By having its revolution and freeing itself from U.S.-style assistance, Nicaragua from 1979-85 (before the U.S.-backed Contra War started to bite into the Nicaraguan economy), provided the “threat of a good example” proving that Latin Americans are quite capable of running their own affairs without the need to constantly resort to Death Squads, massacres, torture, disappearances, starvation of the population and, most significantly, to open up its land and resources to exploitation by U.S. business interests. Let us follow the evolution of this country from the start of US interventions.
1854 – U.S. navy bomb, destroy and burn to the ground the port of San Juan del Norte, who had tried to levy port charges on Cornelius Vanderbilt’s yacht as it sailed in. The first U.S. intervention in Central America. Vanderbilt’s highly dubious business practices have led to him being labelled as a Robber Baron. Hal Bridges says in Business History Review (1958) that the term represented the idea that “business leaders in the United States from about 1865 to 1900 were, on the whole, a set of avaricious rascals who habitually cheated and robbed investors and consumers, corrupted government, fought ruthlessly among themselves, and in general carried on predatory activities comparable to those of the robber barons of medieval Europe”.
1900 – U.S. invade. 20 years of occupation by marines, replaced by efficient local military U.S.-trained force – “a country occupied by its own army”
1927 – U.S. send in the Marines again and train a domestic army to replace them – 1900 all over again.
1928-33 – Sandino becomes a national hero, holding out for national sovereignty against U.S. army occupation.
1936 – U.S. install the first of the 41 year dynasty of client dictators. The last would be Somoza. In the meantime U.S. corporations United Fruit and the Rosita Mining Company set about supplying the U.S. commodity exchanges.
1959 – Military aid to U.S. client Somoza rises sevenfold, economic assistance doubles.
1961 – U.S. use Nicaragua to launch the Bay of Pigs invasion.
FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion National) are formed, standing for political pluralism, a mixed economy and non-alignment.
1963 – CONDECA – importing Death Squads from the rest of Central America in the fight against the FSLN. See El Salvador.
1978 – Since the 1960s 100,000 people have fled from the Somoza regime. A witness describes a typical scene … a group of families who “live in huts made literally of rubbish … atop a heap of old paper bags and plastic a pregnant woman lay quietly moaning with pain from an evil-looking abscess on her leg … a small mud-covered child sat in the dirt beside her, it’s head shining with bald patches caused by malnutrition and disease.” Peasants who, unlike journalists, are not bedevilled with mystery and bewilderment, explain … “It is the United States through its economic and military assistance that provides the ‘moral force’ that backs oppression here … the desire of Nicaragua’s large land-holders is to acquire still more acreage on which to grow the high-priced, long-fibre cotton that is the country’s chief export crop.” So simple that even an uneducated peasant could understand it but still too complicated for a trained journalist, desperate in their servile utterances to toe the line offered to them by the State Department, right or wrong. Wrong according to the substantive evidence.
The army must be loyal to the US. The entire graduating class of the Military Academy go for one full year of training to the US Army School of the Americas in the Panama Canal Zone. US military and economic aid programmes used for killing peasants, destroying communities, providing data banks on the local population for the National Guard, establishing schools run by military informers to get the children to inform on their own parents’, effectively signing their death warrants.
US client Israel, itself in unprecedented receipt of US military assistance, now complicit in arming most US-backed dictatorships in Central America, making Nicaragua a puppet state under a puppet state with Israel acting in accordance with instructions from its own sponsor.
1979 – 18-month insurrection. 50,000 dead. Sandinista (FSLN) revolution marches into Managua, overthrowing the fleeing Somoza. U.S. fight against Sandinistas conducted by proxy Neo-Nazi Argentine junta and then directly by U.S. after Reagan election. It is not a Civil War. U.S. block any western aid.
Where did Somoza, the richest man in Central America at the time, go wrong? He got too greedy and started cutting into the profits of his sponsors – a common mistake amongst the over-powerful who seem inevitably to be overcome by the madness of greed that put them into power in the first place. His second mistake was disenfranchising just one too many of the population, and especially using armed force against not just the dispossessed class but his middle class accomplices as well. Too much repression breeds too much resistance. There’s a lesson in there for every dictator.
