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Nicaraguan gov’t thanks Bishops Conference
Nicaraguan government thanks Bishops’ Conference for mediation
Previously, the Episcopal Conference had accepted in a communiqué the role of mediator and witness of the dialogue proposed by Ortega, faced with the situation of violence experienced in recent days in the country.
Published: Wednesday 25 April 2018 | 09:57:14 AM
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The President and Vice President of Nicaragua sent a message of congratulations to Raúl and Díaz-Canel. Author: La Voz del Sandinismo Published: 20/04/2018 | 04:53 pm
MANAGUA, April 24.- The Government of Nicaragua thanked the Episcopal Conference on Tuesday for its willingness to participate as a mediator and witness to the dialogue convened by the President of the Republic, Daniel Ortega, to restore order and peace in the country.
We are deeply grateful for the willingness of Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes and all the bishops to continue to contribute to the meeting, tolerance and peaceful coexistence in our country, according to PL.
The text, read by the Vice-President, Rosario Murillo, also fully shares the proposal of sectors that could participate in the national dialogue sessions, in addition to others.
“Once again, our gratitude, on behalf of the Nicaraguan families and the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, for their willingness to participate as mediators and witnesses in these important events in Nicaragua’s present history,” the message underscores.
Previously, the Episcopal Conference had accepted in a communiqué the role of mediator and witness of the dialogue proposed by Ortega, faced with the situation of violence experienced in recent days in the country.
On Sunday, the president invited Cardinal Brenes and a delegation of bishops to accompany the dialogue by announcing the repeal of the social security reforms that, he said, served as a trigger for the violence.
In the last few days, Nicaragua experienced great social tension, unprecedented in more than a decade.
It all began when protests against the aforementioned reforms were infiltrated by alleged criminal groups and vandals incited by the right wing for general anguish and instability in the country, according to reports.
In an appearance before the people, Ortega recognized the minority’s right to criticize, but not to conspire to destroy, promote violence, and worse still, to seek out the most extremist and racist political groups in the United States to finance destabilization plans.
Nicaragua: The New Prisoner
Nicaragua: The New Prisoner
Like a herd of hungry wolves, hemispheric organisms of different stripes, but of the same kind, open their jaws and throw their claws at the violent events that have taken place in Nicaragua.
Posted: Saturday 28 April 2018 | 08:39:57 PM
By Marina Menendez Quintero
marina@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
A march for peace, last Monday, extended over 6.5 kilometers in Managua, the capital Author: El Nuevo Diario Published: 04/28/2018 | 08:01 pm
“The herd” is a term coined in Spain these days that identifies, in an incriminating tone, a group of five young men who are accused of raping a girl… even though they have been tried and convicted by the courts for violence alone.
They could have been christened with that nickname because of the way they acted, like wolves in a group. Or by force.
Thus, like a herd of hungry wolves, hemispheric organisms of a different stripe, but of the same kind, open their jaws and throw their claws at the violent events that have taken place in Nicaragua.
Their very identification gives rise to conjecture about the sincerity of their concerns, and allows them to guess what it is that they crave.
The biased Humans Right Watch already calls for a meeting of the Permanent Council of the OAS, so that the presence of a representative of the draft Inter-American Commission on Human Rights may be applied to Nicaragua.
IDEA – the so-called Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas, which brings together former right-wingers, conspirators and interferers – also called on the head of the OAS, the discredited Luis Almagro, to promote the adoption of measures within the framework of the so-called Inter-American Democratic Charter, created by the United States to justify certified intervention in other nations.
And it should come as no surprise that in Miami the congressional far-right is calling for a tightening of sanctions established by the NICA-ACT (Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act of 2017).
But what best allows us to feel the magnitude of that which is being woven against the Sandinista government, and where it is coming from, is Washington’s attitude. By order of the State Department, its Embassy in Managua pulled out its staff and closed it, while “alerting” U.S. citizens not to travel to the country, in a wake-up call that should be taken into account.
