Ortega Plays with the 'Paper Tiger'

This past July 26, at the same time that Daniel Ortega was ranting and raving against the United States while in Cuba, the American Ambassador Phyllis Powers donated almost $7.5 million of military equipment to the naval forces of the Nicaraguan Army while in the Nicaraguan city of Bluefields.

Some days later, the United States deputy assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere arrived in Nicaragua with the purpose of meeting with representatives of the government and private enterprises. He had spoken of strengthening even further the trade exchange between the two nations, which has mainly benefitted Nicaragua. While this occurred, Daniel Ortega was in Ecuador participating in a summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) leaders, from where he launched his usual insults against the supposed “empires” of the United States and Western Europe.

But these have been just two recent examples of the conflict-ridden and aggressive rhetoric of Daniel Ortega against the U.S. and the behavior of the U.S. government toward Nicaragua. However, Ortega’s rhetoric doesn’t appear to disturb the American authorities, who have only reacted a few times to specific deeds by Ortega. For example, the U.S. has addressed election fraud and shady tax dealings with measures like the suspensions of both the Millennium Challenge Account and the tax transparency waiver over the last two years.

According to the opinions of some diplomats and experts in U.S.-Nicaraguan relations, this situation shows indicates the U.S. government is not concerned with what Ortega says, but with what he does. It feels that as long as the Ortega regime cooperates in the fight against drugs and terrorism, which pose a threat to the U.S., it does not matter to it if he amuses himself with anachronistic anti-Yankee speeches.

In reality, in order to publicly satisfy and ideologically motivate his followers, Ortega attacks the U.S. and Western Europe with his harsh rhetoric. But in practice, he does nothing that truly jeopardizes American and European interests. At least, he hasn’t thus far. Besides, how can one believe Ortega’s hateful speeches against capitalism if at the same time he allows capitalist development and is himself, along with his family, the most ravenous capitalist and accumulator of wealth in all of Nicaragua?

However, Ortega’s dual behavior also possesses something of an ideology. For Ortega and his ALBA cohorts, the United States is a paper tiger, as Mao Zedong described it. For them, the U.S. is a deteriorating, decadent imperial power that within a few years will be replaced by China as the major world power.

But above all it should be clear to Daniel Ortega that China’s economic model is neither socialist nor communist, but capitalist in its most vulgar and primitive versions. Ortega knows very well that the only thing communist about the Chinese model is its political totalitarianism, which is perfectly ready to hold onto power as long as it exists and to pass it on to whomever it wants, while Ortega’s family continues getting as wealthy as the constraints of Nicaragua’s economy permit.