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<a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=20&ItemID=13949" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=20&ItemID=13949<br>
<br>
</a><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5>Nicaragua’s Sandinista
Government Allies with Anti-Imperialist Forces<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>by Phil Stuart Cournoyer;
Socialist Voice; October 05, 2007</b> <br><br>
More than six months have passed since the inauguration of the new
"21st Century Sandinista" government of Nicaragua last January.
Jubilant celebrations of that event expressed the excitement of hundreds
of thousands of Sandinista supporters. New hopes for an escape from the
hell of neoliberal catastrophes breezed across our country’s mountains,
volcanoes, valleys, and lakes, from the large cities to the remote
hinterlands and coasts. <br><br>
The FSLN leadership had used the election campaign to assure the country
(and Washington) that no second edition of the 1979 revolution would take
place. Even so, many wanted to believe that the new government would
signal a return to the inspiring days and social advances of the
revolution. <br><br>
<br><br>
What does the first six-month performance of the new government tell us
about the relationship between reality and such hopes?<br><br>
<br><br>
The Ortega government inherited a nearly "Africanized" country.
Nicaragua is second only to Haiti as the poorest country in the
hemisphere. Almost 80% percent of the population lives on less than US$2
a day, and over half of them on less then US$1 a day. The health and
educational systems have been hollowed out. Over the previous 17 years a
million or more Nicaraguans have gone into economic exile (mostly to
Costa Rica, El Salvador, and the United States). The country now depends
on family remittances and foreign aid to stay afloat. <br><br>
<br><br>
Lights out<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
The privatized national electrical system has been bled dry and brought
to near collapse especially its generating capacity. In 2006 severe
power cuts were imposed across the country. The new government alleviated
the problem for a time, relying on donated generator plants from Cuba and
Venezuela. But more breakdowns in the system soon forced a return to long
power cuts, from five to 10 hours daily in both rural and urban areas.
This has created havoc in the economy, especially the retail sector, the
health system, and people’s daily lives.<br><br>
<br><br>
The collapsed electrical system can be taken as a metaphor for the
condition of the republic on the eve of the elections. The Sandinistas
won the presidency largely because the traditional right-wing forces
assembled in the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) had split down the
middle. The Catholic Church was also divided, with now retired Cardinal
Obando y Bravo opting to back the FSLN in return for its support to a
government-initiated bill that illegalized therapeutic abortion. These
divisions, splits, and confusion in traditional ruling class formations
(the Church hierarchy included) stemmed from a mounting lack of
confidence in their own ability to keep the ship afloat, or rather, to
re-float the shipwreck and pilot it away from rocky shores. <br><br>
<br><br>
The FSLN drove through the gap opened by the split in the oligarchic
parties and won a minority government in the November 2006 election with
just 38% of the national vote. What followed caught the country and most
political analysts, including this writer, quite by surprise.<br><br>
<br><br>
Inauguration day <br><br>
</b> <br><br>
The course of Ortega’s new government was foreshadowed by the events
surrounding its inauguration on January 10. <br><br>
<br><br>
Presidents and high-level delegations attended from most Latin American
and Caribbean countries, including the presidents of Mexico and other
Central American countries. Hugo Chávez attended from Venezuela, and Evo
Morales from Bolivia. Cuban vice-president José Ramón Machado stood in
for Fidel Castro. Taiwan sent its president Chen Shui-bian; Iran and
Libya sent high-profile representatives. Spain sent its Crown Prince.
Perhaps just to be different, Canada and the United States sent
low-profile delegations whose presence was not even noted in the official
welcoming.<br><br>
<br><br>
It turned out that Chávez had to delay his arrival by over three hours.