In a statement of harsh and little-used epithets in diplomacy – so similar to those of President Donald Trump’s verbiage – the White House on Friday spoke of “repugnant political violence” that “has impacted the international democratic community.
Meanwhile, on social networks and in the right-wing international media, where so many errors are made, the reasons that gave rise to the facts hardly exists any more. Gone is the social security reform that sparked the riots and was repealed by the government a week ago, almost immediately after its enactment. The point now is to keep up the protests.
A Twitter account cited by the website Misión Verdad for its suspicious appearance along with the demonstrations and which identifies itself as SOS Nicaragua, continued to call for insubordination this Saturday with this message: “How disappointing that we are surrendering so quickly for the sake of “tranquility.” That it is disappointing that all those who died have died so quickly for us to surrender. You don’t have to have conflict in the streets to keep fighting.”
Thus, a situation of supposedly social origin has turned into a political crisis that seeks to give rise to foreign intervention and the demise of the Sandinista government.
The speed with which events that seem to have come out of nowhere flowed evokes a magic art, even if there is no such thing. Rather, it seems to be the maneuvering of a well-oiled machinery that, as in other nations that are victims of the US and pro-imperial right-wing animosity, sadly uses young students as cannon fodder for violent acts that oblige the forces of law and order to act. This makes it easier to blame the executive branch for the deplorable deaths and to justify the adoption of hemispheric pressure measures.
In theory, everything already has a name and has been applied in Eastern European countries to remove goverments which make Washington uncomfortable, just as they tried to apply it to Venezuela. The so-called “color revolutions” that lead to what has been called a soft coup, that is, the demise of a president without the use of bayonets and military boots.
It was not promoted in left-wing theory. It is written in Pentagon documents and is a well-thought-out imperial strategy, as noted in the November 2010 Special Operations Forces Training Circular 18-01, entitled The Un-Conventional War.
In each place with its own characteristics, the executives of Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil can attest to this, without leaving out the saga of corruption and the unjust imprisonment plotted against Lula. The issue is regional, and it is a question of completing the shift to the right, manipulation by means of a population as victimized as the political subject who is demonized.
Within Nicaragua, the alignment, on the side of instability, of the Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), an ally of the executive in this Sandinista term, although its old and very bitter enemy, also sheds light on who can prosper from these undesirable events, even though they have not yet been clarified, and where an Episcopal Conference continues to play a fundamental role, which has agreed to be the guarantor of the dialogue called for by the Government, but is cited as its criticism of the facts.
Leaders of the Unen (National Union of Students of Nicaragua) denounced the presence in one of the universities taken over by the demonstrators of members of the opposition Sandinista Renewal Movement, where figures who left the ranks of the FSLN gather, and their pressure on the young demonstrators to remain in revolt.
In a statement by the Sandinista Front, which was not widely disseminated, the ruling party has given elements of judgment. For example, the fact that the protests were initiated and led by university students, especially from private religious schools – basically the UCA, the Jesuits and the Polytechnic (Upoli), of a Protestant church based in the USA.and its adoption of a violent character with the use of homemade mortars; the mobilization of the Sandinista Youth as a counterpart; the assaults and fires of representative Sandinista premises and State institutions and Sandinista houses, as well as the looting of supermarkets and warehouses, among them the one that kept all the medicine of the insured….
The establishment of a Truth Commission announced on Friday by the Nicaraguan National Assembly should, hopefully soon, clarify the interim events, and the dialogue called for by President Daniel Ortega should restore the stability that has characterized the last decade in Nicaragua.
But everything must be resolved from within. The herd of Washington-protected institutions seeking intervention must remove their teeth from their new prey.
The protests led to violent acts that served as an excuse for interference and demonization. Photo: AP
Cuba’s Solidarity with Nicaragua
Cuba Reiterates Solidarity with Nicaragua
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba denounces the attempts to destabilize the Republic of Nicaragua, a country that lives in peace and where remarkable social progress has been achieved.
