Biden Official Blasts US-Style Law in Nicaragua
February 17, 2021
Ben Norton reports on the State Departments ire at foreign agent
legislation that made a U.S.-funded, right-wing foundation decide to close.
Sandinistas at a peace rally in Managua, Nicaragua, Feb. 1, 2020. (Ben
Norton, The Grayzone)
By Ben Norton
The Grayzone
Since Nicaraguas socialist Sandinista Front returned to power through
democratic elections in 2006, the United States government has poured many
millions of dollars into right-wing opposition groups in the Central
American country.
These U.S.-funded NGOs have aimed to destabilize the government of
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and played a central role in a brutally
violent coup attempt in 2018.
Nicaraguas National Assembly responded to the Washington-sponsored violence
and destabilization efforts by passing a law in October 2020 that requires
organizations funded by outside governments to register as foreign agents.
The legislation is very similar to a law passed by the United States in 1938
known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). In recent years,
Washington has exploited FARA to force Russian and Chinese media outlets and
journalists working in the United States to register as foreign agents in
a bipartisan, Cold War-style political escalation against both countries.
Though Washington has had this legislation on the books for more than eight
decades, and still utilizes it regularly, the Joe Biden administration has
lashed out at Nicaragua for its decision to pass a similar law.
On Feb. 8, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, a former CIA agent,
published a statement condemning the elected Sandinista government.
State Department Spokesperson Ned Price holding daily press briefing on Feb.
3. (State Department, Ron Przysucha)
Price claimed that President Ortega is driving Nicaragua toward
dictatorship, because the new foreign agent law led to the voluntary
suspension of operations of a major U.S. government-funded opposition
organization in the country.
Price demonized Nicaraguas democratically elected government as a regime,
while stressing that the U.S. government is focused on empowering civil
society.
Prices statement condemning Nicaragua came one day after the U.S.-backed
right-wing president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, effectively declared himself a
dictator, ruling without a Senate or Chamber of Deputies, hand-picking
mayors, shooting journalists, and killing protesters.
Fixating on Nicaragua, the CIA staffer-turned-State Department spokesperson
concluded his declaration with a thinly veiled threat: We urge President
Ortega to change course now.
Despite the Biden administrations hyperbolic rhetoric, it was not Ortega
that passed the law; rather, it was the elected deputies of Nicaraguas
National Assembly that did so.
If the U.S. Congress approved a law, it would be very strange for a foreign
government to blame the U.S. president for the legislation. But Washington
reduces all of Nicaraguas government, including its 92 assembly members and
other state officials, to just one man, grossly simplifying the countrys
politics.
The author of the State Department declaration, Ned Price, worked at the CIA
for more than a decade, although he retired early in 2017 in protest of
Donald Trumps presidency.
CIA History in Nicaragua
The CIA has a long history of supporting right-wing opposition groups in
Nicaragua. During the 1980s, the CIA armed and trained far-right death
squads, known as the Contras, who waged a terrorist war on the revolutionary
Sandinista government, massacring civilians, torturing officials, bombing
infrastructure, mining ports, and burning down hospitals, schools, and
farms.
Today, funding for anti-Sandinista NGOs comes largely through the U.S.
governments regime-change arms the U.S. Agency for International
Development (U.S.AID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The
latter is a CIA cut-out created by the Ronald Reagan administration at the
same time when it was waging this Contra terror campaign, in order to
finance similar destabilization schemes in the guise of democracy promotion.
USAID & Rightwing Opposition
The real source of the Biden administrations anger over Nicaraguas foreign
agent law was the announcement that a right-wing opposition group funded
with millions of U.S. government tax dollars had decided to shut down.
On Feb. 5, the anti-Sandinista activist organization the Violeta Barrios de
Chamorro Foundation announced that it is voluntarily suspending operations
in protest of the foreign agent law.
