agenda2.org

DEC 2001/JAN 2002

NICARAGUA ELECTIONS, AMERICAN STYLE
by Phyllis Ponvert

This past November, while Americans stayed away from their voting booths in droves, 92% of Nicaraguans voted in national elections … While the US was making its list of terrorist nations, and checking it twice, US State department officials were conducting their own campaign of intimidation designed to influence the outcome of the Nicaraguan election … While Bush was holding up the US as an example of democracy, peace, and compassion, Nicaraguans were threatened by our government with a return to the 1980’s US war and blockade if they voted for the Sandinista Party … While Bush was enjoying a 90% approval rating, US government officials were in Nicaragua intimidating voters by accusing Daniel Ortega of supporting terrorism …

I recently returned from Nicaragua as part of a 36-member delegation of US international observers invited to oversee the National Elections. Voters cast votes for a president, vice president and deputies for both the National Assembly and the Central American Parliament. The election pitted the right wing Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC) headed by Enrique Bolanos, against the National Convergence, a coalition led by the Sandinista party (the FSLN), with Daniel Ortega as the Presidential candidate.

An election observer’s job is to watch for irregularities while voters go to the polls on election day, and then decide if the election was free or not. But this method is flawed. Just as a democracy is more than a country that holds open elections, it is not enough to declare that an election is free and fair by looking only at what takes place on election day. The outcome of an election is influenced by the political and economic climate in which the voters go to the polls. Forming parties, choosing candidates, conducting campaigns and voting are all decisions that are informed by current events in the country, and indirectly by the historical background. Here is the story of the incredible pressures on the Nicaraguan people.

BACKGROUND: WHY DID THE US GOVERNMENT CARE WHO WON?

In 1979, the Sandinista uprising led by Daniel Ortega ended 50 years of the US-supported Somoza family dicatorship, along with their private army, the National Guard. The Sandinista government’s socialist policies included free education and health care for all Nicaraguans. Property was confiscated from the Somoza family and some large plantation owners and given to Nicaraguans without land. In the next five years, Sandinista policies transformed Nicaragua into a model of universal health care and education in the developing world.

The US, which traditionally has consided all of Latin America as "our backyard" saw that the success of the Sandinista revolution was an example for neighboring countries also suffering under repressive governments. In 1980, using the threat of Communism as an excuse to intervene in Nicaragua, to overthrow the Sandinista government the US under Ronald Reagan recruited and armed an army made up of the ex-National Guard and known as "Contras". The same year, the US pressured international lending agencies not to give aid to Nicaragua.

In the 1984 Nicaraguan elections, which the Sandinistas won with 67% of the vote, the US refused to recognize the Sandinista victory, although international observers declared the election to be free and fair. To punish the Nicaraguans further, in 1985 the US imposed an economic blockade on the country. By the late 1980’s, many of the Sandinista policies were failing as most of the country’s resources were spent on military defense against the US-supported Contras.

Our own election-monitoring delegation was named in honor of Benjamin Linder, the young US engineer murdered by the Contras in 1987.

In 1990, Nicaragua held National Elections. President George Bush was clear about US intentions: a Sandinista victory would mean the continuation of the US war and the blockade. Nicaraguans had lost 50,000 of their sons, and were living in an economy in ruins. Sick at heart, they went to the polls and voted out the Sandinistas. In spite of the climate of fear produced by the ongoing US threats, in the opinion of hundreds of international observers, the elections were declared to have been free and open and the Sandinistas handed over power to the US backed UNO party.

The current Liberal Party’s corrupt government is tolerated by the United States because it allows US and foreign businesses to operate without fair employment laws and to punish any attempt at union organizing. Continuing a long-standing practice, wealthy plantation owners and exporters pay no income taxes. A steep drop in coffee prices on the world market has forced many farmers in areas such as Matagalpa to lay off their migrant workers, leaving thousands of landless peasants without jobs. Small growers are in debt to the banks and face losing their land.

