Anatomy of a Lie - the Irish Times on Nicaragua

Stephen Sefton, November 1st 2019

Starting on July 19th 2019, the Irish Times published a two-part report (Part 1 here and Part 2 here) by Michael McCaughan on events in Nicaragua during the failed coup attempt of 2018.

I complained to the Irish Times editor that McCaughan's report falsely portrayed the Nicaraguan government as using extreme violence against peaceful protests when the very opposite was the case. Nicaraguan opposition activists were overwhelmingly responsible for the deaths, injuries and destruction that occurred between April 18th and July 17th 2018.

McCaughan and his editors took the trouble to reply, McCaughan repeating the fundamental lie that the Nicaraguan government was responsible for most of the violence.

So I complained to the Irish Press Ombudsman who considered all the material included here below and concluded that he had insufficient evidence to be able to either reject or to uphold the complaint.

For my part, I consider this entirely reasonable finding to vindicate my complaint.

The Irish Times report on Nicaragua by Michael McCaughan was grossly misleading and fundamentally deceitful. 

In the subsequent exchange with me, McCaughan made very clear that he completely failed to

• interview any of the widowed partners of the 22 police officers killed by the opposition or any of the other almost two hundred families bereaved as a result of opposition violence, only interviewing opposition supporters
• interview any of the hundreds of municipal workers, teachers, health workers wounded or abused by opposition activists
• interview any of the hundreds of victims of abuse and torture at the hands of opposition activists
• cite any of the hundreds of reports and articles in English or Spanish by journalists and writers categorically exposing opposition media lies
• refer to any of the dozens of videos documenting opposition violence (a great many posted by opposition activists themselves)
• report on any of the dozens of cases of destruction of schools, colleges, university buildings, police stations, ambulances, hospitals, municipal town halls and other infrastructure.

Instead McCaughan's report  recycled material from reports by the OAS and its bodies that themselves are second-hand accounts repeating opposition lies after having done nothing to verify them by comparing them with first-hand accounts from victims of opposition violence. He also refers to reports by Amnesty International that have been demonstrated to be hopelessly biased as well as incompetent and false.

Michael McCaughan and his editors completely failed to do due diligence in composing and editing their report

The Irish Times reports by McCaughan, like the reports by the OAS, the UNHCHR or Amnesty International are cynical, incompetent and dishonest because they completely exclude first hand accounts of the events in question that contradict their accounts.

Here is the complete exchange with the Irish Times plus the notes I sent to the Irish Press Ombudsman explaining my complaint.

Concerned people can make up their own mind, something they cannot do by reading the Irish Times or Amnesty International.

For the record, I am very grateful to the Irish Press Ombudsman and his colleagues for dealing very fairly with what must have been an unusual case from their point of view.
 

E-mail to the Irish Times editor July 30th 2019

Complaint on Irish Times Michael McCaughan report on Nicaragua

Dear Mr O’Neill,

I am writing to complain about the Irish Times two part report on Nicaragua, “A Revolution Gone Wrong” by Michael McCaughan published starting on July 19th.

Although I am an Irish citizen, I have lived in Nicaragua for the last 25 years in the city of Estelí. Among other community development work, I coordinate a media collective here in Nicaragua which has reported on Nicaragua’s politics, economy and society since 2008.

I am accustomed to anti-Sandinista bias in Western media outlets, which usually stays within the limits of what passes these days for conventional journalism. But I was genuinely dismayed and disappointed by the outright misrepresentation by McCaughan of the events in Nicaragua during and after the outbreak of violent anti-government demonstrations that began on April 18th. My wife and myself lived through these events, in which three people we knew were killed.

One, Orlando Perez, was a young student protester who died after suffering fatal injuries caused by persons unknown during an extremely violent attack by hundreds of protesters on Estelí’s municipal town hall. The other two, Miguel Ramos and Lenin Mendiola, friends of my wife, were shot dead in cold blood by opposition gunmen.

Also, a good friend, Wilson Ordoñez, who is a police officer, was shot in the leg on May 30th 2018 by an opposition gunman. Wilson was unarmed at the time.

