What really happened in Nicaragua in April 2018 and whats the alternative to the Sandinistas

Immediately after overseeing a far-right military coup in Bolivia on November 10, the US administration set its sights once again on Nicaragua, whose democratically elected Sandinista government put down a violent right-wing coup attempt in 2018. Since overthrowing the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 the US has often declare this little country as a “THREAT” Nicaragua a threat to US national security, and announced that it will be expanding its suffocating sanctions on the tiny Central American nation. Trump is also turning up the heat on Mexico, baselessly linking the country to terrorism and even hinting at potential military intervention. The moves come as the country’s left-leaning President Andrés Manuel López Obrador warns of right-wing attempts at a coup. As Washington’s rightist allies in Colombia, Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador are desperately beating back massive grassroots uprisings against neoliberal austerity policies and yawning inequality gaps, the United States is ramping up its aggression against the region’s few remaining progressive governments. https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/27/operation-condor-2-coup-trump-nicaragua-mexico/#more-17124

By John Perry August 2019;In their hunger for US funding, Nicaraguan opposition “human rights” NGOs inflated the death toll during the 2018 coup attempt. Today, these groups are in a state of complete disarray. When political conflict results in people being killed – especially at the hands of a government – the deaths are not just personal tragedies; they become fodder for that government’s foes. This dynamic unfolded during last year’s attempted coup in Nicaragua, when the opposition tried and failed to bring down the elected government of President Daniel Ortega through a nationwide campaign of protest and violent sabotage. When the regime-change attempt was finally halted in July 2018, the opposition alleged through a triad of “human rights” NGOs that the government had killed anywhere from 325 to 500 protesters. This death toll was repeated in practically every international media report, on the floor of the US Congress, and in the halls of the Organization of American States, all to drum up support for sanctioning the Nicaraguan government. https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/25/deaths-for-dollars-nicaraguas-human-rights-organizations/#more-13892

This article appeared in “The Guardian” on the 11th of March. The article follows a recurring theme in the Guardian and MSM, since riots in April 2018. Yet again we have a situation in Latin America, with a US supported opposition, trying to overthrow the elected left leaning government This has happened to Evo Morales in Bolivia in November 2019 and have been trying to do in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez died in 2013.

The riots began after a public protest against changes to the pension system similar to what the EU demanded from Greece in 2011. The protests descended into violence after a policeman and 2 people working for the government were murdered. The violence continued for a number of weeks leaving hundreds dead. The official figure is 240 dead, the opposition report over 300 deaths. Of course, hundreds of deaths caused by violence in any country should not happen especially in Nicaragua rated the safest country in Central America

Central America is a very poor and violent region. In neighboring Honduras, in the first quarter of 2019, nearly 800 homicides were recorded. El Salvador also has one of the highest murder rates in the world and in Costa Rica in the first half of 2018 there were 304 homicides. So fair to say Nicaragua is an exception to the violence in the region. The oposition would like to say the riots were about the economic plans of the FSLN, but these plans were withdrawn after 2 days of protests, the protesteres were victorias. S0 what was the violence about and why were the first people murdered a policmam and two civil servants. Was this an opportunity to make Nicaragua appear a dangerous country for tourists like its neighbors and crash the economy, which has flatlines since the riots due to its effect on the tourist industry.

The Guardian states in 2020 two years after the riots; “More than 100,000 people have fled “persecution” in Nicaragua, the majority have gone to Costa Rica; “Brutal repression by the national police and armed pro-government groups in 2018, left 300 people dead, 2,000 injured and hundreds of people arbitrarily detained and prosecuted. In 2015

However this article from 2015 says the reason so many people move to Costa Rica is because they earn much more money there. Emigration from Nicaragua to Costa Rica is common: Between 350,000 and 500,000 Nicaraguans live in Costa Rica, both legally and illegally. Unlike the south-to-north migration common to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, Nicaragua’s south-to-south migration is not fueled by violence and danger but money, but you can see why the opposition would like tourists to think it was a fear of violence.

Somehow I cant Imagine the British media complaining about “people arbitrarily detained and prosecuted” after the Tube bombs in 2007. When ISIS supporters riot on European streets and kill, they are not referred to as “The opposition”. The MSM does not demand a softly softly approach for armed vigilantes. When Israeli soldiers shoot and kill Palestinian protesters, the media present it as Israel protecting its “fence” and the MSM is fine with it.

