“Violence is the fear of the ideals of others”

Mahatma Gandhi

*Marco Aurelio Peña

The revolutionaries said that violence had the role of midwife in historical development, that the traumas of social upheaval were like birth pains. In Nicaragua, as in other latitudes, revolutions, wars and military barracks have reproduced on a large scale the fratricidal complex of Cain over Abel and that of Romulus over Remus. Now the Nicaraguan has become aware that his challenge is to transition to democracy, assuming the political philosophy of nonviolent struggle and internalizing a new paradigm of social change: peace as the midwife of History.

The swarm of anti-government protests in Nicaragua, which began in the heat of the summer of April 2018, revealed thoughts and feelings that converged in the general will to carry out a democratic transition. Civil pressure actions were deployed for collective change focused on the universal value of peace. The self-convened social protests against the autocratic Ortega-Murillo regime became an authentic civic and peaceful insurrection that spread to different parts of the country.

The April Rebellion was savagely repressed by police and parapolice groups, causing a severe sociopolitical and human rights crisis, which in 15 and a half months left a death toll equal to or greater than 355 people (of which 27 were children and adolescents), at least 2,000 people injured and more than 1,600 people arbitrarily deprived of liberty. To date, it is estimated that around 170,000 people have been displaced due to political and economic causes. Additionally, there are more than 170 political prisoners (including older adults), more than 150 unjustified expulsions of university students and countless dismissals of public servants as political retaliation.

Practicing a political culture centered on peace, in a structurally and culturally violent society (as defined by Johan Galtung), carries the risk that all social mobilization, with a civic, peaceful and civil spirit, will be denatured by disturbances caused by agitators, extremists. and impostors who are agents of chaos. To tell the truth, the April rebels revolted against the subjugation of the State-party-family trident. Faced with a political order of “let’s go with everything” (attributed to Vice President Rosario Murillo), the position of those who embraced nonviolence was not to give the State an excuse for increasing the excessive and unequal use of force with lethal weapons. Unfortunately, the idea of ​​the heroic tends to be linked more to violence and less to peace (as if the instinct for death predominated over that for life). A stubborn display of patriotism increases the number of fatalities.

Nonviolent struggle requires a lot of emotional intelligence and spiritual strength. Non-cooperation as a method of struggle refers to actions through which citizens, deliberately and consciously, withdraw their support for economic and social cooperation activities. Specifically, economic noncooperation (boycotts and strikes) is refusing to buy, sell, handle, or distribute specific goods and services. This method is directly related to responsible consumption. It is about denying money to those who are authors and accomplices of human rights transgressions (not purchasing their products).

The conscious and emerging leadership after the social explosion is committed to nonviolent struggle for the democratic transition, so that in the most acute moments of the crisis, methods of economic non-cooperation were adopted as a tactic and strategy to erode the dictatorial regime. To the bizarre Sandinista slogan “free homeland or die,” the blue and white movement responded “free homeland and live,” which elucidated a new paradigm of political struggle reaffirming and protecting the right to life (in opposition to martyrological heroism). ).

Below are the most belligerent economic non-cooperation actions observed since the April Rebellion:

Four national strikes were called between June 2018 and May 2019, which slowed down the country’s economic and social activities for 24 hours on each day of protest. The strikes got the Government to accept the entry into the country of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and demonstrated the support of an overwhelming majority for the democratic transition.

Land transportation of goods was blocked and collective urban transportation became irregular due to popular barricades (colloquially called “tranques”) that obstructed the country’s streets and highways.

A strike was carried out by the taxi drivers union in a 24-hour day that reduced the selective transport service to a minimum.

Thousands of contributors disaffiliated from the public social security system due to citizen distrust of the pension governing institution due to its financial insolvency. A payroll was circulated with the privileged salaries of the entity’s officials and public servants (the government reform of social security was one of the triggers for the social protests in 2018).

Calls were made for consumer strikes and tax disobedience, which had an impact on the service economy, specifically, on the contraction registered in the commercial and tourism sectors. Some companies owned by those close to the Government were identified so as not to buy their products and the names of their owners were published.

An electrical blackout was called at a certain time since the electricity marketing company has government participation.

Citizen consumption of fuel offered by the service stations of the National Petroleum Distributor (DNP) of the Nicaraguan Petroleum Company (Petronic) was drastically reduced. The non-consumption of fuel and the subsequent international economic sanctions affected the state company and caused the closure of many of its service stations.

The tactic and strategy of economic non-cooperation generated a radicalization of the ruling family in its desire to retain power for its own sake. The autocratic regime reacted with mechanisms of collective economic repression, namely:

The Government banned social protests and threatened to impose jail time on social, student and business leaders who from now on call for a strike. In addition, the regime warned that it would prosecute businessmen who joined the strikes, reporting cases of people and companies besieged by the police force.

Parapolice groups carried out the armed offensive called “operation cleanup,” which violently dismantled the roadblocks and reestablished land transportation of goods and people.

The National Assembly, carrying out orders from the Presidency, approved, without consultation or social consensus, reforms to social security and the tax system, through which contribution and tax rates were increased to the detriment of the working class and the business sector.

The state machinery imposed a tax collection policy known in public opinion as “fiscal terrorism”, since the taxpayer (especially if they are an opponent or critic) is a victim of legal and judicial harassment. The Tax Administration arbitrarily alters tax debts without respecting the rights of citizens (for example, exemptions for retirement or claiming legal prescription).

The actions of economic non-cooperation were effective and preceded the individual economic sanctions decreed by the International Community to the detriment of the discredited and illegitimate regime. It is thought that a sustained and unwavering support of the Nicaraguan commercial and financial capital represented by unions in the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) for the self-convened actions of economic non-cooperation would have had a much more forceful, intense and prolonged effect to pressure due to a resignation of the leaders or due to an advance of general elections.

Today, the Government is heavily indebted, its main financier being the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). It would not be unwise in the future to ignore the public debt contracted with CABEI, since this organization distorts its own institutional mission by not being consistent with an approach of rights, freedoms and capabilities that supports the modern conception of what is globally understood as economic development, humane and sustainable.

The organized opposition is going through a phase of recompositing due to the imprisonment, siege and exile of its leadership. The political call to reduce monetary remittances from abroad (with the aim of paying less taxes) has had no echo or support because Nicaraguan families depend heavily on these money transfers to satisfy their consumption needs.

In this sense, it could be more tactical to generalize an attitude of skepticism and rejection of the macroeconomic figures that present a country that is completely discordant with the perception that people have about its microeconomic environment. That is, it would be smarter to capitalize on citizen distrust of government institutions, misinformation from those in power, and social unrest due to adverse economic conditions. The rest remains to be seen. It is wise to take one step back and two steps forward. Small steps are necessary to achieve great ideals.

*Marco Aurelio Peña is a Nicaraguan economist, lawyer and university professor. He is a director of the Central American Association of Philosophy (ACAFI). He has worked on issues of human rights, transitional justice and culture of peace. He is currently exiled in Costa Rica.

Translated by Damian Vasquez