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Now
Imagine the following: you and your
family decide to remodel your kitchen. Your neighbor, also the
principal at your children's elementary school, hears of the
plan and immediately states his opposition. He argues that the
remodeling project is not the sort of investment your family
needs and hints that carrying it out would jeopardize his friendship.
Deciding to move ahead with the remodeling anyway, you and your
family begin removing the kitchen cabinets one day, but are interrupted
by a knock at the door. Your neighbor enters and grimly announces
to the entire family that if the remodeling is carried out as
planned, he will see to it that your children do not pass another
grade in his elementary school.
Your neighbor's behavior, however
far-fetched it may seem, is no more ridiculous or offensive than
the treatment U.S. political figures have been giving their neighboring
Nicaraguans in the last several days. Nicaragua is currently
gearing up for its national elections on Sunday, November 5.
For the last year, Nicaragua's complicated electoral panorama
has been further convoluted by a string of U.S. representatives
endeavoring to ward off an electoral victory by Sandinista (FSLN)
leader and former president Daniel Ortega. U.S. officials have
publicly censured Ortega, attempted to unify his opposition,
and threatened that an Ortega win would endanger U.S. financial
support. The continuous intervention, however, has failed to
unite Nicaragua's divided right or significantly detract from
Ortega's base. Now U.S. meddlers are flustered and desperate
in the face of recent polls revealing that Ortega is within a
few percentage points of clinching the presidential office.
In a last-ditch effort to undermine
Ortega, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House's
International Relations Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation,
sent a letter on Friday, October 27, to Michael Chertoff, Secretary
of Homeland Security. Rohrabacher enjoined Chertoff "to
prepare in accordance with U.S. law, contingency plans to block
any further money remittances from being sent to Nicaragua in
the event that the FSLN enters government." The nearly
half million Nicaraguans currently living in the U.S. send around
$500 million each year to their family members in Nicaragua,
according to Nicaraguan economist Nestor Avendaño.
Nicaraguans have reason to
believe Rohrabacher may not be bluffing. In the buildup to Nicaragua's
1990 elections, the United States promised Nicaraguan voters
that it would continue fueling the decade-old contra war and
maintain its economic embargo on Nicaragua, both of which were
wreaking havoc on Nicaragua's economy, if Daniel Ortega were
reelected as President. Beleaguered by a crippling war, food
rationing, and empty supermarket shelves, Nicaraguans opted for
U.S.-backed Violeta Chamorro over Ortega. Satisfied, the U.S.
then released its stranglehold on the Nicaraguan economy.
Seeing that the FSLN now has
a chance to return to power, Rohrabacher seems eager to once
again target Nicaraguans' stomachs with callous pressure. Thousands
of Nicaraguan families depend on remittances to augment the meager
wages paid for picking coffee, sewing jeans in assembly factories,
or selling water at intersections. In an economy sacked with
underemployment, stagnant salaries, and rising costs, remittances
keep Nicaragua afloat by generating an income equivalent to 70%
of the country's total annual exports, according to the most
recent estimates. Avendaño projects that a U.S. embargo
on remittances would prove as disastrous for Nicaraguans as the
U.S.-imposed trade embargo of the 1980's. Once again, the hardest
hit would be the impoverished majority.
Nicaraguan voters are not unaware
of this reality. Nor is Rohrabacher, no doubt. Nicaraguans'
direct dependence on remittances is what makes his open threat
particularly potent. In the face of a potential Ortega victory,
Rohrabacher is striving to make longstanding U.S. interference
more personal by pushing Nicaraguans to see a vote for Ortega
as a vote against their own pocketbooks.
Rohrabacher's letter is but
one voice in a recent cacophony of U.S. meddling. Headlines
of the last week have been laden with unsolicited U.S. opinions
on Daniel Ortega and the sort of President Nicaraguans should
want. The day after Rohrabacher sent his letter, Florida governor
Jeb Bush authored a letter published in a La Prensa paid
ad. Bush's letter declares that Nicaraguans must choose between
a "tragic step towards the past," which he identifies
as the "totalitarianism" of the Sandinistas, and "a
vision towards the future." Jeb Bush's own vision for Nicaragua's
future is revealed at the bottom of the ad, where the Alianza
Liberal Nicaraguense party, which is running the U.S.-preferred
presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre, is named as the ad's
sponsor.
Just a few pages away from
Bush's ad appears an article in which Adolfo Franco, USAID's
Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean,
warns that a FSLN victory next week could limit USAID support
for Nicaragua, citing worries that Daniel Ortega might significantly
alter Nicaragua's current economic model. USAID's admonition
piggybacks on US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez's more
explicit pressure in an interview publicized one week earlier.
Gutierrez threatened that an Ortega win could preclude a $230
million combined investment from three foreign companies that
would generate 123,000 jobs, a $220 million aid package promised
through the Millenium Challenge Account, and implementation of
CAFTA in Nicaragua.
On October 29, the day after
printing Jeb Bush's letter, La Prensa published an editorial
by Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs, in which he accuses the FSLN of maintaining
ties with terrorist groups, a claim that Reich does not attempt
to substantiate. Though Reich does not currently hold a position
in the U.S. government, he writes as if he does, stating, "If
the Sandinistas control the government of Nicaragua, there will
be strong pressure in Washington to review all aspects of the
bilateral relationship, including remittances." Reich equates
a Sandinista victory with "a return to a past of poverty
and international isolation." Such a dismal outcome indeed
seems likely if the U.S., as the party responsible for the isolation
of the past, would implement Reich's thinly cloaked threat of
aid and remittance cutoffs.
Ironically, Reich precedes
all the above statements with the disclaimer, "No one can
tell [Nicaraguans] who to vote for." Jeb Bush, Adolfo Franco,
and other outspoken U.S. figures have similarly acknowledged
Nicaraguans' sovereign right to pick their own leaders. Unfortunately,
such statements come across as meaningless niceties when subsequently
contradicted with threats and admonishments against choosing
a president not to the U.S.'s liking. As Nicaraguans make their
way to the polls on Sunday, they must not only consider "What
will this candidate do for my country if elected?" but also
"What will the U.S. do to my country if this candidate is
elected?" The product of relentless outside interference,
this sad reality is profoundly undemocratic.
With numerous internal challenges
posed by this election, Nicaraguans do not need to be further
encumbered by fears of U.S. reprisal. If U.S. representatives
truly wish to see free, unfettered elections in Nicaragua on
November 5, they would do well to keep their mouths shut.
Ben Beachy is an educator
with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua. Witness for Peace is a
politically independent, grassroots organization that educates
U.S. citizens on the impacts of U.S. policies and corporate practices
in Latin America and the Caribbean. www.witnessforpeace.org
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