In 1979, the people of Nicaragua overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. The Somoza family dictatorship ruled Nicaragua from 1937 until 1979, when the Sandinista National Liberation Front liberated the country from their rule. Upon taking power, the Sandinistas vowed to free their country from the grip of U.S. hegemony and prioritize the needs of poor people ahead of foreign corporations. Since then, the people of Nicaragua have faced constant attacks from war hawks in Washington. This, in an effort to topple the democratically-elected Sandinista government and impose a pro-U.S. government.
During the 1980s, the U.S. armed and trained counter-revolutionary forces, known as the contras, in neighboring Honduras. Not only did the contras kill supporters of the Sandinistas and carry out terrorist attacks in Nicaragua. They also helped to smuggle drugs from South America into the United States, destroying Black and Brown communities at home. Although the Sandinistas lost an election in 1990 that temporarily removed them from power, they eventually came back in 2006 after another democratic election. Since 2006, the United States has continued to attempt to destabilize and overthrow the Sandinista government.
This time, however, instead of using brute force and armed drug gangs, they are using soft power and Western-aligned organizations that claim to promote human rights. Millions of U.S. government and corporate dollars are spent on three Nicaraguan organizations, and Amnesty International and other global organizations produce unbalanced and unsubstantiated reports which malign Nicaragua. These reports portray Nicaragua as a country that needs to be saved from alleged human rights abuses committed by the government. However, as you will see, many of these reports are far from the truth and have more sinister intentions.
Today on Sojourner Truth, we bring you audio from a recent webinar entitled, How U.S. Unconventional Warfare in Nicaragua Utilizes Human Rights Organizations. The webinar, hosted by the Alliance for Global Justice, examines the role played by international and local human rights organizations within U.S.-supported destabilization efforts in Nicaragua. During todays program, you will hear presentations delivered by Camilo Mejia and John Perry. Camilo Mejia is a Nicaraguan analyst and writer residing in the U.S. who is a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. John Perry is a long-time investigator, writer and resident of Nicaragua.
