WASHINGTON—In the late afternoon of Monday, Sept. 13, a rally was held at the Capitol Southeast lawn in support of the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and against the RENACER Act, a bill being pushed through Congress by right-wing New Jersey Democrats Sen. Robert Menendez and Rep. Albio Sires.
The “Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform” Act of 2021, by its full official name, would impose harsh new sanctions on Nicaragua with the goal of inflicting economic pain on the population and swinging the upcoming November election in favor of the capitalist opposition. As with similar imperialist programs, the U.S. plans to coordinate these sanctions with the Canadian government and the Organization of American States.
Essentially, the RENACER Act is a threat of economic warfare against the Nicaraguan people, who have been fighting for a socialist system and struggling for independence from the U.S. empire for decades.
The Sept. 13 protest in D.C. was hosted by the Black Alliance for Peace, Casa Baltimore Limay, Friends of Latin America, and CODEPINK, and was attended by members of the DMV YDSA and the Claudia Jones School for Political Education.
Several people from the hosting and attending organizations spoke about U.S. imperialism, the Nicaraguan socialist project, and the necessity to combat this new wave of sanctions on the country.
Max Blumenthal, editor and reporter from The Gray Zone, told the small but vigilant crowd about his experience documenting the terror inflicted on Sandinista civilians during the 2018 riots to demonstrate the cruelty of President Daniel Ortega’s opposition, which the U.S. is supporting with the RENACER Act.
“I went to Nicaragua in July 2018, and I began to meet people, common Sandinistas, who were terrorized, abused, brutalized, and murdered simply because they were Sandinistas,” Blumenthal said.
“We hear about what the Capitol police went through on January 6th [during the attempted Trump coup]. The same media that freaked out about some right-wing hooligans who ran up into the Capitol for a few hours celebrate what took place in and around Masaya where the police were held under siege for fifty-five days” by U.S.-backed terrorists.
Barbara Larcom from Casa Baltimore Limay explained what exactly the RENACER Act will do, as opposed to what the mainstream media says it will do. “It is a bill which supposedly is promoting ‘democracy’ in Nicaragua. That is a total lie…. It will impose even more restrictions on any international aid…[and] allows the president to put sanctions on any individuals in the country…if they are a member of the FSLN.”
FSLN is the Spanish acronym of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, the liberation movement and socialist political party led by Ortega.
A representative from the All-Afrikan People’s Revolutionary Party Rafiki Morris put the essential purpose of the legislative into simpler terms: “That’s not about sanctions, that’s about regime change! That’s about getting rid of the people who are defending the masses in Nicaragua.”
CONTACT your member of Congress and tell them to OPPOSE the RENACER Act.
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