Ortega-Murillo Government Salutes Nicaraguan Mothers: Government Pledges, Disparages, and Threatens Opposition.

The Ortega-Murillo negotiation team read its employer’s latest press statement. It includes a salute to Nicaraguan mothers, as well as pledges, reassurances, inflammatory language, and thinly-veiled threats to pull out definitively from negotiations, by arguing that the Alianza Cívica lacks “legal formality.”

Nothing in the statement is atypical of a government that issues a daily press release, read by its representatives to a hopelessly stalled negotiation, and a daily phone call, through which Vice President Rosario Murillo addresses “Nicaraguan Families” via the media of the Ortega-Murillo Propaganda Machine.¹

Indeed, Nicaraguans are accustomed to the rhetorical flair and random use of capitalization in official communiqués, both characteristics attributed to Rosario Murillo.

Murillo is not only vice president, but head of the government’s Consejo de Comunicación y Ciudadanía, the Government’s office of “Communication and Citizenship”, which was created in 2007 though a presidential decree. As such, Murillo is ultimately in charge of shaping the government’s message, right down to its decision to capitalize common nouns, adjectives, and other parts of speech, perhaps for emphasis.

In other words, phrasing like this salute to Nicaraguan mothers is commonplace in a government official communication:

“We pay Tribute to the Mothers, who, with Devoted and Loving Commitment to Family, Culture, and the Economy, give birth, bear every day a better Human being, a better Family, a better Community, and a better Country. We grow, nourished by the Affection, the Kindness, and the unconditional love that we build and strengthen, from the homes, with our Mothers, and that extends to all of our Sacred Geography, at all times”

However, government statements are also the preferred vehicle to publicize policy. Accordingly, the Ortega-Murillo government declared today that it would be moving forward with plans to create a Law guiding the “Attention to Victims of Coup-related Terrorism of April, May, June, and July of 2018.” The bill will be presented this week to an FSLN-dominated Assembly that will enact it into law and send it back to Daniel Ortega for signature.

To date, according to the government, hundreds of families have received attention within the existing Plan Integral de Atención a la Violencia.  This is a government support plan for victims, which was set in motion last July.

In today’s statements, beneficiaries of the plan are identified as “suffering Victims of coup-related terrorism,” a designation that excludes anyone not deemed thusly by the government and its representatives.

Rosario Murillo announced the government’s plan on July 25th of 2018. She described it as an effort to “provide mental health support to the relatives of the deceased and seriously wounded as a result of terrorist and coup-related violence.” Murillo later expanded on the government’s rationale for the program, presenting it as a matter of reparation to victims:

But when we say reparations, we mean a recognition, on the part of those who have committed crimes of hatred, of the pain they have caused to the victims.

Two days later, Murillo announced the first government actions within the plan. “This weekend, we will be working in support of the Sandinista families that were victimized by coup-supporting terrorists through attacks and looting.” Murillo indicated that over 70 families would receive assistance to rebuild their homes.

In other words, the Ortega-Murillo government’s set an exclusionary and partisan tone from the beginning. As the plan progressed, furthermore, these characteristics have not waned. If anything, the partisan nature of the plan became even more entrenched when the Ortega-Murillo government announced ithe establishment of a Victims’ Relief Fund, in December.

The Interior Ministry described the beneficiaries of the fund as “terrorism victims”. The funds themselves came from assets seized from CISAS, IEEPP, CINCO, CENIDH, HADEMOS, IPADE, Popol Nah, Instituto de Liderazgo de Las Segovias, and Fundación del Rio. These nine non-profit organizations were declared as “having actively participated in the failed coup” and “promoting terrorism.”

To date, there is no available public data on how the fund operates.

 

Excarcerations are Acts of “Generosity.”

The Ortega-Murillo government also described its progress in “excarcerations”. According to the government, 336 “Nicaraguan brothers and sisters” have been transferred to house arrest. These individuals were described as “participants in the terrible weeks of terrorist violence, armed attacks, kidnapping, torture, and destruction of public and private property.” In addition, the statement brought back the moniker “tranques de la muerte,” or “barricades of death.”

 

The statement describes the excarcerations as “demonstrating the generosity and absolute commitment of the government with the family, and with the Values of our Nicaraguan Culture, Good Faith and Fraternity.”

In March, the government committed itself to the complete liberation of all political prisoners, a process that would be overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). To date, not a single prisoner has been released. They have been transferred to house arrest.

Government Discredits Alianza

After accepting the Alianza Cívica port la Justicia y la Democracia as a credible negotiation counterpart in February, the Ortega-Murillo government took a radical step to walk back this decision. Today’s statement characterized the Alianza’s negotiators are “representing Organizations, with a Legal Formality that no one has been able to confirm.”

The Alianza left the negotiations indefinitely and completely after the May 16 death of Eddy Montes, a political prisoner who was shot and killed by a guard at the Modelo Prison, under circumstances that have yet to be independently investigated. The Ortega-Murillo government has issued several statements since then, accusing the Alianza of bad faith. Today’s was no exception, as the government characterized Alianza negotiators as “arrogant”, while describing themselves as “carrying on with all our commitments.”

Characterizing the Alianza as “arrogant” is not as serious as casting doubt about their legitimacy as a negotiation counterpart, as that would render any agreements signed as invalid.

The term “Legal Formality” may refer to the “legal personhood,” which the Alianza lacks. According to Nicaraguan law,  “legal personhood will be granted and cancelled by a decree from the National Assembly.”

The Sandinista-controlled assembly has already stripped legal personhood from nine organizations that were highly vocal against the government. The chances that it would grant this benefit to the Alianza are slim to none.

However, a forthcoming statement could announce the end of negotiations, arguing that the Alianza lacks legal personhood to enter into agreements.

The groundwork for such an assertion was laid down today.

So far, the Ortega-Murillo government’s rhetoric has been a combination of inflammatory language and empty promises that do not match the reality on the ground.

The reality is that basic civil liberties and rights are non-existent in Nicaragua. The right to protest, petition, and mobilize do not exist, in spite of governmental pledges and assurances.

---

..

¹ For more on the Ortega-Murillo Propaganda Machine, read these entries: The OrMu Propaganda Machine – Part 1.; The OrMU Propaganda Machine, Part 2: Weaponizing Communication; and The OrMu Propaganda Machine, Part 3: Fireworks and Other Illusions.