Isolation is the Ortega Regime’s Primary Foreign Policy
The isolation the Ortega duo uses to punish the world, is really just a sign of their own aloneness.
By Silvio Prado (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – The story goes that when there’s dense fog over the English Channel, the English say that Europe has been left isolated. Judging by the progressive retreat of the Ortega dictatorship from the international organizations, the provincial mentality of inverse isolationism seems to be the predominant factor in the foreign policy of a regime that claims to embody the second stage of the Sandinista revolution. During the eighties, the revolutionary government never stepped back from any of the international spaces, not even those where the US government maneuvered to try and expel them. Self-isolation was never any part of the revolution’s external doctrine, because that would have meant offering up on a platter the very ostracism their enemies sought.
During that era, the revolution fought all the battles, in all the forums, with all imaginable means. This is what we see portrayed in the recently published book by Eline Van Ommen, Nicaragua must Survive: Sandinista revolutionary diplomacy in the global cold war. I don’t recall if it was explicitly laid out to those of us who worked in international relations during the 1980’s, but there was a decision to strike before our adversaries did, to go around the track twice before the emissaries of imperialism even arrived. In tennis terms: the effort was to “not let any balls be considered lost.”
Drawing from valuable primary sources in several European foreign ministries, Van Ommen revisits the bitter frustrations suffered by US State Department officials, after failing to win over to their position their peers from the foreign ministries of Western Europe – not even those who were clearly opposed to the Sandinistas, such as Germany and England.
The author stresses that, in different stages, the revolution practiced a kind of “soft power.” Since they didn’t dispose of the means used by the world powers, the Sandinistas of that era pragmatically made use of cultural resources (concerts, recitals, painting exhibitions); transnational solidarity networks across the four points of the globe; and relations with broad sectors of other countries, such as churches of all denominations, and intellectuals from a wide range of affiliations.
In addition to these solidarity networks, they maintained normal diplomatic relations with other governments of all kinds and with political parties of all possible currents, save the extreme right wing. The audacious mentality included participating as full members in as many forums as opened the door, like the Socialists International, while also aspiring to occupy the highest positions, like in the Non-Aligned Nations movement. They repeated to us that old maxim that the enemy would occupy any space we abandoned.
What was behind that very persistent fighting morale? Above and beyond everything else, was the principle of our collective project for social and political change. Despite its shaky definition, we knew this was a project involving everyone, worth the trouble of insisting over and over on having our point of view be known. Doing so meant investing long nights without sleep to read through the extensive telex cables carrying the news from other latitudes; drafting messages; concocting counteroffensive plans against the US maneuverings; weaving alliances; convincing the undecided; attacking the enemy. In some sense, it was the extension of the same fighting morale that had defeated Somoza, the same morale that fueled the war in the mountains. A host of reasons could be found to argue that it wasn’t a project of the entire country, but only of one party; however, it wasn’t that of just one family.
In contrast, what do we see now?
Currently, we see a regime curled into itself like a fearful worm that feels itself under attack. Lacking a project beyond the borders of just their family, it’s a regime that – as of seven years ago – has decided to expel the rest of the world from their international relations. During this period, the dictatorship’s foreign policy has been marked by three tendencies: expulsion, withdrawal, and failure.
In the case of some political forums, the dictatorship’s withdrawal wasn’t by choice. Rather, their party masthead was expelled – first from the Socialist International, which had taken them so much effort to get into. Later came the expulsion from Tomas Borge’s favorite plaything, the Permanent Council of Latin American Political Parties. As of this moment, it’s not clear whether they’ve also been removed from the Sao Paulo Forum, given the bitter clashes between Lula and the Ortega regime.
But where this variety of ostrich behavior has been most clearly reflected is in their withdrawal from the international organizations. The list has become very long: the OAS, the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization], the International Organization for Migration, the International Labor Organization, the UN Commission for Human Rights, the Central American Court of Justice. Before this, the Ortega regime had already expelled from Nicaragua representatives of international bodies such as the UN Development Program, the OAS, and the Inter-disciplinary Group of Experts.
Why this stampede? It’s very simple: because every one of these organizations observed clear violations of international law and human rights and issued reports the dictators didn’t accept. But once more, the dictatorship fell into the trap of their attempt to cut off the world – it rejected the reports as lacking objectivity, but refused to give their version, or to receive the international missions.
The full dimension of their failure and a true symptom of the tyranny’s short reach can be seen in the developments within the Central American Integration System (SICA). If failure means the negative outcome of some plans, then this was a fiasco everywhere you look. It amounted to the spectacular flop of the Nicaraguan government’s geopolitical move to assume control of the SICA, a regional body of multi-level governance in Central America. The regime was unable to obtain the rotating position of Secretary General there following several attempts – even though it was their turn. What’s the reason? It’s not only that they didn’t put forth an ideal candidate, but above all because they never managed to convince the other governments in the region of the advisability of assigning the position to the dictatorship. That is, not even in their own neighborhood, the smallest space of international incidence, has the Ortega regime succeeded in their objectives.
However, it should be recognized that a part of the world has been spared being punished with the dictatorship’s whip of scorn. We’re talking about the international authoritarian bodies, where the pawprints of the other two parts of Latin America’s oppressive trinity – Cuba and Venezuela – stand out. The regimes of these countries are the friendly feet that function as self-defense bastions against all the villains of the universe. A global umbrella of villains, where they exclude Russia and China, and – let’s not forget – also the International Monetary Fund, the other demon of “savage capitalism,” now become the notary of the oppresser.
Some doubts remain about the extremes this policy of self-absorption might reach. What will happen if the International Court of Justice accepts a demand against Nicaragua for violating the International Convention against Torture, or the Convention against Statelessness? Will the Ortega regime continue recognizing the court, or will they withdraw after wishing plagues on this tribunal where Nicaragua had won important victories in the past?
Compared with the 1980s, the international arena has also seen a radical turn in the involvement of those who have made the Sandinista party government a brand of their own. Where before there was a push to occupy all possible spaces to project the revolutionary proposal, today we see only a retreat to the quarters of the governing family. Whereas before there was a move to persuade the rest of the world, today there’s only coercion against those who dare to see something else in Nicaragua other than the official version of the kingdom of love and peace. The isolation the Ortega duo uses to punish the world, is really just a sign of their own aloneness.