Ortega kept the assembled VIPs and the Crown Prince himself waiting
throughout the hot afternoon until our Venezuelan guests appeared. The
event, including the long wait, was televised live. Broadcasts on
rightwing TV and radio were punctuated by howls of protest from
commentators about the "national disgrace" entailed in making
Spanish royalty and visiting presidents wait around (and around!) for
Chávez. <br><br>
<br><br>
That was just the thin end of the wedge. After a drastically abbreviated
swearing-in ritual, Ortega cut short the ceremony to join, as he
explained, tens of thousands of workers, farmers, and youth waiting at a
nearby lakeside plaza. They too had been celebrating for many hours under
the hot sun. Off he went, accompanied by the new cabinet and his closest
allies among the presidential visitors. <br><br>
<br><br>
In the plaza, Chávez, Morales, and Ortega addressed the tired, but
tumultuous crowd with strong appeals for Latin American unity,
anti-imperialist struggle, national liberation, and socialism. Ortega
interrupted his own speech to invite Cuba’s José Ramón Machado to take
the mike. The crowds greeted the Cuban compañero with a thundering roar
of enthusiasm. The Taiwanese president shared the platform but did not
speak. <br><br>
<br><br>
The mass inaugural celebration introduced a new theme song for the FSLN,
one that has accompanied both FSLN rallies and official functions ever
since la Internacional</i> with its opening appeal "Arriba los
pobres del mundo"</i> (arise ye poor of the world). Our
president-elect proclaimed that the new government represented a
continuation of the Sandinista revolution of the eighties. He announced
that his first acts as president would be to restore free education and
health services, a social conquest of the revolution, reversed by the
pro-U.S. government elected in 1990. <br><br>
<br><br>
He also announced that Nicaragua would join the Bolivarian Alliance for
the Americas (its Spanish acronym ALBA also means "dawn") to
become fourth member after Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia. ALBA’s mandate
is to facilitate commerce and cooperation among its members based on
principles of solidarity and economic harmony, in overt opposition to the
exploitative relations maintained by the world capitalist and imperialist
market. <br><br>
<br><br>
The next day the four ALBA presidents convened a public session carried
live on radio and TV, where they signed a packet of agreements projecting
major trade and cooperation initiatives to help lift Nicaragua out of the
abyss. Venezuela forgave Nicaragua its debt.<br><br>
<br><br>
Nicaragua-Iran agreements<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
On the Sunday following the inauguration Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad arrived in Managua on a state visit. The two presidents
announced major trade agreements and ties based on cooperation and
friendship. Daniel Ortega used the visit to denounce U.S. aggression
against Iraq and threats against Iran a theme he again stressed during
his state visit to Iran in June. <br><br>
<br><br>
Recent follow-up announcements include an agreement that Iran will build
a US$350 million ocean port on the south Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and
a pledge of US$120 million to help build a massive hydroelectric project
that could go a long way to solving the country’s long-term electricity
deficit. Iranian cooperation, reached in bilateral agreements, is
coordinated through ALBA, because it often involves joint
Venezuelan-Iranian initiatives such as a recently constructed tractor
factory in Venezuela that is supplying Nicaraguan farmers with low-priced
machines.<br><br>
<br><br>
In March Hugo Chávez returned to Nicaragua. He went to the indigenous
community of Sutiava (in Léon province) where he and Ortega announced
that Venezuela would build a US$3.5 billion oil refinery on the Pacific
Coast near Nagarote. This refinery will process Venezuelan oil both for
Nicaragua and for export to other Central American countries and to
China. Chávez insists that it will be completed before Ortega’s six-year
term is finished, even if work has to take place 24-7. An allied
petrochemical complex will also be built near the refinery, promising
thousands of long-term jobs to local workers. These projects, when
completed, should generate annually hundreds of millions of dollars of
revenue for the country. <br><br>
<br><br>
Chávez used the occasion to talk about his vision of the way forward for
Latin American nations. <br><br>
<br><br>
"Every day I say even more vigorously that the only way out of
poverty and backwardness is to take the road of socialism, a new
socialism built by ourselves.…<br><br>
<br><br>
"I believe that Christ is the first great socialist of our era,
because Christ advocated equality, love among us, and the only way that
we can have equality in society is through socialism. Capitalism is the
kingdom of exploitation, inequality, and hate, of ambition and egoism.