My main complaint is that your report entirely covers up the fact that, in 2018, Nicaragua’s political opposition used vicious, very often lethal armed violence, sometimes indiscriminate, sometimes carefully targeted, in an attempt to terrorize the general population and overthrow the country’s legitimate authorities.

McCaughan’s account systematically omits this absolutely essential fact, fundamental for anyone seeking to understand the events he purports to report.

Specifically, he omits any reference to authoritative documentary reports and witness testimony as well as opposition social media content, including hundreds of videos, that contradict the impression conveyed by your report of unprovoked indiscriminate government repression. This abundant evidence categorically demonstrates that, among a great many other facts your report omits:

• up until the end of July 2018 a total of 22 police officers were killed by armed opposition activists • apart from a great number of non-partisan bystanders, at least 40 more people identified as Sandinista supporters and were killed by opposition activists, • many hundreds of Sandinista sympathizers were detained, physically, abused and tortured by armed opposition activists operating barricades and roadblocks as well as mounting armed attacks across the country • tens of thousands of people with no political involvement seeking to go about their normal lives, to work, study, attend hospital appointments and so on were intimidated, physically abused and either extorted or robbed by armed opposition activists blockading city streets and main highways • to avoid more serious loss of life, the government removed the police from the streets, confining them to their barracks as a sign of good faith so as to promote peaceful dialogue with opposition leaders • heavily armed opposition activists attacked police stations, most notoriously in Masaya, Jinotepe, Nagarote, Mulukuku and Morrito • armed opposition attacks caused over US$400 million of damage to public infrastructure including schools and hospitals, vocational training centers, police stations and government offices, as well as vehicles, equipment and machinery.

By systematically omitting these and numerous other vital facts, your report in effect repeats extremely dishonest and damaging opposition propaganda, denying your readers a true and fair view of events in Nicaragua during the period in question. It is important to note that this fundamental complaint is borne out also by errors of fact in McCaughan’s report, for example, among many others

• Very clear evidence in relation to the murder of Angel Gahona established that he suffered two impacts from metal pellets fired from a home-made gun, one to his head killed him. That same attack caused serious injury to a senior police officer nearby in whose company Gahona had been reporting opposition violence in Bluefields. McCaughan misreports this incident by omitting the wounding of the police officer and claiming that Gahona was shot by a single sniper’s bullet. On the evidence, that is a baseless falsehood.

• McCaughan’s report also retails the baseless opposition falsehood that by September 2018, 60000 Nicaraguans were exiled in Costa Rica. The Costa Rican migratory authorities stated in August 2018 that between June and mid August of 2018 a total of around 25,000 Nicaraguans asked for refugee status in Costa Rica, where well over 300,000 Nicaraguans live and work. How many of those requests were from undocumented Nicaraguans already living in Costa Rica is unknown. Costa Rica’s economy depends on Nicaraguan labor, both documented and undocumented. The opposition’s invented figure of 60,000, retailed uncritically by McCaughan, has no factual basis.

• Another error in your report by Michael McCaughan is that he writes of “a government amnesty which wiped the slate of all investigations into the violence”, giving the impression that the June 8th amnesty approved by Nicaragua’s legislature was unconditional. That is completely inaccurate, as anyone reading the extremely brief legislative measure would know. The amnesty is conditional on each beneficiary signing an agreement not to re-offend. Should they re-offend, the sentences of those convicted will be reimposed and those amnestied while awaiting trial or pending investigation will have those processes reopened.