I don’t condone violence of any kind and one death is two many, but to dump all the blame on the FSLN and ignore the motivation of the opposition to escalate the violence, beggars belief, and brings the credibility of these articles into question.

It is important to remember, that half of the dead, in the riots were FSLN members and policemen as the impression given is all the dead were all “peacfull protesters, If killing a policeman was to get a big reaction from the police it worked. But the riots in the following days were specifically to bring down the Government and deny acess to the peoples markets, where FSLN suporters buy their food. Rich people have freezers and can get out of the way for a few weeks, the poor live from day to day and road blocks to prevent them getting to the market to buy food was going to piss people off, which it did after the police backed off after the early clashes.

In July2024 I asked Stephen Sefton who runs an adult education centre about what happened in April 2018. His take is very different to the the corporate media version that we get in the UK

One hundred people die each day in US because of gun violence. which has raised a legitimate question; “do black lives matter”. The US is a country that still practices the death penalty, its not in a position to lecture other countries about human rights.

If any minority armed themselves in the US , with a stated objective of overthrowing the government, there would be many dead. One only has to look at Vietnam,Chile, Iraq, and the Contra War in Nicaragua are some examples of what can happen to innocent civilians when the US does not like the regime in charge of a country and civilians get in the way.

In addition to the effect the riots had on tourism, as in Bolivia and Venezuela, it was an open invitation for US to get involved with President Donald Trump announcing ” All people deserve a government that cares for their safety, their interests, and their wellbeing, including their prosperity” imposing sanctions and calling for free, fair, and early elections in Nicaragua to give the Nicaraguan people a true voice and vote in their future.” The suggestion Ortega is not a democrat when you consider he has contested 7 elections loosing three of them.

The “Organisation of American States” (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro also got in on the act, urging the FSLN, to move forward the elections from 2021, learning from 1990 they refused. Outside interference like this, in support of an opposition to a government would not happen in any developed country, no matter how controversial the regime was. You will struggle to find a more controversial leader than Donald Trump, he had no objections when Boris Johnson illegally parogued the UK parliament in 2019.

In December 2019 The Trump administration announced fresh financial sanctions against Nicaragua targeting companies with links to the government, asserting the entities are purely shells for money laundering designed to enrich and uphold the ruling family against increasing outcry from pro-democracy opposition.

The US has form on this amd In 1984 The Guardian was reporting a more balanced view of what was happening there after the “World Court” Found the US guilty of breaches of international law against Nicaragua. The court stated that; “US acts and actions in training and financing the contras, the attack on Puerto Sandino and interference with maritime commerce constituted breaches of international law and the obligation not to violate national sovereignty.

The US government refused to accept the court’s decision. Nevertheless in 1986 The International Court of Justice, based in the Hague, ordered the United States to pay reparations to Nicaragua for training, arming and financing Contra rebels and mining Nicaraguan ports during a conflict that killed thirty to forty thousands people.

When Ortega was defeated in the 1990 election, the new President Violetta Chamorro abandoned the claims of $17 Billion in war reparations, in exchange for “aid” from the United States, which subsequent presidents squandered and did not spend the finacial aid where it was needed.

In 1997 Daniel Ortega again lost the presidential election to Arnoldo Alemán who had 51% of the vote, Transparency International named him the ninth most corrupt leader in recent history, estimating that he had looted the country of $100 million in state funds to Panamanian bank accounts controlled by him and his family. In

When Ortega was elected President in 2006, The New York Times saw it comming in 2005 “United States-backed conservative governments in the past 15 years have been widely condemned as being as corrupt and had failed to lift Nicaragua out of extreme poverty”.

To get elected Ortega had to be pragmatic in a very religious country, the game changer was to embrace christianity. This meant not repealing the represive abortion laws introduced by his predecessor Enrique Bolanos. The decision to embrace christianity did not get him much extra sport in 2006, but I believe it has helped Ortega greatly in sunsequent years, to be seen as a man of the people.

Not repealing the draconian abortion laws, antagonised many former Sandinistas and left wing suporters outside the country. In the Americas your left wing credentials are usually judged by your position on abortion. And in Europe it has been used against the Ortega the way antisemitism was used against Jeremy Corbyn by the centre left.

in 2007 The Guardian picked up on abortion which became the stick the European left and human rights organiseation began to beat Ortega with and they imply it was Ortega who implemented the law, similar to the Law which was in Ireland until recently; “This new law intentionally denies women access to health services essential to saving their lives, and is thus inconsistent with Nicaragua’s obligations under international human rights law,” says Human Rights Watch.

