The world is changing, the US is not— Ortega
Washington has an expansionary policy in which Latin America is simply a backyard for US military bases, believes Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega. In an exclusive interview with RT, he said it is time for Latin American countries to unite against what they call a policy of aggression.
RT: Comandante, thank you for joining us today. Regarding the coup d’etat in Honduras, did you see it as an isolated incident, or could such situations possibly reoccur?
Daniel Ortega: I believe that our nations cannot remain calm. The Honduran coup was a blow for all Latin American countries which, just a few weeks prior to that, had a meeting with President Obama in Trinidad and Tobago, where the latter proclaimed the beginning of new relations with Latin America.
That coup meant a fight against intentions expressed in Trinidad and Tobago, not just against the Latin American people but against policy proclaimed by President Obama as well. If the US forces of reaction are capable of organising and doing such a coup openly in front of their president, we cannot even talk about what would happen in the future. These forces are trying to establish their power in spite of suggestions and obligations taken by President Obama in relation to Latin American and Caribbean countries.
RT: You mentioned changes in US policy regarding Latin America. How would you define those changes; and how would you assess the US role in the politics of Latin American countries?
DO: I believe the situation in Latin America makes the US dialogue different from what it was before the Bush epoch. But US policy hasn’t been modified. I’d say that we need a dialogue based on the objective reality of Latin America. In Trinidad and Tobago, President Obama said he wanted our relations to be based on mutual respect, and so on. But how can anyone explain US involvement in the coup in Honduras just a few months later? And how can we explain the fact that the US was fighting to recognise the Honduran government? The only thing we see is that the US hasn’t changed in its essence. The world is changing, the US isn’t. This isn’t a problem just for Latin America, but rather for the entire world. This country has military and economic power, and at the same time, it’s not changing its expansionary and imperialistic policy.
RT: Do you mean that so far, changes happened only in words, not in deeds?
DO: That’s right. They carry on the same policy as always. They’ve been acting just like in the past. Their policy is of unwelcome intervention, of coups and threats. It’s the so-called policy of carrots and sticks. And today, Latin America has more power and dignity to oppose and resist this policy. We have more strength and more dignity, whereas this policy remains unchanged. They stick to their style, and they don’t feel embarrassed to talk about it openly. In their speeches, they publicly express their opinions and assessments of whether a particular government is democratic or not. On what grounds are they speaking?
RT: You talked about basing your relations with the US on mutual respect. Is there any progress in this matter? Has anything changed in this regard?
DO: What has changed so far is the method. At present, they don’t have any means for organising a coup in Nicaragua, for instance. If they had, they would’ve tried doing it. But they don’t have the tools for it; they cannot rely on the army, or the police; they don’t have the military vehicle to provoke a coup. Otherwise, I’m convinced they would’ve tried doing it. They cannot start a war against Venezuela, or against Bolivia, or Ecuador, or Nicaragua. They do have the means within the US, but the situation in Latin America wouldn’t let it happen, even though the US always keeps it in their plans.
RT: Does it mean the risk is always there?
DO: Yes, it does. The threat is always there.
RT: What could have been done to find a way out of this situation?
DO: It is necessary to strengthen unity and mutual integration of Latin American countries. The more we are united and integrated, the more we will be respected, it is logical. I think that the main thing US policy did was to divide us to rule us. If we are really integrated and united, the partner will not be Nicaragua, nor Venezuela, nor Cuba, nor Bolivia, or Ecuador; the partner will be Latin America and the Caribbean countries. Such a partner will be more authoritative and will have the opportunity to look for ways to reach an agreement respecting each other and feeling equal.
RT: What can different Latin American countries do to continue fighting for the implementation of their policies? What can they do to reach an alliance while there are fundamental points of dispute like between Venezuela and Colombia?
DO: You know, I think that there is a principle which we all share, taking into consideration that processes in different countries have their own peculiarities, which we are to respect. There will always be issues which we view differently, but there will be issues which we view in a similar way, especially in relations between the people of Latin America, governments and the international community.
All of us condemn any kind of military aggression on the part of the US. We all condemned plots against Latin American governments and takeovers, which, for example, were organised in Venezuela and Honduras. We all support lifting the embargo on Cuba, a country where Fidel has turned into a doubtless leader who protects the ideas which are shared by all Latin Americans. In other words, there are a number of issues which we view in a similar way.
All of us support the new format of relations with the US Whenever I speak to presidents of Latin American counties, no matter how conservative they are, in private they condemn the United States’ attitude towards them; they are against the fact that the US government attributes points to them in their own classification. What government can support the idea of the US acting like a great judge which gives you points for democracy, human rights and fighting against drugs trafficking in your country? Who in turn will judge the US? Of course it gives way to emotions.
