Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Speaks Government Policy: Independent Journalism Just Doing Its Thing
Independent Journalism Just Doing Its Thing
Publication date: 2021-11-28
Ben Norton, a USA journalist for The Grayzone who lives in Nicaragua and is fluent in the Spanish language and Latin American history, has just published a beautifully shot and edited interview with Nicaragua's Foreign Minister, Denis Moncada, which can be found at the top of the sources below.
The topics are Nicaragua's recent decision, following Venezuela's lead, to withdraw from the Organisation of American States (OAS). The interview also visits topics of regional foreign affairs in Latin America and alternative fora, particularly CELAC, and then moves to more general international relations.
The interview is professionally shot and edited, with two cameras, and a single audio track in Spanish with English subtitles. The video's thumbnail is not a frame from the video, but a tastefully composed photograph of Moncada before a portrait, the national flag and that of the FSLN, and flanked by tropical plants. Norton is completely in his element speaking in Spanish with a Latin American socialist government's foreign minister. Indeed, in one cut, as Moncada describes the geographic location of the OAS, the edit cuts to Norton with a huge grin on his face.
This interview is an example of what one can hope for while the Internet remains based on interoperable standards under the guidance of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). While people are concerned about corporate censorship on large platforms like MetaBook and GooTube, it is to the control and influence over the IETF that more attention should be paid. But, that is another topic. The questions asked in the interview are almost certain to have been submitted to and pre-approved by the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry. However, Moncada is given free reign to respond, and is not interrupted. He is essentially providing the interviewer with government statements on foreign policy. There is nothing alarming, but a calm statement of how the Nicaraguan government is approaching foreign relations. This is not “click-bait” or a slanted take on some international event, but a straight up interview in which government policy and intention are relayed.
I congratulate Norton for the interview. I am confident that he edited the audio/video himself and did the translation too. "Good job", as they say.
Before you enjoy the video, there is a little historical background between Nicaragua and the USA which may be of service. Happily, it involves a number of sources which I respect and am most pleased to cite.
A meander down recent history
Nicaragua had been since the early part of the 20th century an agricultural colony of USA business, with the United Fruit Company standing out front. Just as Cuba was all about sugar, Nicaragua was all about bananas. During the 1970's and 1980's a coalition of left wing groups backed by the working poor and farmers staged a coup against the ruling dictatorship/oligarchy. To prevent this left wing insurgency from gaining power the USA funded, trained and armed the government forces, which became the insurgent forces once the government was changed. This became a bit of political hot potato for a bunch of reasons but largely because of the Boland Amendment which was an addition (amendment) to the House Appropriations bill (financing the government) and specifically to the Defense Appropriations Act (1983) which funds the USA's Department of Defense. The amendment forbade the USA executive from providing arms (or military assistance in general) to the Contras who were now trying to overthrow the new socialist government in Nicaragua. It is from this cauldron we are delivered Chris Hedges, a wonderful journalist and author amongst many others. The horrific injustice and barbarism of the Samosa government in Nicaragua was a magnet for young, principled journalists to document its works and the efforts to those trying to free themselves from it.
I mentioned recently that I love the way in which the USA's government tries to stick to the law, and its executive departments even cite the relevant law under which they are operating. But, this congressional restriction on USA financial, military and political interests in Nicaragua was untenable. So, a "work around" needed to be found, and when one is looking for work arounds, they have a very large and well funded executive department which specializes in that type of thing. Its called the Central Intelligence Agency, particularly, its "operations wing". The plan went like this. There's a war between Iran and Iraq, which we sort of encouraged because they overthrew our puppet (the Shah), but the Iranians need arms, see. So, we sell them arms via a middleman (who have we got in the region who could facilitate this?) and then take the money and use that to supply arms to the Contras via some unknown bank like the BCCI! Thus, its not the USA government but this middleman doing the supply. Simple!
