Paul
7th November 2001, 15:13
Remember 1986, (15th anniversary this year, )? The World court found in favour of Nicuragua, US were fined Millions of dollars. US ignored the ruling because, back then, countries were either with the US, or against them, in the fight against the Evil Empire, and noone said anything as the US violated international law and ignored rulings against them.
Now, with the US again able to use the "Them and US, with us or against us" rhetoric, the world can once again be shaped according to American "ideals" of freedoms and democracies.
(from http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/...4293535,00.html (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4293535,00.html) )
Nicaragua's election showed the US still won't allow a free vote
While the United States government radar may seem to have been pointed in the direction of Afghanistan and the Middle East, the state department and many American politicians and officials still found time over the last few weeks to use money, free food and propaganda to try to influence the vote in Nicaragua.
In the summer, Ortega was running some six or seven percentage points ahead of his nearest rivals and might, it seemed, return to power.
The US dispatched a state department official who told the local chamber of commerce how damaging this would be to the country. Pressure was successfully put on the third party candidate, the Conservative Noel Vidaurre, to drop out in order to prevent the splitting of the anti-Ortega vote. The US ambassador, kitted out in a Liberal party baseball hat, embraced the Bolanos election campaign and invited the candidate to join him on an emergency food-aid distribution trip. (Think the US ambassador to the Court of St James dressed in Tory T-shirt, handing out free choc ices in Swansea or Sheffield shoulder to shoulder with Iain Duncan Smith.)
John Keane, the US's acting deputy assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, said last month that the Sandinistas included people responsible for "abominations" of human and civil rights. Such has been the official US rhetoric that former president Jimmy Carter, in Nicaragua to oversee a fair election, was moved to say last week: "I personally disapprove of statements or actions by another country that might tend to influence the votes of people of another sovereign nation."
Jeb Bush, the US president's brother and governor of the state of Florida, home of the one of the dodgiest election results in recent history, wrote an article in the Miami Herald last month in which he attacked Ortega because he "neither understands nor embraces the basic concepts of freedom, democracy and free enterprise". Bush jnr added: "Daniel Ortega is an enemy of everything the United States represents. Further, he is a friend of our enemies. Ortega has a relationship of more than 30 years with states and individuals who shelter and condone international terrorism." The article was duly reprinted last week as an ad by the Liberal party in the Nicaraguan daily, La Prensa, under the headline "The brother of the president of the United States supports Enrique Bolanos". As satirist Tom Lehrer said on the occasion of Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel peace prize - who needs irony?
Then, last week, three US politicians: Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican, Bob Graham (Democrat, Florida) and Mike DeWine (Republican, Ohio) put a resolution to Congress calling on the president to re-evaluate his policy towards Nicaragua if the Sandinistas were to win - effectively suggesting the further impoverishment of an impoverished country if the wrong result came through. The resolution was duly reported in the Nicaraguan press.
Ortega, sadly, was no Nelson Mandela. Now that he has lost, some of the idealistic souls who once stood beside him in what was, by any standards, a brave revolution may now return to the political arena. Other younger, untainted politicians may emerge. But just at the moment when the US needs to be convincing the world that they do not impose their will to protect their commercial interests with little regard to local people's desires, the events of the past few weeks in Nicaragua will serve to create more cynicism.
The Sandinistas, a small, disorganised party in one of the world's poorest countries, posed no threat to the US. To link them to terrorism in the wake of September 11 was a cheap and dishonest shot. The next time Barbara Walters asks Karen Hughes why do they hate us, she can add one small but not insignificant cause.
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/ame...000/1639876.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1639000/1639876.stm)
The United States has praised the people of Nicaragua after the country's former left-wing president, Daniel Ortega, was defeated by his conservative rival, Enrique Bolanos, in the presidential election.
A State Department spokesman said Nicaraguans had demonstrated an "unwavering commitment to democracy".
