Gov. Jeb Bush denies rumor he'll back Nicaraguan candidate

[seafan]

Gov. Bush denies rumor he'll back Nicaraguan candidate

BY CASEY WOODS
October 28, 2006

With Nicaragua's elections approaching, an unexpected political player is weighing in: Gov. Jeb Bush.

''On the 5th of November, the Nicaraguan people have to make a big decision, and must choose between a tragic path to the past, or a view to the future,'' Bush stated in a letter released this week. ``I have the hope that the people will use these elections as an opportunity to break out of the suffering of the past.''

The governor's letter was meant to dispel rumors that Bush would appear at campaign events in Nicaragua for the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, or PLC -- a possibility that the Nicaraguan newspaper La Bolsa de Negocios published in an Oct. 23 article, according to Bush's missive.

The PLC's candidate, José Rizo, and two other opposition candidates will face Sandinista leader and perennial presidential candidate Daniel Ortega in the Nov. 5 elections. Because of election law changes, Ortega has a better chance of winning the presidency than ever before in his 16 years of trying.

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''The particular thing I wanted to make sure people understood is that I'm not supporting a candidate whose campaign says I was going to attend the last week of rallies for him,'' Bush told The Miami Herald Friday. ``I wasn't, and I'm not.''

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While Bush did not mention Ortega by name in the letter, he clearly slammed the ``bloody decade of the Sandinistas government.''

[marmar]

1. How can one family be so full of fuckups, assholes and losers?

Why has America been cursed with them? From Nazi sympathizers to war junkies, they've got the spectrum covered.

[Greeby]

2. Yes, Jeb, it WAS a "bloody decade"

Thanks to your father and his nest of vipers!

Asshole :eyes:

[Matariki]

5. true - and what he said was probably meant as a threat to repeat it.

[Robbien]

3. Is Casey Woods one of the reporters being paid by the US government?

I heard the Miami Herald had to hire back all the propaganda writers and the editor who first fired them has himself been kicked out.

I cannot read the Miami Herald without thinking "Okay what propaganda is BushCo pushing this time?".

[seafan]

6. I can't say for sure, but here are 2 links with more info about this.

10 Miami journalists take U.S. pay


Editorial: U.S. Only Hurts Itself by Paying Journalists


Updated, as recently as October 4, 2006:

After a thorough review of federal documents, The Miami Herald found 49 full-time journalists or contributors to local media outlets who also received payments from Radio and TV Martí from October 2001 to August 2006.

They included eight El Nuevo staffers, paid between $125 and $175,000, and 29 freelancers who contribute to El Nuevo. They received between $100 and $110,000 over a five-year period.

Thirteen other journalists at several Miami media, including Channel 41, Diario Las Americas, Univision, Telemundo, Radio Mambi and WQBA, were listed.

A 2002 article in both papers revealed paid work of fired freelancer Olga Connor, but management did not act.

Looks like * wasted no time after September 11, 2001 to catapult the propaganda.

[Robbien]

7. Appears to me if a writer wants to work for the Miami Herald

it is almost a requirement for them to also push propaganda for the US Govt. Almost fifty Miami Herald people on the US payroll!

[Matariki]

4. hmmm, there must be Cocaine involved.

[teryang]

8. This is just the sort of bushism destroying our standing all over...

...the world.

[seafan]

9. October 28: Jeb Bush letter appears in anti-Ortega paid ad in La Prensa.

Looks like Jeb is caught in yet ANOTHER LIE.

Dana Rohrabacher, Jeb Bush and Otto Reich are propagandizing against Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua's upcoming election on November 5. And Jeb denies he's supporting anti-Ortega factions.



http://www.counterpunch.org/beachy10312006.html">Targeting Nicaraguans' Stomachs

11th Hour Election Meddling by the US

By BEN BEACHY
October 31, 2005

Nicaragua is currently gearing up for its national elections on Sunday, November 5. For the last year, Nicaragua's complicated electoral panorama has been further convoluted by a string of U.S. representatives endeavoring to ward off an electoral victory by Sandinista (FSLN) leader and former president Daniel Ortega. U.S. officials have publicly censured Ortega, attempted to unify his opposition, and threatened that an Ortega win would endanger U.S. financial support. The continuous intervention, however, has failed to unite Nicaragua's divided right or significantly detract from Ortega's base. Now U.S. meddlers are flustered and desperate in the face of recent polls revealing that Ortega is within a few percentage points of clinching the presidential office.

In a last-ditch effort to undermine Ortega, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House's International Relations Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, sent a letter on Friday, October 27, to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security. Rohrabacher enjoined Chertoff "to prepare in accordance with U.S. law, contingency plans to block any further money remittances from being sent to Nicaragua in the event that the FSLN enters government." The nearly half million Nicaraguans currently living in the U.S. send around $500 million each year to their family members in Nicaragua, according to Nicaraguan economist Nestor Avendaño.

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Rohrabacher's letter is but one voice in a recent cacophony of U.S. meddling. Headlines of the last week have been laden with unsolicited U.S. opinions on Daniel Ortega and the sort of President Nicaraguans should want. The day after Rohrabacher sent his letter, Florida governor Jeb Bush authored a letter published in a La Prensa paid ad. Bush's letter declares that Nicaraguans must choose between a "tragic step towards the past," which he identifies as the "totalitarianism" of the Sandinistas, and "a vision towards the future." Jeb Bush's own vision for Nicaragua's future is revealed at the bottom of the ad, where the Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense party, which is running the U.S.-preferred presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre, is named as the ad's sponsor.

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On October 29, the day after printing Jeb Bush's letter, La Prensa published an editorial by Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, in which he accuses the FSLN of maintaining ties with terrorist groups, a claim that Reich does not attempt to substantiate. Though Reich does not currently hold a position in the U.S. government, he writes as if he does, stating, "If the Sandinistas control the government of Nicaragua, there will be strong pressure in Washington to review all aspects of the bilateral relationship, including remittances." Reich equates a Sandinista victory with "a return to a past of poverty and international isolation." Such a dismal outcome indeed seems likely if the U.S., as the party responsible for the isolation of the past, would implement Reich's thinly cloaked threat of aid and remittance cutoffs.

Ironically, Reich precedes all the above statements with the disclaimer, "No one can tell who to vote for." Jeb Bush, Adolfo Franco, and other outspoken U.S. figures have similarly acknowledged Nicaraguans' sovereign right to pick their own leaders. Unfortunately, such statements come across as meaningless niceties when subsequently contradicted with threats and admonishments against choosing a president not to the U.S.'s liking. As Nicaraguans make their way to the polls on Sunday, they must not only consider "What will this candidate do for my country if elected?" but also "What will the U.S. do to my country if this candidate is elected?" The product of relentless outside interference, this sad reality is profoundly undemocratic.

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