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Saturday 28 April 2018 | 08:54:30 PM
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba denounces the attempts to destabilize the Republic of Nicaragua, a country that lives in peace and where significant social, economic and security progress has been made in favor of its people.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba reaffirms its commitment to the principles of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by the Heads of State and Government during the Second Celac Summit in January 2014, and rejects interference in the internal affairs of that sister nation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the sovereign efforts of the Sandinista people and Government of Nicaragua, chaired by Commander Daniel Ortega Saavedra and Vice-President Rosario Murillo Zambrana, to preserve the dialogue, peace and well-being of Nicaraguans.
Havana, April 28, 2018
The US and its Bad Neighbor Policy
The US and its Bad Neighbor Policy
By Lazaro Farinas
Posted: Monday 23 April 2018 | 09:31:55 PM
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick, so you can go far.” That is the definition of the Big Crow’s policy implemented by President Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the last century. What became known as the Roosevelt Corollary established that “if a European country threatened or endangered the rights or property of US citizens or businesses, the US government was obliged to intervene in the affairs of that country to ‘reorder’ it”.
With the implementation of this Corollary, the American President was actually putting into practice the doctrine that James Monroe, who was the fifth president of this country, had proclaimed before the Congress in 1823. “America for Americans,” the president told the congressmen and the world. Of course, you have to understand that for Americans, Americans are Americans. Roosevelt, with his big stick, gave free rein to this country’s interventions in Latin America. Just a few weeks ago, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a public statement that the old Monroe Doctrine was still in force.
Many countries have been invaded by U.S. military forces since Monroe proclaimed his famous doctrine, but even more have been the ones that have secretly suffered this country’s interventionism in its internal affairs; many governments overthrown in one way or another, many were the military dictatorships established with his support, many were the pressures to overthrow democratically elected rulers.
Fortunately, military interventions have disappeared from the hemisphere, but have been replaced by conspiracies, pressure and sanctions. Many Latin American countries have received and continue to receive this form of interference.
Venezuela and Cuba are classic examples of this approach, but countries such as Honduras, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Nicaragua and others cannot be left behind.
What is happening with Venezuela is incredible. The United States and its allies in the region and the Western world have mounted a campaign of disinformation about the homeland of Simón Bolívar and his government that is on the edge of infamy. Ever since the late Commander Hugo Chávez became president of that country through fully transparent and democratic elections, the United States and its international right-wing cronies began mounting a disinformative campaign against him and his government. In reality, they did not settle for anti-Chávez propaganda in the national and international media, but from there, they went on to practice, with a coup d’état, an oil strike, unbridled violence in the streets, etc.
The Venezuelan government is accused of everything in international organizations, in the discredited OAS, in the forums of the United Nations, in Unasur, now it has just been vetoed at the Summit of the Americas and in the Washington Congress, measures are being taken and sanctions are being created against the rulers of that nation.
The country that has set a record for holding democratic elections is accused of being an infamous dictatorship. A country that has held 20 elections in less than 20 years in power, fair and transparent elections, elections that have been supervised and observed by foreign organizations. They accuse the government of fraud in these elections, but we must ask ourselves, how is it that by fraud they lost the elections that took place a few years ago to elect the National Assembly?
According to them, Nicolas Maduro is an ironclad dictator, but how is it possible for such a dictator to accept freedom of the press, from which he is subjected to dirty campaigns. The right always says the same thing and uses the same speeches. When Donald Trump was running for president of the United States, he got tired of proclaiming that the American electoral system was fraudulent, but when he won the elections, he did not mention the issue any more.
Now that presidential elections are to be held again on 20 May in Venezuela, an international campaign has already begun to discredit them, despite the fact that several opposition candidates are running for the presidency. All the polls are giving it to Maduro as a winner, but what if an opposition candidate wins? Would they do like Trump did?
