Pablo Jofré Leal, Segundo Paso, July 12th 2021
The American political scientist Gene Sharp, considered the father of the idea of soft coups, points out that the nature of wars in this twenty-first century has changed markedly. While it is still true that armed invasions, aggressions and combats are a reality, it is also verified that methods, which may not be so new, but which at the end of the twentieth century and in these first five years of the twenty-first century, have become ever present, with effects as disastrous as the merely military and where Nicaragua is one of the targets.
We speak about combat with psychological, social, economic and political weapons, on a menu as explosive as it is criminal. This coup strategy is a mechanism of direct foreign intervention, which is developed within the framework of the new geopolitical conditions in the world and which, therefore, allows the least possible number of casualties from the human and military point of view. One of the most recurrent concepts is that of the "policy of maximum pressure" carried out by the American government together with its unconditional European partners such as France and Great Britain, and that in the case of West Asia has the support of the Zionist regime and the Saudi Monarchy.
When the attacks, within the framework of the Soft Coup strategy, are aimed at Latin America, the complicity is found in ultra-rightist governments such as that of Chile, Colombia, Brazil. Also ad hoc organizations such as the Lima Group, aimed at exerting pressure on Venezuela, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS), chaired by the Uruguayan political convert and secretary general of this organization, Luis Almagro, that also lends itself to attack Venezuela, as well as Bolivia, Cuba or Nicaragua.
Add to this, the series of U.S. agencies that fund Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that are often spearheads of the intervention: the United States Development Agency (USAID), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The Spanish Cooperation Agency that pours its money, for example, into the Violeta Chamorro Foundation, opposing the Nicaraguan government and which has been accused of money laundering.
Analyst Raul Capote reminds us that "Gene Sharp, the man credited with authoring the strategy, was considered the guru of nonviolent revolutions. His work "From Dictatorship to Democracy" which describes and guides how to overthrow a "dictatorship" through non-violent methods, has been translated into more than 30 languages. The Albert Einstein Institute pioneered, together with the Open Society Foundations of billionaire George Soros, this new form of interventionism- disguised as a peaceful popular revolt, which was put into practice to overthrow Slobodan Milosevic, in Yugoslavia, in the year 2000" (1)
Gene Sharp defines five fundamental stages in order to provoke destabilizing actions or "soft coups" against what Washington considers "uncomfortable" governments in Latin America and the world:
1. Softening up.
2. Delegitimization of the government.
3. Setting the streets alight
4. Combination of various forms of struggle.
5. Institutional rupture.
In the case of Nicaragua and the systematic attacks against its government, the matrices described are the eloquent example of the destabilizing work carried out by the United States and its regional partners, both governments and institutions, the media and with the support of European governments in this coup strategy. All of them, deaf, blind and dumb in the face of governments clearly recognized as being narco-states, as is the case of Colombia, for example: A country that has an ultra-right government, that uses institutional violence against its population, an obvious violation of human rights, exemplified in the murder of union leaders, indigenous peoples, peasants, demobilized members of FARC. With the presence of paramilitaries, and associated with foreign powers in the use of counterinsurgency techniques and methods of torture as is the case of Zionism.
A Colombia with seven U.S. military bases in its territory, destined to attack Venezuela or whoever dares to confront the empire and its putative children. However, that Colombia, which has violently repressed social mobilizations in its territory, with kidnappings and disappearances of social fighters, does not even receive criticism. A Colombia that has woken up from a dream of brutalizing domination and whose society is being criminally repressed by the government of the ultra-rightist Iván Duque, who doesn’t hesitate in murdering his population, while at the same time allowing the sending of mercenaries to wars of aggression such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and even participating in the murder of Jovenel Moise, the bullet-riddled president of Haiti on 7 July. The hypocrisy and double standards are so evident that the complicit and obsequious silence of the disinformation and manipulation media in the region and the world is shameful.
In this scenario, of attacking some with all the force that the Western powers have and to remain obsequiously quiet and complicit, when the violators of international law and the human rights of their populations, are friends of Washington and its unconditional allies. In this context, its front men, government and international institutions "use the media power to manipulate, misinform, to create confusion and distort the reality of Nicaragua," said Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, in an interview given to the Russia Today channel (2). A policy of maximum pressure in economic, political and military terms, which does not differentiate between Democrats and Republicans. This, as part of a campaign aimed at destabilizing the Sandinista government. A campaign in which the OAS, chaired by Uruguayan politician Luis Almagro, fulfills the function of coordinating destabilizing actions, as it has done with other Latin American countries.