When we speak about economy, about the protectionist policy of the US and European countries, nobody agrees with it. The thing is that we have not learned so far to organise our Latin American area, to consolidate our able Latin American people which will enable us to negotiate with Europe and the US, and with developed countries on reasonable terms.
RT: Let me make it clear. If I understand you correctly, you say that all presidents without exception shared this viewpoint?
DO: Yes. At least in my experience of talking to them in private, I heard all of them criticising American policy. They do not agree with it. Of course at the moment I cannot say for all the presidents of Latin America, but I am sure that they cannot agree with a policy which contradicts the interests of their people, countries and economic interests.
RT: For example, your decision on Nicaragua’s recognition of the independence of the Caucasian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was also disputable. Many people doubted that there was any sense in it for Nicaragua. Some even called it an "exotic step". What lay behind your decision?
DO: Our principles, our national identity, our idea of struggle for independence of other nations, irrespective of how small they may be, and a respect which every nation, even the smallest ones, deserve. Here, in Latin America, we continue waging a struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico, whose people are fighting because the United States is occupying its territory in the 21st century.
We continue fighting to force the British Empire, or what is left of it, to be more precise, to leave the Malvinas Islands. It’s a tiny territory. But is it the reason for us to stop fighting for it and give it up? No, this territory belongs to the Argentine people and should, therefore, go back to them. The same is true of the Guantanamo territory in Cuba.
It’s a small territory, perhaps as small as the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but, naturally, it belongs to Cuba, an independent Cuban state. In this case, we are talking about the independence of two small nations who have their own national identity and history and who have risen to fight for their independence many times. Therefore, we didn’t hesitate to recognise the independence of those two nations.
RT: Now, after some time has passed, do you think that your decision to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was right?
DO: Every day I am becoming more convinced that the decision we made was right. Of course it was right.
RT: Russia couldn’t stay neutral when the events occurred in those two republics because it came under a direct attack from the Georgian troops. In this connection, many interpreted Nicaragua’s position as an expression of solidarity with Russia. What can you say about that?
DO: Yes, it’s necessary to take into account that Nicaragua and Russia had developed their relations long before the events in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Historically, we used to have very warm relations with the former Soviet Union, and those relations developed intensively between 1979 and 1990. I would describe those relations as extremely fair, an example of what relations between the developed and developing countries should be like.
In those days, we applied a principle which is so much talked about today: the principle of honest trade, exchanges and mutually complementary relations. This is the principle that was applied. So, in the cases of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which is the only country that could protect those peoples who were attacked and defend the popular will? So, in this context, we are embarking on the same path of relations with Russia, we are restoring our historical relations with the Russian people in new conditions.
RT: What prospects do you see at this new state of relations because, indeed, there was a period of cooling in Nicaragua’s relations with Russia?
DO: We are already seeing the results. I would say that we see the benefits which the Nicaraguan people have gained from cooperation with Russia. We think about digging a canal. We, in Nicaragua, cannot imagine doing it without Russia. But Russia’s participation is a priority. Venezuela has fully agreed to participate in the construction of the canal that will run through Nicaraguan territory.
The canal’s construction has always been on the agenda and the conditions of this construction have always been Nicaragua’s main sin. Why? Because it has always been sinful in the eyes of the United States that Nicaragua wants to control every movement via the Central American region. I feel that relations with Russia are progressing in all directions. Our visit to Moscow was very important. All the treaties that we signed were also important, just as the format of developing cooperation between Russia and Nicaragua was.
RT: Thank you very much for being with us today.
DO: Thank you very much.
Source: http://rt.com
Labels: DANIEL ORTEGA, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Economic model that privileges a few represent terrorism – Ortega
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Mon 28 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT
NICARAGUAN President Daniel Ortega has said the prevailing economic model that privileges the global few represents terrorism.
In his intervention to close the 8th ALBA heads of state summit at Havana’s Palace of Conventions, President Ortega said the only thing that the alliance’s nine member states could be accused of was solidarity.
In a three-hour ceremony involving speeches by the nine leaders and interludes of music by Latin Grammy awards winners Cuba’s pianoist Chucho Valdez and Buena Vista Social Club singer Omara Portuondo including the first meeting between Fidel and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez in 1994, President Ortega said the head of terrorism was in the United States of America.
“ALBA has marked an alternative not only for peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean but all peoples of the world,” he said.
