Feminist Activists Condemn The Government of Nicaragua

Well, this is disappointing. I'm sorry to say I haven't been followed the situation in Nicaragua in years. But I remember, 20 years ago or so, when many lesbian feminists supported Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas for the work they were doing to bring economic and political justice to Nicaragua after years of misrule by the dictatorial Somoza family.

While the Sandinistas were not specifically feminist, the active involvement of women in the Nicaraguan revolution seemed to create the conditions for the growth of feminism in that country. Many lesbian feminists opposed the Reagan Administration's illegal efforts to overthrow the Sandinistas. Many of us mourned the 1990 election that saw a right-wing candidate (a woman, ironically) defeat Ortega.

According to Wikipedia,

In 1998, Daniel Ortega's stepdaughter Zoilamérica Narváez released a 48-page report describing her allegations that Ortega had systematically sexually abused her for 9 years beginning when she was 11.^[13] The case could not proceed in Nicaraguan courts because Ortega had immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament, and the five-year statute of limitations for sexual abuse and rape charges was judged to have been exceeded. Narváez's complaint was heard by the Inter American Human Rights Commission on 4 March 2002.^[14]

In 2006, Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, expressed concern that election of Ortega, described as having "highly substantiated" charges of sexual abuse raised against him, to the Presidency of Nicaragua, could undermine worldwide NGO efforts against child abuse and sexual violence.^[1

Also, after his 2006 return to the presidency, Ortega apparently became much more conservative. Part of this move to the right involved embracing socially conservative policies endorsed by the Catholic church, including a ban on all abortions.

Now, Feminist Peace Network is carrying a statement issued by feminists at the Social Forum of the Americas in Guatemala, condemning Ortega and the Sandinista government for its persecution of feminist activists. The statement condemns

• Physical violence and political persecution of feminists and their organizations
• Destruction and removal of files and information from the offices of the Research Center for Communication (CINCO) and from the Autonomous Women’s Movement (MAM) of Nicaragua
• A call to the people of Nicaragua to mobilize and take mob-style actions against feminists
• The order of search and seizure against a women’s group in Matagalpa called Grupo Venancia

These acts are part of an orchestrated campaign to criminalize feminists for their work to re-instate the right to therapeutic abortion (in cases where the mother’s life is at stake) and as reprisal for the denouncements of the sexual abuse of Zoila America by Daniel Ortega generated by many women’s organizations.

Apparently Ortega still has it in him to denounce capitalism and the abuses committed by the US government. The extreme misogyny of his government is certainly a disservice to socialism.