Canadian Government Interferes in Nicaragua's AffairsThe U.S. and Canada have been ramping up their interference in Nicaragua since 2018, demonizing the elected government and providing aid, through propaganda, training and finances, to the opposition and its storm troopers who over several months in 2018 engaged in acts of extreme violence and destruction in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Daniel Ortega. Two days after the U.S. imposed visa restrictions on 100 members of the Nicaraguan National Assembly and judicial system and some of their family members on July 12, Canada's then Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau announced Canada was sanctioning an additional 15 individuals in Nicaragua under its Special Economic Measures (Nicaragua) Regulations. The statement issued by Global Affairs Canada on July 14 completely misrepresents the events of 2018, to conform to the usual narrative of U.S.-backed violent forces as "peaceful protesters" whose human rights are violated by the "regime" against which they are actively trying to incite an insurrection. When they are captured, tried and imprisoned for their crimes which include murder and wanton destruction of public and private property as part of terrorizing the population and sowing an atmosphere of anarchy and chaos, they become "political prisoners" whose freedom must be granted, with sanctions and demonization the punishment for governments and people that do not submit to this blackmail. It is the same movie we have seen many times before, in Venezuela and elsewhere, in which facts and eyewitness testimony count for nothing, no matter how much publicly available information disproves what the U.S. and Canada are pushing. The one thing that was true, and telling, in Canada's statement which echoed one issued around the same time by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was that "These new [sanctions] align with actions taken by Canada's international partners and add to previously imposed Canadian sanctions." The interference by the U.S., Canada, the Organization of American States and others in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and other countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean, including through the financing and training of opponents, including coup plotters, against governments that have been elected by the people, is aimed at overthrowing "regimes" that defend the sovereignty and right to self-determination of their peoples and refuse to bow to U.S. dictate. It is noteworthy that on the same day that Canada announced its so-called targeted sanctions and condemned the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Marc Garneau held meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Marta Lucía Ramírez, Colombia's Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He discussed the situation in Haiti with Blinken and Canada's "ongoing commitment toward Haiti, including by supporting Haiti to address ongoing security and governance challenges." Global Affairs reported that Garneau and Blinken "agreed to work together to support the Haitian people towards the development of a more stable, democratic and prosperous future." This was just one week after the assassination of Haiti's de facto president Jovenal Moïse, allegedly by retired members of the Colombian military in the employ of a U.S-based "security contractor." In his meeting with the Colombian Foreign Minister, Garneau had high praise for Colombia's leadership in welcoming over 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants. With regard to the massive anti-government protests in Colombia which faced state repression that resulted in many deaths and injuries, Global Affairs did not report Garneau having anything to say. Nor did it mention anything he said about the social leaders, human rights defenders and unarmed former guerrilla members, signatories to the 2016 Peace Agreement, being murdered with impunity by dark forces now virtually on a daily basis. All that was reported is that Garneau "called on Colombia to keep its commitment to fully investigate and hold anyone who has violated human rights to account for their actions" and announced over $3 million in Canadian government funding for "Peace and Stabilization Operations." The actions of the Canadian government in support of the brutal U.S. imperialist campaign against Nicaragua are in violation of the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of sovereign countries. The people of every country must be able to control the decisions that affect their economy and their social, cultural and political affairs without outside interference. The U.S. imperialist agenda of brutal sanctions and financing its own agents in various countries of the Americas to overthrow governments which do not kowtow to it, is at odds with the aspirations of the people, including the Canadian people, for freedom, democracy and human rights.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
