Vendepatriaphobia: The
Sandinista Fear of Selling out Nicaragua
By Blake Schmidt, thefastertimes.com
Each Latin American country seems to have
their own vocabulary to describe the
traitors who have sold out or given in to
the imperial powers. The caporales, or
dancers, Eduardo Galeano called them.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez peppers his speeches
with various synonyms to describe them, one
of my personal favorites being pitiyankees.
In Nicaragua, where the past century and a
half has involved a series of U.S.
interventions in which marines and
mercenaries were often invited to step in,
they’re called vendepatrias. Literally,
sellers-out of the nation.
The ruling Sandinista party, which toppled
U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in a
1979 revolution and battled U.S.-sponsored
contras during the 80s, uses the word quite
frequently to describe their foes. It was
the same word used by the country’s rebel
hero, Augusto C. Sandino, to denounce his
conservative adversaries. Sandino led a
7-year guerrilla war against occupying US
marines - whose intervention had been
invited by his enemies - that dragged into
the 1930s.
President and former rebel leader Daniel
Ortega, who like his father is an avid
Sandino admirer, is a staunch opponent of
the vendepatria and loves to rally his party
around his hatred of them.
But knowing the enemy was easier when the US
considered Latin America its backyard. As US
influence in the region wanes, the
Sandinistas are becoming paranoid of selling
out the country to other allies that have
gained sway.
After Ortega took office, Iran announced
grandiose plans to build hydroelectric dams
and help fund a deep-water port in
Nicaragua. But the plans have fizzled for
“technical reasons,” according to Iranian
ambassador Akbar Pour, who hasn’t given any
further details. The word is that Iran
clashed with the Sandinista politburo
because they wanted more control over the
investments than the Sandinistas were
willing to give .
More recently, the Sandinistas had a falling
out with Rafael Paniagua, the Venezuelan
manager of joint Venezuelan-Nicaraguan
venture Albanisa, which manages much of the
Venezuelan aid flowing into Nicaragua and
has bought up energy concessions, a hotel,
ranchland, a TV station and oil distribution
concession. Paniagua apparently angered the
Sandinistas with comments to local press
revealing the purchase of TV Channel 8 as
part of a plan to “build a nation.”
The comments were enough to set off first
lady Rosario Murillo, who became the de
facto spokeswoman when Ortega created a
position and appointed her to it in an open
act of nepotism. She released a statement
denying Paniagua’s comments and Paniagua no
longer manages Albanisa. El Nuevo Diario
reports he is now causing problems back in
Caracas for the Sandinistas which may
threaten the flow of petrodollars. No joke,
since Chavez’s aid since Ortega took office
has reached around $1 billion, filling
funding gaps left by aid cuts from US and
European countries concerned with a lack of
electoral transparency after a vote in
November 2008.
Blake Schmidt is a journalist living in
Central America. He is based in Granada,
Nicaragua, where he writes for The New York
Times and Bloomberg, among others. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