1980 – Sandinista Policy – the “Logic of the Majority” (the needs of the poor). Unlike the U.S. client states, Nicaragua makes it policy not to use methods of torture, political assassination or disappearance. American-backed Argentine neo-Nazi military train the remnants of Somoza’s National Guard (the Contras) on the border in Honduras. Salvadoran pilots under CIA control bomb a dozen times a week from Honduran and Salvadoran bases.
1981 – Contras come under direct U.S. supervision. Reagan covertly grants CIA $19 million to arm and train them against “soft” targets (schools, health posts, farming co-ops). The FDN, the main contra force gets an HQ in Miami. CIA helicopters with U.S. pilots provide air cover for commando raids. Ecuadoran frogmen from CIA speedboats bomb bridges. Army helicopter unit from 101 Division in Kentucky carry out missions deep inside Nicaragua with 17 fatalities (35 fatalities reported for entire U.S. Army that year).
1982 – Nicaragua buys $17 million of arms from France before U.S.A prevent further sales. Native Miskito Indians state that, amidst U.S. claims of Sandinista brutality, Nicaragua treats its indigenous people no worse than U.S. or anywhere else.
1983 – Greatest gains in Overseas Development Council’s Quality of Life Index. Successful agrarian reforms and re-distribution of income. Sharp improvement in health (including the elimination of polio); literacy standards and other social services. 5% growth in GDP as against falling standards in the rest of Central America. “Nicaragua’s noteworthy progress in the social sector … laying a solid foundation for long-term socio-economic development” (Inter American Development Bank). “Outstanding success … in some respects better than anywhere in the world” (World Bank). The CIA bomb the Corinto Oil Depot.
1984 – Elections return Sandinistas. This election discredited out of U.S. media history but endorsed as free and fair by observers from the rest of the world. U.S. favourite Cruz refuses to stand in “rigged” elections. Without any popular support in Nicaragua, the American Press tell the world he’s the main opposition and call the election (reviewing press coverage) a “farce” (17 times), a “sham” (10 times) and phoney (7), a piece of theatre (6) etc. British Tory MP observer says the elections were fairer than in Britain. FSLN beat 7 other parties and get 67% of the vote in an 82% turnout. 2 days later Reagan gets much less in his election. Unsubstantiated Washington leak about Russian MiG aeroplanes sustains 5 day media crusade against Daniel Ortega’s new government.
1985 – President Ortega goes on European tour for aid to counteract U.S. embargo. U.S. press call it “Ortega’s trip to Moscow”. US tires of the war in Nicaragua and Congress cease funding. Reagan turns elsewhere for money… During the Irangate hearings in 1986, the CIA are implicated in using proceeds of drugs and arms trading to support the Contras. There is no danger of the CIA providing “the threat of a good example”.
1986 – U.S. official informs the Press that a Contra victory was not expected but was “content to see the Contras debilitate the Sandinistas by forcing them to divert scarce resources toward the war and away from social programmes”.
August 1987 – Latin American presidents’ Esquipulas II agreements expressly prohibit U.S. supply flights to the Contras in Nicaragua. U.S. immediately escalate flights. In the same month a ceasfire is negotiated.
July 1988 – Nandaime. A mob, following CIA manual tactics issued to Contras, stage an assault on the local Police, eliciting tear gas and violence in response. U.S. foment resistance with aim of provoking repressive response which was then floated in the media. Reports of security forces breaking up rallies in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were ignored. U.S. Pentagon official tells the Press “keep some pressure on the Nicaraguan Government, force them to use their economic resources for the Military and prevent them from solving their economic problems”
1990 – Elections. The Contra War has left 30,000 Nicaraguans dead and $15 billion of damage. Bush rescinds on promise of Tela accords to withdraw the Contras from the border. U.S. massively back candidate Violeta Chamorro of UNO. The equivalent would be a foreign power injecting $2 billion into a U.S. election.