I don’t know if the day will come when a U.S. government will stop thinking of Latin America as its backyard and start to respect it. It is my hope that the day will come when you will truly forget what you have done so far and come to the conclusion that you must relate to that region with respect, that you will forget the Monroe Doctrine and the Big Club and that you will erase the carrot and stick theory. Because I love this country where I have lived for so many years and because I love Latin America, the region where I was born, I do not lose hope. Maybe I’m daydreaming.
Silence is not an option
In the face of gender-based violence, silence is not an option
Although in the First Workshop on Communication, Gender and Equity, organized by the Oscar Arnulfo Romero Center, the FMC and the National Center for Sexual Education, which took place in the province of Ciego de Ávila, progress was recognized in a series of stereotypes and prejudices , it is a priority to continue working to address the problem of physical, psychological, sexual or economic violence, in a transversal and multisectoral manner
Posted: Friday 27 April 2018 | 04:51:01 PM
By Yuniel Labacena Romero
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
No to gender-based violence. Author: Martirena Published: 21/09/2017 | 05:59 pm
CIEGO DE ÁVILA: About ten women out of 30 reported having received some kind of physical, psychological, sexual or economic violence for 12 months, according to the Survey on Gender Equality, conducted in 2016 by the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), which also revealed a low perception of this problem in our society.
These data demonstrate the urgent need to accompany, make visible, analyze, explain and systematically put the issues associated with gender violence in all areas of society, especially in the media, given their social function and scope.
It is precisely with this aim in mind that the First Communication, Gender and Equity Workshop, organized by the Oscar Arnulfo Romero Center, the FMC and the National Center for Sex Education, has been held to date, bringing together some 40 media professionals and actors with an impact on the public sphere from almost every region of the country.
During the days of debate, Cuban advances in a series of stereotypes and prejudices were recognized, but also that silence is not the option in the face of gender violence. The participants argued this statement, since this problem is often a hidden, naturalized, invisible fact, which is framed in a patriarchal culture. And in most cases, women are in a position of subordination to men, making them more vulnerable.
Tackling this problem should not remain a matter of slogans or tasks. There is a need to develop broader strategies that contribute to greater production and positioning of educational materials that reflect gender gaps and equities, as well as better implementation of public-good campaigns on the issue, the experts said.
Mareleen Díaz Tenorio, researcher for the Oscar Arnulfo Romero, explained that recognizing how acts of gender violence are evident is, in the first instance, the key point of how society and the media can achieve, together, the identification of this problem that affects a group of the unjustly called “weak sex” in the country.
It is essential to create awareness, consensus and political will so that all social actors can participate in this process. The longer we take to begin to transform, the more people will continue to suffer. Only respect for human beings will allow us to live in that better world that we need, the specialist said.
At the workshop – dedicated to the memory of Dr. Isabel Moya Richard, who was director of the Women’s Publishing House who was highly knowledgeable and a defender of gender issues – Eres más, a Cuban campaign for non-violence against women and girls, was presented, and the need to target specific actions at adolescent and youth audiences for their role in society was reiterated.
Women’s Soccer Wants More
Women’s Soccer Wants More
The coach of the Cuban women’s football team, Renier Bonora Peñalver, says he is satisfied with the progress made by his students in recent years.
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Author: Yosel E. Martínez Castellanos | yosel@granma.cu
27 April 2018 00:04:44
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Cuban women will be looking for a ticket to the 2018 Caribbean Cup in May. Photo: Ricardo López Hevia
The coach of the Cuban women’s football team, Renier Bonora Peñalver, says he is satisfied with the progress of his students in recent years.
The Camagüeyan strategist is an “old-school” man who has always been known for his commitment to the progress of his students, beyond the 90 minutes of each game and training practices.
“I say that I am not happy because there is always work to be done, to emphasize technical elements. These young women have a great future, they just need to believe it. We as coaches put all our knowledge to work for them, and they can do more,” said the mentor, who has been at the helm of the Cuban cast for three years.
In an interview with this newspaper, Bonora Peñalver said that, despite being in charge of a young squad, in recent years there has been sustained growth in Cuban women.
