For news on Nicaragua don't turn to The "Real News Network".
Resisting knowledge for the sake of righteousness is ignorance.
Recently one of my critics sent me a clip from The Real News Network in an effort to debunk what
he calls my “bias” about Nicaragua. This is a person who believes that it is improper for citizens of
the USA to criticize Venezuela and Nicaragua because of our past Cold War intervention in Latin
America as well as what he classifies as our neo-liberal agenda that causes poverty in the region. I will
address this criticism today, as well as discuss the video that this critic sent me point by point.
he calls my “bias” about Nicaragua. This is a person who believes that it is improper for citizens of
the USA to criticize Venezuela and Nicaragua because of our past Cold War intervention in Latin
America as well as what he classifies as our neo-liberal agenda that causes poverty in the region. I will
address this criticism today, as well as discuss the video that this critic sent me point by point.
First let me show the text of this person's criticism:
The Real News had an interesting piece on Nicaragua.
I'll just state again that I understand Razor [Me] wants so bad for me to play his dumb "my side vs your side" game w/ Nicaragua. That's not my perspective, I try to gather information and understand the situation better.
I fundamentally think differently. It seems to me that Razor and many like him have an ideology, and seek out info which supports that ideology. You wind up with these absurd ideas that there are "bad guys" so the "other side" is good guys by default, etc... That is seldom reality.
Well I regret to inform this gentleman that he has actually gathered information from the most partisan side possible.
Gregory Wilpert on Nicaragua
Gregory Wilpert, aside from working on TRNN is also the creator of venezuealaanylisis.com. This website is an explicitly pro-government media outlet, and even lists a section of solidarity groups. The organization also shares content freely from MintPress News which is an pro-Iranian press outlet from Minnesota. They also share articles - without any comment or editorial change - from TeleSUR TV. Here for example is one from the blogger “Tortilla con Sal” (Salt tortilla) saying “Venezuela, Nicaragua - One enemy, one fight for democracy”. When you look up who Tortilla con Sal is from TeleSUR’s website, this is their description:
"Tortilla con Sal is an anti-imperialist collective based in Nicaragua producing information in
various media on national, regional and international affairs. In Nicaragua, we work closely with
grass roots community organizations and cooperatives. We strongly support the policies of sovereign
national development and regional integration based on peace and solidarity promoted by the
member countries of ALBA."
various media on national, regional and international affairs. In Nicaragua, we work closely with
grass roots community organizations and cooperatives. We strongly support the policies of sovereign
national development and regional integration based on peace and solidarity promoted by the
member countries of ALBA."
ALBA is the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, the regional bloc of states headed
by Venezuela in Caracas that happens to include all of the members of the governing countries of
TeleSUR. So this is the independent media that Wilpert features on his so-called news website?
This is the type of content that TRNN features in order to comment on Venezuela and Nicaragua
related stories? And what about Wilpert himself? He happens to be married to Carol Delgado Arria,
who is the Venezuelan Ambassador to Ecuador since 2014. Delgado also used to be Venezuela’s
Consul General in New York according to the Venezuela embassy website profile of her. The
same profile lists her as having graduated with a degree in international relations and gender
studies at The New School, one of the most expensive private institutions in New York City popular
among Marxists including their noted economist Richard Wolff, also a guest on the Empire Files.
by Venezuela in Caracas that happens to include all of the members of the governing countries of
TeleSUR. So this is the independent media that Wilpert features on his so-called news website?
This is the type of content that TRNN features in order to comment on Venezuela and Nicaragua
related stories? And what about Wilpert himself? He happens to be married to Carol Delgado Arria,
who is the Venezuelan Ambassador to Ecuador since 2014. Delgado also used to be Venezuela’s
Consul General in New York according to the Venezuela embassy website profile of her. The
same profile lists her as having graduated with a degree in international relations and gender
studies at The New School, one of the most expensive private institutions in New York City popular
among Marxists including their noted economist Richard Wolff, also a guest on the Empire Files.
The Guests
Let’s examine the two guests that Wilpert features. One of them is Trevor Evans from the Regional Centre for Economic and Social Research (CRIES), which was formerly located in Managua, Nicaragua.
The other panelist is well-known anti-war activist and conscientious objector Camilo Ernesto MejÃa, the son of Carlos MejÃa Godoy, a former Sandinista songwriter and now an opposition politician. According to the Miami New Times, Mejia became estranged from his father when his parents separated at five months old and his mother took him and his brother to New York City. She later became a mistress to Camilo Ortega, the brother of Daniel Ortega, the current president of Nicaragua, who was killed during the Sandinista Revolution. His father served in the National Assembly under the Sandinistas and the family lived in relative affluence to the rest of the country until 1991 when Ortega was defeated in an election by Violeta Chamorro and the revolution ended. They then moved to Miami where Mejia would eventually join the military in 1995. In 2004, in the wake of a tour of duty in Iraq, Mejia applied for conscientious objector status, was declined and eventually court martialed for deserting. He now lives in Miami and regularly shares his support for the FSLN.