International organizations, calling themselves human rights defenders, are instrumentalized by Washington, using the international image they possess to help in the process of international disinformation. Illustrative is the case of the organization Human Rights Watch, whose director of the Americas Division is Chilean lawyer José Miguel Vivanco, who in the style of former US President Donald Trump, uses social networks, especially Twitter, to throw his darts of denunciation, but... only against those countries that are not unconditional to the United States, because when it comes to its allies, Vivanco's verbiage is conspicuous through its absence and he issues very general condemnations. In this regard, which doubt may there be, that the orders are emanating from those who finance this organization such as the billionaire George Soros, through his Open Society Foundations and who contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to carry out the "defense of human rights" but, under the perspective of the hegemonic powers (3)
Nicaragua in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic has difficulties, but it is unacceptable that attempts are made to subdue the Nicaraguan people using coup strategies, sanctions, economic blockades, harming their fight against poverty and their efforts to make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality. The United States and its allies have criminally agreed on actions to try to subdue the Nicaraguan people's unwavering will to exercise their own self-determination, something that absolutely corresponds to their exercise of sovereignty and freedom. The critical opinions of the right-wing and liberal world and even of those located in what they call the progressive camp, selfishly ignore this framework of pressure and focus on the devious criticism against a country under attack. It is not possible to think of a scenario of normality for a Nicaragua attacked on multiple levels, to demand an unblemished transit as if it were the development of a country like Switzerland, Norway or Denmark, without those same critics issuing any condemnation of the interventionist policy of the United States and its allies.}
If the analysis of the situation does not consider it to be a policy of destabilization, those criticisms are simply an expression of hypocrisy and complicit silence for those who attack our peoples. They are champions of political correctness and timid in confronting the powers that attack and generate coup scenarios. The actions of manipulation and disinformation are followed by illegal, arbitrary, coercive and unilateral measures, created and implemented by the United States, the European Union and Canada, mainly. Adding, of course, a few countries that forget their aspirations for self-determination and exercise a sheepish following in favor of imperial interests.
On 9 July, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned "the flagrant interference in Nicaragua's internal affairs, particularly in matters of financing..." as the general elections in that state, scheduled for 7 November approach, the powerful wave of external pressure on the legitimate government of President Daniel Ortega increases. An action that aims to generate destabilization in the Central American nation, which seeks to remove from power the representatives of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), who have worked to guarantee the wellbeing of the people." Zacharova emphasized the fact that already in 2018, the U.S. Government, headed at the time by former President Trump, approved an executive order declaring Nicaragua as an alleged extraordinary threat to national security. "A cynical conduct in which the coercive measures illegally imposed by Washington, intensified in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic." (4)
Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic already brings its own challenges, and added to them, the People of Nicaragua are violated through illegal, arbitrary, coercive and unilateral measures, which in these times elevates them into crimes against humanity. To sabotage the fight against COVID-19 is to make entire peoples disappear. It is about the new forms of aggression in our times. The crime of the people of Nicaragua, in the colonialist and neo-colonialist mentality of the powers, is to decide their own future for themselves, their own procedures for electing their authorities, their own laws and mechanisms of government. It is no coincidence that what is being carried out against Nicaragua is also being done against Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Iraq, against which coercive measures are applied that generate complex conditions and encourage, through agencies and non-governmental organizations, protests aimed at initiating the various steps of the so-called Soft Coup.
Nicaragua has its own legal system, its own processes to elect and be elected. That Central American country continues its struggle to remind the hegemonic powers that decisions are made and will be taken by the Nicaraguan people, on their own territory. Its decisions are not taken neither in Washington nor in Brussels nor in Madrid. Courage, dignity, love of peace, the ability to overcome adversity. Nicaragua in this regard is presented as a reference. The message that Nicaragua gives with its "rebellion" in the face of empires is that self-determination, sovereignty and the love of peace are inalienable rights, a valid heritage of the peoples of the world. Nicaragua today is in the sights of the actions of the Soft Coup, the essential thing is that neither this type of coups nor those direct ones, are executed against a sovereign nation and are denounced in all instances.
Notes
1. http://www.granma.cu/mundo/2020-12-01/golpe-suave-estrategia-de-eeuu-pa…
2. https://youtu.be/OvcM2HWKnZk
3. https://www.hrw.org/es/news/2010/09/07/george-soros-dara-us100-millones…. That was the year when the first $100 million contribution for a decade was established by "George Soros, a philanthropist and financier, who announced a $100 million donation over the course of 10 years to Human Rights Watch. The contribution by its Open Society Foundations, the largest it has made to a non-governmental organization, will be used to expand and deepen Human Rights Watch's global presence, with the goal of more effectively protecting and promoting human rights around the world.
4. https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-denuncia-aumento-presion-eeuu-nica…