These are just three of the numerous errors of fact in your two-part report indicating an unacceptable failure by both your reporter, Michael McCaughan, and your editors, to do due diligence. Given the attention your report gave to events in Masaya, McCaughan’s suppression of the heinous murder by sadistic armed opposition activists of police officer Gabriel de Jesus Vado Ruiz was particularly venal. But you too failed in your editorial duty to ensure you publish as fair and responsible an account as possible of the events the Irish Times reports, in this case concerning Nicaragua.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Sefton

*******

E-mail from the Irish Times August 20th 2019

Dear Mr Sefton,

Please forgive the delay in replying; I was away from the office. I asked Michael McCaughan to respond to the points you raised and his response is attached. Yours sincerely, Eoin McVey,

Readers’ Representative.
Eoin McVey | Editor's Office | The Irish Times
 

*******

Michael McCaughan's notes in response to the complaint

August 20th 2018

Response to letter of complaint from Stephen Sefton: Mr Sefton’s complaint is based on the premise that the crisis in Nicaragua was triggered by “the outbreak of violent anti-government demonstrations that began on April 18” but this is not a view shared by any of the independent human rights groups who have studied these events. For a thorough account of the initial protests and the government response see

https://gieinicaragua.org/giei-content/uploads/2019/05/GIEI_REPORT_ENGL… p81-86. Individual Cases Mr Sefton provides an alternative account for several individual cases.

He alleges that Orlando Perez “was a young student protester who died after suffering fatal injuries caused by persons unknown during an extremely violent attack by hundreds of protesters on Estelí’s municipal town hall.” The report from the OAS’ Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (cited above, here p96) confirms that the protests in Estelí were peaceful and the violent response of the state was unprovoked. There is also clear evidence of coordination between state officials and pro-government armed paramilitary groups. On 19th August, the day before Orlando Perez was killed, Amnesty International “was able to confirm that ... a person dressed in civilian clothes fired a semi-automatic weapon at people demonstrating in the central park in the city of Estelí. The images show how, immediately afterwards, riot police appeared just a few metres from the shooter as he left the park apparently unhindered. The testimonies collected noted that the shooter belonged to a pro-government armed group.”

Mr Sefton claims that “very clear evidence in relation to the murder of Angel Gahona established that he suffered two impacts from metal pellets fired from a home-made gun.” Mr Sefton does not specify what this clear evidence is, but presumably he is referring to the prosecution’s case against Brandon Slate and Glen Lovo (accused of murdering Angel Gahona). In fact, the GIEI report found multiple irregularities in the evidence presented at trial, including serious flaws in the gathering of forensic evidence. Further, the prosecution’s claims about the trajectory of the bullet and positioning of the shooter contradicted the evidence of the ballistics expert. Because of this, the GIEI report states that “it is clear that prosecution’s case theory was not proven.”

In addition, the government failed to follow up significant information regarding Gahona’s final days/weeks: his news programme was shut down the day before his death and Gahona himself denounced a number of death threats he had received in previous weeks. Gahona’s colleague, fellow journalist Ileana Lacayo, was accused of being the ‘intellectual author’ of the killing, without any evidence whatsoever. In the current atmosphere of police harassment and intimidation, Lacayo had no choice but to leave Nicaragua and seek asylum elsewhere.

Mr Sefton also suggests that “Miguel Ramos and Lenin Mendiola, friends of my wife, were shot dead in cold blood by opposition gunmen.”

The exact circumstances of Lenin Diaz Mendiola’s death remain unclear, but Mr Sefton’s confidence about the cause of his death is unwarranted. Five Nicaraguan citizens were charged with his murder, but again there were irregularities in the conduct of their trial (for example, video evidence that showed one of the accused unarmed and running away from the scene when shots were fired was ruled inadmissible). Miguel Ramos was a member of a pro-government paramilitary group. The independent news channel 100% Noticias described him as ‘the head of the paramilitaries’ in Estelí. It is likely that he was killed by a protestor.

Characterization of the crisis

My original articles made it clear that isolated acts of violence were attributed to protestors but that the Nicaraguan state was responsible for the bulk of the violence. This position is shared by a range of international human rights organisations, as stated in the 19th July article:

“In July 2018 the government allowed the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), to investigate the violence. They concluded that violence perpetrated by state security forces was systematic and sanctioned from above while ‘isolated acts of violence’ by protestors ‘invariably occurred as a reaction to the repression,’ notably when troops stormed barricades inside towns and university campuses.”

