The abuses of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua, forced the international left to debate on social networks about their identity – “what is it to be from the left today?” – during the day of November 7 and the days after the false votes, according to the intense conversations monitored in the accounts of the left leadership.
The most relevant tensions in social networks were those carried out by the left in Chile, Spain, Brazil and El Salvador, and to a lesser extent in the United States. The conversation, which was revealed on Twitter and Facebook, shows left groups reflecting on what it means (and what not) to be on the left and other exchanges more anchored in ancient dogmas.
The ideological clashes occurred at the dizzying pace imposed by social networks. It was a scenario of word spoken and word answered.
In Chile and Brazil, left-wing parties rushed to issue separate statements praising the Ortega and Murillo regime for the votes, widely described as a farce, in charge of a collapsed electoral system under the control of Ortega and the cancellation of the competition. policy (with the imprisonment of seven opposition candidates) to clear Ortega his fourth consecutive presidential term.
The texts of praise did not last long on social networks, because the same leaders of these parties were in charge of clarifying to their followers that the announcements of greetings and celebration had not been discussed before by the political parties themselves.
In Chile, the Communist Party celebrated the Ortega farce and immediately received the rejection of the presidential candidate of Approve Dignity, Gabriel Boric, with whom they are in coalition. “In our government, the commitment to democracy and human rights will be total, without endorsements of any kind for dictatorships and autocracies, whoever bothers them. Nicaragua needs democracy, not fraudulent elections or persecution of opponents ”, Boric published in a tweet.
He was joined by one of the most relevant leaders of the Communist Party of Chile, Camila Vallejo Dowling, who took up Twitter and Facebook to join the rejection of Ortega. “This statement was neither discussed nor resolved by the collective leadership of the party. We condemn human rights violations in Nicaragua, Chile and anywhere in the world. Gabriel Boric will be our pdte. and he will be the one who defines the foreign policy of the Govt of Approve Dignity, “he wrote. And he also posted it on his Facebook wall.
Something similar happened in Brazil when the Workers’ Party (PT) also published a first statement celebrating Ortega. The statement was later deleted and was also rejected by the party’s leader, Gleisi Hoffman: “A note about the elections in Nicaragua was sent to the party leadership. The PT’s position vis-à-vis any country is to defend the self-determination of the peoples, against external interference and respect for democracy by the government and the opposition. Our priority is to debate Brazil with the Brazilian people, ”he posted on Twitter, but did not share anything on his Facebook wall, which has been focused on reporting on Lula da Silva’s successful European tour. The renowned Brazilian leader had previously recommended to Ortega: “Do not abandon democracy”.
Note on elections in Nicaragua and was submitted to party direction. Posição PT in relation to the country that defends the self-determination of two nations, against external interference and respect for democracy, on the part of the government and the opposition.
– Gleisi Hoffmann (@gleisi) November 10, 2021
The massacre perpetrated by the Daniel Ortega regime and the police state it imposed in 2018 has caused people on the left, who previously sympathized with the revolutionary cause promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), to question their own identity dogmas and many were quickly released. Others do not.
In Spain, the one who stood up for the new left that is brewing in the country was Antonio Maillo, former coordinator of Izquierda Unida Andalucía: “No longer strain, Daniel Ortega,” he posted on Twitter referring to the false elections. Although, from the tweet account of the Communist Party of Spain it was published: “The people of #Nicaragua defeat imperialism again at the polls. We congratulate the Sandinista Front (@lavozsandinista) and call on the international community to respect the results ”.
Maillo, one of the great figures of the Spanish left, added: “The Murillo-Ortega couple is a caricature of what the Sandinista revolution was. Do not strain the use of messages for consumption on the left. They are neither anti-imperialist nor do they do anything other than maintain an endogamous power ”.
It doesn’t strain anymore, Daniel Ortega. https://t.co/OygO7q1YE5
– Antonio Maíllo? (@MailloAntonio) November 9, 2021
From the United States, sympathies for the Ortega-Murillo regime only came from leftist groups recognized as anti-imperialist “tankies”. As the Nicaraguan user @anarcopanda exiled there, who asked not to reveal his identity for security reasons, glossed in a long thread: “Tankie originates from the word“ tank ”that represents the violent invasion of the Soviet Union towards the revolt in Hungary in the 50’s. Thus creating a political division in the international left between those who supported the invasion and those who condemned it. The Tankie will never recognize a “popular revolt” within a country they define as “socialist.” Thus perpetuating racist, class, sexist stereotypes of a predominantly poor crowd ”. Here his thread:
The Tankie perpetuates the hierarchies of the Party, repeats slogans established from above and does not operate with autonomy to present its own opinion.
– Multiversidad Libertaria ? Anarcopanda (@anarcopanda) November 9, 2021
“Most of the people who read the tankie journalists (who came to support Ortega) are communists or fundamentalist socialists who support China, Syria, Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba. They support any country that positions itself as “anti-imperialist.” These journalists do not belong to any left-wing or militant organization, nor do they do grassroots work or are part of social movements, so they are not part of the conversations that activists or organizers of local movements have here, ”reported @anarcopanda.
And in El Salvador, the conversation of people on the left exploded before the statement in which the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) celebrated Ortega. “We congratulate the sovereign people of Nicaragua, for submitting to elections and demonstrating a true democratic party. In the same way, we salute the glorious Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to which we wish the best of success, ”they posted on Twitter.
And among all the tweets that responded to the FMLN, that of the journalist and former director of El Faro, Carlos Dada, revealed the depth of the crisis on the Salvadoran left. Dada wrote citing that tweet: “Some foreign journalists ask me why @FMLNoficial disappeared. This helps to understand it ”.
Some foreign journalists ask me why the @FMLNoficial. This helps to understand it: https://t.co/vIcLicYCzU
– Carlos Dada (@CarlosDada) November 8, 2021
When it is said that “Ortega is abandoned by his allies,” Nicaraguans do not know the type of “allies” of the dictatorship, and with these conversations the political stories of a certain left group still clinging to the dogmas of the dictatorship come to light. cold war, the anti-imperialist struggle, which romanticizes guerrillas (romanticizes weapons) and does not care about human rights violations as long as their leftist ideology prevails.
In all the previous conversations, the more dogmatic left points to the other more dialoguing left with names with which they intend to insult them: “lukewarm”, “traitors”, “soft”, “cafeteria left” and “caviar left” they called them.
The abuses of Ortega and Murillo have served to remove the mask from the authoritarian regime that practices brutality as a policy. It is being bordered by the same international left. Some members of the international left spoke before condemning the regime since 2018. Others needed to understand the magnitude of the 355 civilian murder figure for exercising their right to social protest. Some have already seen the dynastic anxieties of the Ortega family coming from the front. Others still believe the story issued from Ortega’s own family home that his “is a fight against imperialism.” That is why Ortega throws coal on the fire of anti-imperialism, to avoid being left alone any more.
