Trump: Words and Actions

I wonder if the speech of U.S. President Donald Trump was a warning to Daniel Ortega to pack his suitcases, or simply a demand that he democratize the country through well-monitored, free and transparent elections with new referees and other recommendations by international organizations.

Ortega has endangered the peace and economy with repression, as dictators like him have done: Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba. Trump has addressed Ortega strongly because of the latter’s clubs-and-lead retaliation to demonstration against his governance, with closure of the media and persecution. He prescribes jail time for his opponents, like the peasant, Medardo Mairena, hit by a judge with a record sentence in Nicaragua of 216 years in prison. I imagine those files must be in the White House.

Cuba is a country ruled outrageously for 60 years under the yoke of the Castro brothers. Anti-imperialist jargon has led the people to submit to poverty and hunger. Who will open the doors to Cuba if Maduro is separated by opposing forces of power? Cuba has not deceived anyone with its “constitutional reform,” a farce that fools no one.

Trump’s statement proclaiming “a new era for Latin America” presages defeat of the tyranny in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Although the strategy that will finally be used against the dictatorships of these countries is yet unknown, it seems that at least in Venezuela, the solution to the conflict will be negotiation, rather than military intervention.

Trump met with representatives of the Venezuelan democratic community to whom he has promised to put pressure on the dictatorship; he told them that “all options are on the table.” But many respond, “Mr. President, words and not actions … how long?”

As far as Nicaragua is concerned, Peruvian journalist Jaime Bayly has said, “Ortega fights poverty by killing the poor,”* because new measures used against the people are making the situation worse. Politically, Ortega tells the international community that he is talking, but there are no positive results.

*Editor’s note: This quote, although accurately translated, could not be verified.