Mr Sefton states that his “main complaint is that your report entirely covers up the fact that, in 2018, Nicaragua’s political opposition used vicious, very often lethal armed violence, sometimes indiscriminate, sometimes carefully targeted, in an attempt to terrorize the general population and overthrow the country’s legitimate authorities.”

However, his assessment runs counter to the views of Amnesty International, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, amongst others. Further, Mr Sefton does not provide any credible evidence in his letter for his characterization of the crisis.

Attacks on Police Officers

Mr Sefton suggests that “22 police officers were killed by armed opposition activists”. Police officers were indeed killed, and I included these deaths among the list of casualties affected by the violence. However, Mr Sefton’s claim that all of these officers were killed by armed opposition activists is not credible.

For example, Faber Lopez, a police officer, was shot dead on July 8, 2018. Fatima Vivas, his mother, demanded an inquiry, stating that her son had told her he had begged to be allowed quit the force after refusing to join the repression. Amnesty International reports that Lopez ‘called a relative and told him: “If I don't call you tomorrow, it's because they've killed me.” The following morning, early on Sunday, 8 July, several relatives tried to contact him by telephone without success. Faber López had died between 6:00 and 7:00 that morning ... the corpse had no bullet wounds, but rather multiple signs of torture.’ (Amnesty International, ‘Shoot to Kill’, p36- 37 https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr43/9213/2018/en/ )

Mr Sefton cites unidentified “authoritative documentary reports” and “opposition social media content” that apparently contradict the information in my articles but he fails to cite or source any of them. The main government documentary report is the report of the National Assembly (controlled by Ortega) which relies almost entirely on information provided by state institutions, field research conducted in the company of ‘mayors and police chiefs’ and interviews with ‘some’ relatives of victims of violence. Unsurprisingly, the CVJP report agreed with the government narrative of satanic armed criminals engaged in mindless violence against terrified citizens left defenseless because the police withdrew to their barracks to prevent loss of life. The single most brutal day of violence, Nicaragua’s Bloody Sunday, occurred on May 30th, 2018, when the Mothers of April Association, representing victims of state violence, called a series of marches to honour the dead. In Managua the Ortega government organized a counter-demonstration. The opposition march was huge, the largest rally in recent memory. It took eight hours to reach its final meeting point, where speeches were scheduled. Suddenly a group of motorbike riders approached the crowd, firing indiscriminately. Eight people were killed, 47 injured. The same pattern of violence was repeated at other marches elsewhere that day, leaving eighteen dead and 200 injured. The government inquiry into the violence that day characterized the incident as a street brawl between rival marches, ‘leaving a number of people wounded.’ This is Nicaragua’s own Widgery Report.

As regards the number of exiles in Costa Rica I would refer Mr Sefton to the ACNUR report, produced by the body responsible for monitoring the refugee crisis. Their report cites 62,000 exiles in all, of which 55,000 are in Costa Rica. Since that report was published (April 2019). Local NGOs working with Nicaraguan refugees in Costa Rica estimate the figure at 60,000 (Association of Nicaraguans Exiled in Costa Rica). https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/briefing/2019/4/5cb58bd74/year- nicaragua-crisis-60000-forced-flee-country.html

ENDS.

*******

 
E-mail to the Irish Times August 20th 2019

Dear Mr McVey

thank you for sending me McCaughan's reply to my complaint

I note that he does not address the question of why he completely excluded the murder of police officer Gabriel Vado in Masaya by the gangs he falsely represented as peaceful protestors along with a total of 21 other police officers murdered elsewhere in Nicaragua by the right wing opposition whose crimes he whitewashes and the 400 police officers those violent opposition protestors wounded

this was a central point of my complaint and McCaughan completely ignores it in his reply

the false premise he bases his notes on is that the international human rights organizations concerned are trustworthy interlocutors

clearly they are not, because as the Nicaraguan government repeatedly pointed out in its presentations in the OAS and in various official documents all these organizations, including the OAS misnamed group of independent experts, systematically omitted abundant information provided by the government

a trustworthy reporter would have noted this fact

I live in Estelí and I witnessed the destruction and distress caused by the hundreds of armed violent protestors who attacked our town hall on the night of April 20th 2018 trying to burn it down, just as similar groups did in Masaya, Granada, Chinandega, Diriamba, Leon and Managua - there is abundant testimony to support that fact

we know what happened to us and our friends and families during the violent opposition attempt to overthrow the government here in 2018

