{"id":199928,"date":"2021-11-22T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=199928"},"modified":"2021-11-21T04:50:38","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T04:50:38","slug":"after-daniel-ortegas-victory-in-nicaragua-biden-signs-renacer-act-and-oas-votes-to-condemn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/11\/after-daniel-ortegas-victory-in-nicaragua-biden-signs-renacer-act-and-oas-votes-to-condemn\/","title":{"rendered":"After Daniel Ortega\u2019s Victory in Nicaragua, Biden Signs RENACER Act and OAS Votes to Condemn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many Nicaraguans expressed support for their country\u2019s voting process on November 7 as 2.8 million people cast their votes for as many as 6 national parties. Credit: Julie Varughese<\/p><\/div>\n

14 Nov 2021 – <\/em>Just three days after Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega won his fourth term as Nicaragua\u2019s president with 75.92 percent of the vote, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the RENACER Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An acronym for the \u201cReinforcing Nicaragua\u2019s Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform Act of 2021,\u201d RENACER slaps sanctions on Ortega government officials, attempts to restrict multilateral financing to Nicaragua, monitors Nicaragua\u2019s relationship with Russia, punishes the country for alleged human-rights violations and targets reported corruption inside Nicaragua, among other items.<\/p>\n

Then on November 12, 25 member states of the Organization of American States\u2019 (OAS) Permanent Council voted<\/a> in favor of a resolution that criticized the elections as not free and fair and urged further action.<\/p>\n

The OAS resolution and fresh U.S. sanctions, as well as social media platforms suspending known Ortega supporters a week before the elections and corporate media outlets inaccurately reporting on Ortega make clear the United States is the primary contradiction in the Nicaraguan people\u2019s struggle for liberation.<\/p>\n

\"A
A view of Victoriano Potosme\u2019s farm in San Jos\u00e9 de los Rios in Ticuantepe, Nicaragua. Peasants like Potosme won land ownership when Sandinistas took power in 1979 \/ credit: Julie Varughese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Social Markers Improve<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ortega, a militant in the Frente Sandinista de Liberaci\u00f3n Nacional (the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN for short), was first elected president in 1984. His defeat in 1989 to neoliberal Violeta Chamorro, a scion of the landowning class, kicked off 16 years of neoliberal rule. During that time, Sandinista reforms were rolled back and social outcomes plummetted. That is why the era from 1990 to 2006 is referred to as the Neoliberal Period.<\/p>\n

\"Nicaraguan
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in 2013 \/ credit: Fernanda LeMarie\/Canciller\u00eda del Ecuador<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Ortega was re-elected in 2006, the maternal mortality rate\u2014a key marker of a country\u2019s well-being\u2013was 92.8 deaths per 100,000 live births. By 2020, that number dropped 60 percent to 37.5 deaths per 100,000 live births because of programs that include \u201cmaternity homes\u201d to monitor pregnant women close to their due date. Other improvements include a 41 percent decrease in poverty, 100 percent electrification, 100 percent mobile-phone access, 85 percent internet accessibility, as well as a 100 percent increase in the amount of renewable energy the state generates. A free-trade zone employs 120,000 Nicaraguans, who work for foreign companies. Those corporations are required to abide by Nicaragua\u2019s laws as well as respect the environment and workers\u2019 rights. All of this means few people leave the country, but many have arrived from neighboring neoliberal Honduras.<\/p>\n

Farmers Defend Nicaragua
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Victoriano Potosme once labored under the orders of \u201clatifundistas,\u201d white plantation owners in Nicaragua.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were slaves under them,\u201d he said while standing on his mountaintop farm in San Jos\u00e9 de los Rios in Ticuantepe, about an hour from the capital of Managua. There, he and his family grow award-winning fruits and have developed an internationally acclaimed organic fertilizer called BIO Buena Vista.<\/p>\n

\"Victoriano
Victoriano Potosme (left), pictured with female relatives, speaks to a group of international visitors about the impact of the Sandinista Revolution on his family\u2019s life as they farm on land seized from white wealthy landowners in San Jos\u00e9 de los Rios in Ticuantepe, Nicaragua \/ credit: Julie Varughese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For campesinos like Potosme, the November 7 elections were critical. After the Sandinista Revolution, peasants like Potosme were able to own the land they worked because of reforms that put 235,000 acres into their hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we go back to the neoliberal period, it would take us back 150 years,\u201d he said a few days before casting his ballot.<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biden released a statement on Election Day, citing the Inter-American Democratic Charter as justification for intervening in Nicaragua\u2019s affairs. That charter was adopted on September 11, 2001, by the Organization of American States (OAS), a multilateral body the United States slapped together in the early 20th century as part of its efforts to control the Western Hemisphere. Per the Monroe Doctrine, the United States considers the rest of the hemisphere its \u201cbackyard.\u201d After years of dormancy, that colonial term re-emerged during the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Then after the election, the OAS also chimed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reject the results of the illegitimate elections in <\/span>#Nicaragua,\u201d tweeted<\/a> OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro.<\/span> \u201cI urge countries of the OAS to respond to this clear violation of the Democratic Charter during its <\/span>#OASassembly<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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We reject the results of the illegitimate elections in #Nicaragua<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I urge countries of the OAS to respond to this clear violation of the Democratic Charter during its #OASassembly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Report of the Secretariat for Strengthening of Democracy: @Almagro_OEA2015<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/8CBUz303Dp<\/a><\/p>\n

— OAS (@OAS_official) November 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n