“The FSLN Doesn’t Represent the Values of International Socialism”

Secretary of Costa Rica’s National Liberation Party declares: democratic socialism isn’t a fiefdom.

The violation of human rights, the inexistent balance of powers, and the “delinquent socialism” of the FSLN are the reasons given for expelling the government party.

By Franklin Villavicencio  (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – Fernando Zamora, general secretary of Costa Rica’s National Liberation Party – the movement that promoted the expulsion of the Sandinista National Liberation Front from the Socialist International (SI) – declared that the human rights violations committed by the Nicaraguan government was one of the principal reasons for its expulsion from the ranks of the Socialist International, an international federation of 140 socialist, labor and social democratic parties from all over the world.

“We were able to determine beyond a doubt that the FSLN was violating the human rights of Nicaraguan citizens, and even of journalists,” said Zamora during an interview with Carlos F. Chamorro on the television news program Esta Noche. “We’ve witnessed the testimony of the exiles, who recounted their experiences,” he stated.

On Tuesday, in a Council meeting held in the Dominican Republic, over 100 of the parties that make up the SI decided to expel the FSLN from membership. They did so considering the party’s role in the repression of demonstrators who oppose the regime, and for their backing of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, the party’s principal figures.

The motion was presented by the National Liberation Party in August. The initiative arose “in a clamor from the party’s grassroots,” assured Zamora. “They began to demand that we as leadership must begin to do something to denounce to the world what was happening in Nicaragua.”

A letter signed by Jorge Pattonni Saenz, president of the Costa Rican party, offered more details: “The Nicaraguan government and the FSLN as its source of inspiration and political organization, violated the rights to life, to personal integrity, to health, to personal freedom, to assembly and association, to free expression and to access to justice of hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans; this is unacceptable and reproachable from any point of view, to our Party and for our sister parties in the Socialist International.”

The countries that make up the SI’s Ethics Committee determined that the FSLN wasn’t representing the democratic values. According to Zamora, there was a consensus among the majority of the political movements that voted, especially those from Europe. Days previous to the expulsion, a mission from the European Parliament had arrived in the country to verify the political crisis that’s now stretched out for nine months.  In a preliminary report, they rejected the hypothesis of an attempted coup d’etat that the regime repeats.

The defending statements in the SI meeting were given by the FSLN delegate, Supreme Court magistrate Francisco Rosales.  He remained adamant about the version of an attempted coup that the Ortega government puts forth. “These are outmoded arguments, not only in Nicaragua, but also in the case of Venezuela,” commented the PLN general secretary.

The Spanish Socialist Worker’s party was also one of the first to pronounce on the issue, minutes after deliberation.

“The Council of the Socialist International meeting in the Dominican Republic has decided to expel the FSLN from the organization for the violations of human rights and of democratic values committed by the Ortega regime in Nicaragua. Socialism is incompatible with tyranny,” the party secretary wrote on his Twitter account.