"Fear was used, a dirty campaign was employed, a terror campaign was used," said Mr Ortega on Monday.
(Edited by Paul at 4:16 pm on Nov. 7, 2001)
Now, with the US again able to use the "Them and US, with us or against us" rhetoric, the world can once again be shaped according to American "ideals" of freedoms and democracies.
(from http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/...4293535,00.html (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4293535,00.html) )
Nicaragua's election showed the US still won't allow a free vote
While the United States government radar may seem to have been pointed in the direction of Afghanistan and the Middle East, the state department and many American politicians and officials still found time over the last few weeks to use money, free food and propaganda to try to influence the vote in Nicaragua.
In the summer, Ortega was running some six or seven percentage points ahead of his nearest rivals and might, it seemed, return to power.
The US dispatched a state department official who told the local chamber of commerce how damaging this would be to the country. Pressure was successfully put on the third party candidate, the Conservative Noel Vidaurre, to drop out in order to prevent the splitting of the anti-Ortega vote. The US ambassador, kitted out in a Liberal party baseball hat, embraced the Bolanos election campaign and invited the candidate to join him on an emergency food-aid distribution trip. (Think the US ambassador to the Court of St James dressed in Tory T-shirt, handing out free choc ices in Swansea or Sheffield shoulder to shoulder with Iain Duncan Smith.)
John Keane, the US's acting deputy assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, said last month that the Sandinistas included people responsible for "abominations" of human and civil rights. Such has been the official US rhetoric that former president Jimmy Carter, in Nicaragua to oversee a fair election, was moved to say last week: "I personally disapprove of statements or actions by another country that might tend to influence the votes of people of another sovereign nation."
Jeb Bush, the US president's brother and governor of the state of Florida, home of the one of the dodgiest election results in recent history, wrote an article in the Miami Herald last month in which he attacked Ortega because he "neither understands nor embraces the basic concepts of freedom, democracy and free enterprise". Bush jnr added: "Daniel Ortega is an enemy of everything the United States represents. Further, he is a friend of our enemies. Ortega has a relationship of more than 30 years with states and individuals who shelter and condone international terrorism." The article was duly reprinted last week as an ad by the Liberal party in the Nicaraguan daily, La Prensa, under the headline "The brother of the president of the United States supports Enrique Bolanos". As satirist Tom Lehrer said on the occasion of Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel peace prize - who needs irony?
Then, last week, three US politicians: Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican, Bob Graham (Democrat, Florida) and Mike DeWine (Republican, Ohio) put a resolution to Congress calling on the president to re-evaluate his policy towards Nicaragua if the Sandinistas were to win - effectively suggesting the further impoverishment of an impoverished country if the wrong result came through. The resolution was duly reported in the Nicaraguan press.
Ortega, sadly, was no Nelson Mandela. Now that he has lost, some of the idealistic souls who once stood beside him in what was, by any standards, a brave revolution may now return to the political arena. Other younger, untainted politicians may emerge. But just at the moment when the US needs to be convincing the world that they do not impose their will to protect their commercial interests with little regard to local people's desires, the events of the past few weeks in Nicaragua will serve to create more cynicism.
The Sandinistas, a small, disorganised party in one of the world's poorest countries, posed no threat to the US. To link them to terrorism in the wake of September 11 was a cheap and dishonest shot. The next time Barbara Walters asks Karen Hughes why do they hate us, she can add one small but not insignificant cause.
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/ame...000/1639876.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1639000/1639876.stm)
The United States has praised the people of Nicaragua after the country's former left-wing president, Daniel Ortega, was defeated by his conservative rival, Enrique Bolanos, in the presidential election.
A State Department spokesman said Nicaraguans had demonstrated an "unwavering commitment to democracy".
"Fear was used, a dirty campaign was employed, a terror campaign was used," said Mr Ortega on Monday.
(Edited by Paul at 4:16 pm on Nov. 7, 2001)