US urged Haughey to take tough line with Nicaraguan president Ortega
US urged Haughey to take tough line with Nicaraguan president Ortega
US wanted Irish government to apply public pressure on Nicaraguan leader and to encourage other EU countries to do the same
Mon, Aug 12, 2013, 01:00
First published:Mon, Aug 12, 2013, 01:00
US secretary of state James Baker strongly urged taoiseach Charles Haughey in 1989 to adopt a tough line with Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega over democratic standards.
Shortly before Ortega arrived in Dublin on an official visit, Baker phoned Haughey to tell him that the US government wanted the Irish government to apply public pressure on the Nicaraguan leader and also to encourage other EU countries to do the same.
Speaking notes for a phone conversation Baker held with Haughey in April 1989 have been obtained under US freedom of information legislation.
They notes show that Baker’s primary concern was to impress on Haughey the need to take a stiff line with Ortega, who was due to visit Ireland shortly afterwards.
More:
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/us-urged-haughey-to-take-tough-line-with-nicaraguan-president-ortega-1.1491008
= new reply since forum marked as read
... 'talking points' that are being used to smear elected Leftist leaders and broad-based, successful Leftist movements in other countries in South and Central America, as a preliminary to attempted coup d'etats and other anti-democratic, pro-corporate/1%-er activities (looting and plundering).
Hugo Chavez was smeared in this way prior to the U.S.-supported 2002 coup d'etat attempt in Venezuela, and in subsequent fascist efforts to overthrow his very popular, ELECTED government. Mel Zelaya, ELECTED president of Honduras, was smeared in this way, prior to the successful U.S.-supported, fascist coup in 2009. Fernando Lugo, ELECTED president of Paraguay, was smeared in this way, prior to a similar and also successful fascist coup d'etat, recently, in Paraguay (very likely U.S.-supported). Rafael Correa, very popular, ELECTED president of Ecuador, has been smeared in this way, and has survived one coup d'etat attempt (also very likely U.S.-supported) and remains very popular.
This is what the CIA and their local fascist operatives do in Latin America. They can't win fair and square. They do smears and coup d'etats.
And it's interesting what one of the motives of the CIA may be, revealed by one of the coup generals in Honduras, during the overthrow of the Zelayan government and Honduran democracy. The general stated that their coup was intended to "prevent communism from Venezuela reaching the United States" (quoted in a report on the coup by the Zelaya government-in-exile). By "communism," this general meant universal free health care, universal free education through college, strong labor unions, good wages and benefits, high employment, government use of resources such as oil to help the poor, fair taxation, strong regulation of banks and other financial entities, and honest, transparent elections**--all achievements of the Chavez government and the people of Venezuela over the last decade.
These popular and DEMOCRATIC achievements are to be "prevented" from "reaching" the United States from Venezuela and points south, up through Central America--Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador (all with ELECTED Leftist governments until the 2009 coup in Honduras)--if they can manage to leap the hurdle of the disaster that is Guatemala (100,000 Mayan peasants slaughtered by Reagan's henchmen--perps still at large; poverty, political murder, political dysfunction still on-going), and make it past "neo-liberal" Mexico to the U.S. border.
Democracy!
"New Deal"-type government reform.
Curtailment of the banksters and the 1%ers.
Government "of, by and for" the People.
Resistance to corporate 'privatization'/ reverence for "the Commons."
Rejection of "neo-liberal" (Wall Street doctrine) ("the rich get richer; the poor get kicked off the island"
.
Rejection of the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" (and its ulterior motives of the militarization and wreckage of Latin American civil society and expansion of Pentagon "forward operating locations" in Latin America).
This is what the Honduran coup generals feared in their own country--government "of, by and for" the People. They equate this with "communism." And they no doubt picked up the notion at a U.S. embassy cocktail party that they must sit astride the peninsula, bristling with U.S.-provided weapons and new Pentagon "forward operating locations," to "prevent" democracy "reaching the United States." NOT "communism." DEMOCRACY!
Ain't it odd that a Honduran coup general would want to protect us from "communism"?
Honduras is the traditional "stepping stool" for U.S. aggression in Central America, notably against Nicaragua. That is where Reagan's death squads mustered and took their R&R, prior to crossing the border and assassinating teachers and mayors and other good people in Nicaragua who supported the good revolution, led by Daniel Ortega, against the horrible, fascist, U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship (which ruled Nicaragua with a bloody hand from 1936 to 1979).
Yes, that same Daniel Ortega, now the ELECTED president of Nicaragua, and ally of all the other Leftist democracy revolutions in Latin America.
Oh, yes, the fascists and their CIA and Pentagon backers hate Daniel Ortega. And, having succeeded in overthrowing democracy in Honduras, and having secured Honduras for U.S. corporate exploitation and Pentagon FOL's, they have their sights on Nicaragua, once again. It was even mentioned in the Diebold Congress' "Miami mafia" meeting in early 2010, before those s/elected assholes were even "seated." Top of their list: Nicaragua.
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**Indeed, former President Jimmy Carter recently said that Venezuela has "the best election system in the world."
Somebody who can get quoted by the corporate media. Not your everyday Joe or Jane Citizen. We don't count.
But then, these days, a former president of the United States, if his name is Jimmy Carter, can't even get quoted when he says that, "America does not have a functioning democracy at this point in time."
Yup, that's what he said. Former PRESIDENT of the country, whose life work out of office has been promotion of honest, transparent elections and human and civil rights throughout the world.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/16043-jimmy-carter-defends-snowden-says-u-s-has-no-functioning-democracy
But you won't find it on Faux News, nor on the alphabet soup of TV/radio corporate monopolies, nor from the Associated Pukes, nor the New York Slimes, nor from any of the "usual suspects" who get their "talking points" from the U.S. "military-industrial/fake democracy complex."
Granted it was at a closed-door meeting of a research and educational institute, but a) he has not denied it, and b) it was quoted in Der Spiegel and Huffington Post. And, granted, the context was the NSA's vast domestic spying operation (so we don't know how sweeping Carter's indictment of U.S. democracy is). But still, it is a HIGHLY NOTABLE accusation about LACK OF DEMOCRACY here at home, by one of our most famous political figures--former president, Nobel Peace Prize winner, passionate advocate of democracy.
WHERE is the reporting on this? WHERE are the questions (of Carter), the follow-up? WHY don't we know how sweeping an indictment he intended it to be? HOW come this is not being discussed in the "military-industrial/fake democracy complex" press? (Well, that's obvious.)
"America does not have a functioning democracy at this point in time." --Former President Jimmy Carter (circa July 2013)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for Nicaragua, they're doing just fine. They have achieved a functioning democracy that was able to elect a leftist as president, after decades and decades of hideous, U.S.-supported fascist dictatorship, and bloody horrors inflicted by Reagan's henchmen. The Nicaraguans must have laughed their heads off, being lectured by the Irish on the CIA's notions of "democracy." It's pretty funny, when you think about it (if it weren't so bloody tragic, or maybe because it is--what can you do but laugh?)