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US meddles in Nicaraguan election
September 15th, 2006 at 16:39 Björn Hallberg
But at the same time has the tenacity to point the finger at Chavez for alleged meddling. Now that seems a bit hypocritical. As the Sandinistas stand poised for a comeback and what could be a fair chance to realize the social reform that they were once prevented by means of state-sponsored terrorism, the U.S. finds the development “undemocratic.” Because democracy apparently is when you’re dancing to the American tune and implementing economic policy that makes you country safe for American business first and foremost.
The US ambassador to Nicaragua has issued a vigorous warning to this small Central American country’s electors against supporting Daniel Ortega, the veteran leftwing Sandinista leader and the frontrunner in November’s presidential election.
Also, in an even more mind-boggling display of callousness, FT while noting the U.S. subterfuge the last time Ortega was elected only sees the American involvement in Nicaragua as “a long and – in many cases – unfortunate history.” Now that is one way of putting it. Overthrowing a progressive, democratically elected government is “unfortunate” (mainly because people criticised it). When the same political structure do a comeback years later, not via terror but via the ballot, it’s undemocratic.
Entry 634 filed under: Central America. This entry was posted 2 years, 2 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.
I’ve had the opportunity to spend time off and on in Nicaragua since 1995 and find it amazing at what has occurred economically in that country in that time. Speaking to a number of nationals, the worst time in Nicaragua’s history was when Ortega was in power and the best time was when he was voted out. The acts of seizing properties and assets from the “wealthy” did nothing but drive out foreign investment and cause Nicaragua to fall from the wealthiest Latin American country to the poorest. It wasn’t until he and his party were voted out that foreign investment returned to build up the country economically.
It appears that Ortega’s votes came from the younger generation; those who probably don’t have a good understanding of what he put the country through in the 80’s. Those that remember, would do anything to keep him out of power. I’d be surprised if the voting distribution showed any different.
.. because obviously, the US made sure to bankrupt Nicaragua on purpose to show by example that Ortega was bad for business. Not to mention the Contras campaign of terror. That probably also helped the country a lot, prodding people along to see that America and its neoliberal whelps were the “better” alternative. Just in the same way that Cuba has been under constant siege since the revolution and has never had a fair chance to show its true colors for fear of letting its guard down and get overrun by America’s agents of terror. It’s all problem-reaction-solution to you people — creating problems to corroborate your world view.