By SJ Otto
Events in Nicaragua Nicaragua Venezuela
After 1979, there were many leftists as myself who flocked to support the Sandinista Revolution. This was a Marxist government that had a thriving democracy as well as the kinds of public works and programs to fight poverty that we had come to expect from a Marxist revolution. The Sandinista’s seemed to be Marxist as Cuba Chile Cuba or Mexico
During this time we had President Ronald Reagan who took power in the US US officials try and manipulate Nicaragua
For many of us there was always hope that the Sandinistas could come back into power in a later election. That seemed to happen when Ortega came back to power, winning the presidential election in 2007. At the time left-leaning governments were being elected in many Central and South American countries. As with many third-world Marxist parties, such as in Mozambique and Angola in Africa , the Sandinistas were now calling themselves democratic socialists rather than Marxists. And still many of us hoped the election of Ortega would return Nicaragua
What is happening today in Nicaragua US Cuba
Civil society, which emerged as a vibrant political sphere in the 1990s, has suffered under the Ortega administration. For instance, Ortega has targeted feminist non-governmental organizations, many of them founded by onetime Sandinistas, with policies that monitor and limit their outside funding. These efforts have been accompanied by a vitriolic campaign in FSLN-controlled media, accusing Nicaraguan feminists of money laundering, CIA collusion, pornography, and promoting illegal abortions. Attempts by former Sandinistas to develop opposition parties like the Sandinista Renovation Movement have been met with similar responses. A cursory review of Ortega’s policy positions shows that his administration no longer enacts the values that once defined the Sandinista Revolution. As Sandinista Vice President of Nicaragua
There are reports in the mainstream press of protesters carrying blue and white flags. Right-wing protest movements often use a national color and then mix it with white. Many of these people seem similar to the right-wing protesters of Venezuela and they are no doubt hoping to push Nicaragua US is, once again, trying to use legitimate protests to re-establish the kind of imperialist control they had in Nicaragua US
The New York Times covered the destabilization campaign extensively, making the editorial board’s claim that “allegations of corruption” led to the Sandinista electoral defeat appear myopic at best.
No single factor explains the 1990 electoral defeat that brought the Sandinista Revolution to a close. Certainly, the fledgling Sandinista state made significant errors as it sought to remake the highly unequal society it inherited from the Somoza regime. The Sandinista’s early approach to governing indigenous and Afro-descendant communities on the Caribbean coast was one of the most serious. But these missteps are overshadowed by the tremendous resources and energy the U.S.
It is not surprising to see that the mainstream press is covering Nicaragua as it is covering events in Venezuela Los Angeles
Also from NACLA:
“The recent events in Nicaragua have garnered attention from mainstream media outlets in the U.S. Nicaragua
Authored by the Times editorial board, the piece tells a story that reflects U.S. political interests as well as a good deal of amnesia about our country’s history of intervention in Nicaragua U.S. efforts to squelch democratic aspirations in Nicaragua
Also from NACLA, there is this:
What the New York Times editorial board misses is that the corruption and authoritarianism unfolding in Nicaragua Nicaragua U.S.
The editorial board closes by noting dire conditions in Honduras , El Salvador , and Guatemala , which have led citizens of these countries to flee their homes for an uncertain future in the U.S. Nicaragua has been spared the worst of the violence that plagues postwar Central America, but all four countries share a crippling legacy of U.S. U.S. Latin America has had similarly destructive consequences. Historian Greg Grandin writes that the region, as a workshop for U.S. empire, has served as a testing ground for interventionist strategies and counter-insurgency tactics used in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East .
There is no mistake that we are witnessing an authoritarian turn in Nicaragua U.S. U.S. Central America demands an honest reckoning with this history. And while we too lament the growing authoritarianism of the Sandinista state, a critical reexamination of U.S. policy in Central America is long overdue.
Once again there are problems on both sides. Ortega has set himself up as a dictator and it seems more based on his personal greed and hunger for power and not for the benefit of the poor in Nicaragua US US