We are witnessing a time of radical political change all over the world. South America is leading the way in terms of regional progressive movements while Libya has its sovereignty violated by the West. The U.S. is already being exposed to campaign promises of more budget cuts and the elimination of working class rights. Egypt has deposed Mubarak only to see the military hold control and throw their old leader to the masses while continuing the same type of regime he represented. Bahrain is seeing repression and Syria seems destined to follow the path of Libya and Iraq.
One event that may be lost in the light of such a tumultuous time in global politics, despite its importance, are the 2011 Nicaraguan elections taking place November Sixth. Nicaragua’s importance fits the usual profile for most conflict zones around the world. The most unstable places on Earth are those richest in resources. Since the world capitalist epidemic eclipsed feudalisms hold on the world, lesser-developed nations all over the globe have been targeted for exploitation by the prototypical capitalist powers. Most nations that have suffered the worst degrees of aggression are rich in natural resources or are of geopolitical importance. Nicaragua has shared in the doomed fate of these countries because it is in a resource rich region, and more importantly, has been able to defy a world power for decades. Despite its overwhelming popularity, the U.S. has not ceased destabilization efforts against the FSLN revolutionary government of Nicaragua since its victory in the eighties. The Sandinista revolution successfully overthrew the government, of Anastasio Somoza, in 1979 and had to deal with subsequent hostilities from the US government. The most famous manifestation of U.S. aggression was the US funded Contra insurgent force. The decades of war and oppression were brought upon the small country because it was a dangerous example to the rest of the oppressed continent. If tiny Nicaragua could defy the colossus of the north, what would a regional alliance be able to accomplish? Nicaragua has earned its place in history because it has done the impossible. It has withstood war and economic terrorism by the worlds leading super power and continues to fight for its liberty. To understand the uprising in Nicaragua it is important to understand its history and the forces that have led to a conflict for the nations future.
Nicaragua is a small country in Central America whose abject poverty has been caused by its strategic geopolitical location, abundance of natural resources, and the private interests that exploited them. During the Early days of Spanish conquest, the indigenous population was decimated by the military power and diseases of Europe under the guise of Christian prosperity. An example of the poverty caused by the territories natural wealth was the gold in Nicaragua’s Rio Bluefield’s, which led to the forceful displacement of the indigenous Carca tribe from the wetland and riverside territories. Since the landing of Columbus, the Indigenous have been displaced and forced into slavery in order to build up the capital used by the merchants of the Triangular Trade in order to depose Europe’s Monarchs. Europe, Christianity (namely Catholicism) and the globalized “free market” as administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank (WB) have turned the region into a business asset and its people into a dependent work force. By 1823 Central America had separated itself from Mexico due to political differences and Mexico’s separation from the old colonial control of Spain and the Catholic Church. In 1856, an agent for U.S. bankers Morgan and Garrison named William Walker appointment himself as president of Nicaragua with the support of the U.S. government. The United States president at the time, William Taft echoed the sense of dominion over the region by saying “The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of superiority of race, it already is ours morally.” This culture of conquest planted the seeds of revolution that sprouted Augusto Sandino, and subsequently, grew into the movement whose branches extended to the most remote regions of the land. The Sandinista Liberation Front molded itself into a force capable of disrupting a legacy of domination and shares an exclusive place in history, alongside the Mexican and Cuban revolutions, as the only Latin American uprisings that have completely dismantled their oppressor’s armies.
This movement’s humble beginnings started with the rebellion of the guerilla fighter, Augusto Cesar Sandino. Sandino’s contempt for the U.S. invasion of Nicaragua gained momentum because of the appeal he had to the oppressed Nicaraguans whose livelihood’s have been stolen and exploited since the landing of the Spanish. Sandino combated 12,000 U.S. Marines and the Nicaraguan National Guard using machetes, stones and stolen firearms. The formidable Nicaraguan rebels were made up of farmers and artisans whose industries were dominated by a world power, foreign capital, and a national ruling class that benefited by selling its countries natural resources and labor. This crude army from Las Segovias gained international recognition for their defiance of a superior military power and grew audacious because of it. According to Eduardo Galeano in his book Open Veins of Latin America; Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, “The guerillas sang, to the tune of Adelita: In Nicaragua, gentlemen, the mouse kills the cat.” This rebellion would be defeated a few years later. Sandino’s death would give false hope to U.S. imperialism and become the seeds of a revolution that shook the world. This revolution would by no means end U.S. attempts to control Nicaragua’s fate and profit from its misery.