President Ortega said there was no single country among ALBA members that developed politics of death or war. He said none of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas members stood for maintaining the status quo of impoverishing people.
“None of them commit aggression to another country,” said President Ortega. “Indeed they could accuse us of solidarity and there lies the contradiction between individualism and solidarity. What is being applied in ALBA explains the reaction from those who want to keep the tyranny of global capitalism headed by the United States empire.
They cannot accuse us of terrorism and destabilisation. Terrorism is what is expressed in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the blockade against Cuba, the coup in Honduras, imprisonment of Five Cubans while Posada Carriles walks free in Miami...Terrorism has its head in Washington. The imposition of wars and an economic and commercial model to the world that impoverishes the majority of the global population, poisoning the planet and putting in danger the survival of human species is what constitutes terrorism.”
Cuban President Raul Castro said the 8th ALBA summit was a very productive interchange that analysed the undeniable advances and challenges that faced the alliance.
“Being part of the ALBA implies the purpose of building rational and efficient societies that live in harmony with nature and look for social justice for our peoples,” said President Raul. “That is the cooperation and integration that we promote. And such effort needs a revolutionary spirit. As Jose Marti said: We look for solidarity not as a goal but as a way to make our America fulfill its universal mission.”
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves used the session to inform his peers of the British cruelty against his nationals before the island attained independence.
Prime Minister Gonsalves said citizens of St Vincent were forced into exile in Nicaragua, Belize and other Central American countries.
He said others would seek reparations for such cruelty.
Prime Minister Gonsalves called for support to the proposal before the United Nations for reparations for African slavery.
He said the ALBA-TCP was fundamentally a historic and cultural reclamation.
Prime Minister Gonsalves said imperialism even with the election of President Barack Obama to the White House never ceased to undermine the progress in Latin America and the Caribbean.
He said imperialism was at work to isolate and defeat governments that constituted the ALBA.
“We see Colombia now being used as a battleground against Venezuela,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said.
He said hostility had continued against Cuba by sustaining and tightening the embargo.
Prime Minister Gonsalves said there was distabilising work against Nicaragua, Dominica, and St Vincent and Grenadines including the June 28 military coup against the Honduran administration of Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
He said students on scholarship in Cuba should not think they were there because they are bright but should realise that they were studying in Cuba because of an opportunity created by the revolution.
“We have to give solidarity to this light… the work of Fidel and President Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez has been exemplary in putting the ALBA on course,” said Prime Minister Gonsalves. “This grouping, in the world of today, is resolute and steadfast to interests of all people.”
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said through ALBA countries had an opportunity to rise again from ashes caused by capitalism and neo-colonialism.
He said the ALBA had allowed member countries to face the effects of the world economic crisis from a solid ground.
Prime Minister Spencer said in the days when the world was suffering a huge recession the ALBA states under the principles of solidarity, equity and economic complementation were implementing programmes and projects of social benefit seeking to increase the quality of life of their peoples and reduce poverty.
He cited scholarships to hundreds of students from his island nation and food subsidies to the disabled as well as investments to improve the facilities at the country’s airport.
“Over its first five years the ALBA and its Trade Treaty for the Peoples (TPC) has achieved substantial progress but at the same time it has the challenge to look for solutions to climate change, especially because the Caribbean islands are vulnerable to its effects,” said Prime Minister Spencer.
Dominica envoy to Venezuela and ALBA Philbert Aaron said when his country became the first English-speaking nation to join the alliance it received massive criticism but Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit never waivered.
Ambassador Aaron said the ALBA was an alliance of struggle for social justice.
“We live in troubling and interesting times,” he said.
Ambassador Aaron said Prime Minister Skerrit could not attend the 5th anniversary of the ALBA because of electoral campaigns.
He said Prime Minister Skerrit put the ALBA as a key agenda of his foreign policy during the current elections.
Ambassador Aaron called for lifting of US-sanctions against Cuba because they were immoral, unjust and against global public opinion.
He said the Cuban revolution was a common link for all members of the ALBA.
Ambassador Aaron said the ALBA had drawn attention as it spearheaded progressive projects aimed at improving life.
“The ALBA has a human approach to economic development,” he said.
Ambassador Aaron said the ALBA recovered the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean way of life that was brutalised under neo-liberalism.
“Going into the new, the first decade, we seeing the deepening of the process of integration,” said Ambassador Aaron. “After all, what we seek, what we are seeking, most of all is true independence.”