In contrast to Camilo Mejia, his father Carlos is now protesting against the Sandinistas including this video of him outside El Chipote for the release of the son-in-law of his singing partner Milciades Pavón.
VIDEO Analysis
4:48 - Camilo Mejia: “So U.S. involvement in those, in this whole picture, has been completely
left out of the analysis”. What is left out of this entire analysis is the involvement of several other
countries, not the United States. Let’s not even talk about Venezuela. How about China? In 2013,
the nation’s Hong Kong Nicaragua Development Group (HKND) agreed with the newly reelected
Ortega government to build a new canal between Nicaragua’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts that would
dwarf and rival the Panama Canal. This proposal would have created according to the government
250,000 jobs, although in reality half of them would be taken by Chinese construction workers. By
2016, there were already protests by farmers being threatened with the seizure of their lands by the
Ortega government.
left out of the analysis”. What is left out of this entire analysis is the involvement of several other
countries, not the United States. Let’s not even talk about Venezuela. How about China? In 2013,
the nation’s Hong Kong Nicaragua Development Group (HKND) agreed with the newly reelected
Ortega government to build a new canal between Nicaragua’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts that would
dwarf and rival the Panama Canal. This proposal would have created according to the government
250,000 jobs, although in reality half of them would be taken by Chinese construction workers. By
2016, there were already protests by farmers being threatened with the seizure of their lands by the
Ortega government.
Then in February 2018, following a bettering of ties between Panama and China, the funding of the
Nicaragua Canal project and HKND chairman Wang Jing suddenly ran out of funds and the project
has appears to have been cancelled. This is after Ortega had promised to have the Canal operational
by 2020. To claim that the Nicaragua protests are exclusively due to a botched social security and
income tax reform is to whitewash the past five years of Ortega’s rule, including his most famous
failure, the Nicaraguan Canal. In fact, there are sources now claiming that Wang never intended to
construct the canal, and that he deceived Ortega’s government by claiming that he was backed by the
Chinese government.
Nicaragua Canal project and HKND chairman Wang Jing suddenly ran out of funds and the project
has appears to have been cancelled. This is after Ortega had promised to have the Canal operational
by 2020. To claim that the Nicaragua protests are exclusively due to a botched social security and
income tax reform is to whitewash the past five years of Ortega’s rule, including his most famous
failure, the Nicaraguan Canal. In fact, there are sources now claiming that Wang never intended to
construct the canal, and that he deceived Ortega’s government by claiming that he was backed by the
Chinese government.
5:53 - Mejia: I think it’s really important also to look at the history of Nicaragua and the United
States. Sandinismo in particular, which started with the fight of Gen. Sandino back in the late ’20s
and ’30s, first expelled the Marines from the country, and then led to a movement that overthrew a
40-year dictatorship supported by the United States. The Sandinistas then called for elections not
even six years after winning power through armed struggle, and then later lost the election, and the
1990 election. And then were able to come back from loss through a series of deals that they made
with the church and with the business sector, and were able to go back into power and bring back
a lot of the benefits that had been cut out by neoliberal governments of the past 15 years prior to the
Sandinista government.
Sandino never expelled the Marines, they were withdrawn after a new presidential election in
Nicaragua, approved of by the US government in 1933. It had been announced in 1932 by Secretary of
State Henry Stimson. He was then killed in 1934 by the National Guard under Anastasio
Somoza GarcÃa and his movement was extinguished. The Sandinista National Liberation Front was
only founded in 1961 by Carlos Fonseca, and is not directly affiliated with Sandino. This is not to say
that it was a good, moral, or correct thing that Sandino was killed by a US-backed regime, but it’s a f
actual correction of a clear error that MejÃa makes that he should probably know is wrong.
States. Sandinismo in particular, which started with the fight of Gen. Sandino back in the late ’20s
and ’30s, first expelled the Marines from the country, and then led to a movement that overthrew a
40-year dictatorship supported by the United States. The Sandinistas then called for elections not
even six years after winning power through armed struggle, and then later lost the election, and the
1990 election. And then were able to come back from loss through a series of deals that they made
with the church and with the business sector, and were able to go back into power and bring back
a lot of the benefits that had been cut out by neoliberal governments of the past 15 years prior to the
Sandinista government.