“The way we move on the court, with or without a ball, is very different from how we did it a couple of years ago. The players are already playing plays that we made during the training sessions,” she said.
This gradual evolution has led coaches to consider starting to implement the 3-4-3 game system, to the detriment of the 4-3-3-3 system they currently use. This change is due, according to Bonora Peñalver, to the fact that several players have refined their technique, both in defense and attack.
“Today’s philosophy is very different from that of the past, when we were looking for women who were fighters and who did a great deal of sacrificial work on the ground. At the moment we prefer them to come in with a good technique, to instill in them a way of playing together.
For Cubans, the immediate goal is to qualify for the 2018 Caribbean Cup, so in May they will be looking for the only ticket in the Dominican Republic, where they will have to compete against the Turks and Caycos Islands, Puerto Rico, Anguilla and the quisqueya hosts.
“We can take that quota. We played a couple of friendly matches two weeks ago against Nicaragua, who are one of the strongest opponents in the Central American area, and our players were in good physical condition, with several chances on goal.
New IAAF action provokes protest
New IAAF action provokes protest
The IAAF noted that as of the 1st. Athletes participating in events ranging from 400 meters to 1 mile in November may not exceed five nanomoles per liter of testosterone in their blood, the DPA agency reports.
Author: Sports Editor | deportes@granma.cu
27 April 2018 00:04:02
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Caster Semenya, the double Olympic title holder in the 800 metres. Photo: stevehaag.photoshelter.com
MONACO – The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has set a new limit for the participation of women with high testosterone levels in its competitions.
The IAAF noted that as of the 1st. Athletes participating in events ranging from 400 meters to a mile in November may not exceed five nanomoles per liter of testosterone in their blood, the DPA agency reports.
Until now, the tolerance threshold for testosterone levels was 10 nanomoles per litre and will now be halved because, according to studies referred to by the IAAF, a higher proportion “increases muscle mass by 4.4%, strength by 12-26% and haemoglobin by 7.8%”.
Athletes who have a higher natural level should use hormonal contraceptives for six months to stay within the authorized limits.
“The new rules seek to level the playing field to ensure fair competition in athletics, where success is determined by talent, dedication and hard work and not by other factors,” said IAAF President Sebastian Coe of Britain.
ANGRY REACTION
Against the backdrop of the announced decision, South Africa turned out to support its runner Caster Semenya, two-time Olympic champion in the 800 meters, and the South African government said the new regulation would force women athletes with high natural testosterone production to reduce it is a “witch hunt” against them, according to EFE.
“This unfortunate and intentional decision is, at best, a witch hunt against our athlete Caster Semenya,” said South African Sports Minister Tokozile Xasa.
The Minister expressed “disappointment” and “disgust” with the IAAF measure. Xasa wondered if the decision is not a way to try to diminish the dominance of African athletes in the medals and called on South Africans to express their opposition to these new rules “designed to disadvantage” their athletes, the Spanish news agency concludes.
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TRANSLATOR’S NOTE:
DPA is the German Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH.news agency.
EFE is a Spanish news agency.
Better Late Than Never
Better Late Than Never
Sexual abuse, a global wound in which justice is most often delayed in the international sports world
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Author: Alfonso Nacianceno | internet@granma.cu
April 25, 2018 21:04:57
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
135/5000 Years have passed after the rape, and even the former French tennis player Isabelle Demongeot cries when she talks about the fact. Photo: crhoy.c
Excessive ambition for success, fear, deceit, and contempt for human dignity spice up a contemptible practice that is now, belatedly, being punished by justice in the international arena of sport.
Sexual abuse carries enough dynamite to exploit a young man’s sporting career and traumatize him for life. The world, despite being aware of the damage, has been slow to react to these excesses and, in many countries, the desire to win is predominant in the mentality of the clubs, which silence the voices of protest inorder to avoid condemnation.
The seriousness of sexual abuse against children and adolescents from the very moment they embrace a sport exhibits painful edges, since the athlete becomes totally dependent on the designs of the coach, by exerting an influence in many cases greater than that of his parents.