Socialism is the kingdom of love, fraternity, and equality. This was what
Christ came to preach to the world. And so, even though some priests will
get uptight, I will keep on saying, for me as the Christian that I am, my
Lord is one of the greatest revolutionaries in history, one of the
greatest socialist revolutionaries in history."<br><br>
<br><br>
Venezuelan aid<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
Fast forward to July 19: Chávez and Morales returned to Managua to join
the celebrations of the 28th anniversary of the 1979 insurrectionary
defeat of the U.S.-backed Somoza dynasty. The three presidents again
united their voices to stress the urgent need for Indo-Latin American
unity and vigilant anti-imperialist struggle. Chávez, never shy, once
more used his formidable oratorical skills to advocate a socialist,
anti-capitalist course for our Patria Grande our term for the vast
Indo-Black-Latin American nation extending from the Rio Bravo on the
U.S.-Mexican border to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of the
continent, taking in the Caribbean island countries.<br><br>
<br><br>
Venezuelan aid and trade agreements now amount to over US$5 billion
dollars. Much of this aid will be executed over a period of several
years, and the overall amount will no doubt increase significantly over
that time. Projects, in addition to the refinery, include an all-season
highway from Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas) on the north Caribbean coast,
southwest to Rio Blanco. The highway project will require the rebuilding
of the Puerto Cabezas docks and a modern hospital for road construction
workers that will also serve regional communities. Other programs include
agricultural inputs such as farm credits, fertilizers, and related
technologies, and also educational and health projects. Venezuela has
guaranteed the country’s petroleum needs at fair prices, in the ALBA
spirit. This involves long-term, low-interest payment agreements,
including the option to pay in kind with agricultural, maritime, and
mineral products hence opening the possibility of expelling the dollar
from commerce between the two Caribbean countries. All oil collaboration
between the two countries is being channeled though an autonomous company
ALBANISA responsible to the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan state oil
companies.<br><br>
<br><br>
Cuban aid mainly targets the health and educational sectors and is also
channeled through ALBA. Cuban doctors and medical specialists are working
mainly in the Caribbean coast autonomous regions, and in a newly opened
eye clinic in Ciudad Sandino near Managua, part of ALBA’s Operation
Miracle (OM). To date more than 12,000 Nicaraguans have attained improved
or restored vision through the OM program. Many received their operations
either in Havana or Caracas, but soon it will be unnecessary for
Nicaraguans to leave our country to get treatment. Two more clinics will
be opened in each of the two coastal regional capitals. <br><br>
<br><br>
Nicaragua is to become a regional center for the program, enabling people
from Mexico and Central America to get attention here. Cuban specialists
are training Nicaraguan doctors who will later take full responsibility
for the Nicaraguan component of OM. As well, about 80 just-graduated
Nicaraguan general practitioners have recently returned from medical
school in Cuba and are doing their internships with Cuban doctors in
remote areas of the autonomous regions.<br><br>
<br><br>
Cuban educators play a key role in the national literacy program, set in
motion by an FSLN-inspired NGO two years ago. The new Ministry of
Education adopted the program, creating the National Literacy Council to
press the attack on a 34% illiteracy rate. Using the Cuban Yo sí puedo
technique and tens of thousands of TV monitors donated by that country,
the program has now conquered illiteracy in Managua. Soon UNESCO will
declare Managua the first Central American capital to free itself from
illiteracy. The Literacy Council’s two-year target is to help 800,000
more Nicaraguans to read and write. <br><br>
<br><br>
Brazil’s Lula <br><br>
</b> <br><br>
Other countries beyond the ALBA alliance and Iran are also stepping up
aid to Nicaragua, most importantly Brazil. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
(most often known as Lula) visited Nicaragua in July and signed a series
of agreements in various areas including tourism, education, energy,
forestry, industry, commerce, generic medicines, and agriculture. He and
Ortega concurred that ethanol should not be produced from corn or other
food products except sugar cane or palm oil, a compromise position that
was subsequently endorsed by Venezuela. <br><br>
<br><br>
In August Taiwan’s president again visited Nicaragua, promising to
increase his government’s aid. Taiwanese capital employs over 30,000
Nicaraguan workers, mostly in the maquila</i> sector. Chen Shui-bian
promised that Taiwan would buy Nicaragua’s entire coffee crop, hoping
that this and other aid will entice Nicaragua not to follow Costa Rica’s
lead and break relations with Taipei in order to re-establish relations
with China. In his parting words as he left for home, Chen Shui-bian
suggested that Daniel Ortega would merit a Nobel Prize if he succeeds in
convincing Beijing to accept Nicaraguan recognition without compelling a
break with Taipei! <br><br>
<br><br>
Days after the inauguration Ortega scuttled the former government’s plan
to privatize water. He appointed Ruth Herrera (longtime Sandinista and
leader of the consumer protest against water privatization) to take
charge of the national water utility. She immediately decreed that the
wealth-burdened elite including their plantations, breweries and
bottling plants, industries, and hotels would have to pay their water
bills. They shed this obligation once their cronies took power in 1990.
