[News] Operation Condor 2.0: After Bolivia coup, Trump dubs Nicaragua ‘national security threat’ and targets Mexico

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 thegrayzone.com
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/27/operation-condor-2-coup-trump-nicaragua-mexico/?fbclid=IwAR20bb4UosiUaCUVQql2hv3yz9HbW0s_cozUG6dkLJTmidiobZTXubb0Bck>
Operation
Condor 2.0: After Bolivia coup, Trump dubs Nicaragua ‘national security
threat’ and targets Mexico
------------------------------
After presiding over a far-right coup in Bolivia, the US dubbed Nicaragua a
“national security threat” and announced new sanctions, while Trump
designated drug cartels in Mexico as “terrorists” and refused to rule out
military intervention. By Ben Norton - November 27, 2019

One successful coup against a democratically elected socialist president is
not enough, it seems.

Immediately after overseeing a far-right military coup in Bolivia
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/27/right-wing-coup-bolivia-complete-junta-hunting-dissidents/>
on November 10, the Trump administration set its sights once again
Nicaragua, whose democratically elected Sandinista government defeated a
violent right-wing coup attempt in 2018
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/15/a-year-after-nicaraguas-coup-the-medias-regime-change-deceptions-are-still-unraveling/>
.

Washington dubbed Nicaragua a threat to US national security, and announced
that it will be expanding its suffocating sanctions on the tiny Central
American nation.

Trump is also turning up the heat on Mexico, baselessly linking the country
to terrorism and even hinting at potential military intervention. The moves
come as the country’s left-leaning President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
warns of right-wing attempts at a coup.

As Washington’s rightist allies in Colombia, Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador are
desperately beating back massive grassroots uprisings against neoliberal
austerity policies and yawning inequality gaps, the United States is
ramping up its aggression against the region’s few remaining progressive
governments.

These moves have led left-wing forces in Latin America to warn of a
21st-century revival of Operation Condor, the Cold War era campaign of
violent subterfuge and US support for right-wing dictatorships across the
region.
Trump admin declares Nicaragua a ‘national security threat’

A day after the US-backed far-right coup in Bolivia, the White House
released a statement applauding the military putsch and making it clear
that two countries were next on Washington’s target list: “These events
send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-donald-j-trump-regarding-resignation-bolivian-president-evo-morales/>,”
Trump declared.

On November 25, the Trump White House then quietly issued a statement
characterizing Nicaragua as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the
national security
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/text-notice-continuation-national-emergency-respect-situation-nicaragua/>
and foreign policy of the United States.”

This prolonged for an additional year an executive order Trump had signed
in 2018 declaring a state of “national emergency” on the Central American
country.

Trump’s 2018 declaration came after a failed violent right-wing coup
attempt in Nicaragua
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/08/15/a-response-to-misinformation-on-nicaragua-it-was-a-coup-not-a-massacre/>.
The US government has funded and supported many of the opposition groups
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/06/19/ned-nicaragua-protests-us-government/>
that sought to topple elected Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and
cheered them on as they sought to overthrow him.

The 2018 national security threat designation was quickly followed by
economic warfare. In December the US Congress approved the NICA Act
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/12/14/congress-sanctions-nicaragua-nica-act/>
without any opposition. This legislation gave Trump the authority to impose
sanctions on Nicaragua, and prevents international financial institutions
from doing business with Managua.

Trump’s new 2019 statement spewed outlandish propaganda against Nicaragua,
referring to its democratically elected government — which for decades has
been targeted for overthrow by Washington — as a supposedly violent and
corrupt “regime.”

[image: Trump White House Nicaragua emergency national security threat]

This executive order is similar to one made by President Barack Obama in
2015, which designated Venezuela as a threat to US national security.

Both orders were used to justify the unilateral imposition of suffocating
economic sanctions. And Trump’s renewal of the order paves the way for an
escalated economic attack on Nicaragua.

The extension received negligible coverage in mainstream English-language
corporate media, but right-wing Spanish-language outlets in Latin America
heavily amplified it.

And opposition activists are gleefully cheering on the intensification of
Washington’s hybrid warfare against Managua.
More aggressive US sanctions against Nicaragua

Voice of America
<https://www.voanoticias.com/a/eeuu-donald-trump-nicaragua-amenaza-seguridad-nacional-/5181605.html>
(VOA), the US government’s main foreign broadcasting service, noted that
the extension of the executive order will be followed with more economic
attacks.

Washington’s ambassador to the Organization of American States
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/06/01/oas-anti-venezuela-pro-us-bias-right-wing-hypocrisy/>
(OAS), Carlos Trujillo, told VOA, “The pressure against Nicaragua is going
to continue.”

The OAS representative added that Trump will be announcing new sanctions
against the Nicaraguan government in the coming weeks.

VOA stated clearly that “Nicaragua, along with Cuba and Venezuela, is one
of the Latin American countries whose government Trump has made a priority
to put diplomatic and economic pressure on to bring about regime change.”

VOA’s report quoted several right-wing Nicaraguans who called for even more
US pressure against their country.

