Nicaragua

Immediately after 9/11, the president of the United States made a bold statement: “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.” That’s a very strong statement, and I imagine it would have carried more weight throughout the world if the U.S. wasn’t the only country to have ever been tried and found guilty in the World Court for its acts of terrorism. Here’s the scoop:

Nicaragua won its independence in 1821 from Spain, was bounced around to Mexico and the Central American Federation a bit, and finally became totally independent in 1838. Both the U.S. and Britain became interested in Nicaragua due to the Rio San Juan and the navigable passage from Largo de Nicaragua to the Caribbean. By the end of the First World War, the U.S. had built up a military presence in Nicaragua and basically ran its economy—that is, Nicaragua’s resources were exploited for United States profit and practically nothing was given back to the people. Well, naturally, the Nicaraguan people got tired of being pushed around and began to revolt. U.S. marines were used in order to maintain “order”. However, things started heating up because the indigenous peoples employed what have been labeled “Guerilla Warfare” tactics in order to survive, since they were up against the massively well-funded and technologically outfitted U.S. Marine Corps. An interesting side note is that “Guerilla” resistance tactics are exactly what allowed the U.S. colonists to defeat the British in our own war for independence. But of course, what was acceptable for us (independence, self-determination, etc.) is rarely acceptable for others. Well anyway, feeling the heat, the U.S. pulled out its troops. However, before leaving, the U.S. created, organized, funded and trained the National Guard, and placed General Samoza Garcia at the head of it. Officially, the National Guard was under the supposed control of the President Juan Sacasa—who happened to be General Somoza’s uncle—but it is clear that this control was merely formal. In 1934, Somoaza engineered the assassination of Augusto Sandino as Sandino was, of all things, leaving the President’s house after discussing peace negotiations to end the civil unrest. If that wasn’t enough, Samoza forced his uncle to resign, rigged the elections, and he became president (dictator) in 1937. His rule lasted until he was killed in 1956, but his sons were able to continue his legacy of brutality quite well. Well, all throughout this time the U.S. was funding the pockets of the Somoza family, knowing full well that the “aid” money was not going to the suffering people of Nicaragua. Despite this, the populace eventually organized into various groups and worked to overthrow the tyrannical regime. Two of the more prominent revolutionary groups were the Sandinistas and the Democratic Liberation Union (UDEL). When the leader of the UDEL was assassinated in 1978, the two groups consolidated, and were able to generate an effective revolt against the Somoza dictatorship. In 1979, Nicaragua finally became a democratic nation again. In the few years of democratic rule, the Sandinistas “nationalized the lands of the Somozas and established farming cooperatives. They waged a massive education campaign that reduced illiteracy from 50% to 13%, and introduced an immunization program that eliminated polio and reduced infant mortality to a third of the rate it had been before the revolution.” However, “it wasn’t long before the country encountered serious problems from its ‘good neighbor’ to the north” (See ref # 2 below).

If you’ve read about Iran pre-1953 or taken an honest look at our actions in Viet Nam, you would know that the U.S. does not favor democracies or social progress within the ranks of “the other”, especially in this case, since we had been lining the pockets of the former dictators and carrying out various oppressive actions for decades. I guess we didn’t want to see all of that hard work go to waste so the Regan administration made sure that this threat of democracy was short-lived. In 1981, just three months after assuming office, Regan allocated $10 million dollars towards the creation, organization and training of the counter-revolutionary groups—otherwise known as the Contras. This military action by the U.S., naturally, forced the Sandinistas to allocate an incredible amount of their economic resources to defend themselves. And therefore, they had to pull funding from their socially minded programs—things like education, food provisions and poverty prevention—which were perfectly fine by the U.S. In addition, the C.I.A. was directly involved in placing mines in the Nicaraguan harbors in 1983. In 1984, Nicaragua responded to this terrorism by following the process of International law and protesting the attacks at the Security Council of the United Nations. Nicaragua said that the U.S. was in violation of International law, as is specified by the U.N. Charter and the Treaty Organization of American States. Well, this problem was solved easily enough: the United States just used its veto power to make sure the U.N. couldn’t do anything. Undaunted, Nicaragua filed a suit against the U.S. before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case was accepted, despite the U.S.’s feeble attempts to quibble over jurisdiction issues (in other words, by U.S. logic, it should not be accountable to any international court, but everyone else should be). Not getting its way, the U.S. just boycotted the court proceedings—it didn’t even bother to show up. Well, the ICJ went through a very thorough hearing, even without the U.S. being there, and found the United States to be liable for their actions and accountable for all damages. In other words, we were found guilty in an international court of law. Okay, so we’re guilty… but we don’t care, because no one will dare threaten to enforce our legal responsibilities. So we just ignore the decision. Nicaragua attempts to file appeal with the U.N. Security Council, but naturally, we veto it. So then in 1986—Nicaragua is still trying to reach some form of justice here—they bring the case before the General Assembly. Of course, the United States does not have veto power in the General Assembly (nor does any other state), but the GA doesn’t have any enforcement mechanisms, so the effort is futile. Basically, the U.S. gets away with massive, systematic terrorism without a single hitch.

