Standing strong with my Nicaraguan people. This could very well be the very last drop, will Ortega end like Somoza? Are we seeing the birth of a new cold war? What do you make of Pence and Cruz’s remarks regarding our stance on fostering a democratic process in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua? Double Speak from the Ministry of Truth or another little off the book Excursion? I heard OLLIE NORTH was already TAKEN (see: NRA).
From the BBC: “Dozens of people died last week in Nicaragua as a result of anti-government protests, human rights groups there told CNN Friday -- in contrast to the government's official death toll, which stands at 10.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, based in the capital city of Managua, reported 42 deaths on Sunday. On Saturday, the group had reported 43 people died but revised the death toll, saying they'd mistakenly included a person who was in critical condition.”
Now this is a big deal because people don’t fucking kill each other in Nica. It’s a stark contrast to its neighbors, where hundreds die every day for petty reasons or gang violence. This has sent shockwaves because Nicaragua has been a peaceful nation for the past twenty years after Chamorro.
quote:
Three decades after this tiny Central American nation became the prize in a Cold War battle with Washington, Russia is once again planting its flag in Nicaragua. Over the past two years, the Russian government has added muscle to its security partnership here, selling tanks and weapons, sending troops, and building facilities intended to train Central American forces to fight drug trafficking.
The Russian surge appears to be part of the Kremlin’s expansionist foreign policy. In other parts of the world, President Vladimir Putin’s administration has deployed fighter planes to help Syria’s war-battered government and stepped up peace efforts in Afghanistan, in addition to annexing the Crimean Peninsula and supporting separatists in Ukraine.
Any other day, you would google Nicaragua to find articles from the Guardian, Telegraph, Newsweek, and the Times, all describing paradise on earth. Second Lowest crime rate in all of the Americas, Access to Health Care, Good pensions, and yet still the poorest nation in the Americas. Nicaraguans are friendly welcoming people that have captured the American interest since its inception.
The 1850s California Gold Rush created interest in the United States in finding a quicker route between the American east and west coasts. However, Great Britain had long been present on the coast of Nicaragua, which created tension between the two countries. The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty was signed in 1850, in which both sides "agreed that neither would claim exclusive power over a future canal in Central America nor gain exclusive control over any part of the region." Many Nicaraguans originally welcomed this treaty because of the potential financial benefits a canal could bring.
After Nicaraguan independence came a continuous conflict over power between the Nicaraguan cities of León and Granada, and their political parties (León housed the liberals and Granada the conservatives).
Now, this. What a difference a couple of weeks makes.
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“They’re destroying the image of Nicaragua, with all that it cost us to construct that image,” Mr. Ortega said in a televised speech. “The image of Nicaragua was an image of war. War. Death. How much tourism and investment and jobs will this cost us?”
Bianca Jagger: “Though I didn’t always agree with the Sandinistas, I supported the revolution, speaking out in Washington against American military intervention. Now I must speak out again: President Ortega has become the new Somoza, enriching himself at the expense of his country’s poor, silencing political opposition, doing sweetheart tax deals with the wealthiest and most corrupt people in the country and, like Somoza, using the army and the police to crush dissent.’”
The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America (1986) ICJ 1 is a public international law case decided by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ ruled in favor of Nicaragua and against the United States and awarded reparations to Nicaragua. The ICJ held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The United States refused to participate in the proceedings after the Court rejected its argument that the ICJ lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. The U.S. also blocked enforcement of the judgment by the United Nations Security Council and thereby prevented Nicaragua from obtaining any compensation.[2] Nicaragua, under the later, post-FSLN government of Violeta Chamorro, withdrew the complaint from the court in September 1992 following a repeal of the law which had required the country to seek compensation.[3]
The Court found in its verdict that the United States was "in breach of its obligations under customary international law not to use force against another State", "not to intervene in its affairs", "not to violate its sovereignty", "not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce", and "in breach of its obligations under Article XIX of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the Parties signed at Managua on 21 January 1956."
MANAGUA, NICARAGUA — Every day now, flag-waving crowds taunt a man who has ruled them for more than a decade, a man who does not allow protests.
Daniel Ortega, a 72-year-old Marxist guerrilla famed for his Cold War duels with Washington, held near total power in recent years, decorating the capital with billboards in his honor. Now protesters march down streets tagged with fresh graffiti reading “Get out Ortega” and “Death to Daniel.”
The most momentous upheaval in this Central American country in nearly 40 years is underway, a change that is shaking one of the last towering figures from a generation of Latin American leftist revolutionaries who became rulers. The Castros no longer hold the presidency of Cuba; Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez has died; and now, in Nicaragua, Ortega and his Sandinista movement could be facing the end of their era.
“There is a dictatorship in this country, and we want freedom,” said Diana Lopez, a 26-year-old piano teacher who stood in a swirl of waving Nicaraguan flags in a traffic circle at a protest on Wednesday night.
After several terrifying days of violence and mass unrest that left at least 38 people dead, the uprising in Nicaragua has entered a calmer but potentially more significant phase, with pro-democracy protesters allowed to march and a group of students, business leaders and Catholic clergy preparing to negotiate with Ortega to roll back the repressive measures of recent years.
For nearly two months, Nicaraguan officials have used a satellite station set up in a compound south of Managua to monitor data on drug trafficking, natural disasters and other threats. Because the technology came from Russia, though, the U.S. is concerned that Nicaragua is eager to keep an eye on more than just internal problems.
Russia donated the satellite station to Nicaragua as the two nations have increasingly sought closer military ties, including Moscow last year giving the country 50 T-72 tanks, aimed at upgrading Managua's armed forces. These expensive tokens of international friendship have fueled fears that the real purpose of Nicaragua's new eye in the sky is to track U.S. activity and report back to Moscow.
“The economic cooperation was a facade,” Roberto Orozco, executive director of the Center for Investigation and Strategic Analysis, a think tank in Managua, told The Washington Post. “What the Russians really wanted is an active military presence.”
The United States has at various times in recent history provided support to terrorist and paramilitary organizations around the world. It has also provided assistance to numerous authoritarian regimes that have used state terrorism as a tool of repression.[1][2]
United States support for non-state terrorists has been prominent in Latin America, the Middle-East, and Southern Africa.[1] From 1981 to 1991, the United States provided weapons, training, and extensive financial and logistical support to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who used terror tactics in their fight against the Nicaraguan government.[3] At various points the United States also provided training, arms, and funds to terrorists among the Cuban exiles, such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles.
