editorial at/@
tortillaconsal punto/dot com
MANIFESTO : In
Defence of Nicaragua
Most of Latin America is in the process of irreversible change
Its peoples have elected governments that have taken the path of independence, dignity and sovereignty to shake off foreign tutelage that has submerged the region for centuries in misery and repression by force of arms.
In November 2006, the Nicaraguan people elected the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) to direct its destiny and from January 2007 the new government has taken up again the process of self-determination begun on July 19th 1979 which had been abandoned for 17 years by three neo-liberal, capitalist, anti-democratic, anti-nationalist governments.
Nicaragua has recovered its national dignity with a government independent of the imperial powers, one which again places the most impoverished at the center of its development policies.
As part of this process, Nicaragua has joined the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and with the generous support of many peoples and governments, especially Cuba and Venezuela, the Sandinista government has set up various programs by means of which the Nicaraguan people have recovered a great deal of their social and economic rights, broadening the possibilities for socialist, democratic national progress.
But just as happened during the 1980s, when the United States launched its war of aggression against the Nicaraguan people and the Sandinista Popular Revolution, today Nicaragua has to face a ruthless campaign of lies and blackmail promoted from Washington and various European capitals, using the methods of information counter-insurgency, within a low intensity war, with the objective of blocking Nicaragua's independent development under the leadership of the government of President Daniel Ortega.
This campaign has surged in recent months with the objective of discrediting the unquestionable and categorical electoral victory of the FSLN in the municipal elections of November 9th last, when Nicaraguans validated with their votes their support for the country's new direction.
This campaign has reached the extreme of suspending development aid to the Nicaraguan people. It is unacceptable that the governments of developed countries should use as a political weapon for imperialist domination the money their own peoples assign to the most impoverished countries.
For all of these reasons, we free women and men who believe Another World is Possible, declare:
1. Our unconditional support for the right of the Nicaraguan people to self determination and national sovereignty, without foreign interference of any kind.
2. Our support for the independent, sovereign, popular, course taken by the FSLN government, led by President Daniel Ortega.
3. Our delight at the Sandinista victory in 105 out of 146 municipal authorities in this year's municipal elections.
We reject and condemn:
1. Foreign interference in Nicaragua's internal affairs.
2. The policy of blackmail used by the governments of the United States and the European Union.
3. The campaign of lies promoted by the international (dis)information corporations and multinationals.
We encourage:
1. All the world's peoples, especially in North America and Europe, to renew their links of friendship with Nicaragua, pressuring their respective governments to increase the sums destined to eradicate poverty in Nicaragua and to oblige them to desist from interfering in the internal affairs of the Nicaraguan people.
2. Social communicators, especially in alternative communications media, to break the silence on the situation in Nicaragua and to actively inform in a truthful, independent way on what is really happening in Nicaragua and the Central American region.
3. The progressive and independent governments of Latin America and the world to show their unrestricted solidarity with the Nicaraguan people and its legitimate, democratically elected government.
December 19th 2008