Well Done, Arturo McFields!

By Fabian Medina (La Prensa)

HAVANA TIMES – The explosive declarations of Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the OAS up to that moment, are just the pus that oozes from a bigger rot in that decomposing body called the Ortega Murillo dictatorship. A cancer.

Until recently McFields appeared defending the dictatorship, which should lead us to conclude that not even those who today seem to be passionately defending the regime believe in it. It is a script they recite with increasing reluctance. The regime’s narrative is so nonsensical that it is impossible not to question it if you have something on the ball. And hopefully, Arturo’s gesture will serve to drain the rottenness that eats away at Nicaragua. “I am proof that there are many more,” he said.

Defectors

In my most recent column I noted that, so far, the regime has not been able to present, in spite of all the pressure it has put them under, a single political prisoner or relevant opponent who appears to accept the faults they are blamed for, and to support the narrative of a coup d’état or terrorism with which the dictatorship has justified its violent repression. In other words, to reject his camp.

On the other hand, the dictatorship has its Arturo McFields, its Rafael Solis, its Ligia Gómez, and hundreds of others who have quietly defected. Those who have left sickened with what they are put to defend. This simple fact should serve for anyone to be able to detect where is reason, and where is madness and wickedness.

Witch hunt

You can imagine how the dictatorship must be right now. If before everyone was suspicious of each other, and they were practically held hostage, unable to leave Nicaragua, with their passports withheld and their families or assets threatened, now they are going to unleash a witch hunt of major proportions. Everyone is a suspect, including the persecutors. They know that at any moment another one will jump out, and another Arturo McFields. It’s the paranoia of criminals.

Stones

Some “blue and white” opposition people from the ultra-anti-Sandinismo have already started to throw stones at Arturo McFields with the same vehemence with which they are thrown at the regime, because, in the end, their purpose is the same: that everything remains as it is, that nobody defects, and that those who are thinking about it are afraid to do so because of the consequences that could result from taking that step. McFields himself assured in an interview with Carlos Fernando Chamorro. “They told me: neither those here nor those there are going to love you.” And, unbelievably, there are those on this side who resent what McFields did.

It is written

Just like in that biblical passage where the Pharaoh orders the name of Moses to be erased for posterity, the regime is doing its thing. The name of Arturo McFields is being erased from all official books and media, as if he never existed. They go so far as to say that he was no longer ambassador, and they use the cancellation of his appointment as Minister Counselor in October to say that the man was going around declaring himself ambassador just for the fun of it. Gentlemen, the cancellation that you show is the one that was made to appoint him as ambassador on October 26, and he presented his credentials to Luis Almagro on October 5, and this Wednesday, March 23, 2022, as ambassador, he pulled the pants down of the dictatorship to show their infamy. That is what is written and will remain written.

Discontent

While it is fair to recognize that there is still not a full-fledged discontent that would make the regime collapse. It is also noteworthy that nobody can stand it anymore. There are discontent traditional politicians. Emerging politicians. Anti-Sandinistas, Sandinistas. Young people. Old people. Women. Men. Feminists. Machos. Catholics. Atheists. Military. State workers. Businessmen. Ministers, inclusively. The secret of the dictatorship to manage the majority is to keep us separated and competing. If we all accepted each other without renouncing our differences, without seeking uniformity because it is impossible, Ortega would not be there tomorrow. He would stop hurting everyone, even those who defend him today, but wish they could do what Arturo did.

Well done, Arturo McFields. More will follow.