OPEN LETTER
To anyone who may be interested for one reason or another, Internationalist Compañer@s from the 1980s (Nicaragua) and people in general
Esteli, February 27th 2019
Nicaragua
My name is Herman Van de Velde, coordinator of AbacoEnRed (www.abacoenred.com), a Belgian citizen, living / working in Nicaragua since 1983 for 36 uninterrupted years, motivated by solidarity with the Sandinista Popular Revolution. I have permanent residence with permission to work. I do not depend economically on the government, although myself and my colleagues do cooperate with MINED. I have experienced very complex events in Nicaragua, such as in the 1980s when I worked in Region 1 and 6 in MINED during a situation of the war imposed by the USA. I was immensely fortunate that we were never ambushed in any of our work trips in the north. I offer thanks to life for this.
I wept with my colleagues, with the Sandinista people, for the loss of the elections in 1990. Although many internationalists, as they called us at that time, decided to leave, in my case, as well as many other colleagues, we decided to stay and support 'government from below'.
In my case I moved from the Ministry of Education to the National Autonomous University campus (FAREM-UNAN) in Estelí . At the same time, in 1993 we founded a school whose operation was based on the revolutionary principles of non-exclusion, participation, enjoyment of diversity. It was a secondary school with an annex of technical training for young people, mostly coming from complicated socio-family contexts.
After 1984 and 1990 there were three more presidential elections that I regard as non-democratic for the simple reason that in the context of war (1984 and 1990) you cannot choose freely; and as for 1996, 2001 and 2006 (even when the FSLN won), they were not really free either because in every case there was direct interference from the US through its embassy and there were dirty mendacious campaigns from the right wing (for example that if the FSLN won there would be another war, economic blockade, remittances would be removed, military service would be reinstalled, etc.).
It was not until 2011 that we were able to enjoy truly free presidential elections in Nicaragua. At the time, it did not surprise anyone that, after 5 years of good government, the FSLN won with 68% of the vote, continuing with this good government the FSLN managed again to win the elections in 2016, this time with more than 70% where the same right wing opposition, were ordered by the U.S. and the Catholic Church (Bishop Abelardo Mata was trying from 2011 to unite the opposition Liberals, without achieving it) to not participate. I experienced the misfortune caused by three Liberal governments, without a break privatizing everything that occurred to them.
Since 2007 things have changed, and from the President’s office, together with the Secretariat of Communication and Citizenship, an entire Natinal Development Plan has been built involving immense social projects both in the short term (immediate aid programs), and in the medium and long term. Education and Health Care are totally free again. And just to give an example, in technical education the coverage and quality of teaching is expanded enormously. Even for those of us who live in Nicaragua, the improvement in the quality of life, from 2007 onwards, was visible, concrete, well developed and inclusive. Nicaragua was changing and it became the safest Central American country, thanks to people-focused nature of our national police and thanks to the operational effectiveness of our National Army, also based on popular support.
However, since 2007 we knew as we lived locally that there were groups/organizations interested in boycotting this progress. There were organizations, including human rights organizations, with a sinister interest in destroying, condemning at every opportunity, working with groups of people, mostly young people, to instill in them a conception of democracy alien to our reality and influenced/funded directly from the US, Canada and Europe.
Social networks arose and our National Assembly, just like all over the world, was concerned about the undue influence over young people by adults that occurred in those contexts. Well meaning discussion took place about he possibility of some kind of legal regulation. The reaction of the right wing was immediately that the government (they did not say the National Assembly) wanted to suspend freedom of expression. This reaction was part of the strategy that they would later apply in the failed attempt at regime change, where those social networks using fake profiles from outside Nicaragua would play an important role.
Then the relatively insignificant fire in the Indio Maíz Reserve was used to start mobilizing young people against the government, by means of deceit and lies.
But it was the publication of the Social Security Reform Decree that was used once more to manipulate students and a small number of pensioners, highlighting only a minor part of the Reform and omitting that the greater cost of it would fall on the Government itself and on the wealthiest people in this country. Not for nothing did COSEP break off negotiations with the Government on this matter.
In the protest, the first reported death actually never happened, but the false accusation escalated the violence. The first real death was of a policeman.
There was no policy of terror against those who did not agree with the government, on the contrary, there were terrorist actions instigated by the intellectual authors of the protests, again financed by USA, Canada and Europe through local or international organizations but with based locally. Their leaders never put themselves in danger, for that they paid needy people with drugs, liquor and money, deceiving them with false news.
There should not have been ANY DEATHS here, however the false news escalated the violence and the police had to take action In an interview by a freelance Belgian journalist to an former police officer who deserted, published in the opposition media outlet Confidencial, she asked him if he had ever been ordered to shoot directly at demonstrators and his answer was a resounding 'NO', the police were never given that order.
The right wing, together with organizations, including human rights organizations, as well as international delegations made TOTALLY biased reports of what had happened (see http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/5706 in English or Spanish; or
http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/blogs/2258/por-que-amnistia-internaci… in Spanish).
Before initiating the dialogue the government, in good faith, accepted the bishops' request to remove the police from the street. And what happened? Just the opposite of what the opposition offered. It was part of the criminal strategy to take advantage of the space to set road blocks on the main roads throughout Nicaragua and barricades to sow terror.