The U.S. State Department press release falsely accused the Nicaraguan
government of closing the Chamorro Foundation. In reality, the Sandinista
government was not shuttering or expelling the foundation or any other
organization; rather, they voluntarily decided to cease activities to avoid
compliance with the new legislation.
The Chamorro Foundation was founded by and is named after Nicaraguas
neoliberal former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who came to power
in 1990 thanks to a U.S.-backed terror war and blockade of the country,
along with funding from Washingtons National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Violeta Chamorro assuming the presidency from Daniel Ortega, at right, 1990.
(Fundación Violeta Chamorro, CC0, Wikimedia Commons)
In 1991, the NED personally rewarded President Barrios de Chamorro for her
loyalty to Washington, giving her a high-profile award.
The Chamorro clan is one of the wealthiest and most powerful oligarch
families in Nicaragua. Many right-wing opposition leaders in the Central
American nation are Chamorros, and they enjoy a close relationship with the
U.S. government.
This oligarch familys foundation is bankrolled by Washingtons soft-power
arm, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
While the minimum wage in Nicaragua is just over $200 per month, USAID has
poured millions of dollars into the Chamorro Foundation, allotting the
following sums:
$1.7 million in 2020
$1.7 million in 2019
$1.2 million in 2018
$1.6 million in 2014
The Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation has also been used to run USAIDs
Media Strengthening Program (MSP), funding and training right-wing media
activists on behalf of Washington.
According to a review of USAIDs publicly available data, the agency has
spent the following sums of money just on opposition media outlets in
Nicaragua since 2011:
$1,697,400 in 2020
$1,729,645 in 2019
$889,355 in 2018
$400,000 in 2017
$1,600,000 in 2014
$550,000 in 2013
$413,163 in 2012 (1)
$286,387 in 2012 (2)
$541,000 in 2011
And this does not include many millions of dollars more that were rewarded
to redacted grantees, whose information is not revealed on the USAID
website.
A small sample of USAID funding for opposition media outlets in Nicaragua.
One of the recipients of U.S. government funding through the Chamorro
Foundation was Nicaraguas far-right opposition media outlet 100% Noticias.
This channel actively encouraged violence during the 2018 coup attempt,
promoting extremists who used mortar cannons to kill and injure Sandinista
activists and state security forces.
Washington-funded 100% Noticias director Miguel Mora has openly requested
that the U.S. military invade his country and overthrow President Daniel
Ortega, citing the war on Panama in 1989. Mora also hosted extremists who
called on Nicaraguans to organize a violent mob to invade the presidential
compound and lynch the elected leader.
The Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation is directed by Cristiana
Chamorro, a wealthy right-wing operative who will likely be the oppositions
presidential candidate in the November 2021 election. Cristiana Chamorro has
also helped to run the leading conservative newspaper, La Prensa.
In effect, this means that USAID has been bankrolling the Nicaraguan
right-wings presidential candidate and the countrys top media outlet with
millions of dollars over many years.
USAID allotted more than $122 million overall on operations in Nicaragua in
the five years from 2016 through 2020. The majority of that money went to
leadership, management, governance, the Municipal Governance Program,
and the Democratic Leadership Development Program in other words,
funding and cultivating right-wing opposition leaders.
While USAID claims that its projects are humanitarian, its own publicly
available data shows that the vast majority of its spending in Nicaragua
goes to funding government and civil society and operating expenses for
its staff, while less than 1 percent of its money goes to supporting public
health and agriculture.
The Grayzone has exposed USAIDs role in overseeing a regime-change
operation called Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua (RAIN), which explicitly
aims to overthrow the socialist government, impose neoliberal reforms that
lead to a transition to a rules-based market economy based on the
protection of private property rights, and purge state institutions of
Sandinistas.
Ben Norton is a journalist and writer. He is a reporter for The Grayzone,
and the producer of the Moderate Rebels podcast, which he co-hosts with
Max Blumenthal. His website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at
@BenjaminNorton.
This article is from The Grayzone.