07 May 2018

A Nicaraguan Spring or imperial spring cleaning?

Al Jazeera English

In April, Nicaragua saw intense clashes between protesters and government forces that reportedly left dozens dead.
The protests were initially set off by proposed adjustments to the national social security system, which have now been cancelled by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Journalist and former teleSUR English director Pablo Vivanco remarked to me in an email that, while the violence was no doubt "deplorable", it is difficult to view the events in Nicaragua outside a current context in which "left-leaning governments in Latin America have faced increasingly violent opposition coupled with mounting hostility from Washington". 
And while the proposed social security reforms "can certainly be criticised", Vivanco said, "it is also necessary to point out that some of the leading organisations in the protests were actually calling for harsher cuts and privatisations". Predictably, the right-wing crowd in the United States has commenced accelerated salivation at the prospect of the demise of one of the remaining leftish entities in the Americas. 
The US media has been helpfully dramatic, with the Wall Street Journal, for example, editorialising that "Ortega Has to Go". 
To be sure, Ortega & Co are nasty characters indeed .- but that doesn't mean the US should be involved in their departure. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.