Does the use of the word ‘single’ imply ‘not married’?
Richard
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 15, 2018, at 9:35 AM, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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.