The NICARAGUA Story.

Previously posted on my Facebook page.

NEWS: “Nicaragua’s Secretive Ruling Family Reaches Out Quietly to the U.S.” This New York Times news was months ago during President Biden’s fiery “Sanction Russia!” call. Of course, Washington didn’t invite Nicaragua—along with Venezuela and Cuba—to the Summit of Americas in June. The Times, that time, reported that “…sanctions intended to thwart (President Daniel) Ortega’s dictatorial actions have hit his family and inner circle hard.” More pain was expected as sanctions hit Russia, an ally.

       However, the sanction didn’t pan out, as we know it now. So Ortega is back to his anti-U.S. barbs. And the former Sandinista revolutionary has escalated a crackdown on those he and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, see as a threat to their continued rule of 14 years and counting.

       Last year, Ortega detained at least seven potential presidential rivals and barred opposition parties from participating in the presidential election. The President also closed 7 radios. Dozens more human rights activists, business leaders, students, journalists and others in the Central American country of 6.5 million were threatened.

       Meanwhile, Nicaragua is in the midst of an aggravated economic crisis that began in 2018 in the wake of the political crisis that only worsened, to date. The 5 percent unemployment amidst a 3 percent GDP growth rate aren’t so bad though, especially if Noriega manages to play his deflating ball to his advantage, as did Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, another fiery anti-Washington dude.  

       “Play cool” means play cool politics with the U.S. and cool trade with China. 🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮

IRRELEVANT of Daniel Ortega’s mouth, the United States remains Nicaragua's top economic partner, buying 49 percent of Nicaraguan exports, supplying 22 percent of its imports, and expats in the U.S., sending 60 percent of remittances.

       Since 1990, the United States has provided over $1.2 billion in assistance to Nicaragua. About $260 million of that was for debt relief, and another $450 million was for balance-of-payments support. The U.S. also provided $93 million in 1999, 2000, and 2001 as part of its overall response to Hurricane Mitch.

       But that’d be after Washington funded Contra groups vs the left-wing Sandinista movement. In the 19th and 20th centuries, tensions were high between the U.S. and Nicaragua; U.S. intervention was frequent, especially in the 1980s. Years of Red Scare or socialism paranoia. Hence, with Noriega in power, the animosity resumed.

       The Biden administration did not invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June; White House accused the three countries of having undemocratically elected leaders.

       But then other Latin American leaders snubbed the Summit altogether, including Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, a top U.S. ally. Other Presidents followed Obrador’s no-show: Xiomara Castro of Honduras, Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, Luis Arce of Bolivia, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador; and Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

       Apparently, Noriega has some “allies” as well in the region. 🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮

BUT then, there’s China. So as Daniel Ortega shuffles political cards with Washington, he is dealing trade chips with Beijing. In late 2021, Nicaragua broke off diplomatic relations with the Republic of China or Taiwan and recognized the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate Chinese government.

       Just a month after the switch, Nicaragua and China signed several key agreements underpinning their new political relationship, including an MoU with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

       True, the U.S. is still Nicaragua’s top trading partner since 1990, when the leftist padron was ousted via a 10-year Washington-funded proxy war.

       The 1990s Nicaragua was an era of U.S.-directed neoliberalism that created special export zones for shipping duty-free goods to America. It created free trade zones in which up to 20 percent of Nicaragua’s formal sector workforce is employed by local contractors who sell their manufactured goods to US corporates such as Wal-Mart, VF Jeans, Levi Strauss, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, and Gap. However, wages were kept low, while Nicaraguan commodities were sold at low prices to be resold at many times their value on the U.S. markets. American middlemen made a fortune with very little being left on the table for Nicaraguans.

       That’s where we are at. Ortega faces an economic crisis that he can still save—as long as he knows how to play the Washington/Beijing power tug in the region. And stop his people from pulling him out of his seat. Hint: There was no regime change in Venezuela and Bolivia. Nicaragua can also prevent this macabre ghost from hounding the region again. 🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