I imagine that all of you, with the exception of the reporter Jorge Ramos, saw the videos, the photos of the roadblocks guarded by people with high caliber weapons, with mortars, with guns, with... just about everything. Just as you will have seen the photos of the bodies set on fire, filmed and put on Facebook by the laughing perpetrators. They burned and damaged buildings: town halls, government offices, health centers, schools, universities, etc. When they burned the CUUN university building in León, at the beginning of the protests, they didn’t even allow a UNEN student leader to leave, effectively burning him alive.
Could it be that these are not crimes and terrorism? Could it be that these are peaceful protests? There is simply too much to tell everything, nor is that my objective here.
As a local population in Estelí , we felt kidnapped in our own city, we could not leave. In fact, we ourselves with our organization had a social work commitment in Santo Tomás, Chontales, which was delayed 4 months, because the roadblocks rather threatened our safety.
With our neighbors, we were obliged to organize block by city block to keep watch at night because we were threatened with our houses being burned. We joined the majority of the people, without understanding, at that time, why President Comandante Ortega had removed the police from the streets, since it is the institution responsible for keeping order. We were afraid. We were constantly alert.
There was no radical change of policy in Nicaragua, I repeat. But the protestors did indeed penalize protest against their repression. Once the ultimately failed dialogue started (given that the totally biased bishops, especially Silvio Báez, Abelardo Mata and Rolando Álvarez were methodologically inept in professional conflict management) our government maintained an incredibly serene attitude and even managed to reach some agreements
The government accepted allowing the arrival of international delegations from the OAS, the UN and the EU, as in fact it did; the opposition protesters were supposedly going to remove the barricades. And it was already proven even then that most of the killings were in the context of the roadblocks. The government complied, but those who were responsible for the roadblocks and barricades said: instead of removing them we are going to put more.
This is the reality.
The people, already better organized by then, couldn't stand it any longer and decided to satge their own insurrection to remove the barricades, with or without police. Luckily, it was with the police that they were able to avoid even more serious situations. The popular insurrection, together with the police, managed in record time to remove the roadblocks with an intelligent strategy and making the most of opportunity such that there were minimal injuries or deaths either on one side or the other. This strategy consisted of three steps: (1) formation by the local municipal authority of a negotiating commission that would look for a peaceful solution to remove the roadblock; (2) if that was not achieved a second step was to give the opposition protestors 24 or 48 hours to do so; (3) after that time, there was only the alternative of removing the roadblock by force by organized local people under the supervision of the police.
There have never been paramilitaries in Nicaragua, nor are there .There has always been and still is a people 'encachimbado' with the destruction caused, first of all by the failed coup attempt’s the intellectual authors, who never put their own lives at risk, and of course also by those directly responsible for the crimes of murder and arson.
For myself, Herman, after 36years living in in Nicaragua, I am indignant at the attitude of people overseas, even though they may have had some 'solidarity' relationship with Nicaragua at some point in our history. I am indignant at their attitude of condemnation without knowing the facts, for just believing the false news and the lies, often created on the outside. I am indignant at the arrogance of people feeling able to make accusations out of ignorance? Would you accept it if religious people behaved in your country the way they did here in Nicaragua?
Of course there was conflict and death in Nicaragua between April 18 and July 15, but those deaths were not provoked by the government or the police, but by those who promoted the protests. they were caused by those who deliberately set out to protest so as to provoke violent situations (often involving paid infiltrators and even snipers).
NOT A SINGLE DEATH NEEDED TO HAVE OCCURRED.
Those who committed vandalism, crimes, and terrorist actions must pay for it. The judicial system is there to do its job. That’s not our job.
Those who really protested peacefully are NOT criminals, nor does anyone think they did anything bad, which is why we work hard to make true what the slogan says; Reconciliation YES, Impunity NO!
Dialogue is the way forward, at the level of the family, of the neighborhood block, of the community, at the level of the municipality,.... and jas it happens today also sees the start of negotiation at the national level.
Let's hope it works.
Nicaragua was economically destroyed when it was doing very well. But the Nicaraguan people know how to get going again, and they know how to overcome this difficult situation: not with a coup d'état, nor with unconstitutionally bringing forward elections, but with our hard work as a people in cooperatives, as self-employed workers and as micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs... a true socialised popular economy, in which large companies will also have their role, but it will be a different role now. At least this is my opinion.
In Nicaragua, there is no police repression, there are no political prisoners, there is not a single person imprisoned for no reason... but there are laws that must be applied. This is the reality. And the police and the army remain on the side of their people, guaranteeing security.
The truth will win out against the lies, the will of a people who fight will triumph over the falsehood of national and international news networks and social media that intentionally and uncritically relay any false news and spread it as if it were true. Nicaragua’s people will win. We will win!
The will for peace of our government is important, starting from the 27th the negotiations should consolidate Peace and economic stability in the country. In order to show his good will before the beginning of this meeting, the government released into house arrest 100 people imprisoned convicted of crimes during the violent protests.
Solidarity with a people does not mean pretending to intervene. Let us never forget!
Herman Van de Velde, February 27th 2109