SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2006

Second Election Interference Delegation Returns!

Report Back from the Nicaraguan Election Interference Monitoring Delegation
October 8 -15, 2006

By Tom Loudon, Quest for Peace staff

Our jointly sponsored Quest for Peace and Nicaragua Network delegation recently returned from Nicaragua after a very successful visit. The purpose of our trip was to investigate and monitor the level of illegal U.S. intervention in the Election process underway. Nicaraguans will elect a new president and assembly delegates this coming November 5th, and the U.S. Embassy and other members of the U.S. government have been intervening in the Nicaraguan process in a number of troublesome ways.

The U.S. Ambassador and other State Department officials seem to be completely obsessed with the possibility of Daniel Ortega becoming the next president of Nicaragua. They are apparently only interested in the kind of democracy where their chosen candidate wins. The U.S. Ambassador and other State Department officials seem to be completely obsessed with the possibility of Daniel Ortega becoming the next president of Nicaragua. They are apparently only interested in the kind of democracy where their chosen candidate wins. This obsession has resulted in almost constant illegal and immoral interference in the election process.

The June 2006 delegation reported that "the United States had gone beyond what was appropriate and correct in its involvement in the electoral process." Unfortunately, we found the level of interference continues to be high, and the Ambassador and other functionaries have made repeated statements in favor of Eduardo Montealegre, and against the two front running candidates, Daniel Ortega and Jose Rizo.

While in Nicaragua we met with independent analysts, representatives from the OAS, representatives from four political parties and with human rights organizations.

All expressed a desire for a fair and clean electoral process. Most expressed preoccupation at the way the United States has been interfering.

In a late September visit to Nicaragua, Congressman Dan Burton publicly declared that diplomatic and economic relations with Nicaragua would likely suffer if a candidate unacceptable to the United States were elected. The Ambassador, Paul Trivelli has made similar threats, suggesting that the Millennium Challenge Account funds might be at risk if Daniel Ortega is elected.

Statements of this nature by foreign ‘diplomats' violate international norms and must be categorically condemned. If a foreign government agent attempted to interfere in U.S. elections in this fashion, they would quickly lose their diplomatic status. Statements of preference by foreign ‘diplomats' violate international norms and must be categorically condemned. Things have been so bad in Nicaragua that the Secretary General of the OAS on a recent visit to Nicaragua specifically asked for foreign officials to stop their illegal and immoral meddling in the affairs of Nicaragua.

Oddly, during the time we were in Nicaragua, which was shortly after the Secretary General had made his remarks, there were no comments by the U.S. Ambassador. He did, however feel it necessary to comment on the open letter which we placed in the two major newspapers, and to the press conference which we held on the day the open letter was published. The Embassy's response was published right next to an article the Nuevo Diario ran which covered our press conference from the day before. Essentially the Embassy said that its work was to promote democracy, and they were funding organizations which do that work. They couldn't, however, resist plugging their favorite candidate, while at the same time giving their reasons for why the two leading candidates are unacceptable to them. They forgot to mention that their favorite candidate, a banker has been implicated in a major banking scandal which has resulted in over $500 million in debt which the government is paying.
Trivelli's silence during our delegation was short lived. Earlier this week, while at an event with potential investors in Nicaragua he once again renewed his attacks on Daniel Ortega.

Trivelli's silence during our delegation was short lived. He said "the $180 million potential investments that could result from a new agreement called Corporation of Private Investment in the Exterior will not happen if there is not a positive climate towards external investment and private property." He went on to say, "clearly the Nicaraguans will decide who is their next president, but they will have to live with the consequences."

In the decade of the 1980's, the Nicaraguan people suffered the consequences of a brutal Contra war that was sponsored by the United States, in the pursuit of U.S. ‘policy goals' in Nicaragua. Current threats tap into this long, brutal history of U.S. intervention. We must continue to express our outrage at this short-sighted and illegal behavior and support the right to self-determination of the Nicaraguan people. In the next few days we will be asking you to call your Congresspeople and Congressional candidates. Please stay alert for our announcement, and keep checking back for updates on the situation in Nicaragua.
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