Bianca Jagger, a celebrity opposition activist formerly married to Rolling
Stones frontman Mick Jagger, called on the US to impose sanctions on
Nicaragua’s military in particular.

“The Nicaraguan military has not been touched because they [US officials]
are hoping that the military will like act the military in Bolivia,” Jagger
said, referring to the military officials who violently overthrew Bolivia’s
democratically elected president.

Many of these military leaders had been trained at the US government’s
School of the Americas
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/13/bolivian-coup-plotters-school-of-the-americas-fbi-police-programs/>,
a notorious base of subversion dating back to Operation Condor. Latin
American media has been filled in recent days with reports that Bolivian
soldiers were paid $50,000 and generals were paid up to $1 million to carry
out the putsch.

VOA added that “in the case of the Central American government [of
Nicaragua], the effect that sanctions can have can be greater because it is
a more economically vulnerable country.”

VOA quoted Roberto Courtney, a prominent exiled right-wing activist and
executive director of the opposition group Ethics and Transparency, which
monitors elections in Nicaragua and is supported by
<https://www.ned.org/fellows/ms-abril-perez/> the US government’s regime-change
arm
<https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/activists-and-scholars-from-bosnia-herzegovina-burma-cuba-morocco-nicaragua-pakistan-south-africa-tibetindia-and-the-united-states-among-new-class-of-ned-fellows-143297546.html>,
the National Endowment for Democracy
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/>
(NED).

Courtney, who claims to be a human rights activist, salivated over the
prospects of US economic war on his country, telling VOA, “There is a bit
of a difference [between Nicaragua and Bolivia] … the economic
vulnerability makes it more likely that the sanctions will have an effect.”

Courtney, who was described by VOA as an “expert on the electoral process,”
added, “If there is a stick, there must also be a carrot.” He said the OAS
could help apply diplomatic and political pressure against Nicaragua’s
government.

These unilateral American sanctions are illegal under international law,
and considered an act of war. Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/22/us-economic-terrorism-iranian-foreign-minister-zarif-nicaragua/>,
has characterized US economic warfare “financial terrorism,” explaining
that it disproportionately targets civilians in order to turn them against
their government.

Top right-wing Nicaraguan opposition groups applauded Trump for extending
the executive order and for pledging new sanctions against their country.

The Nicaraguan Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, an opposition
front group that brings together numerous opposition groups
<https://www.alianzacivicanicaragua.com/about-us/>, several of which are
also funded by the US government’s NED
<https://www.ned.org/wp-content/themes/ned/search/grant-search.php?organizationName=&region=&projectCountry=Nicaragua&amount=&fromDate=&toDate=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&search=&maxCount=25&orderBy=Year&sbmt=1&start=26&start=1>,
welcomed the order.
Trump dubs drug cartels in Mexico “terrorists,” refuses to rule out drone
strikes

While the US targeting of Nicaragua and Venezuela’s governments is nothing
new, Donald Trump is setting his sights on a longtime US ally in Mexico.

In 2018, Mexican voters made history when they elected Andrés Manuel López
Obrador as president in a landslide. López Obrador, who is often referred
to by his initials AMLO, is Mexico’s first left-wing president in more than
five decades. He ran on a progressive campaign pledging to boost social
spending, cut poverty, combat corruption, and even decriminalize drugs.

AMLO is wildly popular in Mexico. In February, he had a record-breaking 86
percent approval rating
<https://www.elimparcial.com/sonora/mexico/AMLO-esta-en-su-nivel-de-popularidad-mas-alto-dice-encuesta-de-El-Financiero-20190207-0016.html>.
And he has earned this widespread support by pledging to combat neoliberal
capitalist orthodoxy.

“The neoliberal economic model
<https://www.forbes.com.mx/amlo-modelo-neoliberal-calamidad/> has been a
disaster, a calamity for the public life of the country,” AMLO has
declared. “The child of neoliberalism is corruption.”

When he unveiled his multibillion-dollar National Development Plan, López
Obrador announced the end to “the long night of neoliberalism.”

AMLO’s left-wing policies have caused shockwaves in Washington, which has
long relied on neoliberal Mexican leaders ensuring a steady cheap
exploitable labor base and maintaining a reliable market for US goods and
open borders for US capital and corporations.

On November 27 — a day after declaring Nicaragua a “national security
threat” — Trump announced that the US government will be designating
Mexican drug cartels as “terrorist organizations
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mexico-cartels/trump-says-u-s-will-designate-mexican-drug-cartels-as-terrorists-idUSKBN1Y02NJ>
.”

Such a designation could pave the way for direct US military intervention
in Mexico.

Trump revealed this new policy in an interview with right-wing Fox News
host Bill O’Reilly. “Are you going to designate those cartels in Mexico as
terror groups and start hitting them with drones and things like that?”
O’Reilly asked.

The US president refused to rule out drone strikes or other military action
against drug cartels in Mexico.

Trump’s announcement seemed to surprise the Mexican government, which
immediately called for a meeting with the US State Department.

The designation was particularly ironic considering some top drug cartel
leaders in Mexico have long-standing ties to the US government. The leaders
of the notoriously brutal cartel the Zetas, for instance, were
originally trained
in counter-insurgency tactics
<https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2010/10/20101019212440609775.html>
by the US military.