It is sad that this has come into focus under a FSLN government – a movement whose ranks included advocates for feminism and abortion rights. That was the 80s, when the Sandinistas were secular marxists, wore combat fatigues to fight the Contras. Things changed, the war ended, Ortega, lost the presidency. Church and state were supposedly separate but clerics wielded political clout, none more so than Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo. His hostility sank Ortega’s attempted comebacks in 1996 and 2001 elections. In the run-up to the 2006 election, the cardinal spearheaded the campaign for a blanket abortion ban.

Only one of the four leading candidates in the 2006 presidential election came out against the law. Edmundo Jarquin of the “Sandinista Renovation Movement”, a dissident faction of the origanal Sandinistas. Who have little suport in Nicaragua but much of the European left have gravitated towards them away from Ortega aligning themselves with Trump with the same goal, to bring down the government. A clasic example my enemys, enemy is my friend.

Abortion is legal in only 2 Latin American counteries; Cuba and Uruguay. When U.S. President Donald Trump reinstated the Global Gag Rule on January 23, 2017, he prohibited all U.S. federal money from funding international organizations such as NGOs that “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning the FSLN is providing great suport for young woman who are pregnant and The Mayor of Estoli took us to the first maternity centre that was set up by the Sandinistas in the 80s

Ortega and FSLN desperate to regain power, after 16 years of right wing,Neo liberal Government, took the pragmatic view.

But to focus on this one issue as having sold out socialism is foolish and forgets all the work the FSLN does to promote womens equality. The World Economic Forum ranks Nicaragua 5th in terms of achieving gender equality. The parliament is 50% female, its not men in dark suits maintaining the abortion laws its women. Equality is also the reason Ortegas wife is the Vice President, the new constitution required Ortega to have a woman as his running madein 2016, nothing to do with nepotism.

Lists of candidates to the National Assembly and to the Central American Parliament has to be composed of 50% male and 50% female candidates. article 131 of Nicaraguan consitution

When Ortega was elected the feminist moment in Europe were hopefull that Ortega would eventually come round to their views on abortion, regardless of the fact that most women in Nicaragua do not see abortion as a matter of choice as we do in Europe. Sadly many of these feminist groups have formed aliences with opposition groups in Nicaragua. No political party will get elected on a pro abortion platform in Nicaragua. Ortega got 70% of the votes in the 2015 GE and much of that support is women.

To understand how dificult this issue is in a country like Nicaragua Maxine Molyneux piece “The Politics of Abortion in Nicaragua; Revolutionary Pragmatism or Feminism the realm of Necessity. She wrote in 1984; “Nicaragua is an anomaly among Socialist states. Its comparatively advanced record on general political issues Pluralism, democracy, abolition of the death Penalty contrasts with a surprisingly conservative position on reproductive rights. Since coming to power in 1979 Nicaraguas revolutionary government has  pledged itself to women emancipation and has implemented a range of policies and legal reforms designed to establish greater equality between the sexes. However it has not legalised abortion”.  

The Guardian also tells us that of all these “oppressed” people fleeing for their lives, 9,000 “refugees” had the funds to “fly to Europe”. I have to say this is impressive in a country where you are doing well to earn $10 a day. Then some can pay $89 for a Barcelona Football shirt. So perhaps some objectivity is needed, when assessing claims made by opposition members and perha ps consider where they like to shop.

For example in January 2019 The Guardian stated “Nicaragua’s best-known journalist has gone into exile after armed police raided and ransacked his newsroom in what experts called the latest chapter of the country’s slide into autocracy under President Daniel Ortega”. Carlos Fernando Chamorro, going into exile is always woth a few colum inches.

In November 2019 Chomorro returned to Nicaragua despite claiming its more dangerous for him now; “the situation of insecurity and disrespect for human rights has not changed and in many respects has worsened , as a result of the imposition of a de facto state of emergency that has violated constitutional rights”‘.

My guess he has returned to Nicaragus because his “exile” is no longer newsworthy. And like many other “journalists” based in Nicaragua, continue to suply our media with opposition propaganda. No doubt hoping a popular FSNL government will mess up with the Corona virus and give all the contrarians new amunition to fire at the FSNL.