The U.S. military presence Sandino fought against ceased in 1933. As part of the United States’ “Good Neighbor Policy”, the Marines left Nicaragua but left a well-trained and armed National Guard of about 3,000 troops. Augusto Sandino was summoned to Managua by the president but was ambushed by, then head of the National Guard, Anastasio Somoza. Somoza later admitted that U.S. ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane had requested the assassination. As a result of Somoza’s compliance, he became the largest coffee producer in the region and president of Nicaragua. The Somoza dynasty would become the catalyst that resurrected Sandino in the form of the liberation front. In 1979, the second Anastasio Somoza had enjoyed dominion over Nicaragua with the support of the U.S. government during the Carter administration. Somoza became infamous because of the brutal tactics employed by his national guard in order to secure foreign corporate interests in the country. This abuse of power and blatant violation of human rights led to the rebirth of Sandino’s struggle for Nicaraguan self-determination. The new revolution adopted Sandino’s fight and name. The Sandinista Liberation Front was made up of farmers, artisans, students, teachers, doctors, and members of the nation that varied in socio-economic conditions but bound by a nationalist pride and struggle. The Sandinistas had their roots in Nicaragua’s first university, located in the capitol city of Managua. The Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua fostered the seeds of Nicaraguan freedom. The National Guard was quick to respond to the social movement using sanguinary tactics to instill terror into the population. Somoza had become synonymous abuse of power and the White House began to rethink its support of the regime. Washington’s ideal outcome was to do away with Somoza while salvaging the structure of exploitation behind him. The Sandinista revolution devastated the status quo and did the impossible.
As the U.S. made a transition from the Carter to the Reagan era, U.S. hostility took on a new face. Reagan preached the dangers of revolution in tiny Nicaragua and the importance of quelling any dissent with all the might of the U.S. Empire. The Reagan administration referred to the Sandinista cause as a “revolution with no borders” and claimed that it was inspired and supported by the joint efforts of Cuba and the USSR. During diplomatic relations between Cuba and Nicaragua, Fidel Castro sent professionals ranging from engineers to doctors in order to help the small nation get on its feet after a hard fought war for independence. Fidel Castro also financed the biggest sugar mill in the country at favorable rates and at its inauguration announced that the technologically advanced mill would be free of charge. Diplomacy between Nicaragua and other rival nations infuriated Washington to the point that it exhausted the funds allotted by congress to wage war against Nicaragua. The White House funded the Contra insurgent force and used the CIA to maximize their efficiency in their war against the FSLN. With finances exhausted and the Contra force impotent against the might of the Sandinistas, Washington set a new precedent for immorality with the tactics it employed against Nicaragua. At the time, the U.S. government had placed a CIA operative and drug dealer as the president of Panama in order to guarantee its dominion of the Panama Canal Zone. The U.S. backed president, Manuel Noriega, was key to financing the war against Nicaragua. The CIA used Noriega’s drug trafficking connections to smuggle arms into Nicaragua for the Contra force to use. The CIA also used Nicaraguan exiles living in the US, with political asylum, that had connections with Colombian drug cartels to fund the war. They flew Colombian cocaine to major U.S. cities in order to be sold to street gangs and fuel the crack epidemic of the eighties. The revenue was used to fund the Contra force and Noriega’s smuggling operation. The U.S. also sold weapons to both sides of the Iraq/Iran war in order to raise funds for the campaign against Nicaragua. This would become known as the Iran-Contra Affair in which Oliver North took full responsibility. He was convicted to community service and probation before having the conviction overturned and being hired by Fox News. After billions of dollars and wasted efforts, the U.S. decided to employ diplomacy and called for elections to be held in order to legitimize Sandinista leadership. This would mark a new type of intervention that would become the model for future destabilization efforts like the modern example of Venezuela and the upcoming Nicaraguan elections.