The shameless take advantage of the privilege that this close relationship gives them, even when they simulate a caress accompanied by the phrase “I am the one who will lead you to victory”, creating a smokescreen that makes their pupils – who are also afraid to see their future cut short – hesitate to report having been victims of harassment.
Will they believe me or not if I go public? In this dilemma, time passes for the athlete who was subjected to such a punishment, as happened to the French athlete Isabelle Demongeot, raped by her mentor Regis de Camarat, whom she denounced when the facts had already come out, although the man was sentenced to ten years in prison for acting in the same way with two other students.
Sexual abuse does not discriminate against sports. The same thing happened to some 20 footballers in Great Britain who decided to bring to light the aggressions of coaches and headhunters, testimonies with which they accused their clubs of closing their eyes to the felonies for not seeing their successes annulled.
NASSAR, THE TRIGGER?
The 175-year prison sentence and trial of Dr. Larry Nassar, who is responsible for the health of the U.S. gymnastics team, was the biggest sex scandal in the history of world sports and was the spark that sparked a reaction in many countries.
As in most of these cases, in August 2016 the former gymnast Rachel Denhollander, and later the Olympic medalist in the same discipline, Jamie Dantzscher, took the initiative and exposed the predator Nassar.
Influenced or not by what is known about the case in the United States, on Wednesday Gerardo Werthein, president of the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA), asked to denounce sexual abuse before the courts.
“It’s a really severe issue and one that attacks sport in the world. I tell my fellow leaders not to keep things under the rug, to take responsibility,” said a concerned Werthein, who is also the head of the Organizing Committee for the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games.
On April 3, the COA brought to justice a coach from the national teams of the Argentine Gymnastics Confederation, a sexual abuser of some athletes in the 1990s.
Earlier this week, Granma published the decision by Australian sporting authorities to stop the infamous practice of abusing athletes, a report that revealed that in 2012, an investigation revealed that more than 4,000 government institutions (including 344 sports institutions) had been charged with child sexual abuse.
It does not matter whether or not the Nassar case was the trigger for justice in the world. Hopefully, the number of countries on the same path will grow, because the planet and the international sports movement will be hurt by doping, the theft of talent from poor nations and commercialisation. Fighting back, better late than never.
OAS Exposed
OAS Esposed in the Face of Cuba’s Electoral Continuity
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
Under the pseudonym “General Secretariat of the Organization of American States”, the United States Ministry of Colonies issued a press release with which it once again stripped itself naked.
The current Secretary General of the OAS is a sordid traitor to his Uruguayan homeland. Having carried out important political tasks in his country of origin under the presidency of José Mujica – a highly respected personality who is the pride of Latin America – the Secretary General threw his buttocks into the arms of the empire and today exercises the saddest role that a Latin American could play.
Luis Almagro, who was a member of the Frente Amplio, a prestigious unitary political group in Uruguay that provided the Uruguayan people with an efficient political weapon for achieving notable victories at the polls. Almagro has dealt a harsh blow to the popular aspirations of Latin America with his embarrassing performance at the OAS. He has undermined the democratic prestige of his own nation of origin like no one else since the period of the military dictatorships.
In judicial proceedings for petty thieves and other minor crimes that in themselves denounce the misery that led him to betrayal, Luis Almagro intends to continue providing services to the empire with attacks on Cuba, Venezuela and everything that hinders U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere.
Cuba has just carried out an electoral process for presidential continuity that is a paradigm of real democracy and the full exercise of its people’s sovereignty. This well-paid servant of imperialism claims that “the election by the Cuban National Assembly of Miguel Díaz-Canel as President of the country has taken place without the free expression of the Cuban people”.
Almagro cannot ignore that it is precisely the electoral systems of the hemisphere – especially the United States, which claims to be the model from which the rules and patterns for others flow – that the peoples of the “representative democracies” that Washington has spread across the continent most strongly object to as its sardonic “Manifest Destiny”.