Looking at the present political and economic situation in Nicaragua it is clear that times are much worse for Nicaraguans than in the 1980’s. There is 60% unemployment and severe hunger in rural areas. Both the Liberal and the FSLN parties promised to provide more jobs and put an end to government corruption. Bolanos, a rich plantation owner and businessman, campaigned for increased foreign investment.

This election was Ortega’s third attempt to recapture the presidency and he has refused to give up leadership of the FSLN. For many older Nicaraguans, Ortega is the symbol of Nicaragua’s finest hour, but he is also remembered for the war and the draft.

EARLY INTIMIDATION BY THE US

In the months before this election, results of Nicaraguan and US opinion polls all showed Ortega was leading Bolanos by 6 percent. The US immediately began a campaign of fear and intimidation designed to influence the outcome of the election.

In June, Lino Gutierrez, ex-Ambassador to Nicaragua and now a State Department official, addressed the Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce. Gutierrez used this opportunity to focus on the upcoming election. "From the perspective of the United States, we will have excellent relations with the next government if it … eschews contacts with rogue states that support terrorism or do not otherwise share the values of the world community." He went on, "I am amazed that anyone who professes to be a democrat can still regard Fidel Castro as the ‘shining light of the Hemisphere’. How could anyone who believes in freedom pay homage to Gadhafi, who has a record of supporting international terrorists who kill innocent victims? … No, no one in this day and age who lives, breathes and thinks democracy could possibly hold those beliefs."

In July, US pressure was put on the third party candidate, Conservative Noel Vidaurre to drop out in order to prevent splitting of the anti-Ortega vote.

US Ambassador to Nicaragua, Oliver Garza, visited Matagalpa with a group of recently arrived US Marines (said to be there to build health clinics and dispense medicines, but an unmistakeable symbol of US physical might) and told the crowd that "an Ortega administration would not be in the interests of the United States."

PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTEST

Against this intimidation campaign, a protest movement in the US took shape. In June, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit circulated the following "Message to the Nicaraguan People" which was signed by over 100 groups and individuals and published in the Nicaraguan newspapers La Prensa and Nuevo Diario:

We, the undersigned US citizens, wish to express our grave disapproval of our government’s current attempts to influence and undermine the outcome of the upcoming national elections in Nicaragua. We are well aware of the fact that the U.S. government, through the embassy in Managua, is engaged in a campaign to strike fear in the hearts of Nicaraguan voters so as to ensure that candidates favorable to its interests are elected in November.

We feel compelled as U.S. citizens—some of us Congressional leaders, clergy, educators, entertainers, trade unionists and social activists—to share our belief with the Nicaraguan people that the intervention in the sovereign elections is simply wrong. We hereby protest the reckless, dangerous and arrogant actions of our government.

The U.S. government has no right to try to influence or determine the outcome of the Nicaraguan elections, just as it had no legal or moral right to militarily intervene in Nicaragua during the 1980’s. The U.S. is now trying to raise the specter of such past intervention to scare nicaraguans into voting the way it wishes. regardless of who you may choose in november, we shall stand with you in supporting this choice and opposing any attempt of the U.S. to intervene to alter that choice.

We, just as the majority of Americans, wish you peace, security, prosperity and sovereignty, and we will do all in our power to deter the U.S. government from denying you any of these. Every Nicaraguan must have the democratic right to vote for the candidate and party of his/her choice!

9-11: INTIMIDATION AND TERROR

After the events of September 11, the US used the "terrorist" theme in its propaganda, and this was quickly incorporated into the Bolanos campaign. Enormous signs along the streets in Managua proclaimed: NICARAGUA DOES NOT WANT A PRESIDENT WHO IS A FRIEND TO TERRORISTS.

Pro-Bolanos ads on Nicaraguan television showed images of Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, Fidel Castro, and finally, Osama bin Laden. Then the image faded into Daniel Ortega in a military uniform. This was meant to remind Nicaraguans that during the 1980’s the Sandinistas had good relations with Libya and Cuba. This was allegedly evidence enough to insinuate that Ortega shared responsibility for the attacks on New York and Washington!