After the elections had become Washington’s goal, they had no problem admitting their past current and future involvement in Nicaragua’s domestic policy. On October 4th 1989, California Democrat George Miller stated that “We are going to participate in these elections with billions of dollars, we financed the Contras, destroyed their (Nicaragua) economy, took Miss Chamorro and funded her newspaper, funded her whole operation, and now we are going to guarantee the best elections that the U.S. can provide”. U.S. capital reached Nicaragua through a number of channels but was aimed towards achieving one goal, the overthrow of the Sandinista government. US congress along with the National Security Council (NSC) approved the financing of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Republican Institute (IRI), and a plethora of NGO’s. These NGO’s led by the NED, concentrated their funds in order to pay the fourteen opposition parties in Nicaragua to come together and support the candidate Washington hand picked. This union led to the creation of the Union Nacional Opositora (UNO) with Violetta Chamorro at the helm. The CIA also funded Nicaragua’s private media outlets, including the leading newspaper La Prensa, in order to seal Nicaragua’s fate. The elections of 1990 bore the fruit of Washington’s labor and ousted the Sandinistas. The elation would not last for long, as today the FSLN has once again assumed its role as government of Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega as president. A new era of U.S. hostility was born with his victory and is evident by the $500,000 a month sent to Nicaraguan opposition forces in support of “democracy.”
The battle between Washington and the Sandinistas seems like a modern day version of David and Goliath. Ignoring the methods employed to combat the Sandinistas, many U.S. officials claim that the conflict is for the benefit of the Nicaraguan people; a theory that works on the premise that the end justifies the means. US intervention has brought war, monopolization of media outlets, deflation of Nicaraguan currency and has crippled the economy to the point that it paved the way for the Maquiladora (sweat shop) industry to come in and hire Nicaraguan women for a dollar a day in order to manufacture clothing sold in the U.S. at a 2,000% markup in some cases. The Sandinista government funded literacy campaigns that brought illiteracy down from 50+% to 12% in the eighties. The recent effects of Sandinista rule have marked the drop of families living in poverty (with under $2 a day) by an average of 50%. Families living in extreme poverty (under $1 a day) have dropped by an average of 30%. Nicaragua also joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). ALBA is a regional collaboration that includes, but not limited to, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela, St. Vincent, Antigua, and Honduras (prior to the military coup of 2009). ALBA is predominantly funded with Venezuelan petrodollars but counts on support from all member nations through finances, trade fortification, security and favorable business for national industry. ALBA has replaced the funding withdrawn by the U.S. in reaction to an FSLN win. The Sandinista government has fixed prices for energy utilities so that access is not exclusive, reduced malnutrition to an all time low, offered national industry subsidies reaching $70 million a year and all the while complied with all the free trade agreements and international laws and debts accrued by U.S. puppet regimes. The latest CID Gallup Poll has Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega with 44% of the vote. Ortega has risen three points since the last poll and beats his closest opponent by twelve points.
In light of the overwhelming popular support for the FSLN, the U.S. refuses to give up and continues to utilize all resources for destabilization without having to wage another war. Nicaragua was designated by the U.S. to serve the international capitalist economy as a provider of cheap inputs in order to maximize the profits of the prototypical capitalist nations and multinational corporations. The Sandinistas have adopted Sandino’s resolution to defy the global ruling class in order to let Nicaragua chose her own destiny and break the shackles of exploitation that have bound her for over five hundred years.
Victor Martinez was raised in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles by his single mother. His family on his mother’s side comes from Guatemala and is Maya Quiche, indigenous to the Quetzaltenango highlands. His father is from El Salvador with mestizo roots. He is a transfer student at Los Angeles City College (LACC). As a political science major, he aspires to utilize his devotion to social justice and address the issues pertinent to his community on a national and international level. The problems he faced as a child were not specific to the “Latino” demographic that inhabits Silver Lake. They are inextricably linked to the social struggle of all underprivileged people of every color and in every corner of this planet. As a college student he has dedicated his free time to join popular movements. He is a charter member of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) chapter at Los Angeles City College; he volunteered in Guatemala with Asociacion Mujer Tejedora del Desarrollo (AMUTED) under Rosy Queme, he was a member of Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) under Celina Benitez, and has organized with the Pasadena chapter of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) under Juan Jose Aguilar. Victor is serious about what he does and strives to develop himself in order to be in a position to offer something to the social justice movement.
Victor Martinez can be contacted via email/facebook at Kaibaman510@gmail.com.