Throughout the Cold War, the US government armed, trained, and funded
right-wing death squads
<https://moderaterebels.com/the-management-of-savagery-max-blumenthal-book/>
throughout Latin America, many of which were involved in drug trafficking.
The CIA also used drug money to fund far-right counter-insurgency
paramilitary groups in Central America.

These tactics were also employed in the Middle East and South Asia. The
United States armed, trained, and funded far-right Islamist extremists
<https://www.versobooks.com/books/2868-the-management-of-savagery> in
Afghanistan in the 1980s in order to fight the Soviet Union. These same
US-backed Salafi-jihadists then founded al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

This strategy was later repeated in the US wars on Libya and Syria. ISIS
commander Omar al-Shishani
<https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article35322882.html>,
to take one example, had been trained by the US military and enjoyed direct
support from Washington when he was fighting against Russia.

The Barack Obama administration also oversaw a campaign called Project
Gunrunne
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gunrunning-scandal-uncovered-at-the-atf/>r
and Operation Fast and Furious, in which the US government helped send
thousands of guns to cartels in Mexico.

Mexican journalist Alina Duarte explained that, with the Trump
administration’s designation of cartels as terrorists, “They are creating
the idea that Mexico represents a threat to their national security
<https://twitter.com/AlinaDuarte_/status/1199475551347597313>.”

“Should we start talking about the possibility of a coup against Lopez
Obrador <https://twitter.com/AlinaDuarte_/status/1199480925161185286> in
Mexico?” Duarte asked.

She noted that the US corporate media has embarked on an increasingly
ferocious campaign to demonize AMLO
<https://twitter.com/AlinaDuarte_/status/1192164614206672896>, portraying
the democratically elected president as a power-hungry aspiring dictator
who is supposedly wrecking Mexico’s economy.

Duarte discussed the issue of US interference in Mexican politics in an
interview with The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton, on their
podcast Moderate Rebels:
<https://soundcloud.com/moderaterebels/coup-mexico-president-amlo-alina-duarte>

Now, a whisper campaign over fears that the right-wing opposition may try
to overthrow President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is spreading across
Mexico.

AMLO himself has publicly addressed the rumors, making it clear that he
will not tolerate any discussion of coups.

“How wrong the conservatives and their hawks are,” López Obrador tweeted on
November 2. Referencing the 1913 assassination of progressive President
Francisco Madero, who had been a leader of the Mexican Revolution, AMLO
wrote, “Now is different.”

“Another coup d’état will now be allowed,” he declared.

In recent months, as fears of a coup intensify, López Obrador has swung
even further to the left, directly challenging the US government and
asserting an independent foreign policy that contrasts starkly to the
subservience of his predecessors.

AMLO’s government has rejected US efforts to delegitimize Venezuela’s
leftist government, throwing a wrench in Washington’s efforts to impose
right-wing activist Juan Guaidó
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/>
as coup leader.

AMLO has welcomed Ecuador’s ousted socialist leader Rafael Correa and
hosted Argentina’s left-leaning Alberto Fernández for his first foreign
trip after winning the presidency.

In October, López Obrador even welcomed Cuban President Díaz-Canel to
Mexico for a historic visit.
Trump’s Operation Condor 2.0

For Washington, an independent and left-wing Mexico is intolerable.

In a speech for right-wing, MAGA hat-wearing Venezuelans in Miami
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-venezuelan-american-community/>,
Florida in February, Trump ranted against socialism for nearly an hour,
threatened the remaining leftist countries in Latin America with regime
change.

“The days of socialism and communism are numbered not only in Venezuela,
but in Nicaragua and in Cuba as well,” he declared, adding that socialism
would never be allowed to take root in heart of capitalism in the United
States.

While Trump has claimed he seeks to withdraw from wars in the Middle East
(when he is not occupying its oil fields
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/23/us-troops-staying-syria-oil/>), he has
ramped up aggressive US intervention in Latin America.

Though the neoconservative war hawk John Bolton
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/03/26/neocon-john-bolton-hawkish-us-national-security-adviser/>
is no longer overseeing US foreign policy
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/16/john-bolton-is-out-but-neocon-agenda-stays/>,
Elliott Abrams
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/02/13/genocide-venezuela-congress-ilhan-omar-coup-elliott-abrams/>
remains firmly embedded in the State Department, dusting off his
Iran-Contra playbook to decimate socialism in Latin America all over again.

During the height of the Cold War, Operation Condor thousands of dissidents
were murdered, and hundreds of thousands more were disappeared, tortured,
or imprisoned with the assistance of the US intelligence apparatus.

Today, as Latin America is increasingly viewed through the lens of a new
Cold War, Operation Condor is being reignited with new mechanisms of
sabotage and subversion in play. The mayhem has only begun.


Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the assistant
editor of The Grayzone, and the producer of the Moderate Rebels
<http://moderaterebelsradio.com/> podcast, which he co-hosts with editor
Max Blumenthal. His website is BenNorton.com <http://bennorton.com/> and he
tweets at @BenjaminNorton <https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton>.


-- 


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