Brainwashing in Nicaraguan Schools

“Over a million and a half children and teens go to public schools where every day they receive a systematic indoctrination through their textbooks.”

By Enrique Saenz  (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – It’s common to hear that Nicaragua’s future lies in the youth. If we truly believe that phrase, it’s important for us to know what’s going on with our children, teens and youth.

Every totalitarian government has as its final aim penetrating into the minds of the population so that they can be manipulated at their whim and will. In other times, the term “brainwashing” was used to talk about the efforts of totalitarian regimes to deform history, hide reality and squelch independent thought. Over the long haul, it’s an effort doomed to failure, as was demonstrated by the fall of the Soviet bloc. But, while they last, the quota of suffering is simply incalculable. In the USSR, over 70 years had to go by.

Do you know they’re instilling this totalitarian regime into the heads of our children and our teens and youth, every day, every hour, throughout Nicaraguan territory, in our primary and high schools?

In the Hitlerian spectacles of the regime, we see the youth like sheep, clad in their t-shirts, going through the rites, movements and shouts imposed on them. It’s a grotesque spectacle. But behind it, there’s a hidden reality that’s worse yet: over a million and a half boys and girls, teens and youth go to school every day to receive a systematic and implacable indoctrination.

A report issued by the Nicaraguan journalist Julian Navarrete, published on the digital platform Connectas, with the suggestive title, “Daniel Ortega goes back to school” lifts a veil on this topic.

His investigation lays bare the crude propaganda that the regime seeds via the schools.

In his investigation, Julian reviewed 25 primary and secondary school textbooks used in the public schools in the following areas: 9 in Social Studies; 11 in Language and Literature; 5 in Civics and Living Together.  In these books he found 35 photos of Sandinista strongman Ortega together with constant allusions to the benefits that the government projects have brought, as well as references to Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Fidel Castro.

Here are some sample of the toxic contents that are daily injected into our children: In the fifth grade text of Civics and Living Together there are readings like the following:

“Mother says: ‘Now we have a government that concerns itself with the difficulties people have. That’s why they built a house for dona Lupe, when hers was destroyed by the earthquake. They gave dona Lupe zinc to change out her roof, which used to be plastic. Juana was given a coupon for nutritional production, so that she could bring her yard to life and escape from poverty by increasing her domestic animals and using the seeds to cultivate the earth. Panchita was benefited by a loan from the ‘Zero Loan-sharking’ program, so she could broaden her small food business; and the women farmers from the Production Bank give us loans for producing coffee and basic grains.”

Then there’s the following paragraph taken from the second year of high school [equivalent to eighth grade] Social Studies text, citing the words of VP Rosario Murillo in her brown-nosing celebration of Hugo Chavez:

“You, the liberator, You, the builder. You, Comandante President, the communicator. You, acclaimed – now more than ever, acclaimed! – You, joy, dedication. You, generosity. You, brilliant intelligent… what intelligence!  How well-studied! You, articulate… Because your legacy, Comandante President is that flag that flies on high in all our hearts.”

These are the intoxications that the child and juvenile minds receive daily.

Moved by the curiosity that Navarrete’s article awakened in me, I went to investigate what history is being taught to our young people in high school. In the social studies book I found things like this:

• Nearly five pages are dedicated to the biography of Carlos Fonseca Amador.
• There are six pages about the history of the Sandinista Front
• Pedro Joaquin Chamorro is referred to in a five-line paragraph.

That’s only one example. Here, I’ll transcribe a paragraph as it appears in this same book: “After 2007, a new histric phase began, begining this way, the secod stage of the Popula Sandinista Revolution.” [note: the misspellings and missing letters here reflect the original Spanish] 

The word “histric” is missing two “o” and the accent; the word “empezando” was written with an “s” instead of a “z”; they wrote ‘segudo’ instead of ‘segundo’; and the word ‘Popula’ appears instead of ‘Popular’.

I cite the above because in addition to the deformation of the contents, the text is a horrendous collection of orthographic, text and printing errors. They didn’t even run it through the spell check that every computer has. A slap-dash book from start to finish.

It’s important to note that these texts are financed with resources from the European Union. I wonder whether or not the financers have to answer for the contents and quality of the texts, or the use or abuse of their contributions.

Let’s close with a paragraph that’s a jewel:

“Today, Nicaragua lives in freedom and democracy, the authorities respect the law and the public institutions without political persecution or political prisoners, without torture in the jails, without exiles, without military or police repression. Here, all the political parties and all the organizations enjoy freedom of thought and of organization, freedom of expression and of organization, religious freedom, freedom to go where they want.”

Pure venom. Doses like these are received by our future citizens every hour, every day, in every school.

If we wish to defeat Ortega’s totalitarian government, we must be doing battle with them in all the flanks, every day. Unfortunately, there are some areas that are neglected because we often let ourselves be led along by the most urgent and immediate. And one of those neglected fields is the minds of our children, adolescents and youth.

What can be done?  Since we’ve seen moving examples in the social networks of the rebellion of children, and adolescents, we can’t just stand with our arms folded before such a grave occurrence. We must begin by denouncing. In addition, our academics have here a challenge: it’s imperative to deepen the analysis about the repercussions of this. Finally, the families, the media and democratic society must concern themselves and get busy countering the poison that they inject into our children and youth.