McCaughan does not, because he only spoke to opposition sources, just like the discredited human rights organizations he mistakenly cites as authoritative

a trustworthy reporter would have spoken to grass sources that contradicted the account from the opposition sources

but then McCaughan is not a trustworthy reporter

the falsehoods in his original reports which he attempts unsuccessfully to excuse in his response to my complaint and the falsehoods of the organizations he mistakenly cites as authoritative have been systematically exposed here

https://afgj.org/dismissing-the-truth-why-amnesty-international-is-wrong-about-nicaragua

and here

http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/6122

and here

http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/6913

stephen sefton

*******

E-mail to the Irish Times August 26th

Dear Mr O’Neill and Mr McVey, here is a link to an article I wrote in response to Micahel McCaughan's tendentious and inaccurate notes in response to my complaint

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_85408.shtml

I see no excuse for your editorial failure to ensure basic journalistic good practice

sincerely

stephen sefton

*******

On Nicaragua, Western corporate and alternative media have outdone themselves failing to report or investigate the events they claim to cover. They interviewed hardly any, if at all, of the many thousands of victims of opposition violence, reproducing instead opposition lies and misrepresentations, falsely blaming all the violence on the government. Perhaps the only English language reporters to report at first hand on the Nicaraguan opposition’s murderous violence have been Max Blumenthal and Dick Emanuelsson, along with a few other independent writers. Here are some quotes from them in relation to opposition violence in 2018:

Max Blumenthal:

“The thing I was struck by the most was the extent of sadistic violence that was meted out against average supporters of the Sandinistas during the period in which the national police were ordered to stay in their barracks.”

Dan Kovalik:

“...the OAS, still dominated by the US, has also been activated into overdrive, lending a hand in the regime-change effort by blaming all of the violence happening in Nicaragua on the government while ignoring the violence of the opposition.”

Dick Emanuelsson:

“We relate now the story of the case of Leonel Morales, a student union president elected by the thousands of Upoli students. Six weeks after they occupied the university, the terrorists kidnapped him, tortured him and shot him four times.”

John Perry:

“Public buildings and the houses of government supporters were burnt down by protesters; shops were ransacked; most businesses and all banks and schools were closed. The main secondary school for 3,700 pupils was burnt out twice... At first protesters had homemade mortars, but later many acquired more serious weapons such as AK-47s; paid troublemakers manned the barricades at night-time. A police official captured nearby was tortured and then killed, his body burnt at a barricade.”

These writers’ reporting of testimony from victims and witnesses of the opposition violence in 2018 is irrefutable. Their reports confirm that Western corporate and alternative media, human rights NGOs, the Organization of American States and the UN have all systematically omitted opposition violence. In fact, the video and documentary evidence, for example here, here and here, of vicious armed violence against police, government functionaries, Sandinista supporters and non-partisan bystanders is overwhelming.

Even so, complaints to Western media pointing out falsehoods and misrepresentations have been met either by complete silence or else with evasive non-sequiturs.  A recent example of this phenomenon was an exchange with the Irish Times about a two-part report by Michael McCaughan omitting any account of Sandinista victims of opposition violence. The report is based entirely on opposition sources, and on partisan reports favoring the opposition by the Inter American Commission for Human Rights and related bodies.

Responding to the fact that opposition activists murdered Sandinista supporters Lenin Mendiola and Miguel Ramos, McCaughan discounts solid ballistic evidence and witness testimony against the opposition murderers of Mendiola and smears Ramos by repeating opposition propaganda that Ramos was “member of a pro-government paramilitary group. The independent news channel 100% Noticias described him as ‘the head of the paramilitaries’ in Estelí. It is likely that he was killed by a protestor.”

