La Prensa is the flagship newspaper of Nicaragua’s traditional oligarchy and right wing sectors. It casts itself as “the daily newspaper of all Nicaraguans,” “in the service of truth and justice.” But notwithstanding such claims, it is merely the voice of the Nicaraguan right wing. Its editorial board functions as their version of a politburo, formulating a line to steer the country in accord with their class social and economic interests.
La Prensa campaigns daily to unite what they call “democratic forces” in Nicaragua which means any and all parties except the FSLN. They are especially sympathetic to the ex FSLN forces such as the MRS who want to ally with Liberal forces around Eduardo Montealegre, now the PLC candidate for Managua’s mayoralty.
The following editorial gives an idea of their chronic and visceral hostility to the FSLN and to revolutionary forces in other countries such as the Bolivarian movement in Venezuela, now organized in the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), whose principal leader is Hugo Chávez.
The editorial writer reveals a superficial knowledge of Marxism and makes a few errors on the revolutionary history of Latin America (hence the addition of a few footnotes to clarify certain misleading or erroneous statements in the text, added by the translator, Felipe Stuart C.
Managua
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The FSLN-FMLN Connection
La Prensa Editorial, June 12, 2008
The governing FSLN party has denied, although in an extra official manner, information published by the Salvadoran daily La Prensa Gráfica, and reproduced in communications media in Nicaragua. According to this report, a message was found in one of the computers of the deceased second chief of the FARC, who went by the name “Raúl Reyes” It says that one thousand militants of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) of El Salvador proctored the November 2006 election in Nicaragua and helped foster the electoral victory of Daniel Ortega.
It is understandable that the FSLN would deny the veracity of the information. But those who know the political history of Central America, and particularly that of Nicaragua and El Salvador, cannot be surprised by this news of a connection of the Sandinista Front with the Salvadoran FMLN, and with the FARC of Colombia. Would it really be strange, in reality, to find a message in the computer of “Raul Reyes” that says “Daniel (Ortega) has a very good position with them (that is, with the FARC) and with revolutionary movements,” when Ortega himself said that the ancient maximum leader of the FARC, Manuel Marulanda or “Tirofijo,” was his comrade and brother? Ortega even presented Marulanda with the “Orden Augusto C. Sandino” medal, on January 13, 1999. He was the only one among the left governments of Latin America who sent a condolence message to the Colombian terrorist narcoguerrilla upon Marulanda’s death.
Moreover, it is very well known that all the leftist and revolutionary organizations of the world maintain solidarity between them, coordinate actions of common interest, and practice so called revolutionary, socialist, or proletarian internationalism, which originates in the concept that Karl Marx imprinted in the 1848 Communist Manifesto, that “workers have no country.”
According to Karl Marx the communist revolution would be realized in an inevitable manner on an international scale. Later, the Russian Vladimir Ulianov, alias Lenin, formulated the Marxist doctrine, establishing the thesis that the revolution would triumph in the beginning only in some countries, even just one country, as occurred in Russia in 1917. That, however, would not signify renouncing revolutionary internationalism or the world communist revolution.
In the 60s of the 20th Century, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro promoted the communist revolution in the Third World, through an extremist organization called “Tricontinental,” [1] created in 1965 in Havana, Cuba. Two years later, also in Havana, the Organization of Latin American Solidarity (OLAS) [2] was founded as Tricontinental’s Latin American branch. When the Sandinista revolution triumphed in 1979 the representative of the United States government, William Bowdler, offered US friendship and economic cooperation to the victorious comandantes of the FSLN in exchange for them not trying to export the revolution to El Salvador and other Central American counties. However, the Sandinista comandantes, although giving verbal assurances that they would not export their revolution, in practice conspired with the FMLN of El Salvador and even sent Nicaraguan combatants to that country. As well, they established camps for political preparation and military training for leftist militants from other Central American countries, including peaceful and very democratic Costa Rica.
Now, under the flag of so called “21st Century socialism,” the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, with enthusiastic support from Daniel Ortega, is promoting the formation of a continental revolutionary army and has taken up the call made by Che Guevara in the 60s of the 20th Century to create “many Vietnams” in Latin America, to counter the United States and allow the communist revolution to triumph in all Latin American countries.
So it is not at all strange that the Salvadoran FMLN and the Nicaraguan FSLN cooperate with each other, according to the information published by La Prensa Gráfica of El Salvador about what was discovered in the computer of “Raúl Reyes.” Nevertheless this is something that should be investigated by democratic deputies in the National Assembly, at least to safeguard appearances.[3]
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[1] Tricontinental was the magazine of the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAL). See its official site at http://www.ospaaal.org/ . See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricontinental_Conference and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricontinental -- Also see Green Let Weekly’s report “New situation demands unity: OSPAAAL” at http://www.greenleft.org.au/1995/177/12532
[2] OLAS - Organization of Latin American Solidarity. Founded in 1967, its high point of activity followed its founding congress in Havana and the its official declaration. Following the assassination of Che Guevara in Bolivia and the defeat of this the guerrilla force he led, OLAS went into decline and ceased to function. Its mission is now carried out though diverse initiatives such as ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas ([see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Alternative_for_the_Americas ].
[3] La Prensa has never editorialized against massive presence of "democracy trainers" from the USA financed by millions of USA dollars from such outfits such as the Republican Party and the NED (National Endowment for Democracy). Even the MRS has benefited from money from the USA to train its scrutineers. Nor has the oligarchy's politburo ever protested the fact that the US Embassy is addicted to participating in Nicaraguan elections. In the last national elections they backed Eduardo Montealege, also La Prensa's favored child. For La Prensa the empire is entitled to run the show in Nicaragua, but is is an act of delinquency for the left to engage in international solidarity and collaboration. Their imperial and class interests could not be better illuminated.
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