Nicaragua’s Protests: What’s the Point?
Bullets whiz by as leaves fall from their branches to the forest floor. Bloodshed. Chaos. Smoke. Futility. No reason. No why. It’s a scene that Indigenous communities in the Americas have gotten used to in the almost 500 years since 1521, when Tenochtitlán fell to canon fire. It happened again in January 2020 in Nicaragua. Deep in the country’s jungle, a community of native Mayagna were attacked by 80 armed settlers. At least six villagers were murdered and 10 were kidnapped. Locals say the government has done nothing to help protect them as their slow genocide reigns on, while illegal loggers and miners seek to profit from the land, the second-largest rainforest in the Americas after the Amazon. The government’s unempathetic response is symptomatic of a larger issue in the inhumane cogs of President Ortega’s administration – a bigger problem that was confronted two years ago during the country’s student-led protests. But did they accomplish anything?
Like the recent protests in Hong Kong, Nicaragua’s 2018 crisis was a snowball. After a small demonstration in April 2018 against Nicaragua’s plans to modestly raise taxes and cut benefits, pro-government groups violently crushed protestor’s efforts. In those five days, 10 people were killed, while others faced tear gas and rubber bullets. Though Nicaragua decided to abandon the reform, the event sparked something like a civil war. In the following months, the protests continued, with demonstrators eventually calling for more demands: the resignation of Ortega, social welfare, democratic reform, and more. Between April and July of 2018, thousands were injured, and hundreds were murdered, as the government employed sharpshooters and other armed forces to attack pro-democracy demonstrators. Between April 2018 and 2019, 568 protestors were killed, 2,830 were injured, over 350 protestors were detained, and roughly 80,000 fled in exile. Ortega refused their demands and continued the armed crackdown.
Though no formal end to the conflict was ever announced, the democratic movement is essentially in tatters. President Ortega has been in power for 50 years and shows no signs of backing down. His army and police are mostly loyal to him, and the deaths of the past two years cannot be undone, nor has any effort been made to reconcile with the families who have suffered loss under Ortega’s terror.
Looking to recent news regarding Nicaragua, there are small dust specks of optimism to be found. In June 2019, 50 protestors were released from prison under an amnesty law; in December 2019, 91 protestors were released; in November 2019, prominent independent journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro returned from his self-exile in Costa Rica; and, in February 2020, the government lifted an 18-month publication ban on the country’s largest newsprint, La Prensa. These all seem like a slow move in the right direction for the state. However, their intentions must be critically questioned, as they seem motivated by short-term goals that reaffirm the administration’s dictatorial stranglehold on basic freedoms.
Nicaragua’s government is in a tight position, as global leaders disavow their actions against protestors. In July 2018, the US Press Secretary released a strong condemnation of Nicaragua’s human rights abuses; in the same month, 13 Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay – called for an end to the “acts of violence, intimidation and the threats directed towards Nicaraguan society,” and, in August 2018, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned “The violence and repression seen in Nicaragua” and said they display the country’s “systematic erosion of human rights over the years, and highlight the overall fragility of institutions and the rule of law.” To add insult to injury, in July 2019 the government’s $50 billion plan to build a canal fell through, as its financier in China failed to provide the project’s funds promised 6 years ago.
Simply put, Ortega’s administration has no friends, no allies, and no cash. Taking this into consideration, it is no surprise that we have seen minor victories in terms of releasing political prisoners and loosening publication bans. However, even those small triumphs come with caveats. For example, the amnesty law passed by Nicaragua’s Senate, which allowed the freeing of some protestors, only allows the release of prisoners if they refrain from protesting again. Consequently, over 70 opposition groups and human rights organizations have condemned the law.
Besides these unfortunately minute successes, it seems that radio silence is the only noise coming from Nicaragua, and the movement has achieved little in the nearly two years since it started. However, that is not to say they should cease. Like Diogenes to Alexander the Great, Nicaraguans should stand in front of Ortega and stop him from obfuscating their light.