Main director of the Forum of São Paulo, PT Monica Valente defended in an interview broadcast this Thursday (25th) the decision of the Nicaraguan government to prosecute political opponents of the dictator Daniel Ortega.
“On merit, the Nicaraguan government is absolutely right to prosecute these people, based on its own law, based on international law,” she said, live on the Opera Mundi website.
Executive secretary of the organization, which brings together left-wing Latin American parties, Valente justified Ortega’s actions based on a Nicaraguan law that prohibits foreign funding for NGOs and political organizations. This type of fence, he said, is common in several countries, including Brazil.
“People who were arrested and are being investigated have demonstrably received many resources, millions of dollars from US programs, from agencies like USAID [agência dos EUA para desenvolvimento internacional]. Anyone can go to the US Congress page and check.”
She said, however, that it is possible to discuss whether arresting Ortega’s opponents is the best option in this case. “I have many doubts about this strategy. But who am I to agree or disagree? We can share reflections on whether this is the best strategy to fight imperialist attacks. Whether it is arresting or having a process of political negotiation, with international mediation”, he said.
Ortega, who has been in power for 14 years, was re-elected on the 7th for a fourth consecutive term. The election was widely condemned by the international community for being a front. Before the vote, seven opposition presidential candidates were arrested by the Nicaraguan government.
The situation in the Central American country spilled over into the presidential pre-candidacy of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In the newspaper El País Lula relativized Ortega’s dictatorship, comparing his time in power to that of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, who is resigning from her post after 16 years.
Before, the PT itself had hailed the election as a great democratic manifestation of the Nicaraguan people. After the negative repercussions, the president of the party, Gleisi Hoffmann, said that the published note had not been approved by the party leadership, but did not criticize the election.
A member of the PT’s National Executive, Valente declared that he sees no contradiction in the fact that the party supports democracy in Brazil and at the same time defends governments in countries like Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, all governed by left-wing dictatorships.
“There is no contradiction to defend the democratic conception that the PT has and, at the same time, international law, the self-determination of peoples, non-interference and multilateralism.”
He gave as a negative example of external interference the US presence in Afghanistan, which ended chaotically in August with the return of the Taliban to power. “The US occupied Afghanistan for 20 years. They got out of there and in two, three weeks, everything they said they were going to fight, like machismo, came back.”
Taking stock of 2021 for the Latin American left, Valente saw the regional election in Venezuela as a positive point, in which forces linked to dictator Nicolás Maduro were largely victorious.
“The deep American state, whether the government or the imperialist business sectors, had an expectation that the government would not do so well in this election. But the Maduro government came out very strengthened, and the empire [EUA] will have to rethink their strategies,” he said.
When talking about Cuba, he said that there is hopelessness on the island, due to the economic blockade imposed by the US, but he also praised the strength of the population, which continues to defend the communist regime.
“The strength of the Cuban Revolution is very great. There was an expectation that it would cool down with Fidel’s death [Castro, há cinco anos], but it did not. There is difficulty, there is discontent among the people. How do you live 60 years on an island of 11 million being harassed, without being able to import syringes, because of the blockade? Of course this causes discontent,” he said.
The island was the scene of rare anti-regime demonstrations on July 11, which were repressed by the authorities.
She also mentioned the second round that will be played in Chile in December between leftist Gabriel Boric and ultra-rightist José Antonio Kast. “Can you imagine the sadness of Chile by Salvador Allende [presidente de esquerda derrubado num golpe em 1973] to be ruled by a guy like that [Kast], which is a revamped Trump, Bolsonaro and Le Pen?”
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