Labels: DANIEL ORTEGA, NEOLIBERALISM, RAUL CASTRO
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Cuba has democracy, says Ortega
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Thursday, April 23, 2009 8:47:54 PM
CUBA has democracy, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said. President Ortega, who on Tuesday held a four-hour meeting with Fidel Castro over the recent Summit of the Americas hosted by Trinidad and Tobago, said Cuba had a model of democracy free of partisan flags.
President Ortega, accompanied by his wife Rosario Murillo and others, discussed with Castro “the development of, events and results of” last weekend’s summit which was the first hemispheric summit that US President Barack Obama attended.
But featuring on Cuban national television and radio Mesa Redonda (Round Table) programme on Wednesday evening, President Ortega said just as Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has observed elections did not mean democracy.
“You have a debate in Latin America which wants to discredit Cuban democracy,” he said. “Cuba has democracy. The kind of democracy that has been imposed on us creates division among our people the moment parties are formed. Latin America has witnessed many partisan political wars. Cuba has a model of democracy free of partisan flags.”
On US relations, President Ortega said inspite ushering in a new president and administration the United States of America had not changed.
Referring to the handshake with US president Barack Obama in Trinidad and Tobago, President Ortega said a handshake was but a gesture of courtesy.
“It does not put an end to war or differences,” he said. “Inspite of having a new president and administration the US had not changed. Obama is trapped in what is the model of an empire, trapped in the past. Evidence of this are the [American] troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. This phenomenon of continuity of policy across administration keeps repeating itself. The Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs attack against Cuba) invasion was planned by a Republican administration but executed by a Democrat administration. Notice the continuity.”
He said even the recently implemented concessions were no more than those approved by the Jimmy Carter administration.
“These concessions are now being sold to us as change,” President Ortega said. “If there was real change in the empire the US President would not be tying conditions to the lifting of the blockade against Cuba. Lifting the embargo does not vindicate the US. They must indemnify Cuba for the losses it has suffered in nearly 50 years of the blockade. In the case of Nicaragua I do not see cooperation with the US but instead soft repayments on the historic debt of the US to Nicaragua. The US’ first step must be to find ways to cohabit in the region and not see us as pests.”
President Ortega said the US must undergo profound changes in its core structures.
“It must stop being an empire and be disposed to share and work with all the peoples of the world,” President Ortega said. “As an empire, like any historic one, they want to set the rules in every situation and encounter. But who does checks and balances on them [the US]?”
He said Latin America on the other hand was not trapped in the past.
President Ortega said the founding of the Bolivarian Alternative for the America (ALBA) was a product of change.
He said the ALBA was the most viable initiative in the region and perhaps in the whole world today. President Ortega said the cooperation among ALBA member states was unconditional.
ALBA comprises of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica Republic and Honduras.
President Ortega said he was against the idea of incorporating the US in any Latin America regional association.
“We cannot have external parties in the space of our regional association,” he said. “The AU (African Union) is composed strictly of African states. That is their space. None of the former colonial masters is a member.”
And President Ortega lamented that the 5th Summit of the Americas was censored.
He said even the very head of the Organisation of American States was censored.
President Ortega said President Obama did not bring anything to the summit except perhaps a handshake. “This was a meeting where the Latin American agenda was presented,” he said. “Obama clearly said that he had not read the consensus document that had been prepared by the Bush administration.”
Meanwhile, President Ortega said 2009 was historic because Cuba marked 50 years of the revolution whereas the Iranian revolution celebrated its 30th anniversary and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela clocked a decade.
He said next the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua would also commemorate its 30th anniversary.
“Without the Cuban revolution, the Sandinista revolution would not have been possible,” said President Ortega. “We continue working on the ALBA initiatives in Nicaragua, in particular the literacy programme employing the “Yo Si Puedo” initiative, which has reduced illiteracy levels to 35 per cent. We have not yet been able to reach the 4 per cent floor due to war but we hope in the very new future to be free from illiteracy.”
Labels: CUBA, DANIEL ORTEGA, DEMOCRACY, FIDEL CASTRO
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Bush has made my mandate more difficult, charges Morales
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Friday May 09, 2008 [04:00]
THE Bush administration has made my mandate more difficult, Bolivian President Evo Morales has charged. And Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said Latin Americans have an obligation to join forces with President Morales' administration to fight against attempts to divide Bolivia.
Addressing Nicaraguans at the Revolution Square in Managua on Tuesday on the eve of the Latin America and the Caribbean leaders’ emergency summit on food crisis, President Morales, led by his counterpart Ortega, said a lot had taken place in Bolivia in the first two years of his reign.
He said following the nationalisation of the oil industry, his country wiped out the fiscal deficit that had characterised the Bolivian economy since the 1940s.
