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A secret May 2008 cable from the U.S. embassy in Managua, Nicaragua
details the significant financial and logistical support Washington
offers to political forces opposed to President Daniel Ortega. The
document states “we have begun a USD 1 million small grants program for
our democratic civil society friends.” It continues: “Several times a
week we are approached by local candidates for campaign financing, voter
registration support and the like.”
Daniel Ortega is the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN) and first became president after the Sandinistas overthrew
the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979. The FSLN was defeated in
the 1990 elections after a decade of U.S.-funded counterrevolutionary
terrorism, but Ortega was re-elected president in 2006. Since then, his
government has adopted an anti-imperialist stance, joining the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) to oppose Washington’s
domination of Latin America.
The U.S. government refers to its right-wing allies in Nicaragua as
“democratic,” yet it actively seeks to undermine Nicaraguan sovereignty.
Aggression against Nicaragua is just one part of Washington’s larger
campaign to undo the advances pro-socialist and anti-imperialist forces
have made in Latin America over the last decade.
The people of Nicaragua and their Sandinista government deserve our solidarity as they struggle for self-determination.
Click here to read the full text of the cable released by WikiLeaks.
