Solidarity with the Dictatorship is to Go Against Life

The people of Nicaragua are living under repression, mourning their dead, condemning kidnappings, demanding freedom for political prisoners and always in a civic and unarmed combative attitude. People are grateful for international support and hope for more, but without lowering their guard against the dictatorship. They are aware that after nearly five months of struggle, freedom depends on their own capacity to pressure.

It’s known that within the country there are political sectors thinking and acting in harmony with the dictatorship, in order to protect their own interests obtained under the regime. It’s also known that there are those who seem to defend the Ortega regime, such as public employees, but do so only to defend their families’ subsistence.

The people also know that there are sectors abroad who consider themselves to be leftist revolutionaries and speak in support of the dictatorship. But, it’s also true that in the world there are some exponents of the left that neither think nor act in accordance with the worn-out schemes that socialism is irreconcilable with the exercise of freedom. Consequently, they express support for our people and condemn the atrocities of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.

What must be noted about the affinity of some foreign leftists with Ortega is that it is based on the demagogical discourse of the dictators, to which they add ideological dogmatic schemes. And, worse still, they do so without knowing and much less studying our current reality. There are also bureaucrats of some governments, who support this dictatorship for the cold and opportunistic “reasons of State,” even though they know that they do it in detriment of the lives of our people. On the other hand, foreigners who condemn the regime, for the most part, lived in Nicaragua over many years as volunteers in our fields, towns and cities.

And, what are the pro-Ortega arguments?

1. In Nicaragua there is a “revolution”;
2. It is guided by “socialist” principles;
3. That Daniel Ortega was elected “democratically”;
4. That he promotes and protects social gains threatened by rightists that are promoting a terrorist uprising, linked and financed by United States imperialism.

After that, they sing zero to the truth: that here “socialism” was only a frustrated aspiration; Ortega transformed it into a mafia-style capitalism and leads a new oppressive class. Ortega has been close to power for 40 years, eleven of them, by committing electoral fraud; administrative corruption is shocking and his illicit enrichment is in plain view for all to see.  He has dismantled institutional life and leads a police repression that only rivals the “Somocista” guard. The crimes committed—including torture—are a daily practice for a legion of hooded killers; and he convicts the innocent by using his legal instrument, the Supreme Court of Justice.

But his sympathizers abroad seem convinced, according to Ortega’s confession to the Spanish news agency EFE, that the tragedy of the people is not his doing (already confirmed by the UN Security Council) …but themes from the story-teller winner of the Cervantes Award, Sergio Ramirez!

Are these the only political tenents playing abroad regarding the situation of Nicaragua? No, no way. There are also schemes with a certain seal from the left, as well as from the side of a certain right, expressed in mechanical comparisons about the situation of countries with different political experiences, causes and historical reasons.

Isn’t the official US discourse that “Orteguism” wants to impose “another Cuba” or “another Venezuela” in our country familiar? This provided some arguments to Moncada (the Nicaraguan foreign minister) so that, in the UN Security Council (9/7/18), he could remind the United States that they forced on us the Somoza dynasty, as they imposed in Latin American dictatorships like Pinochet, etcetera.

This political opportunism is being applied by one side and the other, because they take events out of historical context and apply them to our reality, according to their geopolitical convenience. This goes against the just struggle of our people, because both currents, pretend not to know the origins of our problems or the factors and actors that cause them.

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Reality tells us that it is not possible to enclose our struggle within the limits of our national borders while the dictatorship murders us, nor disconnect it from the rest of the world. Much less, should we reject solidarity only because it comes from the United States and other capitalist countries, because that would be an absurd and suicidal decision. A stupid political and ideological intolerance, which will only go in favor of our executioners.

It is a political truth, and we must not forget that ulterior motives can always be present in human activity, including solidarity. But no people can fear that when they are aware of their reality, and at the same time, they are struggling wide awake. And, if there is something that our people dream, it is to be free.

Neither can we accept uncritically the mechanical comparisons that, in fact, are a perverse homogenization of the political, ideological and cultural phenomenon of some countries or others, with great historical and cultural differences. And the history, culture and political systems of each country could resemble each other in many ways, but could never look the same in all, much less be equal.

Accepting any of the foreign sectarian positions, or all of them, will constitute an offense to the dignity of our people. It will take away merits to our intelligence and our active participation in the struggle for our political freedoms and social justice. It will also be like calling someone a puppet without any awareness of his or her own value, and at the will of anyone that wants to subjugate him, under any pretext.

I do not say this out of patriotic self-complacency, but rather because mechanical comparisons are not only unfair to our people, but also offensive to other peoples. I equally reject—as I think that any good Nicaraguan should reject—the slanderous line of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship that everyone that has marched on the streets for almost five-months exposing their freedom and life in front of rifles, do so to obey an initiative “of the right” or from agents “of the CIA.”

Because of the examples of dignity inherited from Sandino, the heroes and martyrs of the 1979 popular revolution—the same ones betrayed by the dictatorship—this people have maintained an unarmed resistance and their civic confrontation with the criminal agents of the regime despite Ortega’s terrorism.

Resistance is the final and necessary answer to all the abuses committed for many years by those who are deranged when they say that the people have been able to keep up the fight, because they are under foreign tutelage.

Those who think like that abroad—because only the dictators and their lackeys do it here—do not know what is happening. They are so afraid of imperialism as they believe that everything moves in the world by its will. They also despise the dignity and intelligence of the Nicaraguan people. Or it may be that they feel more interest to keep their dictator friend in power, than respect for the lives of Nicaraguans.

Whatever motivation or motivations that inspire their support for the Ortega-Murillo regime, they would always reflect their lack of solidarity, which is not humanistic because it is not with the oppressed. Therefore, supporting  the dictatorship is to go against our people’s lives.