President Morales said after he took office, Bolivia's international reserves increased from around US $1.7 billion to more than US $6 billion in just two years.
"In spite of these advances, it has been impossible to meet social demands that date back 500 years," said President Morales as quoted by Prensa Latina. "The (US President George W.) Bush administration has made my mandate more difficult. It has been conspiring against my government since the beginning. The oligarchy and the US government are always speaking about the need to topple the Indian (himself).”
President Morales is the first indigenous Bolivian to ascend to the presidency.
And President Ortega said Nicaragua fully supported President Morales in his effort to curtail separatist efforts promoted by the Bolivian oligarchy and the United States.
President Ortega called the attempts to divide Bolivia an open conspiracy.
"We have the obligation to unite in fighting this battle," said President Ortega. "The people have the strength of conscience to succeed."
Last Sunday, Bolivia's wealthiest province of Santa Cruz staged a referendum seeking greater autonomy from the central government in La Paz. However, Bolivia's Supreme Court ruled the referendum invalid. And President Morales called on all the prefects (governors) to work with his government to establish an authentic autonomy within the strictures of the new constitution.
Wealthy landowners, together with businesses and multinational corporations are banking on the referendum outcome to shelter themselves from the deep social and economic changes President Morales is pursuing to resolve high poverty and inequality.
Santa Cruz landowners are fearful of a far-reaching revolutionary process in Bolivia which includes President Morales' plan to redistribute land to the poor. He calls for spreading national wealth to the rest of Bolivia.
Bolivia has nine provinces with the four "gas reserves and oil-rich" eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando calling for autonomy.
Santa Cruz is the wealthiest province and the stronghold of the right-wing opposition. President Morales has dismissed the Santa Cruz referendum as illegal and an action by the oligarchy that was refusing to accept an indigenous president.
Under President Morales, Bolivia is reforming the constitution to eliminate marginalisation. However, the four eastern lowlands provinces home to some 35 per cent of Bolivia's more than 8.5 million people and contribute about two-thirds to the country's gross domestic product have opposed the new constitution.
Labels: DANIEL ORTEGA, EVO MORALES, GEORGE BUSH
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The poor will never accept a puppet govt, says Ortega
By Larry Moonze
Tuesday May 22, 2007 [04:00]
THE poor are no longer for sale and will never accept puppet leaders, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said. On the occasion of the 112th anniversary of Nicaraguan national hero Augusto Cesar Sandino on Sunday commemorated in Managua, President Ortega described the opposition as traitors.
He warned, according to Prensa-Latina in Managua, that some opposition forces were colluding with foreigners to impose a puppet regime. "The opposition who collude against this government with the help of a foreign power are traitors,"
President Ortega said. "But the poor no longer accept chains. They no longer accept giving up and are no longer for sale."
President Ortega, who did not name who were behind the destabilisation plan, maintained that his government had uncovered attempts organised by the opposition aided by a foreign regime to divide local conservatives.
"They are being paid to join in as Union Nacional Opositora (gran UNO) to oust the government of the people and since they are working in silence I will not disclose names for everyone knows who I mean," he said.
In previous press conferences, President Ortega has mentioned the US and its agencies as trying to ensure he was ousted from power as it did in 1990.
President Ortega also reminded his political enemies that Sandino warned "that the Yankees need puppets for presidents of our Indigenous-Hispanic peoples".
However, President Ortega charged that times had changed as the poor no longer accepted to be chained and would not allow puppet governments to run Nicaragua.
Sandino was a Nicaraguan revolutionary and leader of a rebellion against the US military presence in Nicaragua between 1927 and 1933. Labelled as a bandit by the US government, his exploits made him a hero throughout much of Latin America where he became a symbol of resistance to US domination. Drawing the US Marines into an undeclared guerilla war, his guerilla organisation suffered many defeats, but he successfully evaded capture.
US troops withdrew from the country after overseeing the inauguration of President Juab Bautista Sacasa. Sandino was executed by General Anastasio Somoza Garcia, who went on to seize power in a coup d'etat two years later, establishing a family dynasty that would rule Nicaragua for over forty years. Sandino's legacy was claimed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which overthrew the Somoza government in 1979.
Daniel Ortega Saavedra was president of Nicaragua from 1985-1990. As one of the leading commanders of the Sandinista forces that ousted Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in July 1979, he became head of the ruling junta in the subsequent leftist regime. During the 1980s Ortega led the Sandinistas in a long civil war against the US-backed Contras.
Labels: DANIEL ORTEGA
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