Last April the opposition took to the streets, in an effort to take back power. They attacked and burned buildings they saw as symbols of their “Sandinista oppression”, schools day care centres?? Many Sandinistas gave their lives and took lives defending these structures and their right to be in government.

The opposition blocked roads, preventing food getting to the shops. All this showed was how out of touch the “elite” are with the majority of their own people. Poor people don’t shop in US style big malls and pay those prices. Average earnings are €400 a month, ordinary people are not able to pay $90 for a Barcelona football shirt. Ordinary Nicaraguans don’t eat in MacDonalds and Pitza Hut.

The “ people” make their own food, grown by Sandinista farmers sold in local markets. They don’t buy Walmart imports dumped on them by over production of intensive farming in developed countries.

So while our MSM was showing us empty shelves in Supermarkets, and claiming the people were on the verge of starvation, the “people’s economy” was providing fresh organic produce at a reasonable price.

Ben Norton reports from Nicaragua, February where the US embassy and OAS successfully lobbied for the release of violent criminals who led a coup attempt in 2018. Some of these so-called “political prisoners”, raped, and murdered. No Doubt there are people in the world who would claim ISIS operatives are political prisoners and should be released? https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/28/us-oas-nicaragua-political-prisoners-murder/

By Nan McCurdy and Nora Mitchell reports February ; Having failed to depose Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega in their coup attempt in 2018, and having lost most of the support they briefly enjoyed within Nicaragua itself, opponents of the Sandinista government have changed their tactics. They’ve embarked on a long campaign aimed at governments and public opinion in the United States and in Europe to portray Ortega as a dictator who is supposedly curbing press freedoms and free speech, assaulting human rights, murdering opponents, and maintaining “a general environment of threat and insecurity.” https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/26/us-media-allies-nicaraguas-coup-mongers-western-hearts-minds/#more-21361

What is really going on in Nicaragua? LOUISE RICHARDS of Morning Star takes a closer look at the details of the reported attack on the Mayangna people of the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve in the north of the country https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/what-really-going-nicaragua

In Managua, Ben Norton interviews Nicaragua’s representative to the UN’s International Court of Justice, Carlos Argüello Gómez, who speaks about his country’s case against the US over its terrorist Contra war, the 2018 coup attempt, and why sanctions are an illegal form of warfare on civilians. https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/22/us-war-sanctions-nicaragua-icj-carlos-arguello/#more-20997

By John Perry Media bias against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government is unremitting, and international NGOs are feeding it by misreporting a violent land dispute in the Bosawás nature reserve. After the violent attempt to overthrow the government in 2018, which cost at least 200 lives, the country has largely returned to the tranquillity it enjoyed before. This is not only the impression that any visitor to Nicaragua will receive; it is confirmed by statistics: Insight Crime analysed homicide levels across Latin America in 2019 and showed that only three countries were safer than Nicaragua in the whole continent. What’s more, three of Nicaragua’s neighbors, in the ‘northern triangle’ of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, are all among the most violent countries. They are specifically plagued with high levels of fatal violence against women. In the first 24 days of 2020, for example, 27 Honduran women met violent deaths, while next-door, Nicaragua continues to have one of the lowest levels of femicide in Latin America. https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/19/nicaragua-peace-media-international-ngos-violence-reporting/

By Ben Norton The US embassy and European Union are meeting with right-wing Nicaraguan opposition leaders and pressuring them to unite against elected leftist President Daniel Ortega in the lead-up to the 2021 election. A far-right opposition figure in Nicaragua has boasted that the country’s unpopular opposition forces are meeting with representatives from the US embassy and European Union, who have pledged them support in their bid to oust the ruling leftist Sandinista Front government. According to this rightist Evangelical leader, the US government and EU are pressuring Nicaragua’s badly divided opposition to unite in the lead-up to the 2021 election, with the goal of unseating the Sandinistas. This frank admission of foreign meddling in Nicaragua’s democracy comes after a violent coup attempt in 2018, in which right-wing groups funded and supported by the US government failed to overthrow the elected president, Daniel Ortega. The Donald Trump administration has declared the small nation of Nicaragua to be a supposed “national security threat,” and has imposed several rounds of aggressive sanctions on the country, with the aim of destabilizing its economy. https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/07/nicaragua-opposition-support-us-eu-coalition/