Over the past five months western corporate news reports about Nicaragua have painted a harrowing picture about the country historically known for a revolutionary legacy that has put it at odds with US foreign policy and money interests.
The U.S. has made full use of its global propaganda machine and "regime" change apparatus not only to create chaos and instability there, but also to politically and diplomatically isolate it from the rest of the world.
Camilo Mejia supported the student opposition protests against the Ortega government until he noticed a similarity in the news reports with coverage of events in Syria; a narrative that was used to justify US intervention on "humanitarian" grounds. He speaks of what his research revealed, enhanced by his military training, when he looked into video pro-porting to show that the Sandinista government was killing student protesters.He offers back ground to events that were clearly misreported by western news media to discredit the government and bring protesters to the streets. He also address the split in Nicaraguan society along class interests and values, and the confusion over former Sandinista officials, vocal and well funded opposition figures, who claim to represent the values of the revolution and the "new generation", yet call for U.S. intervention to bring down the Ortega government in conjunction with a reactionary Catholic Church, right wing oligarchs, business executives and US funded NGOs, who today perform tasks openly that the CIA once did clandestinely.
He speaks about the documented long term goal of the US ruling class government to destroy the Sandinista movement and speaks to why a poor nation, one with free health care, education, and a popular market economy that has enabled food sovereignty, is a threat to the U.S. neoliberal model imposed on most of the world.
Stan Smith, Chicago ALBA Solidarity, does the introduction.
Evanston Public Library, Neighbors for Peace, Chicago ALBA Solidarity, Chicago Area Peace Action (CAPA)
Camilo Mejia: cmejia0875@gmail.com
Questions start about half way through and were off mic and parsed.
Camilo Mejia is a 9 year army vet who after a 6 month tour in Iraq refused to return. He was court-martialed and sentenced to 1 year of military prison and dishonorable discharge for his principled refusal to kill on command.
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