<br><br>
<br><br>
The most important economic initiative of the government in the
countryside is the Zero Hunger Campaign aimed at the poorest sectors of
the population, especially women farm-owners. This US$150 million project
is expected to benefit 75,000 families during the next five years through
programs to revive and support small-scale family farming. <br><br>
<br><br>
Nearly two-decades of neoliberal "adjustment" devastated small
farmers and traditional crops that could not compete with highly
subsidized U.S. agricultural exports. During that time most of the gains
of the agrarian reform of the eighties were reversed as old and new
capital bought out farmers bankrupted by lack of access to affordable
credit. The new program provides farmers with impregnated cows and sows,
chickens, seeds, and free agronomy services. In tandem with the Zero
Hunger effort, ALBA launched a low interest farm-credit program, largely
financed by Venezuela’s National Economic and Social Development Bank
(BNDES) through its new Managua branch office. <br><br>
<br><br>
When Hurricane Felix devastated Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast in early
September, the central government responded energetically and in concert
with authorities of the regional autonomous government largely an
indigenous administration. Longtime Miskitu leader Brooklyn Rivera, who
in the eighties led a wing of the indigenous armed struggle against the
Sandinistas, lauded the government not only for its humanitarian aid but
for having "reacted with sensitivity, taking into account conditions
in the indigenous communities, their way of life, their organization, and
their world view." (For information on reconstruction aid, see end
of article.)<br><br>
<br><br>
Economic policy <br><br>
</b> <br><br>
The most puzzling feature of the first six months of the government has
been the relative lack of discussion of basic economic policy, including
a new agreement being negotiated with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF). Daniel Ortega’s February budget was a remake of the previous
government’s numbers, with the exception of a significant increase of
spending on education and health, and allocations to the new Zero Hunger
program. A reprieve from some large foreign debts made this spending
possible. <br><br>
<br><br>
The budget failed to include more progressive taxation measures, despite
widespread clamor that the rich especially bankers and financial sharks
should begin to pay taxes. The budget included commitments to continue
to pay off the internal debt, a large part of which is owed to
speculators who snapped up a government bond issue used to rescue
deposits holders following major bank collapses in 2000-2001. Later,
official entities such as the Auditor General and the State Prosecutor
declared that this "debt" is illegal. <br><br>
<br><br>
Nevertheless, the previous and current governments and the National
Assembly have argued alike that failure to honor this "debt"
would unleash "panic in financial markets" and "ruin
Nicaragua’s international credit status." The debt payments are
crushing, and dwarf the entire fund being devoted to the campaign against
hunger. This provokes deep resentment among poor and middle-class sectors
who question why their taxes, and foreign aid, should be converted into
handouts to parasites the bankers, finance companies, and coupon
clippers. <br><br>
<br><br>
The FSLN leadership’s economic strategy is to lift the country out of the
pit of neoliberal devastation through market-oriented, capitalist
measures coupled with social and budgetary policies to cushion the
poorest and most vulnerable sectors from the worst impacts of free trade
and capital accumulation. They believe this will only succeed if more
foreign investment comes in, and if a "good investor climate"
is assured. Hence, the reluctance to repudiate what is clearly an illegal
internal debt. <br><br>
<br><br>
Secret talks<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
The negotiations with the IMF have largely been held in private. To date
not much is known about them, except that macroeconomic policy will
remain largely unaltered. Both right- and left-wing critics of the
government have complained about the secret nature of these talks,
although the previous three governments were never known for openness in
their dealings with imperial masters. Details of the finalized IMF