Confirming, by the way, that protesters were armed and violent, this comment also repeats various cynical aspects of opposition propaganda. Describing the vehemently opposition-aligned 100% Noticias television station as “independent” is particularly ridiculous when its director is notorious for anti-Sandinista hate-speech and incitement to violence, for example on air inciting opposition activists to burn down the Sandinista radio station, Nueva Radio Ya, which they did.

Miguel Ramos like all Sandinistas in Estelí, where I have lived now for 25 years, organized with his community in self defense against vicious, violent opposition activists and paid delinquents controlling the roadblock on the Panamerican Highway, which they used as a base to attack other parts of Estelí . With the police confined to their stations as a condition for peace talks, Sandinistas throughout Estelí organized their communities so as to protect themselves and their families against violence and intimidation from marauding opposition gunmen and thugs.

The order from both the local authorities and the local party structure was to go straight home after work and stay indoors, an order that was universally complied with. When the police finally moved to clear the roadblocks in early June, one in Estelí itself, beside the regional hospital, and one 25km south in La Trinidad, they asked for experienced volunteers. Miguel volunteered. Only one person died in those carefully planned clearances. That person was Miguel himself, shot dead in cold blood by an opposition gunman firing from a nearby house after the successful operation was over.

McCaughan has no idea what really happened, confirming that the Irish Times failed in its basic duty to seek out the facts, interview witnesses, compare versions, do all the boring hard work genuine newspapers are supposed to do. For example, in response to the complaint to the Irish Times, McCaughan recycles secondhand accounts of the events of May 30th, in Managua and elsewhere, failing to note that among the fatalities that day were many Sandinista supporters along with 20 police officers wounded by opposition gunmen in Managua. He never interviewed any of those victims, relying for his account on highly questionable reporting by Amnesty International.

That failure to do his job as a reporter also figures in McCaughan’s response to criticism of his reports when he cites the case of murdered policeman Faber López to try and support the sinister, absurd claim that a number of the 22 police officers murdered by the Nicaraguan opposition were in fact killed by their own comrades. Dick Emanuelsson addresses the broader opposition lie in his report on the opposition massacre of police officers in El Morrito. In the case of Faber López, a team of independent writers have completely demolished this opposition lie, their work supported by this interview with Faber Lopez’s widow.

In reply to criticism related to the violent protests in Estelí, McCaughan quotes the OAS expert group reporting “the protests in Estelí were peaceful and the violent response of the state was unprovoked.” But Francisco Valenzuela, Estelí’s mayor, confirmed to me today that at no point was he contacted by any OAS official or any foreign human rights group. Those institutions and organizations failed to talk to key witnesses to the attack on Estelí’s town hall on the evening of April 20th 2018, for example, apart from Valenzuela himself, the more than 20 police officers and municipal workers wounded by opposition violence. They also omitted to register the inventory of over US$70,000 of damage, including damage by attempted arson, to the municipal offices, to municipal vehicles and to adjacent properties caused by the use of molotov cocktails, home-made mortars, firearms and stone throwing.

The OAS, UN and human rights NGO reports on the events in Nicaragua in 2018 are worthless. They rely entirely on opposition accounts of events while excluding the testimony of thousands of victims of opposition violence. Their bad faith reporting has been compounded by a corresponding media failure to interview victims of opposition violence in Nicaragua. Good faith reporters would also ask why all the human rights institutions and NGOs systematically ignored testimony from the Nicaraguan authorities. At the very least, they might have noted Foreign Minister Denis Moncada’s rebuke to Luis Almagro the OAS Secretary General on the issue of opposition violence and asked on what basis the Nicaraguan authorities made that unprecedented rebuke.

The big neocolonial lie is that Western governments, institutions and media promote justice and democracy when at every opportunity they do the exact opposite. They make false accusations and then deny the accused a defense. In doing so, they deny their own peoples the democratic right to the information they need to make a fair judgement. While internationally Nicaragua’s government is unjustly accused, in Nicaragua itself most people support the government, rejecting the political opposition for trying to destroy Nicaragua in 2018, causing grief, hurt and suffering to tens of thousands of its people.