Maurice Lemoine *, 12 de febrero de 2022
https://www.dewereldmorgen.be/artikel/2022/02/12/wat-je-over-nicaragua-…
Nicaragua shares the fate of countries such as Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, China, etc. As these countries are not in the Western camp, mainstream media coverage is invariably hostile. To counter this negative framework, Maurice Lemoine, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique, puts some points on the table.
Foto: Katrien Demuynck
In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, candidate of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), was re-elected on November 7, 2021 with 76% of the votes cast - 35% of voters did not turn out. His wife Rosario Murillo was elected vice president.
In a peaceful campaign, without unexpected difficulties and without any violence, 75 FSLN deputies (out of 91) were able to enter parliament. It was an undeniable victory. And, in spite of that, it was unanimously challenged....
Diving into Western reporting on Nicaragua is like visiting a house of horrors. And yet... since Ortega's return to the presidency in 2007, and within the framework of a mixed economy, health and education are once again public and free...
Social achievements
16 health centers, 452 clinics and 21 new hospitals were created, and another five will be completed and become operational in 2022. The electricity grid was expanded to cover the entire country. Priority is given to the development of small and medium sized businesses and the family economy. New roads cross the country and one of them links the Atlantic coast, which was previously completely isolated. Today, a trip to Managua takes only six hours for the indigenous and Afro-Caribbean populations.
Eighty percent of the population is self-sufficient in food. Citizen security is exceptional compared to the situation in the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
What other country in the region, or even outside the region, can produce such results?
Women hold 51% of the seats in the National Assembly (as well as the Vice Presidency and 57% of the executive power). They occupy 46% of the mayors' offices (including that of the capital, Managua). They represent 57% of the managerial positions in the Central Bank, in the Attorney General's offices, and in the Ministries of Defense and Interior. Women also hold positions in the Supreme Court of Justice and the Supreme Electoral Council....
There is no doubt that much work remains to be done, and the policy is certainly not without its critics, but what other country in the region, or even outside the region, can produce such results?
Millions of dollars
Question: Did the presidential elections in Nicaragua take place under normal circumstances?
Answer: No. The reason usually given is that 32 opponents are being persecuted, among them 7 potential candidates (who, however, were not presented as such by any of the registered parties). They are under house arrest, in prison and/or on remand awaiting trial. Therefore, they could not participate in the elections.
The United States, through various NGOs, has paid $76 million to the opposition to destabilize the Sandinista rulers.
All the individuals in question have been prosecuted under three laws passed in 2020. These laws are titled "Foreign Agents Ordinance", "Cybercrime Law" and "Law for the Defense of the Right to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination of the People", respectively.
The motivation for introducing these laws is that from 2010 to 2020, the United States, through several NGOs, paid 76 million dollars to the opposition to destabilize the Sandinista rulers.
One of these NGOs is the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, directed by Cristina Chamorro, daughter of the former neoliberal president (1990-1996). Significant amounts of money went to so-called "independent" media and digital platforms.
Another part of the money was used to equip, finance and remunerate action groups. These groups attempted to overthrow Ortega in 2018 under the guise of "peaceful" demonstrations that were anything but.
Under its Responsible Assistance in Nicaragua (RAIN) program, the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, allocated no less than $2 million for the period 2020-2022 to foster a "transition." This is an open way of saying that the United States never intended to respect the outcome of the 2021 elections.
On June 2, 2009, President Zelaya received a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On June 28, he was removed from office. He had not respected her warning about his "socialist course".
This maneuver was, by the way, denounced by former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, himself an experienced politician who was ousted in 2009. Zelaya stated unequivocally in July 2021:
"Nicaragua is currently under attack and experiencing a situation similar to the violent riots of 2018. Those riots were staged by a political opposition that, without any organic national support, received important external resources to create the sensation that the democraticgovernment could fall at any moment."
"This time, the new U.S. electoral plan Condor has anticipated this, especially because of the amount of resources being used to boycott the electoral process next November."
Legal framework in other countries
Faced with this collusion between the "great north" and an opposition that could not organize itself to take power democratically, the government reinforced the country's legal framework. It did not prohibit NGOs or foundations, but from now on they had to account for their foreign funding by declaring the identity of their donors, the amount of funds received, the purpose of the donations and a description of how the money was spent.
"Obscene laws," said the media. The multinationals of the "human rights industry" also joined the chorus. However, anyone who is a little informed knows that the United States applies exactly the same rules in their own country, without anyone having any complaints.