Unfortunately, too many people got "in the know" and pesky reporters, and in particular one principled "cause lawyer" found out about it. The revelation of the Iran-Contra scandal really made the late, great Robert Parry's career, and because large news outlets would not publish his later reporting he founded Consortium News in 1995. It was the first USA English language on-line news site, and still publishes independent news articles to this day. That principled cause lawyer, Daniel Sheehan, got involved too and all hell broke loose.
The tricky bit was that it was not just arms trading to shuffle monies to supply an insurgency as an "end run" around the Boland Amendment, but also a political tactic employed in the USA Presidential election. Barbara Honegger's book "October Surprise" showed how deliberate delays in releasing staff from the USA embassy in Tehran imprisoned by Iran during their 1979 coup were used in the USA presidential race of the same year.
But, even that doesn't really get to the bottom of it. Really, its all about the gravy train of unaccountable funds which the CIA can access by involving itself in the drug trade. Actually, the arms trade really is just a kid brother to the drug trade as a very hard to trace source of funds. Here, we go back to Danny Sheehan, the lawyer who managed to squeeze a case through the USA courts to achieve the all important legal step of "discovery", by which his team was able to obtain the government records which proved who was behind the whole Iran-Contra "end run" and in the process discovered the CIA's cocaine drug trading. (See sources for a video of Sheehan’s announcement about being able to proceed in the racketeering case including so many bloody details behind the whole nasty scheme; this is the key video for the historical background).
What! The CIA got caught in drug trafficking in the 1980's! How could they have! But, they must have stopped that. Well, no and no. Journalist Gary Webb uncovered the CIA's trafficking of crack cocaine in the 1990's but still managed to shoot himself in the head, twice. And, just to underline the genesis of the problem, historian Alfred McCoy exposed the CIA's involvement in the heroine trade from the 1960's and onwards. Other’s have trekked this trail too. I recommend James Corbett’s efforts of summary.
But, back to the great interview by Norton with Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Denis Moncada. I hope, reader, that you can now understand more clearly why it is that the Nicaraguan government wants as little to do with the USA as possible. They are sorta stuck between Colombia and the USA, and various other troubled countries in central America from which refugees flow northwards, often because of USA supported governments' policies which create civil strife. Nicaragua's government is saying "Nada". No more of this fiddling and subterfuge. Leave us alone. No? Okay, we'll team up with other countries in solidarity for "leave us alone". No? Really? Okay, history will be the judge, but we are not playing your game any more.
Again, my thanks to Ben Norton and The Grayzone for the interview, and to the giants on whose shoulders I cite.
Sources
Nicaragua's foreign minister: We are resisting 'pandemic of neo-colonialism', Ben Norton interview's Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, The Grayzone, 2021-11-27
Organization of American States, Wikipedia
Community of Latin American and Carribean States (LA COMUNIDAD DE ESTADOS LATINOAMERICANOS Y DEL CARIBE)
Nicaragua: Before and After the Revolution, Laura M. Zaremba, Honors Thesis Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 1992
Boland Amendment, Wikipedia
Contras, Dirty Money and CIA, Robert Parry (RIP), Consortium News, 1997
October surprise, Barbara Honegger, Internet Archive, published 1989
October Surprise Press Conference - Barbara Honegger - 1992, freeseattle, youtube channel, uploaded 2013-03-15
Daniel Sheehan announces the approval by the Florida district court to proceed with federal subpoena authority in the racketeering charge against elements of the USA government involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, date unconfirmed. Its long, but so detailed. Please watch (or better, download). This video echoes many themes of the 30+ years which follow. For laughs, watch Sheehan’s eyebrows when he says “his business had been injured!” at 00:50:20. But, you need to watch the whole 50 minute introduction to get it.
Gary Webb remembered In their words … and his own, Bill Forman, and Melinda Welsh, Sacramento News and Review, 2004-12-16
Full text of "The politics of heroin: CIA complicity in the global drug trade, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, Colombia", Alfred McCoy, Internet Archive, ISBN 1-55652-483-8 published 2003
The CIA And The Drug Trade, James Corbett, Corbett Report, 2011-10-14
Culture
Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Gil Scott-Heron
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