Having failed with the campaign of violence of April 2018, US imperialism’s tactics against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government shifted to manufacturing an opposition to win the forthcoming 7 November presidential elections. It funded ambitious and reactionary individuals and groups to organise demonstrations, riots, disturbances and violence of all kinds. The intention was to either discredit the elections, so blocking international legal recognition of the government, or force into power a pro-US clique, as was temporarily achieved in Bolivia in 2019. This conspiracy has been choked off for now by the detention at home or in prison of 32 individuals for treasonable activities and money laundering. Alvaro Michaels reports.
By forestalling a second conspiracy, following that of April 2018, the arm of Nicaraguan law has, for now, frustrated US imperialism’s plans to remove the democratically elected government. Judicial proceedings have begun for 20 of those arrested. This has prompted a renewed campaign of vilification and deliberate misrepresentation of the situation in Nicaragua, by the US and other monopoly capitalist states, who expect a free grab of the country’s resources, and who fear Nicaragua’s example to other Latin American states.
More than $30m had been distributed to a range of groups opposed to the government and previously involved in the 2018 plot. US hypocrisy is astonishing, since in the US even ‘Awareness of certain facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe that there is a substantial probability that (election fund) … money is from a foreign national’ is grounds for legal action.
On 15 September, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that President Ortega was leading Nicaragua ‘down the bleak path of authoritarianism’, while declaring that the US would forge ‘a more democratic, secure, more prosperous and inclusive future’ for Central America. The US government constantly misrepresents events in Nicaragua. It is the same propaganda machine that works systematically against Cuba and Venezuela, and any other Latin American government that takes steps to resist the exploitation of its peoples and resources by US capitalism.
A cleft stick
From 1979 to 1990, systematic and horrific violence was directed against the Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction by the US-organised, financed and armed ‘Contra’ terrorists from bases in Honduras. It set the country back economically and socially for many years. Along with similar military campaigns in Guatemala and El Salvador against the organisations of the poor, and the continuous manipulation of Honduran politics, Central America has been reduced to a tragic condition. More than 208,000 migrants were detained at the US/Mexican border this August alone. This brings the number of attempted illegal crossings to more than 1.5 million in nearly a year, the highest number in 20 years. Of these, more than 638,000 came from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and 595,000 came from Mexico.
US imperialism has created a situation where its compulsive use of violence has created for itself a domestic political ‘immigration crisis’ and exposed the real consequences of its ‘back yard’ policies. Yet it continues with the same gangsterism because that is all imperialism can offer: expansion and exploitation at any cost.
Attacking the economy
US imperialism continues to target Nicaragua’s economy, as with Cuba and Venezuela:
- The 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act targets Russia, a provider of arms to Nicaragua which has made the standard US coup there much more difficult.
- The 2018 Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act blocks loans from international financial institutions subject to US veto.
- The 2018 US Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption Act sanctions key government representatives.
The proposed RENACER Act, Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform, (promoted by the Senate’s own axis of evil, Senators Menendez, Rubio, Kaine, Cardin, Murphy and Cruz) will extend targeted sanctions across the board, coordinated with European imperialism, and threatens Nicaragua’s expulsion from the Central America Free Trade Agreement.
To oil the wheels of this attack, the US prompted condemnation of the Nicaraguan government for ‘undermining free and fair elections’ by the UN Human Rights Council and the Organisation of American States. Next in line to be manipulated will be the International Monetary Fund, which recently disbursed $353.5m to Nicaragua, aimed at helping it mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reality is that democracy has absolutely nothing to do with the accusations in these propaganda attacks. Only the wilfully stupid cannot see that the US recognises and trades with any state, of any political hue, that is prepared to open its doors to its plundering.
The election
All electoral candidates were finally registered on 2 August 2021. The Sandinista National Liberation Front currently has 71 Assembly seats, and headed by Ortega, is expected to maintain its majority position in the Assembly in the election.
The new, reactionary Citizen Alliance for Freedom, with partners united by the informal Centre Right Block, created Allianza CxL, which declared ex-Contra terrorist leader Óscar Sobalvarro its candidate, with vice presidential running mate Berenice Quezada. On 3 August, she was barred from running after provocatively urging voters to go out onto the streets ‘as we did in 2018’.
The Supreme Electoral Council ruled the legal status of the Allianza CxL to be invalid. Whatever opposition to the governing party exists, it is currently in disarray, with resignations and internal disputes blighting its attempts to field credible candidates.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 284, October/November 2021
