Nicaraguan political prisoner freed under US pressure later caught with
explosives planning terrorist attack
BEN NORTON·SEPTEMBER 25, 2020
HUMAN RIGHTS INDUSTRY
NICARAGUA
A right-wing extremist arrested during a 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua, who
was listed by NGOs as a political prisoner and was freed under heavy US
pressure, was later found with explosives, guns, and drugs, plotting a
terror attack.
By Ben Norton
MANAGUA, NICARAGUA A Nicaraguan right-wing extremist who was dubbed a
political prisoner by a US government-funded NGO and subsequently freed
under pressure by Washington has once again been arrested. The formerly
jailed extremist was caught with explosives and illegal firearms while
allegedly plotting terror attacks against the countrys elected,
UN-recognized government.
The disturbing incident is just the latest example of a growing series of
former political prisoners who have unleashed violent chaos in Nicaragua,
aimed at destabilizing the ruling Sandinista movement.
While these criminals have carried out egregious crimes, up to and including
murder, especially targeting women, both the Donald Trump administration and
the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden have repeatedly
called for more supposed political prisoners to be released.
The United States, European Union, Organization of American States (OAS),
and leading so-called human rights organizations have aggressively lobbied
for the release of Nicaraguans who they claim are political prisoners.
Right-wing Nicaraguan opposition groups funded by the US government have
published lists of hundreds of detainees they insist are being unjustly
imprisoned. And the US embassy, OAS, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty
International have uncritically used these directories to pressure the
Nicaraguan government to free everyone named.
Most of the convicts included in these lists were arrested during a violent
coup attempt against Nicaraguas elected Sandinista government in 2018.
Marred by acts of shocking sadism by Nicaraguas opposition, the bloody
putsch had the full backing of Washington and the OAS, which actively
support Nicaraguas opposition and automatically consider any right-wingers
detained to be political prisoners.
Faced with this heavy international pressure, Nicaraguas Sandinista
government was forced to the negotiating table with the foreign-backed
opposition, and was compelled in 2019 to issue an amnesty for hundreds of
people who had been imprisoned the year before.
Since these mass pardons were issued, numerous former detainees who had been
individually named in the US-endorsed political prisoners lists have
returned to their violent ways, and have been arrested again for severe
crimes, including murder, rape, and alleged terror plotting. Much of this
violence has targeted women.
Freed political prisoner stabs his pregnant girlfriend to death
The Grayzone reported in February on the horrifying case of Ruth Elizabeth
Aburto Acevedo, a pregnant 22-year-old Nicaraguan who was repeatedly stabbed
by her own boyfriend, who then left her to die in a puddle of her own blood.
Aburto Acevedos romantic partner and killer, Jeison Joesma Castro Ortez,
had participated in the coup attempt, and had been arrested in July 2018 on
charges of terrorism, armed robbery, and organized crime.
But Castro Ortez had the fortune of being named in a US-backed list of
political prisoners, so the cold-blooded killer was freed in 2019, and
unleashed on Nicaraguan society.
The Grayzones Ben Norton interviewed relatives of Aburto Acevedo at her
family home in Jinotepe, Nicaragua, and they said Castro Ortez was an
animal and a psychopath who had killed people in the tranques the
bloody barricades that epitomized the 2018 coup attempt and should never
have been let out of prison.
Aburto Acevedos family demanded justice. While the scandal attracted
national media attention in Nicaragua, it was curiously ignored by the
foreign press.
Meanwhile, the violence carried out by the former political prisoners has
only escalated.
Freed political prisoner plots terror attack against Nicaraguan government
On the morning of September 14, Nicaraguas national police force arrested
two suspects in the department of Masaya, just south of the capital Managua.
They had been carrying bags full of explosives, guns, and drugs.
Nicaraguan security forces published photos showing the men had 10 sets of
explosives with detonators, along with two 38 caliber revolvers, and 12
pounds of marijuana.
Nicaragua political prisoner explosives guns drugs
Photos of the explosives, guns, and drugs caught on the Nicaraguan former
political prisoner Danny de los Ángeles García González
Nicaraguan authorities identified the suspects as Danny de los Ángeles
García González, 32, and William Antonio Caldera Navarrete, 39.
The police said both suspects admit that the explosives would have been
used to target the Masaya mayors facilities and monuments to [Sandinista]
heroes and martyrs, and to spread terror and anxiety in the barrios of
Monimbó, San Carlos, and Divino Niño.
The security forces charged the men with trafficking of explosives, illegal
possession of firearms, and drug trafficking.
Nicaragua political prisoner explosives guns drugs Danny de los Ángeles
García González
Photo of the Nicaraguan former political prisoner Danny de los Ángeles
García González, after being caught with explosives, guns, and drugs
In its press release on the arrests, the Nicaraguan police noted that Danny
de los Ángeles García Gonzalez had previously been arrested, during the 2018
coup attempt, and had been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism and
possession of restricted firearms.
