On Monday, the capital Managua and several departments of the country suffered a harsh crackdown by the government, that has continued so far this week. Ortega’s police and paramilitary gang raids left more than 30 detainees, dozens injured and at least two more dead. Besides these repressive actions, more than 17 illegal raids and forced detentions against government opponents were carried out.
By Committee of Nicaraguans of the IWL-FI.
On Monday, the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy (name assumed by the group that negotiates with the government, in which students, businessmen and farmers participate) made a call to resume the dialogue and states that they are willing to “ease” the road blockades to continue sitting at the table with the government and the Church. In the afternoon, while the population was being massacred, the commission composed of three representatives from the Civic Alliance and three from the government announced a secret negotiated agreement to continue “the dialogue.”
On Mothers’ Day, huge demonstrations were held across the country to which the government responded with a bloody and deadly repression, leaving at least 18 murdered and more than 200 injured. But the people are clear and continue to fight with their lives to defeat the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.
Dialogue only strengthens the government
From the beginning, we stated that we should not have any confidence in the dialogue and that the only way to get the Ortega-Murrillo out was to continue the fight. After three sessions held, and now with this new agreement signed, we can clearly say that it has only served the government in its attempt to wear down the fight and buy time to hold on to power.
Yesterday, the “Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy” gave statements continuing with the call to dialogue as the way out, and demanding the dictatorship to stop the repression. We believe that this is a mistake. You can not expect pears from an elm tree; there is nothing to talk about with the dictatorship.
The government initiated the dialogue on the defensive, even with the presence of the presidential couple in the first session. As days go by, it has been gaining space. That is why we believe that continuing in this line distances us from the main objective of the struggle, which is to end the dictatorship.
We declare that there is nothing to negotiate with murderers and that a government defeat will not be achieved at the negotiating table. To continue generating expectations that through dialogue we can democratize the country is a serious mistake that threatens the struggle. There will be no free Nicaragua or justice for the martyrs if the Ortega-Murillo’s do not leave the power.
Block the country until they leave
By various means, people have expressed that there is nothing to discuss except the exit of this government. The reaction to Monday’s agreement between the Alliance and the government has been rejection, and in different parts of the country, road blockades and demonstrations have been reinforced. To reject any dialogue with the government and continue the mobilizations throughout the country is the right way to deepen the struggle and defeat the dictatorship. That is why we believe that students, peasants and mobilized neighborhoods should demand to the representatives in the Alliance not to unite with murderers and, instead, join the actions to block the country in all departments.
The government has insisted for the barricades to be lifted and the businessmen refuse to support a national strike because they know that both measures would cause the government to fall. That is why we must fight to do just what the government and the COSEP do not want us to, which is increasing blockades in each municipality, and a national strike throughout the country until they leave.
The government and businessmen are not worried about the stability of the country, that food is scarce or that prices rise. What they want is to continue doing business at the expense of the people. That is why the fall of the government will only come from increasing the struggle and not from any agreement.
But it is necessary to take a step forward in the organization and the struggle, the tanks are not enough. It is necessary to start creating committees to fight against the dictatorship in each of the factories and maquilas of the country, to prepare a general strike to defeat the dictatorship.
The COSEP and Carlos Pellas hypocrisy: total independence from businessmen
The COSEP and the Pellas group do not want the fall of the government. They have a hypocritical attitude of condemnation of the repression but without proposing that they leave immediately. Representatives of the COSEP have not asked for the resignation of the Ortega-Murrillo government in any of the dialogue sessions. Just recently they have asked for the resignation of their representatives in government instances, and Carlos Pellas was silent for almost 45 days of protests, but in his first public declarations, he stated that he was against a national strike and an immediate government resignation.
Businessmen do not care for immediate justice for the dead. What they want is to continue guaranteeing the good business they have been doing with the Ortega-Murillo family, and that is why they speak of an “orderly” way out with early elections. Their policy today is to achieve some reforms but without the Ortega-Murillo’s leaving power, something completely opposed to what people are asking for in the streets. Carlos Pellas made it clear that the solution to the crisis is not through the government’s exit or through a national strike, but rather to prepare new elections and some institutional changes that the OAS requests, without the dictatorship falling.
That is why we say that the students, peasants and all people who are fighting have to maintain total independence from businessmen. Not only because they do not want the fall of the dictatorship, which is the immediate objective they are fighting for, but because they are also responsible for unemployment, low wages, a high cost of living and the misery that thousands of Nicaraguans experience.
Popular, democratic committees to continue the fight
The struggle has been held by the courage and spontaneity of thousands throughout the country. Although the Alliance calls to “easing” the blockades, most are spontaneous and do not respond to the spokesmen at the table but to the dynamics of the struggle. But, as days go by, such spontaneity starts to take its toll. Coordinated actions are necessary to allow the country to be completely paralyzed and to guarantee self-defense resources in the face of the government aggressions; supply networks of basic needs and food, protection of the people who fight and all the tasks that arise day by day.
For that reason, it is essential that barricades and neighborhoods fighting form committees that guarantee the continuity of the struggle; that these committees have democratically appointed representatives in each municipality and at national level, to express the true sense of the people calling for the end of the dictatorship, and to develop joint actions to end once and for all with the Ortega-Murillo tyranny.
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Translation: Corriente Obrera.
