Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/24/nicaraguas-ortega-says-every.html
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Thank goodness it could never happen here.
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I can taste the sarcasm from up here in Canada.
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I have to wonder whether there’s any overlap with former Contras, although I guess they’d be 40+ years older now.
Fuck me, we had so much faith in this guy, as an art student in the '80s.
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Other sources frame this as a US backed right-wing coup attempt against a democratically elected leftist government. But that could never happen in Latin America.
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Anyone discussing the similarities with the Venezuelan situation, where racist former plutocrats – the Trumps and Hillary’s of the country – can no longer get elected and have turned to economic warfare, coup attempts, and terrorism to force a change in government? The weapons and tactics of the protesters, the corporate media stories, and the US-backing are very similar. I know much more about the history of Venezuela than Nicaragua, so it’s still not very clear to me. It seems it’s not even very clear to many people in he country. But after NATO’s Ukraine coup, and Hillary’s Honduras coup, and Brazil’s parliamentary coup, it seems worth considering all possibilities rather than blindly following corporate media’s agenda. The tragedy of bringing down a country like Venezuela – with more grass roots democracy than we have – is as tragic as looking away while Turkey bombs radically democratic feminists in Afrin.
Here’s one article – you can do your own research. It’s not easy
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/NicaraguaVenezuela-One-Enemy-One-Fight-For-Democracy-20180526-0024.html
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Yeah, no. The reason Venezuela is in trouble is because the Chavistas, first under Chavez and now under Maduro, have horribly mismanaged the country and driven it off the economic cliff. Claiming that things are going bad because of “economic warfare, coup attempts and terrorism” by nebulous “racist plutocrats” is buying the Maduro government’s self-serving and disingenuous excuses hook, line and sinker.
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Overview of how they got where they are.
“On the bright side, Ortega told Fox News (the preferred network of dictators and kleptocrats, apparently) that he has fabulous news: the violence that’s plagued his nation for months is over! Just like that!”
It works for trump. Fascist dictators one in the same.
Venezuela was doing quite well when oil was king. But when your whole economy is based on one commodity and that commodity tanks, the whole system breaks. Chavez was a good leader and his people did well under him. Too bad it was a fossil fuel based economy.
My theory is that the CIA abducted the real Ortega and replaced him with a balding puppet. Yeah, he really was the shit and now, he’s just shit. I remember buying my Nicaraguan coffee at a small tea & coffee store. The old lady said: at least those people know what they’re working for. She passed away in blissful ignorance two decades ago and left me back in this crazy world. I now drink Ethiopian coffee. At least that one tastes good.
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Yeah, I get the Longberry, it is damn good.
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“Y’all might think there’ll be a day when America will leave Nicaragua alone …”
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Chavez was not a good leader. Even if we ignore the anti-democratic and cult-of-personality aspects of his regime, he did nothing to lessen Venezuela’s dependence on oil during the time the money was pouring in. He in fact made the economy even more dependent with short-sighted policies that benefited the poor Venezuelans in the short term but at the cost of atrophying and crippling the industrial and agricultural sectors.
The only reasons people think of him as a good leader are his undeniable charisma, and him standing loudly against George W. Bush. (Well, that and being followed by Maduro who is vastly less charismatic, much more heavy-handed, and spectacularly incompetent.)
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It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled
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Fool me 18 times …
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/27/homage-to-nicaragua/
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