But García Gonzalez was later freed in February 2019, due to the Nicaraguan
amnesty law that had been aggressively demanded by the right-wing opposition
and its foreign patrons in the United States, European Union, OAS, and NGOs
like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
US government-funded NGO lists accused terrorist as political prisoner
In fact, the accused terrorist Danny de los Ángeles García Gonzalez was
named in a list that was compiled by the Washington-backed Comité Pro
Liberación de Presos Políticos (Committee Pro-Liberation of Political
Prisoners), a Nicaraguan NGO that is closely allied with major opposition
group the Alianza Cívica por la Justicia y la Democracia (Civic Alliance for
Justice and Democracy), which was created during the 2018 coup attempt under
direct supervision of the US government.
The US State Department relies on the Comité Pro Liberación de Presos
Políticos data in its own reports on human rights in Nicaragua.
A search of the Nicas Presos Políticos database that this opposition group
maintains reveals that García Gonzalez was listed. The website describes his
previous date of arrest, during the coup attempt in June 10, 2018, as the
date of kidnapping.
Nicaragua preso politico Danny de los Angeles Garcia Gonzalez
The US-backed right-wing Nicaraguan opposition listed Danny de los Angeles
Garcia Gonzalez as a political prisoner
The Comité Pro Liberación de Presos Políticos identified 796 people in this
list of supposed political prisoners, and its registry has consistently
been used by Western governments, human rights organizations, and
mainstream corporate media outlets.
Another US-funded opposition NGO, the Observatorio de Derechos Humanos
Nicaragua (Nicaragua Observatory of Human Rights), also included this
alleged terror plotter Garía González in its list of presxs políticxs.
(The neologism is an attempted gender-neutral form of the term presos
politicos that it not used by Nicaraguans, and is employed almost
exclusively by North American liberals cultivated in NGOs and elite
academic institutions).
Observatorio Derechos Humanos Nicaragua presos politicos Danny de los
Angeles
Alleged terror plotter Danny de los Ángeles García González listed as a
political prisoner by the Nicaragua Observatory of Human Rights
The Observatorio de Derechos Humanos Nicaragua and its directory of presxs
políticxs is run by a Nicaraguan opposition NGO called the Asociación
Cívica por la Democracia (Civic Association for Democracy, or ACD). The ACD
is bankrolled by Washingtons soft-power arm the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID).
The ACD was a one of the main civil society organizations incubated as
part of USAIDs Capacity Building for Civil Society Advocacy (CBCSA) program
in Nicaragua. The US government institution launched the program nearly a
decade ago in order to train opposition NGOs to destabilize the elected
Sandinista government and eventually remove President Daniel Ortega from
power.
Along with the Pentagon, USAID played a central part in the US coup attempt
against Venezuelas democratically elected government. As The Grayzone
revealed, USAID appears to be gearing up for another coup attempt against
the Sandinista government under the auspices of a new program called
Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua (RAIN).
US government-backed Nicaraguan NGOs and their sponsors among the European
Union and Organization of American States have refused to comment on the
crimes committed by the former political prisoners whose freedom they
lobbied for.
In fact, while these criminals are wreaking havoc, the State Department, the
US embassy, and the right-wing coup-plotting leader of the OAS, Luis
Almagro, have continued to constantly call for more so-called political
prisoners in Nicaragua to be released.
Media falsely portrays Nicaraguas crackdown on femicide as repression of
opposition
The fact that much of the violence carried out by right-wing criminals has
been directed at women is a source of particular concern for the Nicaraguan
government.
The majority of the leftist ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN), consists of women, and it has strongly emphasized the
importance of women in the revolutionary movement.
Nicaragua has the fifth-highest rate of gender equality in the world, and
the smallest gender gap in all of the Americas, according to a 2018 report
by the World Economic Forum.
And although violence against women is not nearly as serious in Nicaragua as
it is in Mexico or neighboring countries in Central America, femicide is
still a concern, and the Sandinista government has tried to crack down hard
on the issue.
In response to several appalling cases of femicide in Nicaragua in
September, including the ghastly murder of two young girls that sparked a
nationwide scandal, Vice President Rosario Murillo raised the possibility of
life imprisonment for men who kill women and carry out deadly hate crimes.
President Ortega subsequently said the courts would discuss the potential
reform.
A poll by a mainstream firm, M&R Consultores, found that around 90 percent
of Nicaraguans supported the proposal of life imprisonment for deadly hate
crimes.
But Nicaraguas right-wing media publications, many of which are funded by
the US government, joined with mainstream Western corporate outlets in
portraying the popular proposal to punish femicide as a purported attack on
the opposition.
Wilfredo Miranda, a staunchly right-wing opposition activist and frequent
contributor to The Guardian and Univision, published an article in Spains
major newspaper El País with a wildly misleading headline claiming, Ortega
is pushing life imprisonment against the opposition for hate crimes in
Nicaragua.
These disinformation campaigns concerning political prisoners and the
governments crackdown on femicide in Nicaragua are coordinated attacks in a
larger information war against its democratically elected socialist
government.
Poll after poll shows Nicaraguas elite right-wing opposition is extremely
unpopular, with support from just around 10 percent of the population. But
with loads of cash pouring in from the US government, it has resorted to
spreading fake news and destabilizing the country with sporadic acts of
violence.
Meanwhile, the victims of the oppositions criminal shock troops, like
22-year-old Ruth Aburto Acevedos, have been ignored and erased by Washington
and its lobbyists among the human rights industry.