The legal system of the latter constitutes the ideal scenario for an unjust order of unequal exchange, exploitation and misery. Washington considers itself called upon to impose this on the world, in accordance with the US philosophy that seeks to justify the way in which the elites of some countries concentrate wealth while submitting to the dictates of the imperialist metropolis.
“Manifest Destiny”, which expresses the belief that America is destined by providence to expand to the four winds, is a racist doctrine. It considers white Americans superior to the mestizos of neighboring countries south of its border who must be regenerated. It assumes that God chose the American people to be, as a political and economic power, a nation superior to the rest of the world, and connects this with the Monroe Doctrine of “America for the Americans.”
When in so many countries on the continent, including the United States, opponents and dissidents are imprisoned and tortured, people are discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, age and nationality; freedom of expression is limited to those who have enough moneyy to exercise it. Selective deaths are ordered and carried out for political reasons by gangs manipulated by capital. Those who demand the right to organize, to better wages, to study and to work are cruelly repressed. The security of the population is undermined by the sale and proliferation of firearms in society by merchants who bribe unscrupulous politicians with impunity.
The U.S. colonial minister has tried, with as much indignity as he can imagine, in order to carry out the will of Washington and Wall Street against the progressive governments that several peoples of the hemisphere have managed to install on the basis of a united patriotic struggle.
Almagro attributes to the OAS the function of denouncing and working for a hemisphere free of dictatorships, with very peculiar selectivity. As a result of the intervention of criminal groups in a citizens’ protest against an increase in social security contributions, an unusual wave of violence broke out in Nicaragua. A dozen were left dead and many injured in that country, which is considered the most peaceful and safe in Central America. The OAS immediately “demanded” Daniel Ortega’s progressive government not act against “peaceful demonstrations” and the country was subjected to a terrorist methodology similar to the guarimbas promoted and financed by Washington’s anti-Chavism in Venezuela, both in 2014 and 2017.
The diligence with which the OAS acted there contrasts with the laziness it showed when, recently, it was asked to act in Honduras in the face of dozens of crimes committed by the repressive forces of the local regime… and to which the OAS never responded.
April 26, 2018.
Seven Coincidences between Nicaragua and Venezuela
Seven coincidences between the violent protests in Nicaragua and Venezuela
Sub-Title
By Mission Verdad [Truth] April 24, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
[Photo above from Venezuela in 1017, wl]
- Non-conventional weaponry. The use of handcrafted weapons to confront the security forces seeks to create a blurred line between peaceful protest and tactics of subversion and urban warfare, so that the deaths will occur and then be endorsed to the government as part of a “human rights violation” case.
Metras, mortars, rockets, among other implements, are used by mercenary collision groups in Venezuela and caused damage to Adrián Duque, Armando Cañizalez, César Pereira, Diego Arellano, Miguel Castillo, Roberto Durán and Yeison Mora, who were killed by metal spheres or by civilians from the same side of the demonstrations. Andrés Uzcátegui, Nelson Arévalo Avendaño, Neomar Lander and Engelberth Duque Chacón were also killed handling handcrafted explosives.
During the violent protests in Nicaragua, armed groups taking the vanguard use similar devices.
In order to avoid confusion because of the similarity of the images, the first photo corresponds to Venezuela and the second to Nicaragua.
- Rumor campaigns. Unconfirmed information is generated by psychological warfare operators who use social networks as amplifiers to create anxiety and panic in the population. Amidst the protests in Venezuela last year, some opposition leaders led a rumour campaign to link the Venezuelan government to the alleged use of chemical weapons, with the aim of attracting international media attention and generating terror in public opinion. At that time, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Syrian government was accused of carrying out a chemical attack, and it was later confirmed that the alleged attack was a setup to justify a US bombing campaign on the Arab country.Walter Lippmann This is a translatlion from Cubadebate of the Chavista-Venezuelan MISSION VERDAD commentary on the similarities betwee the recent Nicaraguan protests and the violent protests in Venezuela last year.
