On Sunday 7 November, in a six-party general election battle, President Ortega and Vice-President Rosario Murillo of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) were re-elected to office until 2027. With a 65.23% turnout Ortega received 75.92% of the votes. Ample opportunity was given to electors to vote for five other contenders, or indeed to spoil their ballots. Members of the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament were also elected. The campaign and poll were observed by hundreds of international election observers from dozens of nations, with no complaints. The election represents a serious defeat for US and EU intervention in Nicaragua.
In the National Assembly, the list of candidates must have an equal number of male and female candidates. 75 of the 90 seats were won by the FSLN, an increase of four seats on the 2016 elections. US funds have been directed to members and associates of the traditionally entrenched Nicaraguan elite for campaign use – including the Chamorro family, which has held six presidencies since 1854. In the run-up to the election individuals handling these foreign funds – intended to create an alliance of dissidents either to compete against the FSLN or sabotage the election – were arrested, or disqualified from standing. Recipients included ex-Contra terrorists. The arrests and charges are for incontrovertible breaches of election laws which are identical to those applied in the US (see FRFI 284).
US and European Reaction
These elections have shown that the great majority of the Nicaraguan people continue to trust President Daniel Ortega after four presidential terms, despite many attempts to destabilise his government. Yet the elections, dismissed in advance by the US/EU, were once again immediately criticised as a sham by the EU, by the US-controlled Organisation of American States (OAS), and by the chief bully, US imperialism itself. In response to the OAS refusal to recognise the results, and following requests from both the Nicaraguan Supreme Court and parliament, President Ortega announced that Nicaragua will leave the organisation.
On 10 November the Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform Act (Renacer) – anti-Cuban US Senator Marco Rubio’s initiative – was signed by President Biden, to block loans or financial or technical assistance for projects in Nicaragua. This was supported by ‘partner countries’, represented by the British and Canadian governments. The Act empowers Biden’s Administration to prepare Nicaragua’s expulsion from the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR.) Biden banned President Ortega and many Sandinista administrators and their families from entering the US. The US Treasury and the UK government immediately imposed financial restrictions on these officials. Biden shamelessly declared the election a ‘pantomime’. Biden said Daniel Ortega was ‘no different from the Somoza family that Ortega and the Sandinistas fought four decades ago’. Yet the US placed Somoza in power and supported him until he was overthrown by the Sandinistas in 1979. This idiotic claptrap coming from the White House is simply intended to smear the FSLN in the eyes of Biden’s liberal supporters. As President Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated in 2019, ‘I was the CIA director, we lied, we cheated, we stole…we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.’ Venezuela and Russia condemned the new wave of unilateral sanctions to be applied against the Nicaraguan people.
Clearly, for imperialism, the material well-being of the 6.6 million Nicaraguan people is of no real concern. Nicaragua’s economy is half that of Costa Rica’s and slightly larger than Haiti’s. Exports are only just over $2bn. The viciousness of the Trump-Rubio gang’s attacks has intensified since 2017. The aim is to undermine the success of the government’s economic and social programme. In Nicaragua, the second poorest nation in the Americas, universal healthcare and education are guaranteed to the population as a human right, while in the US those kinds of basic human rights remain distant dreams for millions.
Alvaro Michaels
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 285, December 2021/January 2022
