I read that article, copied it and sent it to the list, read that title again,
and I thought, "How in God's name can we trust anyone, including our savior,
Bernie Sanders, when they've all just said to our deep state, "Go right ahead
and destroy that leftist government in Nicaragua". They tried and failed in the
spring, so they're trying again. They destroyed Brazil, and Ecuador. They're
still working on Venezuela, and Nicaragua. What will they do to that new guy in
Mexico? And I'm not talking about Trump and the criminals who surround him. I'm
talking about the people in our government who call themselves progressive!
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2018 11:35 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Every Single Member of US Congress Approved
Crushing Sanctions on Nicaragua
If change comes from the bottom up, then it's long past time we felt the Earth
shake.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/14/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Grayzone Project
Investigative journalism and analysis of war and empire
Nicaragua December 14, 2018
Every Single Member of US Congress Approved Crushing Sanctions on
Nicaragua
After defeating a violent US-backed coup attempt, Nicaragua’s elected
government faces the NICA Act. The bill aims to force the Sandinistas
from power by ratcheting up economic despair.
By Ben Norton
Every single member in both chambers of the US Congress approved
legislation that will impose sanctions and financial restrictions on
Nicaragua in an explicit effort to weaken its government.
Known as the NICA Act, the bill is now on its way to the desk of
President Donald Trump, who will almost certainly sign it into law.
Its passage was spearheaded by neoconservative lawmakers centered
around the Miami lobby of right-wing Latin American exiles dedicated
to eradicating any iteration of socialism in the Western hemisphere.
The United States has spent decades trying to topple Nicaragua’s
government, now led by the left-wing Sandinista movement. In April,
US-backed opposition figures launched an unsuccessful and exceedingly
violent coup attempt in the Central American country — one of the last
bastions of leftist politics in an increasingly right-leaning Latin
America.
The newly approved Nicaraguan Investment and Conditionality Act (NICA)
will give the US president the authority to impose targeted sanctions
on Nicaraguan government officials, former officials, or people
purportedly “acting on behalf of” Managua.
The bill also seeks to prevent international financial institutions
from providing “any loan or financial or technical assistance” to
Nicaragua’s government.
The NICA Act enjoyed bipartisan support, but the campaign behind it
was largely led by neoconservative Florida Representative Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, with help from Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
Ros-Lehtinen and Cruz met for a Facebook live this December 13 to celebrate
the bill’s passage.
In June, these three right-wing Cuban-American lawmakers gathered with
young leaders of the Nicaraguan opposition in Washington, DC.
The NICA Act encourages the US government to increase assistance to
anti-government “civil society in Nicaragua, including independent
media, human rights, and anti-corruption organizations” and to
“support the protection of human rights and anti-corruption advocates in
Nicaragua.”
The legislation also suggests that political negotiations should be
“mediated by the Catholic Church in Nicaragua,” which has for decades
supported violent right-wing forces in the region.
This October, leaked audio revealed the Catholic Church’s auxiliary
bishop of Managua, Silvio Baez, conspiring with the opposition to oust
Nicaragua’s elected president, Daniel Ortega.
“The unity that we need at this moment must include everyone opposed
to the government, even if they are suspected of being opportunists,
abortionists, homosexuals, [drug] traffickers…,” Baez declared,
according to a translation of the leaked audio.
Baez urged the opposition to put up more of the tranque roadblocks
that had plunged the country into violence and strangled its economy,
describing them as “an extraordinary invention.”
In November, USAID Director Mark Green announced an infusion of $4
million to civil society and media groups opposed to the Sandinista front.
Neoconservative gloating
In September, the NICA Act was combined with a remarkably similar bill
from Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez: the Nicaragua Human
Rights and Anticorruption Act, which imposed additional sanctions on
Nicaraguan government officials.
Menendez – a Cuban-American whose legal defense from corruption
charges was bankrolled by the pro-Israel lobby – joined his
neoconservative colleagues in referring to Nicaragua’s democratically
elected president, Daniel Ortega, as a “dictator” who leads a
“regime.”
Ortega — who voluntarily stepped down from power after losing an
election to a US-backed right-wing oligarch in 1990 — won his third
presidential term in
2011 with 62 percent of the vote, in what international observers
recognized was a fair election. Even the staunchly anti-Sandinista New
York Times admitted at the time that Ortega had widespread support.
Ros-Lehtinen declared that “the NICA Act that will help the Nicaraguan
people break free of Ortega’s despotic rule.” She has previously
insinuated that Nicaragua was a national security threat to the US,
proclaiming, “We must also remain vigilant of efforts by Russia, Cuba,
Venezuela, China and Iran that continue to help Ortega with military
equipment, surveillance, and other technology support.”
For his part, Rubio boasted, “We are one step closer to expanding
sanctions and other pressures against the oppressive Ortega regime.”
In lieu of a formal vote, the NICA Act was sent to the bipartisan
House Committee on Foreign Affairs for amendments, and these changes
were then agreed to by each chamber, without any objections.
On November 27, amendments for the combined legislation were approved
with unanimous consent in the Senate. Then on December 11, the changes
were unanimously approved in the House without objection.
US corporate media echoes Nicaragua’s US-backed opposition
The unanimous approval of the de facto economic embargo on Nicaragua
received very little attention in the English-language media. The
story was covered by only a small handful of local news outlets,
although it received much more attention in right-wing Spanish-language media.
In an interview with Confidencial – an opposition outlet funded by the
US government’s National Endowment for Democracy regime change arm –
Nicaragua’s former foreign affairs minister Norman Caldera exclaimed
that the “NICA Act is a devastating blow for the regime.”
The right-wing channel 100% Noticias, whose director, Miguel Mora,
stands accused by family members of coup victims of inciting hatred
and violence, echoed the celebratory language.
CNN Español reported favorably on the NICA Act (it even has a tag on
its website devoted to the law), although its English-language
counterpart demonstrated little interest. CNN Español referred to the
democratically elected government in Managua as a “regime” and noted,
“The opposition of Nicaragua celebrates this decision.”
The chaos unleashed by last summer’s coup attempt has badly bled
Nicaragua’s economy, plunging growth from a steady five percent to
almost zero and eliminating tens of thousands of jobs. With the NICA
Act, the US and its local proxies are hoping that exacerbating the
economic desperation even further will bend a largely non-compliant
Nicaraguan population to their will.
Ben Norton
Ben Norton is a journalist and writer. He is a producer and reporter
for The Real News, and a contributor to the Grayzone Project and FAIR.
Ben co-hosts the Moderate Rebels podcast with Max Blumenthal. His
website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.