Amazingly, this isn’t even the end to this crime, although we are getting to the “meat” of it. Ok, well back in 1984, Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinistas won 67% of the vote. The U.S. continued its attacks. Since military action wasn’t working, the U.S. decided to squeeze the life out of the Nicaraguan economy through a trade embargo. Well, by this time, everyone knew that the U.S. was funding the Contras, and the story finally made its way into the mainstream media. As a result, Congress passed various bills and legislation to put an end our financial support program for the Contras. Naturally, bills were passed and the press died down, but the funds were just transferred in covertly. When the lid eventually came off of this scandal, it was known as the Iran-Contra Affair. The basic setup was this: The C.I.A. illegally sells weapons to Iran at inflated prices, and the extra profits from these price hikes were used to fund the Contras.

But let’s return to the International Court decision. Incredibly, this historical revelation, which is without precedent, is not the end of this absolute disaster of democratic deterrence. Well, despite all of the legal matters—small things like being found guilty of terrorism by the International Court—the United States carried out its support of the Contras and continued its trade embargo, thus virtually decimating Nicaragua beyond sheds of hope. In 1990, elections were held, and Violeta Chamorro was selected into power. Selected is used here because the elections took place under extremely coercive conditions. Now, if you examine the U.S. press in the 1990s, it basically says that this election was the pinnacle of democracy; it was ”Victory For U.S. Fair Play”, which is a headline quote from the New York Times. But, again, one must examine the facts behind this “victory”. The realities play a fairly different tune. Recall that the Contras are still murdering and terrorizing people and that the trade embargo is still going strong. So, basically, the embargo is killing the people and the Contras are killing the people, and these things are going to continue unless the Nicaraguan people vote for Chamorro, the candidate endorsed by the U.S. Given these facts, it is clear that this was not a free or fair election.

So once again the U.S. successfully undermined democracy. But what were its interests? Well, since certain technologies and transportation methods had changed since the 1800s, the Rio San Juan wasn’t as important anymore, but there was still plenty to hold the interests of the U.S. The Bush administration forced Nicaragua to open its borders to the “free-market”. “U.S. aid, which totaled some $440 million in the first two years, was tied directly to meeting the conditions of an unusually strict structural adjustment plan. The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) worked closely with the IMF and World Bank in prodding the Nicaraguan government to downsize the public sector, restrict rural credit, privatize public-sector industries, and change laws to favor foreign investment. U.S. aid for development projects was channeled solely to anti-Sandinista organizations, with the explicit purpose of undermining what U.S. officials termed ‘Sandinista control’ over the populace” (Ref # 1). So things came full circle—Nicaragua was in shambles, the population and land annihilated, and the U.S. was free to reap profits and rape the remaining resources at will.

Foreign Policy In Focus – http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/vol2/v2n32nic.html
Lonely Planet World Guide – http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/central_america/nicaragua/history.htm
NSA Archives – http://www.gwu.edu/~jaysmith/Nicaragua.html