NICARAGUAFebruary 7, 2020
Right-wing Nicaraguan opposition boasts of support from US and EU in campaign
to oust Sandinista gov’t
The US embassy and European Union are meeting with right-wing Nicaraguan
opposition leaders and pressuring them to unite against elected leftist
President Daniel Ortega in the lead-up to the 2021 election.
By Ben Norton
A far-right opposition figure in Nicaragua has boasted that the country’s
unpopular opposition forces are meeting with representatives from the US
embassy and European Union, who have pledged them support in their bid to oust
the ruling leftist Sandinista Front government.
According to this rightist Evangelical leader, the US government and EU are
pressuring Nicaragua’s badly divided opposition to unite in the lead-up to the
2021 election, with the goal of unseating the Sandinistas.
This frank admission of foreign meddling in Nicaragua’s democracy comes after a
violent coup attempt in 2018, in which right-wing groups funded and supported
by the US government failed to overthrow the elected president, Daniel Ortega.
The Donald Trump administration has declared the small nation of Nicaragua to
be a supposed “national security threat,” and has imposed several rounds of
aggressive sanctions on the country, with the aim of destabilizing its economy.
The violence and economic warfare has failed to weaken the popularity of the
ruling FSLN party, however. A survey released this January by a mainstream
polling firm found that 63.5 percent of Nicaraguans plan to vote for the
Sandinistas in the upcoming election, while the opposition really only has the
dedicated support of around 11.5 percent of the population.
The Grayzone
@TheGrayzoneNews
A fringe far-right Evangelical leader in Nicaragua revealed opposition forces
are meeting with advisers from the US embassy and EU, who pledged support and
are pressuring them to unite to try to oust the elected leftist Sandinista
Front.
Read more here:
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/07/nicaragua-opposition-support-us-eu-coalition/
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‘We met with political advisers from the US embassy and the European Union’
On January 30, right-wing leaders from a group called the Civic Alliance for
Justice and Democracy (ACJD) held a press conference to announce their
expansion as part of a process of “fortifying.”
The ACJD is a coalition of opposition groups, several of which are funded by
the US government and coordinate closely with Washington. It was formed in 2018
during the coup attempt against the Sandinistas.
In the press conference and a subsequent printed statement, the ACJD announced
that it is in the process of creating “a National Coalition, wide, pluralist,
and committed to the change that Nicaragua needs.”
Among the opposition figures at the presser was Saturnino Cerrato, the
fundamentalist Evangelical leader of the rabidly right-wing Party for
Democratic Restoration (PRD).
Cerrato, a minor figure in Nicaraguan politics who is barely known outside
far-right circles, said his party is eager to become part of the right-wing
National Coalition, arguing “there is a total opening” for the opposition.
He revealed that this demand for opposition unity is not only coming from
inside the country, but also from powerful foreign actors.
“First it is a national demand, from the national community, and next it is
also a demand from the international community,” Cerrato explained.
“In these days — the day before yesterday and today — we met with political
advisers from the US embassy and the European Union,” Cerrato said in the
January 30 press conference, which was livestreamed on Facebook.
The US embassy and EU told the opposition leaders, “We are ready to support a
large movement that is formed in Nicaragua,” he recalled.
“And one of the advisers said, ‘We are surprised that it has taken so much time
to form that unity,'” he added.
Cerrato said the pressure both from within and outside convinced his party to
join the National Coalition efforts.
Nicaragua opposition US EU Saturnino Cerrato Civic Alliance
Saturnino Cerrato speaking at the Nicaraguan opposition Civic Alliance press
conference on January 30, sitting next to Juan Sebastián Chamorro
US and EU backing far-right fringe figures in Latin America
Before the US-backed coup attempt against Nicaragua’s elected Sandinista
government in 2018, Saturnino Cerrato was virtually unknown in the country. His
PRD party received just over 4 percent in the 2016 general elections.
A 2017 poll by major firm showed that more than 85 percent of Nicaraguans did
not even know who Cerrato was or had no opinion of him. Of those who did know
the right-wing pastor, they had a mostly negative view of him. (For
perspective, this same poll found that 80 percent of Nicaraguans had a positive
view of the leftist President Daniel Ortega, and just 11 percent had a negative
view.)
A Nicaraguan activist told The Grayzone that figures like Cerrato “don’t have
much local influence. But he is an Evangelical pastor who have the ability to
influence many Evangelical groups.”
“He does not have a lot of people, he has one of the parties with very few
votes,” the activist said. “But after the coup attempt they have tried to
become more influential.”
The US government has a long history of elevating fringe far-right figures like
these in coup efforts targeting independent leftist governments in Latin
America.
In the putsch against Bolivia’s democratically elected leftist government in
November 2019, for instance, Washington supported the installation of a
Christian extremist with a long and documented history of anti-indigenous
racism, Jeanine Añez. Her fringe opposition party also reaped just over 4
percent of the vote in the 2019 general elections.
More US-backed opposition groups leading Nicaragua alliance efforts
The opposition is moving towards greater unity while the Trump administration
escalates its pressure campaign against Nicaragua’s government.
On January 31, the acting assistant secretary for the US State Department’s
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Michael G. Kozak, tweeted condemnation of
the elected Ortega government and expressed support for the major right-wing
newspaper, La Prensa.
Owned by the oligarchic Chamorro family, La Prensa is the traditional
mouthpiece for the opposition. It has a long history of receiving funding from
the US government through the CIA front the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) and was indispensable in the US government’s propaganda campaign against
Nicaragua during its Contra proxy war in the 1980s.
Michael G. Kozak
✔
@WHAAsstSecty
The Ortega regime continues to squeeze free press by blocking #Nicaragua’s
@laprensa from importing paper & ink, which will silence Nicaragua’s oldest
independent newspaper and its vital work. Ortega, fulfill your commitment from
last March and release these supplies.
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The January 30 press conference held by Nicaragua’s Civic Alliance for Justice
and Democracy featured several other prominent right-wing opposition activists
who are backed by Washington.
Among the co-sponsors was Juan Sebastián Chamorro of the powerful Chamorro
clan, a wealthy family that has controlled Nicaragua for much of its history.
His neoliberal think tank, the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social
Development (FUNIDES), has been bankrolled with millions of dollars by the US
government’s soft-power arm the US Agency for International Development (USAID)
and used as a conduit for funding smaller opposition groups.
Helping to organize the press conference was the group Blue and White National
Unity (UNAB). Like the right-wing Civic Alliance, the UNAB was founded in 2018,
in the wake of the failed coup attempt. It is an integral part of the US- and
EU-backed efforts to form an opposition alliance. UNAB has even changed its
photos on social media to call for a “National Coalition.”