Anyone with a modicum of information knows that the United States applies exactly the same rules domestically, through no fault of their own.
Washington applies these same controls to NGOs through the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) or sections 2381 to 2390 of the criminal code with respect to the crimes of treason, incitement to treason, rebellion or insurrection, seditious conspiracy; fomenting an anti-government coup d'etat, compulsory registration of foreign organizations, etc.
A closer look reveals that also the European Parliament created a special commission against disinformation and foreign interference in September 2020. The chairman of this committee, French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, is concerned about "foreign financing of political parties, financing of electoral campaigns, cyber-attacks, coordinated mass disinformation campaigns" in Europe.
According to Glucksmann, our rights, our security and our sovereignty are at stake. "The European political scene must not become a supermarket where hostile foreign powers come to shop as they please. We are not for sale, and neither are our democracies."
"The European political scene must not become a supermarket where hostile foreign powers come to shop at their whim."
If we look further, at the risk of being tedious, we can see that on October 15, 2021, the Service for Surveillance and Protection against Interference by Foreign Countries (Viginum) was created in France.
This service was specifically tasked with monitoring destabilization attempts during the upcoming presidential campaign. The agency has no decision-making power, but as soon as it detects a hostile campaign, it informs the government.
It will then decide whether or not to respond and, if so... How will it disclose this interference to the general public? Will it freeze trade agreements or even.... "order more discreet operations"?
Supporters of this double standard also point out that the former President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, was prosecuted on suspicion of receiving dirty money for his 2007 presidential campaign from Libya, a foreign country then ruled by Muammar Gaddafi.
"In our country not a single innocent person is prosecuted," said Nicaraguan representative Michael Campbell Hooker at an extraordinary session of the Organization of American States (OAS) convened on October 20, 2021 to condemn his government.
"Those on trial are foreign agents, clearly identified on the payroll of foreign governments. They have used the structures of private organizations and through them have received millions of dollars to destroy, kill, undermine the economy and the constitutional order."
Ortega abandoned?
Some interesting - even fascinating - details.... According to some vaguely Trotskyist-libertarian European groups providing "after-sales service" to Washington, the Ortega-Murillo couple not only represses or imprisons their right-wing opponents. They also attack the "left" because they were abandoned by "historic Sandinistas" like Dora María Téllez, Ana Margarita Vigil, Tamara Dávila, Hugo Torres, Víctor Hugo Tinoco, Mónica Baltodano, Gioconda Belli, Oscar René Vargas, Sergio Ramírez, etc.
But what is also true is that former comandante Tomás Borge, the legendary founder of the FSLN remained closely linked to the Sandinista Front and Ortega until his death in 2012. Bayardo Arce, a former member of the National Directorate, also remains at his side.
The same goes for Victor Tirado and most of the comandantes who were present on the battlefield before and after the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza and who fought against the Contras - the U.S.-funded counterrevolutionaries - in the 1980s. They are bearers of an enormous collective memory. The past is so ingrained in their persons that no exorcism can dispel it.
Tomás Borge
Former comandante Tomás Borge, the legendary founder of the FSLN, remained closely linked to the Sandinista Front until his death in 2012.
It was these same highly respected "historic grassroots fighters" who fought alongside the national police in 2018 to dismantle the roadblocks, regain control of the country and prevent Ortega's overthrow.
Another symbol, Amada Pineda, was elected deputy on November 7. She was a peasant woman persecuted, tortured, raped and imprisoned by the Somoza dictatorship in the 1970s. She is also the mother of Francisco Araúz Pineda, a Managua city worker and Sandinista activist. Francisco was shot dead on June 16, 2018 and his body was burned in broad daylight in the street by the "good guys" of the "peaceful opposition".
"Left-wing" opposition.
So, what left in Nicaragua are the "anti-imperialists" who today are aligned with the right, with the reactionary bishops and with the Nicaraguan mainstream media talking about? Shall we review them?
Dora María Téllez
Téllez is the legendary Comandante Dos. She led the takeover of the National Assembly, through which the guerrillas managed to free 60 Sandinistas from jail, she respectfully pointed out. But that was in 1978.
Since then, Tellez, accompanied by Hugo Torres and Victor Hugo Tinoco, has left the FSLN. They founded the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), an opposition party that at first was centrist, then became frankly right-wing and, in 2020, became the Union for Democratic Renovation (Unamos).
During the coup d'état in Bolivia, Dora María Téllez applauded the overthrow of "would-be dictator" Evo Morales.