In October, John Keane, an official of the US State Department’s Central American Bureau, told an audience at the University of Pittsburgh that the Sandinistas included people responsible for abominations of human and civil rights. "We cannot forget that Nicaragua became a refuge for violent political extremists from the Middle East, Europe and Latin America …. Why should we think that things have changed?"

In his final campaign speech, Bolanos confidently told the crowd, "If Ortega comes to power, that would provoke a closing of aid and investment …. I’m not just saying this. The United States says this too."

And in a grand finale, in case any Nicaraguans didn’t get the message, Florida Governor Jeb Bush wrote an article for the Miami Herald which was reprinted as a full-page ad in a Nicaraguan newspaper, excerpted here:

The Brother of the
President of the United States
GEORGE W. BUSH SUPPORTS ENRIQUE BOLANOS

This November, Nicaragua will choose a new president. This decision rests where it should, in the hands of the Nicaraguan voting public. At the same time, we in Florida want the people of Nicaragua to know that they are not alone in making this decision.

Florida benefits when its neighbors adopt the successful formulas—free elections, open markets, the integrity of the public sector—which have produced such good results in our country.

However, this formula for success is not automatic. Not everyone has the same commitment to these successful free institutions ... In a world which has been transformed during the last decade through political and economic openings, it is inconceivable that a people would choose to return to a totalitarian past.

The past and present of Daniel Ortega clearly indicate that he neither understands nor accepts the basic principles of freedom, democracy and the free market. Some say he has changed, that the years out of power have convinced him of the necessity for genuine democracy, for open markets, and for the maintaining of good relations with his neighbors and with the United States. This is what Ortega would want us to believe.

Daniel Ortega is an enemy of everything the United States represents. Further, he is a friend of our enemies. Ortega has a relationship of more than 30 years with states and individuals who shelter and condone international terrorism.

Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida.

SPOT THE TERRORISTS

In a post-election article in the London Guardian (November 7), Duncan Campbell wrote, "While the US government radar may seem to have been pointed in the direction of Afghanistan and the Middle East, the state department and many American politicians and officials still found time to use money, free food and propaganda to try to influence the vote in Nicaragua …. Just at the moment when the US needs to be convincing the world that they do not impose their will to protect their commercial interests with little regard to local people’s desires, the events of the last few weeks in Nicaragua will serve to create more cynicism." In sum, "The Sandinistas, a small, disorganized party, in one of the world’s poorest countries, posed no threat to the United States. To link them to terrorism in the wake of September 11 was a cheap and dishonest shot."

Certainly nothing ominous can be made of friendly relations between the former Ortega government and Libya. By comparison, in 1997 the US criticized then-President Nelson Mandela of South Africa for a visit to Libya. Libya had long supported the African black majority’s anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, while the US was busy concocting accusations against Mandela of "terrorism" against the racist dictatorship. Mandela said in response to the US pressure, "How can they have the arrogance to dictate to us where we should go or which countries should be our friends? Gadhafi is my friend. He supported us when we were alone and when those who tried to prevent my visit here today were our enemies. They have no morals. We cannot accept that a state assumes the role of the world’s policeman."

Meanwhile the US itself can be accused of acts of terrorism against the Cuban people, who have suffered 40 years of a trade embargo. Who believes the US claim that the embargo will cause the Cuban people to throw out Fidel Castro and install a "democratic "government? How then can the US justify its close ties with the unspeakably repressive governments of China, Guatemala and Indonesia ? The US ignores the human rights violations committed by those governments because they satisfy US economic and political interests. It is clear that economic imperialism has fueled US policy toward Cuba since 1961 and likewise has set US policy against the Sandinista party since 1979.

As with the case of Libya, there is nothing "suspicious" about friendly relations with Cuba. Nearly every government on the planet wishes friendly ties with Cuba. Here the US is the "rogue" state, defying the civilized world’s opinion and conscience. For example, in the latest annual United Nations resolution to lift the US embargo on Cuba, 167 nations voted to lift and only 3 rejected this (the US and two of its dependencies, Israel and the Marshall Islands).

