US COUP MACHINE UNLEASHES NEW SANCTIONS ON THE NICARAGUAN PEOPLE
By Kawsachun News.
June 11, 2021 | EDUCATE!
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced new unilateral coercive
measures, or 'sanctions', against members of the elected government of
Nicaragua.
News of the new sanctions was accompanied by simultaneous statements by
officials of the State Department aimed at the Nicaraguan government.
Accordingly, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro tweeted a letter in which he
urged the President of OAS Permanent Council to convene an urgent meeting on
Nicaragua.
The latest planned interference comes as the U.S. escalates its campaign
against the left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government
with five months remaining before the 2021 presidential election.
A divided opposition, including right-wing political figures receiving
financing and resources from the U.S. State Department, have received little
enthusiasm within Nicaragua.
All indications suggest that the majority of voters will be re-electing
President Daniel Ortega, as support for the government remains high
following a period of social, economic and political gains such as the
dramatic reduction of poverty and extreme poverty as well as in infant
mortality.
During the same period, literacy has increased and the country has become a
leader in gender equality while managing to keep out transnational crime, in
contrast with its U.S. allied neighbors in Central America.
Washington and the OAS have revived its coup strategy in Nicaragua under the
Biden Administration, three years on from the failed U.S.-backed coup which
was defeated by the Nicaraguan people in 2018.
The 2018 coup attempt was accompanied by a coordinated media campaign which
made use of a manuscript on "free, fair and transparent elections" and
claims that the FSLN government was curtailing press freedoms, obstructing
rights to demonstrate and persecuting political opponents. The same script
is being applied today.
The stated justifications for the United States' latest sanctions relate to
recent developments in which U.S. pro-coup ground actor Cristiana Chamorro
was detained as part of an investigation into money laundering which she
refused to comply with. The Grayzone's Ben Norton details how Chamorro's
foundation (called the Chamorro Foundation) received financial, technical
and logistical support from CIA front agency, USAID, to fund subversive
activity and destabilization.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, whose country has been at the
center of a years long imperialist assault and economic blockade, stated his
rejection of the imposition of unilateral coercive measures against four
Nicaraguan officials. "Our unrestricted solidarity with the Nicaraguan
people and their authorities, in the face of this new illegal and
interventionist attack from Washington."
The U.S. State Department's press statement, which reuses the template
utilized by the Trump administration for its attacks on Venezuela, Cuba, and
all other anti-imperialist governments, can be read here.
Despite that the U.S. continues to claim to impose sanctions which are
tailored to target specific government officials; the cases of Cuba,
Zimbabwe, Iran, and Venezuela among others, are evidence that it is in fact
the population which suffers as a result of U.S. sanctions and intervention.