FILE – President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, lead a rally in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File) The Nicaraguan regime has announced the end of elections. It has decided to establish a formal dynasty that embraces North Korea and defies the new Monroe Doctrine.
The closeness between the Nicaraguan tyranny and North Korea’s regime is not merely a political metaphor; it is rooted in a historical relationship spanning over 50 years. In 1971, guerrilla fighter Plutarco Hernandez participated in a military training course in North Korea. The objective was to support “the liberation of peoples” — that is, to establish a totalitarian Marxist model in the United States’ backyard.
In 1979, the Sandinista guerrillas came to power after defeating the Somoza dictatorship, which had been close to the U.S. During this new phase, North Korean military cooperation and assistance continued — albeit on a modest scale — in the form of weapons, patrol boats, and military training.
In April 1984, Gen. Humberto Ortega — President Daniel Ortega’s brother — traveled to Pyongyang to finalize an arms purchase, even as Nicaragua was starving. For years, the dictatorship blamed the U.S. (“the empire”) for its plight. In reality, the problem lay elsewhere: a model of corruption that squandered millions on weaponry and graft while the people suffered in misery.
President Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, visited North Korea in September 1986. The Marxist dictator met with the patriarch Kim Il Sung, who expressed solidarity and political support to help strengthen the repressive socialist model.
Ortega was impressed by the North Korean model — the cult of personality, the elimination of free elections, the absence of political parties and opposition and the lack of checks and balances. It would take many years and many deaths before Nicaragua could replicate this totalitarian family-run model.
In 1990, the Sandinistas lost the elections. A democratic government took office, aligned with the U.S. and the free world. Four years later, the North Korean embassy in Managua was closed. Nicaragua stopped seeking weapons and began seeking jobs and investments.
In 2006, the Sandinistas won the elections. A process of dismantling democratic institutions began. In 2010, Foreign Minister Kim Hyong Jun visited Managua to attempt to reestablish diplomatic relations, but Ortega did not want to openly confront the U.S., so he put his old friends on hold.
Ortega reacted to the 2018 protests against his regime by imprisoning, killing and exiling all his political adversaries. After facing international condemnation, Nicaragua turned to old allies such as Russia, China and North Korea.
“There won’t be any more elections,” Ortega said on July 19 in a plaza filled with supporters clad in white shirts applauding ceaselessly, North Korean style. In his speech, Ortega defied the U.S., stating: “Parties put in place by the Yankees, put in place by the Somoza regime, coming back to power — that story is over.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio replied that the Trump administration and the global community “will not stand by as the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship deepens repression at home and manufactures instability that threatens U.S. national security.” He said Ortega’s move “proves his cowardice and fear of the Nicaraguan people’s will.”
Despite this, Ortega continues to enjoy relative financial stability. Last year, Nicaragua received $6.2 billion in remittances from the U.S. The very same regime that has imprisoned bishops and pastors also benefits from a free trade agreement with the U.S. and holds membership in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Nicaragua represents a metastatic cancer which, if ignored, could spread to other countries in the Americas, weakening U.S. influence and empowering China and North Korea. The message must be clear: Abolishing elections and crowning oneself king will not be tolerated. It must bring with it serious consequences.
With dictators like Ortega in Nicaragua — as with Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela — traditional methods never work. A proportional resolve is needed to respond to them, and even an Absolute Resolve should be considered. Hemispheric security is at stake.
Arturo McFields is an exiled journalist, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States and a former member of the Norwegian Peace Corps. He is an alumnus of the National Defense University’s Security and Defense Seminar and the Harvard Leadership course.
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