Additionally, as mentioned above, Ortega’s party oversaw elections in 1984 that were internationally proclaimed free and fair, despite being under severe military attack. And when the party lost the election in 1990, they handed over power peacefully.

EFFECTS OF ELECTORAL TERROR

Nevertheless, the US terrormongering had its intended effect. Paul Baizerman, the head of our delegation and coordinator of Tecnica (a volunteer organization that has worked since 1984 with Nicaraguan popular organizations and the union movement), wrote in his report, "September 11 was to mark the end of the FSLN chances. From the day of the tragedy on, the US government and the PLC became relentless in presenting the vote as democracy (PLC) vs terrorism (FSLN) The US made it crystal clear that a Sandinista victory was unacceptable, painting the Sandinistas as terrorists and associating the FSLN with war, repression, shortages and human rights abuses …. The implications were another US embargo, or even a possible military campaign against Nicaragua if the FSLN won."

Nicaraguan friends told Baizerman that many of them would not vote for the FSLN because they were afraid that an FSLN victory would result in increased hardship and violence as a result of US policies. Baizerman continued, "The US government had turned the election into a referendum on whether the Nicaraguan people would vote their interests with their hearts or their fears."

On election evening, former President Jimmy Carter, in Nicaragua to oversee a fair election said, "I personally disapprove of statements or actions by another country that might tend to influence the votes of a people of another sovereign nation." Rev. Miguel D’Escoto, the former Sandinista foreign minister, asked more pointedly, "How is it possible for the United States to talk so much about democracy and then try to intimidate the people of Nicaragua to go to the polls with a pistol at their heads?"

WHO WON, WHO LOST?

I was an oberver in the city of Matagalpa, located in the mountainous coffee-growing region, and assigned to a polling site at the Carlos Fonseca Elementary School. On election day, the polls opened at 6am, and people stood in line for hours, a lucky few shielded from the hot sun by colorful umbrellas. International and Nicaraguan observers were present until the last voters had cast their ballots at 10:30pm. Then the classroom doors were locked and observers watched as ballots were counted and recounted by hand, then sealed in special bags and taken to a central location in Matagalpa.

With 92% of Nicaraguans voting, Daniel Kovalik, co-Counsel of the United Steelworkers of America, spoke for our delegation when he said, "As an official election observer, I had the honor of watching Nicaraguans, many of them elderly, poor and infirm, stand in line for hours in the hot sun to cast their vote. Simply put, I received a class in democracy."

In the end, Bolanos’ PLC beat Ortega’s National Convergence in all the races. PLC candidate Enrique Bolanos won 53.7% of the votes, over FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega’s 44.7% for the Nicaraguan presidency. But the real winner of the Nicaraguan elections was the US government and the Nicaraguan rich. The losers are the majority of the Nicaraguan people who suffer from poverty, unemployment and lack of health care and education.

"We must congratulate Washington because their intimidation tactics worked," said Rev. D’Escoto. "They are now into electoral terrorism among a people here where the wounds are still open. We did not lose 5,000 people like in New York, we lost 50,000 in a war that was invented, organized, armed and financed by the United States."

GET INVOLVED

US interference was not reported by the US media until after the elections. On election day, November 4, The NY Times alluded to US involvement only with the words "the opposition (Bolanos) has been supported in spirit by the US government." And on Nov. 5 the NY Times wrote, tepidly, "US officials have declared they will respect the winner of a fair election but hinted at reservations over Mr. Ortega’s past."

If you want to get the real story, for timely updates and actions about Nicaragua, subscribe to the Nicaragua Network Hotline: send a blank e-mail message to: nicalist@afgj.org with "subscribe hotline" in the subject header.

To send your comments about the US intervention in Nicaragua, write to: John Keane, US State Department Central American Bureau, Washington, DC, and send copies to Sen. Carl Levin, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and Rep. Lynn Rivers.

You can reach Tecnica at 718-859-4546, and the author of this article at ponvert@mindspring.com.

DEC 2001/JAN 2002

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