Nicaragua: Open US Interference

http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2006/oct27especialnicaragua.htm

ACN - Cuban News Agency
Havana Cuba
Oct. 28, 2006

Nicaragua: Open US Interference

By Noelia Tiuna

ACN Special Service

"We wish to inform the US citizens that,
in light of the Nicaraguan elections on
November 5, demonstrations and
sporadic acts of violence are possible in
the country´s major cities."

The declaration was made by the US State
Department, which also announced that "at
the moment, the place and intensity of the
protests and demonstrations are
unpredictable."

"There could tear gas, rubber bullets,
homemade explosives, rock throwing,
burning of tires and cars and blocked
streets," read the statement, adding
that disturbances "could take place
during the elections and over the
following days."

This virtual threat is the most recent
act of US interference in Nicaragua´s
presidential campaign and elections
for its National Assembly and the
country´s deputies to the Central
American Parliament.

The process that has unfolded so far
has been peaceful, though the George
W. Bush administration seems
interested in seeing violence effect
the outcome of the balloting.

Washington has a vicious attitude towards
the Sandinista National Liberation Front,
says Jaime Morales, currently the United
Alliance candidate for the vice presidency.

That FSLN candidate and former president
Daniel Ortega are currently ahead in the
polls as the leaders of a coalition that has
been expanding as the election date
approaches.

While the other candidates are using
criticism of the Sandinistas as their main
message, Ortega has presented an appeal
based on reconciliation and unity, with a
social agenda that opposes free-market
"neo-liberal" recipes.

In the US State Department there reigns
intense concern, which is why special
American envoys are being sent to
Managua. The most recent US
representative was former Lt. Colonel
Oliver North, who said that the
Nicaraguan people should not vote for
the Sandinistas.

In a recent videoconference from the
US capital, Commerce Secretary
Carlos Gutierrez also intervened in
the affair warning of the consequences
of an eventual triumph of Daniel
Ortega and threatening US intervention.

US Ambassador Paul Trivelli is serving
as the proconsul before the submissive
government of President Enrique Bolaños,
whose presidential candidate is banker
Eduardo Montealegre -the favourite of the
US embassy. Trivelli has failed in his
attempt to unify the right wing.

He is betting all or nothing hoping for
a second round vote should the Sandinista
candidate be unable to attract 40 per cent
of the votes, or 35 percent and a 5 percent
advantage over second place candidate,
which is necessary by law to win the
presidency in the first round.

Another American in Managua publicly
called for the unity of the
anti-Sandinistas. Congressman Dan
Burton, sponsor of the anti-Cuban
Helms Burton Act, was in Nicaragua
to rub elbows with the nation´s elite,
just like in the old days of Reagan
and Bush Sr.

The interventionism of the Bush
administration´s main figures has
been so evident that the Organization of
American States has been forced to issue
two communiqués, both of which were
completely ignored by the White House.

What is the most paradoxical is that
hundreds of US citizens residing in
Nicaragua issued a statement
condemning Washington´s intervention
in the country.

A response came quickly from the
State Department, whose declaration
calls for violence, the same type of
force that Washington imposed in the
Central American nation to destroy
the Sandinista Revolution.

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