Sandino never expelled the Marines, they were withdrawn after a new presidential election in
Nicaragua, approved of by the US government in 1933. It had been announced in 1932 by Secretary of
State Henry Stimson. He was then killed in 1934 by the National Guard under Anastasio
Somoza GarcÃa and his movement was extinguished. The Sandinista National Liberation Front was
only founded in 1961 by Carlos Fonseca, and is not directly affiliated with Sandino. This is not to say
that it was a good, moral, or correct thing that Sandino was killed by a US-backed regime, but it’s a f
actual correction of a clear error that MejÃa makes that he should probably know is wrong.
7:30 - Wilpert: “And also we have to take into account that Nicaragua has been one of the fastest
growing economies in recent years, between 2010 and 2017 growing by 5 percent per year.”
growing economies in recent years, between 2010 and 2017 growing by 5 percent per year.”
This is very simplistic. In fact, under Ortega Nicaragua’s GDP growth has fluctuated dramatically.
In fact, until 2012 Nicaragua had had over 6.5% growth and by 2017 it had sunk to less than 5%.
However, if you average out the growth rates over 8 years you get 5% annual growth. And again,
this is ignoring the unrest caused by the Nicaraguan Canal.
8:30 - Evans: “He then changed the Constitution, and stood yet again in 2016 with his wife as vice
president. So this is a very irregular system that really doesn’t accord with the original provisions
of the Constitution.” This is where I agree. Typically the left proclaims publicly that they reject the idea
of nepotism where family members get granted power. Yet here we see Ortega nominating his own
wife to be vice president. We’ve also seen this happen with Maria Gabriela Chavez, the daughter of
Hugo Chavez and the richest woman in Venezuela who became the Venezuelan Ambassador to the
UN following his death. Until then she had been living in the Miraflores presidential palace.
president. So this is a very irregular system that really doesn’t accord with the original provisions
of the Constitution.” This is where I agree. Typically the left proclaims publicly that they reject the idea
of nepotism where family members get granted power. Yet here we see Ortega nominating his own
wife to be vice president. We’ve also seen this happen with Maria Gabriela Chavez, the daughter of
Hugo Chavez and the richest woman in Venezuela who became the Venezuelan Ambassador to the
UN following his death. Until then she had been living in the Miraflores presidential palace.
9:00 - Evans - “Since he came back to office in 2007, and the economy, as you say, has grown, it was
initially hit by the world crisis 2008-2009, but since 2010 it has grown, and it’s one of the
fastest-growing economies in Latin America. But if you look at what’s happened to living standards,
it’s difficult to get reliable figures, but if you look at the figures for workers who are in the pension
scheme, their wages expressed in dollars have been rising at about 1 percent a year since 2010.
The economy’s been growing at 5 percent. So some of the difference will have gone to a big commercial
sector.”
initially hit by the world crisis 2008-2009, but since 2010 it has grown, and it’s one of the
fastest-growing economies in Latin America. But if you look at what’s happened to living standards,
it’s difficult to get reliable figures, but if you look at the figures for workers who are in the pension
scheme, their wages expressed in dollars have been rising at about 1 percent a year since 2010.
The economy’s been growing at 5 percent. So some of the difference will have gone to a big commercial
sector.”
Once again, one of the panelists brings up the issue of Nicaragua’s supposedly burgeoning economic
growth and comparing it favourably with the rest of Latin America. The fact of the matter is however
that if compared with just the rest of Central America it is rather unimpressive, and in fact is trailing
behind Panama. As the World Bank graph below shows, however, Nicaragua’s annual growth was
rising up until Ortega came into power, dipped along with the rest of the world during the Great
Recession, and then spiked again under his rule until 2011.
growth and comparing it favourably with the rest of Latin America. The fact of the matter is however
that if compared with just the rest of Central America it is rather unimpressive, and in fact is trailing
behind Panama. As the World Bank graph below shows, however, Nicaragua’s annual growth was
rising up until Ortega came into power, dipped along with the rest of the world during the Great
Recession, and then spiked again under his rule until 2011.
And indeed if you look at the total size of these economies, Nicaragua’s remains the smallest in all of
Central America, with just a fifth of the total GDP of Guatemala.
Central America, with just a fifth of the total GDP of Guatemala.
