Nicaragua party 'outraged' by US

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct. 5 - Robert B. Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state, warned business leaders here on Wednesday that they should not continue supporting the political parties that are trying unseat Nicaragua's president if they hoped to continue doing business with the United States.

"Your opportunities will be lost," Mr. Zoellick said he told the businessmen.

On the second day of a visit here, Mr. Zoellick also met with politicians who said they intended to oppose the parties trying to unseat President Enrique Bolaños.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/international/americas/06nicaragua.html

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellickis in Nicaragua to try to break up a bizzare left-right alliance that has paralyzed and threatened to derail the government of President Enrique Bolaños. The U.S. is justifying its involvement in Nicaragua's domestic affairs by claiming that it is acting to protect democracy, but it seems more than coincidental that Zoellick, who served as U.S. Trade Representative from 2001-2005 is the official who has been dispatched to Nicaragua at a time when the deadlock in the Nicaraguan National Assembly is preventing the country from ratifying the Domincan Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA.)

Nowhere is the cliche that "politics makes strange bedfellows" truer than in Nicaragua. United only by their hatred of President Bolaños, Sandinistas and right-wing allies of jailed ex-President Arnoldo Aleman have formed an alliance known as "el pacto" that has largely paralyzed the Bolaños government by derailing its programs in the National Assembly.

"El pacto" is certainly undemocratic. But it has had the serendipitously democratic effect of preventing the National Assembly from taking up the ratification of DR-CAFTA, a trade agreement opposed by the country's poor majority because of the agreement's devastating effect on workers and farmers. National Assembly President Rene Nuñez, a Sandinista, has prevented the agreement from coming to the floor of the National Assembly. On September 21, he suspended the National Assembly session indefinitely because not enough members formally signed in. Members of the pro-Bolaños Blue and White faction suggest that this occured because members of the pro-Aleman Constitutional Liberal Party conspired with the Sandinistas to prevent the Assembly from holding the session in order to keep DR-CAFTA from passing the Assembly. The U.S.-based solidarity group, Nicaragua Networkreports that:

Despite the fact that the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) deputies went out of their way to make it seem like they were pushing for DR-CAFTA to be discussed, Orlando Tardencilla, a Blue and White deputy, questioned whether this really was the case. According to Tardencilla, the Liberal-Sandinista pact has an agreement not to allow DR-CAFTA through the legislature in the near future. The PLC must, however, appear to be lobbying in favor of the
trade agreement so as not to lose face among its right-wing voters.

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http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/10/5/203437/871

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct. 5 -- Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, stepping into a political crisis, met a onetime Sandinista loyalist Wednesday to press U.S. influence in this divided Central American nation.

The discussion with former Managua mayor Herty Lewites, now a critic of his former allies, was part of an effort to thwart what Zoellick called a "creeping coup" by Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega and former president Arnoldo Aleman.

During a two-day visit to Managua, the capital, the State Department's second-ranking official has piled pressure on Sandinista and rightist opposition leaders whom the Bush administration accuses of undermining President Enrique Bolaños, a U.S. ally.

Zoellick announced earlier that the United States had revoked visas held by Nicaragua's attorney general and Aleman's two adult children, and threatened to withhold millions of dollars in aid.

The renewed U.S. interest in Nicaragua, where the Reagan administration supported rebels known as contras against Ortega's government in the 1980s, angered the opposition. "We protest to the world about the U.S. government's unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of our country," Aleman's party said in a statement.

Zoellick this week described an informal alliance between the Sandinistas and Aleman, who is restricted to the capital after being convicted of corruption during his 1997-2002 rule, as a "corrupt pact."

The alliance already controls the judicial and legislative branches of government, and the conflict has at times threatened to force Bolaños from office.

U.S. officials have expressed concerns that Ortega, whom the U.S. government accused of running a Soviet-backed government during the Cold War, could return to office when elections are held next year.

Zoellick met Tuesday with Eduardo Montealegre and Jose Alvarado, both of whom are considering running for president. He also met leaders of the Movement for Nicaragua, which has organized pro-democracy demonstrations.

interesting that under the reagan administration the u.s. was condemned by the world court for the crime of "international terrorism" in, of all places, nicaragua. the security council was ready to convict the u.s. of the capital crime; however, as expected, the u.s. vetoed the resolution. nevertheless, because the security council never gave its approval of the terrorist acts, the international terrorism label stands.

if you look at the steps in the lead up to the attacks and the well known aggressive acts, they are very similar if not identical to the footprints of the u.s. in viet-raq.

so much for the gangster state of the u.s.

interesting also that the u.s. gov't is the only one in the entire history of the united nations that has been condemned for international terrorism.

tells you about the company you keep.