NSCAG rejects US Sanctions on Nicaragua
NSCAG News |
on: Wednesday, 9 January 2019
Trump signs NICA Act imposing imperialist sanctions on Nicaragua. Photo: Reuters/Telesur
On 20th December last year, President Trump presented Nicaragua with his Christmas 'gift' by signing into law the NICA Act. The Act will have the effect of imposing a raft on sanctions on Nicaragua, thereby threatening a whole range of social programmes put in place by the FSLN Government, and it is the poor and most vulnerable in society who will suffer as a result.
If there was ever any doubt about US intentions towards Nicaragua, statements made by White House national security adviser John Bolton and recently by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo make them abundantly clear. On 1st November, Bolton denounced Nicaragua, along with Cuba and Venezuela, as a 'troika of tyranny' responsible for 'fostering communism in the region'. Referring to Daniel Ortega, Nicolas Maduro and Miguel Diaz-Canal as 'clowns', he stated that he 'looks forward to watching their governments fall'. Pompeo, in Brazil for the inauguration of the far right wing Bolsonaro, told reporters that Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were countries that 'do not share the democratic values that unite the United States and Brazil' and that 'we have an opportunity to work alongside each other against authoritarian regimes'.
And as far back as May 2018, US vice president Mike Pence ramped up interventionist rhetoric against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, stating that working for ‘freedom’ in the three countries is a priority for the Trump administration: “We will stay by the side of those who long for freedom and we will confront their oppressors.”
It is quite incredible that the United States continues to target Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela while ignoring violent repression and human rights abuses in Honduras and Guatemala, not to mention Colombia, where 164 social and community leaders were murdered in 2018 and four have been murdered since the start of the New Year. At the same time, the US is cosying up to Bolsonaro, their new friend and ally in Brazil.
The NICA Act has little to do with US concern for human rights, democracy and the rule of law and everything to do with escalating the Trump administration regime change agenda and the desire of the US to assert its dominance over the whole Central America region. On 27 November 2018 Donald Trump stated: 'I, Donald Trump, find that the situation in Nicaragua...........constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.'
NSCAG has written to the US Ambassador to the UK condemning attempts by the US Government to undermine Nicaragua's democracy and sovereignty. The text of the letter can be found here
