibly in military interventions against defenceless peoples. This is how the so-called oldest democracy in the world works, the one that they wanted to subjugate us with cannon fire.
It is also important to point out the existence of this type of law in multiple countries, which punish crimes of this nature and for which a series of characters are being investigated by the Office of the Public Prosecutor, which has as its role the defense of common rights and interests and thus contributes to peace and harmonious coexistence among Nicaraguans. Let's see: the U.S. Legal Code contains punishments related to the crimes of treason, improper promotion of treason, rebellion or insurrection, seditious conspiracy, promotion of the overthrow of the government, registration of foreign organizations, activities affecting the armed forces during the war and recruitment for service against the United States, anyone who is subject to this code is prosecuted and can suffer penalties ranging from prison, fines and the prohibition of running for elected office.
At this point, as we established at the outset, Nicaragua is currently developing its processes by looking toward the future, but also nourishing itself to reflect on past experiences. This makes it possible to observe the behavior of those who have always attacked our sovereignty, even in our national anthem. These individuals, elites, "dominant groups", have never had any qualms about defending their interests, even if this means crushing or bypassing the Nation and at the same time, denying or concealing their dishonorable acts. We say this because Salomón Ibarra Mayorga, author of the lyrics of the national anthem, relates a passage that sums up what we affirm.
The poet Ibarra Mayorga, certifies that, during the government of Emiliano Chamorro (a coincidence?) when a public contest was started to choose the lyrics of a new national anthem, the most important premise established was: "to mitigate what could be considered anti-imperialism. indicates that, at a time when the country was intervened by the United States, in the face of an intervention that stifled our rights, we could not exclaim without being considered traitors, any reference to the political situation of the country was prohibited," as stated by Ibarra Mayorga.
There can be no more lacerating and vexatious issue in the history of our country than the servile actions of such lackeys, who declared a traitor anyone who opposed United States interventionism. Greater ignominy is impossible to find. Humiliation such as these and the more than 25 occasions that these groups have consented, invoked, begged for foreign interference and intervention in our country, thereby paralyzing the possibility of us maturing as a society, demonstrates the moral obligation, out of decorum of the people of Nicaragua, whom these subjects have always sacrificed, and the need, that legislation nipping such dishonorable evil in the bud be applied. Paraphrasing Piero, Sandino taught us that the Nation is never to be surrendered.
* Ambassador of Nicaragua to Spain, Sandinista Militant, International Prize of Thought and Essay Sial Pygmalion, International Prize of Thought and Essay Aristotle.