Nicaragua also dramatically trailed the rest of Central America in Per Capita GDP during those six
years. The average Nicaraguan earns less than a sixth of what the average Panamanian does in one
year ($2,151.40 vs. $13,680.20). In terms of this statistic Nicaragua outpaces the rest of Central
America, but only because of an economic slowdown in Panama. With the new canal deal with China
signed, it is very likely that Panama’s economy will rebound this year.
years. The average Nicaraguan earns less than a sixth of what the average Panamanian does in one
year ($2,151.40 vs. $13,680.20). In terms of this statistic Nicaragua outpaces the rest of Central
America, but only because of an economic slowdown in Panama. With the new canal deal with China
signed, it is very likely that Panama’s economy will rebound this year.
9:45 - Evans - “But above all, it’s, it’s the rich. It’s the bourgeoisie, the landed class, who have since
invested in agriculture, industry, and banking, who has done very, very well out of this. And Ortega
himself is reputed to have made quite a lot of money, as have some of the other Sandinista leaders,
although nothing on the scale of Nicaragua’s richest man, who’s [inaudible] to have a fortune of
about two and a half [billion]. But it does mean that most people have not done all that well out of
this, and most families have survived by having at least one person who’s gone to the United States
or Costa Rica in order to work and send home money.”
invested in agriculture, industry, and banking, who has done very, very well out of this. And Ortega
himself is reputed to have made quite a lot of money, as have some of the other Sandinista leaders,
although nothing on the scale of Nicaragua’s richest man, who’s [inaudible] to have a fortune of
about two and a half [billion]. But it does mean that most people have not done all that well out of
this, and most families have survived by having at least one person who’s gone to the United States
or Costa Rica in order to work and send home money.”
OK, so let’s get this clear, the people that have most benefited from Ortega’s tenure as president are
in his words the bourgeoisie, the landed class, and the rich. Therefore, why would they want to
overthrow him? Shouldn’t they be happy for him to stay in power? This statement by Evans, who
himself penned a piece analyzing the disintegration of the Nicaraguan system from a left-wing
perspective, includes an admission that Ortega has profited from his time in power, and instead of it
benefiting the poor many of them have to migrate elsewhere including to the United States.
in his words the bourgeoisie, the landed class, and the rich. Therefore, why would they want to
overthrow him? Shouldn’t they be happy for him to stay in power? This statement by Evans, who
himself penned a piece analyzing the disintegration of the Nicaraguan system from a left-wing
perspective, includes an admission that Ortega has profited from his time in power, and instead of it
benefiting the poor many of them have to migrate elsewhere including to the United States.
10:18 - Evans - “So despite this growth, most people have not done very well out out of the economy.
And on top of that, they’ve seen Ortega appearing to manipulate the election results. In 2016, the last
presidential election, a large number of people didn’t vote. And the figures are controversial, but all
reports indicate that many of the voting booths didn’t have queues outside as they normally would.
So people have been distancing themselves from Ortega, from the government. And it appears that
even people who have traditionally supported Ortega and the Sandinistas didn’t go to vote in 2016,
because Ortega a couple of months before the election got the electoral court to strip the main
opposition coalition of its right to stand. So it was, it was a clear, uncontested win for him.”
And on top of that, they’ve seen Ortega appearing to manipulate the election results. In 2016, the last
presidential election, a large number of people didn’t vote. And the figures are controversial, but all
reports indicate that many of the voting booths didn’t have queues outside as they normally would.
So people have been distancing themselves from Ortega, from the government. And it appears that
even people who have traditionally supported Ortega and the Sandinistas didn’t go to vote in 2016,
because Ortega a couple of months before the election got the electoral court to strip the main
opposition coalition of its right to stand. So it was, it was a clear, uncontested win for him.”
There’s nothing Evans says that vindicates the current government of Nicaragua, and I do credit
Gregory Wilpert for having him on. However, notice the central points that he makes to summarize
this segment:
Gregory Wilpert for having him on. However, notice the central points that he makes to summarize
this segment:
- The economic growth in Nicaragua is largely benefiting the rich.
- The last election did not draw wide participation in Nicaragua, and in fact to back up Evans doubting its integrity the Carter Center which is relied upon typically to monitor elections was barred entry to the country in 2016 according to its own press release.
to be able to run for unlimited terms was not his only power grab. In 2016 the Nicaraguan
Electoral Council sacked 28 members of Congress from the opposition because they refused to let
Ortega’s friendly supreme court appoint an Ortega crony as their party leader. In every possible way
Ortega has reversed the separation of powers reforms done under his successor from his first term in
the 1990s, Violeta Chamorro.
I'd like to thank my critic for giving me the opportunity to show him how actual research
is done. Many of the sources I have used in here are actual Latin American news and
media, as opposed to a supposedly "independent" news network from Baltimore. And if
you think that I used those quotation marks by mistake, prepare for my next segment.
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