Téllez a progressive? In November 2019, during the coup d'état in Bolivia, she hailed the overthrow of "aspiring dictator" Evo Morales and congratulated the Organization of American States (OAS). We march together," he said, expressing his support for Venezuelan coup plotters Leopoldo López and Juan Guaidó.
Ana Margarita Vigil
Vigil was president of the MRS from 2012 to 2017. She regularly traveled to the United States where, to promote "regime change" in Nicaragua, she liked appearing alongside Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a neoconservative Republican delegate from Florida.
A pillar of the hard right, she is anti-Cuba and anti-Venezuela and a tireless instigator of the blockades and sanctions that Washington imposes on these countries and their peoples.
Sofia Montenegro
We met her on November 11, 2011 (2011, not 2018) at the offices of the Center for Communication Research (CINCO). As an employee of the Chamorro family, she headed this organization. In 2011, this researcher and journalist ranted against "the sterile, authoritarian and reactionary orthodox pseudo-left" in Latin America.
Sofía Montenegro rejoiced that "Chávez - who we knew had cancer - will be dead in six months!"
She also soberly concluded that "Daniel and Rosario will end up like the Ceausescus!". We did not know it then, but we know it now: CINCO is part of the nebulous group of NGOs and media that are underhandedly financed by the US.
Sergio Ramirez
Ramirez is a writer, never carried arms, but was Daniel Ortega's vice president from 1984 to 1990. His vice presidency was a sign that the government was opening up to what was not yet called "civil society". He founded the MRS and in 2006 publicly called for a vote for corrupt billionaire banker Eduardo Montealegre.
On July 9, 2021 - to cite just one of a hundred examples - Ramírez participated in the IV Ibero-American Atlantic Forum, organized by the International Freedom Foundation (FIL) of Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, together with, among others, well-known "gauchistas" such as former Argentine president Mauricio Macri, Venezuelan oppositionist Leopoldo López, Colombian president Iván Duque, Argentine president Sebastián Piñera and Ecuadorian president Guillermo Lasso.
Gioconda Belli
Author Gioconda Belli was a member of the FSLN's Political-Diplomatic Commission during the struggle against Somoza. Since 1990, this poet and novelist spends her time between Nicaragua and the United States.
On November 10, 2021, she signed a text in support of the Cuban opposition demonstration scheduled for five days later. Why not, it will be said: everyone has their own opinion, whether they share it or not?
But why then is Belli's name never found in the texts, very few by the way, condemning the illegal blockade of Cuba or in solidarity with the much more brutally repressed demonstrators in Ecuador (11 dead), Chile (27 dead), Haiti (77 dead), Bolivia (34 dead under the dictatorship of Janine Áñez) in 2019 or Colombia (80 dead in 2021)?
When Belli attacks the Cuban government, she finds herself in the illustrious company of course of Mario Vargas Llosa, Mauricio Macri, Lenin Moreno (former Ecuadorian president), Ernesto Zedillo (former Mexican president), Maria Corina Machado (Venezuelan extremist calling for U.S. military intervention), Luis Fernando Camacho (from the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, one of the main instigators of the 2019 coup against Evo Morales), Patricia Bullrich (extremely repressive former Argentine Security Minister, ), Carlos Sánchez Berzaín (former Bolivian Defense Minister in the government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, with 74 dead and more than 400 wounded on his record during the 2003 riots).
Oscar Rene Vargas
Oscar Rene Vargas was once very respectable, but the past is the past. Vargas was more often seen at the U.S. embassy than in the popular neighborhoods of Managua. In 2018, in the midst of revolt, he proposed some constructive solutions:
"That the people, in one of these marches in which we are participating, say: well, let's go to El Carmen - the residence of the head of state - and even if there are 200, 300, 400 dead, it will be resolved. It may get a little out of hand then because we don't know what exactly is going to happen, they may grab him [Ortega] and hang him like they did with Mussolini."
Or why not "exert pressure through the United States or the different Latin American and European governments on the government, but also on the army". We know that when the military is convinced, this usually leads to a coup d'état. Unless, with charming modesty and wonderful sensitivity, we arrive at 100% Noticias' Miguel Mora calling for a solution like Manuel Noriega's to solve the Nicaraguan problem they [the US] come, they intervene, there are dead, wounded and so on."
In July 2019, Vargas was still calling for the formation of a "provisional government" to prepare for "the struggle to come."