The people are told by UNO that only one vote will end the war, relieve illegal U.S. sanctions and restore hundreds of millions of dollars of aid. Vote for our candidate or watch your country at war and you and your children starve.
This latter statement is the clearest expression of Realpolitik as it exists in our modern world. No country can succeed if it has a vicious neighbour with unlimited funds who will do whatever is necessary to undermine your efforts in order to secure their own objectives. The US would certainly feel aggrieved if the rest of the world’s armies amassed on their borders and told Americans to vote for the foreign candidate or face years of war, blockades, sanctions etc etc. And so Nicaragua, experiencing hyperinflation in the face of biting sanctions and exhausted from war, vote narrowly for Chamorro. It’s not a free and fair election, it’s quite simply blackmail.
But then Chamorro has to deliver. And in the true style of American client puppets, Nicaraguans lost their free healthcare and education, unemployment remained undiminished and corruption soared. Well, it’s either that or we bomb your children.
Violeta Chamorro comes from a long line. Her Grandfather Diego was the President in 1921 when the Chamorros effectively controlled the Government during the 20 years occupation by US Marines from 1900. His Grandfather Pedro was President in 1875. Pedro’s brother, nephew and Great Nephew were also Presidents, with similar results that may be expected from a family of Conservatives. Chamorro lasts seven years but then her successor Aleman makes it onto Transparency International’s list of the top 10 corrupt Public Officials of all time. He was subsequently sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in jail but served one year, then 5 under house arrest and was then freed.
2006 – After 3 election losses, the people tire of the neoliberalism and corruption and return Ortega’s FSLN to power. Ortega charts a more moderate course, resisting nationalisations but returning some decent economic growth and reinstating free healthcare and education. The lesson of Realpolitik has been learned that the foreign bully must be placated.
2008 – In local elections, FSLN cement their return and win 70% of the local municipalities.
2016 – Sadly, in spite of a third successive election victory, Ortega’s reputation has soured somewheat with the cementing of family members into positions of power and his wife as vice-President poised to succeed him. But Nicaragua has come a long way from the dictatorship of Somoza although progress is limited by avoiding the disfavour of the bully in the North.
2018 – And yet, in spite of Ortega’s attempts to compromise, his approach can still not prevent an attempted US sponsored coup, which fails due to widespread support for the Government.
There is a good (and free) eBook available from the Alliance for Justice at https://afgj.org/nicanotes-live-from-nicaragua-uprising-or-coup. It describes in detail the events of the coup and the resistance to it with all the details that never even made it into the mainstream media.
Even the Guardian cannot bring itself to admit that there has even been a coup attempt. But when the opposition repeatedly burns down pro-sandinista radio stations and then accuses the Government of doing the same, without a shred of evidence, one has to ask … if there are legitimate claims of tyranny against the Government then why are the Opposition making things up? And why has Ortega’s Government received such widespread public support in crushing the coup?
Since the attempted coup, the popularity of the Opposition has been in free-fall. And so the media in Nicaragua swing into action. The Gray Zone have this to say …
“La Prensa [historically, the main newspaper in Nicaragua] is owned by the right-wing Chamorro family, which fiercely opposes Sandinista rule. Members of this oligarchic dynasty also own [major newspaper] Confidencial and direct the nongovernmental organizations CINCO, Invermedia and La Fundacion Violeta Barrios, which serve as intermediaries to channel USAID and National Endowment for Democracy money to other organizations and media”.
As we shall see in our future chapter on Chile, the CIA refer to an outright coup attempt as a “Track 2” initiative, and various other strategies including heavy propaganda saturation from sponsored news agencies as “Track 1”.
And so we see in Nicaragua, as in Cuba in the following chapter, after 120 years of outright invasions, U.S. tactics in Nicaragua, as elsewhere, do not change. Revolution can push it back but they keep on coming. We look to address this issue in Book 2 where I lay out the process of social evolution by which Power in its currently persistent form may be dismantled.
Before that we will look at two very contrasting examples in the Caribbean to highlight the problem and following that, investigate the crucial indicators that lay bare the difference between US Client States and more autonomous countries in the region.