Lauren Smith, July 16th 2018
Criminality ceases to matter to human rights organizations and the news media when peace in Nicaragua is inconvenient for the imperial United States. It’s perfectly clear that no motive for State sponsored violence exists in Nicaragua when every death that occurs within its borders is counted against the Ortega Administration irrespective of its cause, perpetrator or victim. Conversely, the motive for the CIA to engage in violence is huge, given the United States longstanding and expressed interest in removing the Ortega Administration from power, and the fact that its dastardly plans come directly out of its CIA’s declassified handbook titled “Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare”.
The CIA handbook details how violence can be strategically used to destabilize the democratically elected and sovereign government of Nicaragua through: the hiring of criminals and agent provocateurs; the destruction of police installations; the kidnapping of Sandinistas; and now, as per Senator Marco Rubio’s highly disturbing July 13th Tweet, the threatened martyring of “United States personnel or their family”; and the manufacturing of a “bloodbath” to justify a military attack against Nicaragua. The handbook recommends the following methods and strategies:
- “Use of Agitators – Including the Hiring of Professional Criminals to Manipulate Mass Meetings and Assemblies which can Result in General Violence.” (Refer to Index and Page 11)
- “Destroy military or police installations…Set up ambushes...Cut external lines of communication...Kidnap all Sandinista government officials and agents… (Refer to Page 28)
- “…Create a “martyr” for the cause, leading the demonstrators into a confrontation with authorities so as to provoke riots or shooting which may cause the death of one or more persons who would become martyrs, a situation which should be taken advantage of immediately against the regime so as to create greater conflicts.”(Refer to Page 71).
Criminality is the elephant in the room that the CIA infiltrated mainstream news media and United States funded human rights organizations continue to ignore, as evident in their biased reports that routinely avoid mention of opposition violence and criminal activity. For example, the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reports all deaths in their “List of deceased persons in Nicaragua since the beginning of the protests (April 19 - June 19 2018)” which obviously serves to increase the total. Thus, deaths by natural causes are included in its tally as well as the murder of government personnel and innocent bystanders by the hand of criminal opposition forces. This official reporting methodology is Kafkaesque in its absurdity and only explainable when one considers that IACHR is beholden to the regime change agenda of its predominant donor, the imperial United States.
In 2017, IACHR received $2.7 million from the United States, an amount that equals 24% of their overall funding. The next largest donor was Mexico at $695 thousand. According to IACHR’s 2017 report:
“Despite drastic cuts made across the board in the organization, the OAS General Assembly agreed to strengthen the Regular Fund to the IACHR Executive Secretariat, doubling its budget for three years (2018–2020). This means that, for 2018, the IACHR shall have $7,505,200.”
Clearly, within this context, IACHR needs to keep the imperial United States happy with its reporting, and it has certainly achieved its objective with its highly biased report on the government of Nicaragua.
In every context, Nicaragua and the Ortega administration benefit though peace, whereas the United States funded opposition can only succeed through destabilizing violence. Commenting on this reversal of the facts, FSLN international relations representative, Carlos Fonseca Terán noted in a television interview:
“Sandinistas have neither the right to defend ourselves, nor the right to let ourselves be killed. Although it sounds absurd, if we defend ourselves they say we’re paramilitary gangs attacking peaceful protesters, but if we don’t defend ourselves and get killed, we become just one more in the list of their dead.”
Essentially, violence is peaking now because the CIA’s PSYOP program has failed. Its massive social and news media disinformation campaigns were ambitiously expected to destabilize Nicaragua and remove the Ortega Administration from power in one month – before anyone would figure out what was really going on, and before the business class would take too big of an economic hit from a loss in tourism. Now that the CIA’s PSYOP campaign is dragging on into month three, the majority of Nicaraguan citizens and even many myopic expats are seeking peace and economic stability, and have connected the dots that the United States is once again funding organized criminals in destabilization activities because by now they or people they know have been personally terrorized by these imported gang members. Organized criminals have: charged them tolls to pass on free roads; robbed them; looted their businesses and homes; beaten, tortured, kidnapped, raped them and/or their family members, neighbors and customers.
Additionally, the local police have arrested numerous organized criminals and gang members, and confiscated multiple caches of weapons and drugs. Many of these arrests are detailed on social media. Additionally, gang members have been caught on video killing and/or torturing Sandinistas, government employees and police officers; as well as destroying homes, businesses and public health centers, schools, communal offices and centers connected to the local Sandinista Front. Further, these organized criminals have stolen police uniforms, cars, buses, ambulances and vans and are known to impersonate police.
As we near the July 19th anniversary of the Sandinista’s victory over the U.S. sponsored Somoza dictatorship, the CIA is desperate to create a big event to destroy Nicaragua’s unity celebrations. In the last few days, the CIA has already created a media circus with Hollywood style fake video productions and has gotten their favorite tool, rightwing Senator Marco Rubio, to issue foreboding and threatening tweets:
On July 13, 2018 Marco Rubio wrote in two Tweets:
“Situation tonight in #Nicaragua is rapidly & dangerously escalating. Ortega & those in his govt are on notice that if any harm comes to U.S. personnel or their families he will personally face severe repercussions & if his violence leads to a bloodbath he will face consequences.”
“Also, the neighborhood where many U.S. embassy employees live is under attack. That is not a coincidence. Ortega, his wife (who is also the VP of #Nicaragua) & those empowering him will be held directly responsible if any harm should come to any U.S personnel or their families.”
It’s a dilemma. How should the Ortega Administration proceed in this upside down imperialist universe that finds peace threatening and eschews criminal motives in torture and murder? Is it now necessary to evacuate all United States citizens to protect them from the organized criminals the CIA has funded and imported to martyr them so Nicaragua can avert a contrived pretext for invasion?
Lauren Smith, author of historical fiction, has a BA in Politics, Economics and Society from SUNY at Old Westbury and an MPA in International Development Administration from New York University. Her novel on Nicaragua’s 1979 revolution is due out in 2019.