Monica Baltodano
Monica Baltodano was also a guerrilla commander, member of the national leadership of the FSLN, founder of the MRS, president of the NGO Popol Na and member of the Alliance of Social Movements (AMS). She belongs to the right but uses a leftist vocabulary. She has played a key role in mobilizing European networks.
"Together with her husband, Julio Lopez, she controlled the DRI, the FSLN's International Relations Department in the 1980s," says André Fadda, a CGT trade unionist (France) who was in Nicaragua at the time. "Both maintained contacts with some former members of the European solidarity committees."
Labels such as "ex-commander" or "ex-guerrilla" do not offer the slightest guarantee.
It is a formidable but very productive propaganda campaign. By the way, it is easy to get to know Baltodano's particularly simplistic version of the Nicaraguan crisis through the Confidencial website. That site is a visceral neoliberal bastion of Carlos Fernando Chamorro.
You can also do it through France Amérique Latine of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM). These are channels read, followed and appreciated by many French-speaking alterglobalists.
I would also like to point out that the qualifiers "ex-commander" or "ex-guerrilla" do not offer the least guarantee, unless we forget some precedents, among them the particularly important one of the Salvadoran Joaquin Villalobos.
Felix Maradiaga
So we have come full circle: the imaginary Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó, who was invited to speak at JoeBiden's pseudo-summit for democracy last December, included in his "official delegation" Berta Valle, the Nicaraguan wife of Félix Maradiaga.
Maradiaga, a prominent opponent of Ortega, was director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Public Policy (IEEPP). That institute was largely "subsidized" by Washington. Maradiaga was supposed to run as a presidential candidate for the National Unity (UNAB) in the last elections in November, but was arrested on charges of "acting against the sovereignty of the country and inciting foreign interference".
A lesson from Venezuela
What does it all mean? Opposition figures have been arrested in proceedings based on real events. Some will say that the authorities are not showing enough restraint.
But the case of Venezuela is sobering: the legal system there has clearly been less strict (or more "tactical"). It has not detained Guaidó, whereas in any other country in the world they would have locked him up for a long time. Despite this restraint, Caracas is subject to a US blockade and EU sanctions.
Managua has learned its lesson and, knowing that the die is cast anyway, responds to past and future aggressions by applying the law.
The other parties
It was in this context that the elections were held. In the absence, in fact, of several "opposition leaders". However, seven political alliances and parties, including six anti-Sandinista parties, were able to participate in the elections.
Among them, the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), which was in power from 1997 to 2007, the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), founded in 1999 by PLC dissidents, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), which obtained 31% of the votes and second place in the 2011 presidential elections. In 2016, the party dropped to 4.5% of the vote, leaving it with only two deputies in parliament. In addition to these relatively important parties, there were other micro-formations.
The radical opposition parties call all these parties "zancudos", "FSLN satellites" or "colabos". This is exactly the same attitude as that of the Venezuelan extreme right wing towards non-Chavista political forces hostile to the ongoing destabilization and US sanctions that are fatal to the population. Anyway, they decided to participate in the presidential (2018), parliamentary (2020) and regional (2021) elections.
Expected reactions
Coming as no surprise at all, the Sandinista victory provoked the expected reactions. "In close coordination with other members of the international community, the U.S. will use all diplomatic and economic means at its disposal to support the people of Nicaragua and hold the Ortega-Murillo government and all those who abuse it accountable," JoeBiden said, right after the results were known.
The lapdogs of imperialism - Canada, Chile (under Piñera), Colombia, Ecuador, France, the UK, Spain, Germany - immediately chanted their approval.
On December 9, 2021, inevitably, the OAS issued a resolution calling on the Sandinista government to allow a diplomatic mission into Nicaragua to initiate a dialogue on electoral reform and ... on the calling of new elections. Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the OAS, had clearly missed an episode.
On November 19, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denis Moncada, announced that Nicaragua would initiate the procedure for leaving the OAS, after Venezuela (not forgetting Cuba, which was excluded in 1962).
The US State Department, which seems to have forgotten that the country itself officially recognized the People's Republic of China on January 1, 1979, reacted very sharply when Managua announced on December 9, 2021 that it wanted to re-establish diplomatic relations with Beijing (they had been broken under the government of Violeta Chamorro).
Managua does so to avoid the country being isolated by unilateral coercive measures taken against it. A move that fits perfectly with the times: in Honduras, leftist candidate Xiomara Castro declared during her election campaign that she too would re-establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China immediately after her election.
* This is an excerpt from a longer article. Maurice Lemoine is a former editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique and specializes in Latin America. Translated by Jan Reyniers