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A Victory For "low-intensity Warfare" In Nicaragua

A Victory For "low-intensity Warfare" In Nicaragua image A Victory For "low-intensity Warfare" In Nicaragua image
Parent Issue
Month
April
Year
1990
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Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
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Agenda Publications
OCR Text

On February 25 Nicaraguans went to the polls in what has been judged the cleanest and freest election in the history of Latin America. The election was the culmination of months of open campaigning by every political party. Vote casting and counting took place under close scrutiny by thousands of international observers. But it is another question whether the context existed for "fair" elections to be held.

Since the Sandinista revolution of 1979, Nicaragua has been the target of a concerted campaign of U.S. aggression on all fronts - a strategy known as intensity warfare." From 1 980-88 the U .S .-funded contra war caused 29,270 Nicaraguan deaths, 1 8,000 wounded and 10,500 kidnapped or captured. Over one-third of the victims have been civilians.

During that same time period, the economic costs to Nicaragua are estimated by the Nicaraguan government at over $9 billion. If, as calculated in the case Nicaragua won against the U.S . in the International Court of Justice, damages to social development, sovereignty, compensation for dead and wounded and moral damages are included, the total is $17.8 billion. The only monies the U.S. has returned to Nicaragua are the millions of dollars it stuff ed into UNO's coffers.

As specified in the Nicaraguan constitution, elections were scheduled for November 1990. In accordance with the Central America Peace Plan, Nicaragua advanced its election date to February 1990. Nicaragua viewed the Peace Plan as a possible forum for negotiating an end to the U.S. war and therefore fully complied with every provision therein. The demobilization of the contras, however, was another component of the Peace Plan. In direct violation of this, the U.S. government continued funding the contras and opposed any attempts at their demobilization. This enabled the contras to sustain acts of tenor in the countryside, to intimidate Sandinista supporters, and to campaign for UNO at the barrel of a gun. It also forced the Nicaraguan government to carry out elections during war time - a very unusual practice.

"Free and fair" elections had been the Bush administration's stated precondition for ending the contra war and lifting the trade embargo against Nicaragua. Just days before the election, as an FSLN victory appeared imminent, Bush reneged on his promise. He stated that a "free and fair" election would not necessarily produce those results, but that Nicaragua would have to exhibit unspecified "good behavior" for an undetermined period of time and meet other conditions before seeing an end to the war.

Thus, Nicaraguans, weary after decades of U.S.-funded aggression (including the Somoza years) chose to alleviate their suffering and voted for UNO. Now the Washington pundits are gloating over their "victory." The Republicans claim that through the contra war they brought democracy to Nicaragua. The Democrats claim that by ending "military" aid to the contras and pursuing "diplomatic" means, they brought democracy to Nicaragua. Both, however, are wrong. It was the Nicaraguan people, led by the Frente Sandinista, who brought democracy to Nicaragua beginning in 1979. The U.S. government has done everything possible to subvert that process.

The "victory" won by the Republicans and Democrats was for low-intensity warfare. They demonstrated that if you murder, maim and starve enough people, you can get your candidate elected. Such a "victory" is not worthy of celebration.

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