agreement should become clear with the discussion of the 2008 budget that
will have to take into account the impact of last year’s entry into a
"free trade" agreement with the United States. <br><br>
<br><br>
The U.S. cries foul<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
The grand scheme is to cobble together a two-pronged economic course that
relies both on U.S.-sponsored "free trade" and the ALBA
alliance, in addition to trade and aid with Iran, Brazil, and Taiwan. But
imperialism can hardly be expected to accept this combination without
protest. The inherent conflict was laid bare by Nicaragua’s recent (and
still unresolved) conflict with Esso, the giant U.S.-based oil
concern.<br><br>
<br><br>
In mid-August Esso arrogantly refused to allow Petronic (Nicaragua’s
public petroleum corporation) to offload and store Venezuelan oil in its
tanks at the port of Corinto on the north Pacific coast. The government
responded by sending Esso a bill for millions of dollars in unpaid taxes
and custom charges, and a Corinto judge impounded the oil storage tanks
pending resolution of the dispute. The Esso tanks were filled with
Venezuelan crude.<br><br>
<br><br>
Esso and the U.S. ambassador Trivelli cried foul, denouncing the alleged
violation of property rights. The big-business association COSEP parroted
this line, as did ALN head and banker Eduardo Montealegre, and other
right-wing politicians. Vice-president Jaime Morales shot them down.
"No private interests," he insisted, "can be allowed to
trump national interests." He stressed that the oil was desperately
needed to cope with constant electricity cuts. <br><br>
<br><br>
Esso is refusing to negotiate unless and until the court restores full
and uncontested control of the tanks to their foreign owners. Morales
warned Esso that it was making a grave error, resorting to a popular
expression: "No sólo se le fue la mano sino también los
pieds</i>." His image here is unmistakable such errors can cost an
arm and a leg! Strong words from our vice-president, a former Contra
leader. <br><br>
<br><br>
Meanwhile the city of Managua has also moved against Esso for unpaid
local taxes, and the Ministry of the Environment has re-opened an
investigation of a recent perilous oil spill just outside Managua. Esso
says vandals caused the spill. As one skeptic put it, "Some spill!
Some vandals!"<br><br>
<br><br>
Contesting ‘hegemonic values’ <br><br>
</b> <br><br>
Esso’s provocation in Corinto this August recalls the initial skirmishes
between Cuba and the U.S. government and oil monopolies in 1960 that
sparked Cuba’s showdown with imperialism. The Nicaraguan government’s
alignment with anti-imperialist forces and its initial, limited measures
to alleviate popular suffering invite U.S. retaliation, combined with
increasing class conflict and polarization. <br><br>
<br><br>
Frente leaders are well aware of the dilemmas and risks involved in the
Sandinistas’ economic policy, but see no viable alternative. Sociologist
Orlando Nuñez, perhaps the main theoretician and ideological defender of
the FSLN government, and head of the Zero Hunger campaign, put it this
way:<br><br>
<br><br>
"For a party with a socialist mission like the Sandinista Front, our
situation is very complex and contradictory. The party holds the
presidency and has the most political sympathizers in Nicaragua. However,
it is still a minority in other state powers, and faces an opposition
that is trying to unite and jointly oppose it. This party, now in power,
has to administer a country where capitalist economy dominates and must
govern a society whose hegemonic values are liberal and neo-liberal. Its
strategy implies defending revolutionary measures of the government and
acting as a party opposed to the capitalist system now in
force."<br><br>
<br><br>
But how can we Sandinistas contest capitalist "hegemonic
values"? In Venezuela, repeated popular mobilizations turned back
the right-wing assault. Can Nicaragua follow a similar path? <br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
Phil Stuart Cournoyer is a Nicaraguan citizen and longtime member of the
FSLN [Sandinista National Liberation Front (Sandinistas)]. He has been an
active socialist in Canada and Nicaragua for almost 50 years. <br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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