U.S. Coup Machine Unleashes New Sanctions on the Nicaraguan People
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced new unilateral coercive measures, or ‘sanctions’, against members of the elected government of Nicaragua.
News of the new sanctions was accompanied by simultaneous statements by officials of the State Department aimed at the Nicaraguan government. Accordingly, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro tweeted a letter in which he urged the President of OAS Permanent Council to convene an urgent meeting on Nicaragua.
The latest planned interference comes as the U.S. escalates its campaign against the left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government with five months remaining before the 2021 presidential election.
A divided opposition, including right-wing political figures receiving financing and resources from the U.S. State Department, have received little enthusiasm within Nicaragua.
All indications suggest that the majority of voters will be re-electing President Daniel Ortega, as support for the government remains high following a period of social, economic and political gains such as the dramatic reduction of poverty and extreme poverty as well as in infant mortality.
During the same period, literacy has increased and the country has become a leader in gender equality while managing to keep out transnational crime, in contrast with its U.S. allied neighbors in Central America.
Washington and the OAS have revived its coup strategy in Nicaragua under the Biden Administration, three years on from the failed U.S.-backed coup which was defeated by the Nicaraguan people in 2018.
The 2018 coup attempt was accompanied by a coordinated media campaign which made use of a manuscript on “free, fair and transparent elections” and claims that the FSLN government was curtailing press freedoms, obstructing rights to demonstrate and persecuting political opponents. The same script is being applied today.
The stated justifications for the United States’ latest sanctions relate to recent developments in which U.S. pro-coup ground actor Cristiana Chamorro was detained as part of an investigation into money laundering which she refused to comply with. The Grayzone’s Ben Norton details how Chamorro’s foundation (called the Chamorro Foundation) received financial, technical and logistical support from CIA front agency, USAID, to fund subversive activity and destabilization.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, whose country has been at the center of a years long imperialist assault and economic blockade, stated his rejection of the imposition of unilateral coercive measures against four Nicaraguan officials. “Our unrestricted solidarity with the Nicaraguan people and their authorities, in the face of this new illegal and interventionist attack from Washington.”
The U.S. State Department’s press statement, which reuses the template utilized by the Trump administration for its attacks on Venezuela, Cuba, and all other anti-imperialist governments, can be read here.
Despite that the U.S. continues to claim to impose sanctions which are tailored to target specific government officials; the cases of Cuba, Zimbabwe, Iran, and Venezuela among others, are evidence that it is in fact the population which suffers as a result of U.S. sanctions and intervention.
