Nutty Oliver North is in Nicaragua again, ranting against Daniel Ortega, as in days of old.
You remember Daniel Ortega, don’t you? He was the leader of Nicaragua in the days of the Communist government. He was the leader of Nicaragua that Ronald Reagan said could send tanks to lay seige to Washington D.C. in a matter of days. Funny thing, Daniel Ortega never sent those tanks. He never even considered it. The United States, on the other hand, lay seige to Nicaragua’s capital city, putting explosive mines in Managua’s harbor. The USA funded anti-Communist death squads in Nicaragua. The Reagan White House sent weapons to Nicaraguan insurgents, in defiance of a law passed by Congress, funded by sales of missiles to Iran. Daniel Ortega, instead of trying to attack the United States, allowed the Nicaraguans to have free elections. In those elections, Ortega was voted out of office.
But now, Oliver North is in Nicaragua again, preaching the same claptrap that he used to justify sending missiles to the ayatollahs in Iran. He’s preaching against Daniel Ortega, and Ortega loves it.
There’s going to be an election today in Nicaragua, you see, and Daniel Ortega is running in it – for President of Nicaragua. You’ll never guess who his running mate is. It’s Jaime Morales, former leader of the anti-Communist insurgents. Ortega is running on a platform of national reconciliation, not in order to re-establish Soviet-style Communism.
The Republicans here in the United States don’t seem to know the difference, or to care. To them, Daniel Ortega is just a commie, and so must be stopped at all costs. That’s why Oliver North is frothing at the mouth again. That’s why the American Ambassador to Nicaragua is helping to organize the campaigns of candidates who oppose Ortega. That’s why our Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, is threatening that trade deals will be cut if Ortega is elected. That’s why Republican Senator Dan Burton went to Nicaragua to declare that U.S. aid to that country will be cut off if Ortega wins. Republicans in the government of the USA are doing everything they can to interfere in today’s free elections in Nicaragua.
Daniel Ortega is loving it. His campaign has put out an advertisement that declares, “The United States is keeping up its war against Daniel Ortega. The Yanquis have just announced that if Daniel wins, they will block remittances to Nicaragua, like they have blockaded Cuba for years.”
In Nicaragua, that’s not a warning. It’s a rallying cry.
The Republicans just don’t get it. They don’t understand that the United States of America is now one of the least loved nations in the world. They still cannot fathom that a criticism from the American government is tantamount a career boost for a politician in another country. They don’t comprehend the simple fact that the more that Republicans from the USA denounce Daniel Ortega, the stronger Ortega becomes.
I’m not for Daniel Ortega. I’m not against him. I’m a citizen of the United States, not a Nicaraguan. So, it’s not my business to decide for the Nicaraguans who should be their President. Why do the Republicans think it is any business of theirs?
It makes no sense to cut economic aid to Nicaragua just because the people there choose one particular candidate in a free election. Daniel Ortega is just a person. It’s the structure of the Nicaraguan government that matters. If Ortega re-establishes a dictatorship there, then cut off aid. If Ortega starts a war in Central America, then put sanctions in place. It’s actions that matter, not personality.
We in the United States ought to be happy for the Nicaraguans that they have a democracy, and allow them to exercise their democratic freedoms as they see fit, without interfering. If we’re truly worried about the health of democracy in the American hemisphere, we ought to take a look at the growing anti-democratic measures being established in our own government before sending people to preach at our neighbors.