The photos are from Venezuela last year, 2017.
[link to many Twitter images of Venezuela in 2017, wl] https://twitter.com/dsmolansky/status/850804443557888000Walter Lippmann This is a translatlion from Cubadebate of the Chavista-Venezuelan MISSION VERDAD commentary on the similarities betwee the recent Nicaraguan protests and the violent protests in Venezuela last year.
The photos are from Venezuela last year, 2017.
Trying to emulate that same sense of opportunity, in Nicaragua the use of rumor was used to link the government to the use of chemical weapons, a lie that, although it fell, was useful to the oxygenation of violence via social networks.
- Manipulation of death figures. Those killed during the violent events are reported without any explanation or specification, so, as in Venezuela, the media blames the government or “armed groups”. With this tactic in the use of means, a dossier is drawn up that could allow for intervention or coup d’état, depending on the circumstances. Media such as ABC have launched a death toll that even the local media cannot confirm. As we have seen in the previous ‘coincidence’, these estimates have been put into practice by operators with long experience in the information war against Venezuela.
In Nicaragua, the international media is chorus of ghostly “reports” that place the death toll at over 20, unable to say whether they are confirmed or not.
Applying the same disinformative maneuver, it attempted to hide the fact that in 2017, for example, 25 people died in Venezuela who were passing through the vicinity of a demonstration but were not directly involved. Cases such as those of Almelina Carrilo (Caracas) or Paola Ramírez (Táchira), murders committed by opposition demonstrators, were used as media triggers to escalate the violence by holding the government accountable without any judicial resolution of the cases.
- Looting and damage to public and private property. Armed groups in Nicaragua have looted several premises of electrical appliances and even motorcycles in some parts of Nicaragua, and have caused damage to state facilities, such as hospitals and educational institutions. The profile of violence has been professional and focused not only on key service infrastructures for the daily life of the population, but also on symbols and institutions of state power.
Similar events occurred in the municipality of Chacao, Miranda State, Venezuela, when anti-c
Chavista-funded clash groups set fire to and attacked public buildings such as the Executive Directorate of the Judiciary of the Supreme Court of Justice. This is just one small example of the burning of public transport units, libraries and hospitals during 2017.
- Use of snipers. In Venezuela, targeted killings were carried out using snipers, and Sergeant Niumar Sanclemente (Miranda) and Carabobo Police officer Jorge Escandón were killed with accurate shots. Jesús Leonardo Sulbarán and Luis Alberto Márquez, workers in the governorate of Mérida, were also shot from several buildings in the state.
The journalist Angel Gahona, from a state television channel, was murdered on Saturday night while he was broadcasting the events on Facebook Live in Bluefields, Nicaragua. He was walking behind the police forces and a gunshot shot him in the head in front of dozens of people. From April 11, 2001, through the Euromaidan to Nicaragua, snipers have been a recurrent resource in coup operations conducted from the US.
- Use of show business influencers. To implement the sensitivity of people linked to the entertainment industry is a successful advertising resource to reach support for the days of violence in increasingly broad strata of public opinion. This catalyst is still useful for this type of operation; in the case of Venezuela, there were too many show business figures demonstrating their bias against Chavism.
In Nicaragua this resource has also been applied through international musical references, Miss Nicaragua 2018 Adriana Paniagua and other characters from the local entertainment industry.
- Symbols and glorification of death. The lists of dead people painted with chalk on the pavement used in Nicaragua are similar to those written in Venezuela during the 2017 guarimbas, with the purpose of hiding the causes of each case and transferring the human scars of the violence to the government. Even though among the deceased, in both Venezuela and Nicaragua, there are members of the security forces, students, workers and political activists, it is important for the media deployment to swell false lists and give it a “non-violent struggle” aesthetic, which, being internationally recognized, empties these deaths of any local meaning by transforming them into consumer products.
(Taken from Mission Verdad)