By Brett Wilkins

(Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams. This article was first published by Common Dreams on Aug 12, 2024.)

As human rights defenders on August 12th marked the 75th anniversary of the Fourth Geneva Convention and its prohibition of collective punishment, hundreds of legal experts and groups urged the global community—and the United States government in particular—”to comply with international law by ending the use of broad, unilateral coercive measures that extensively harm civilian populations.”

In a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, the jurists and legal groups wrote that “75 years ago, in the aftermath of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history, nations of the world came together in Geneva, Switzerland, to establish clear legal limits on the treatment of noncombatants in times of war.”

“One key provision… is the prohibition of collective punishment, which is considered a war crime,” the letter continues. “We consider the unilateral application of certain economic sanctions to constitute collective punishment.”

Suzanne Adely, president of the National Lawyers Guild—one of the letter’s signatories—said in a statement that “economic sanctions cause direct material harm not only to the people living on the receiving end of these policies, but to those who rely on trade and economic relations with sanctioned countries.”

“The legal community needs to push back against the narrative that sanctions are nonviolent alternatives to warfare and hold the U.S. Government accountable for violating international law every time it wields these coercive measures,” she added.

The new letter states:

“Collective punishment is a standard practice of U.S. foreign policy today in the form of broad, unilateral economic and financial sanctions. While other countries apply sanctions in some form, the United States imposes more unilateral economic sanctions than any other country in the world, by far. Though this method of collective punishment may differ from that of conventional warfare, and is often applied outside of declared military conflict, its collective impact on civilians can be just as indiscriminate, punitive, and deadly.”

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It goes on, “Hundreds of millions of people currently live under such broad U.S. economic sanctions in some form, including in notable cases such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela,” the letter notes. “The evidence that these measures can cause severe, widespread civilian harm, including death, is overwhelming. Broad economic sanctions can spark and prolong economic crises, hinder access to essential goods like food, fuel, and medicine, and increase poverty, hunger, disease, and even death rates, especially among children. Such conditions in turn often drive mass migration, as in the recent cases of Cuba and Venezuela.”

For more than 64 years, the U.S. has imposed a crippling economic embargo on Cuba that has adversely affected all sectors of the socialist island’s economy and severely limited Cubans’ access to basic necessities including food, fuel, and medicines. The Cuban government claims the blockade cost the country’s economy nearly $5 billion in just one 11-month period in 2022-23 alone. For the past 32 years, United Nations member states have voted overwhelmingly against the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Last year’s vote was 187-2, with the U.S. and Israel as the only dissenters.

According to a 2019 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., as many as 40,000 Venezuelans died from 2017-18 to U.S. sanctions, which have made it much more difficult for millions of people to obtain food, medicine, and other necessities.

“Civilian suffering is not merely an incidental cost of these policies, but often their very intent,” the new letter asserts. “A 1960 State Department memo on the embargo of Cuba suggested ‘denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.'”

“Asked whether the Trump administration’s sanctions on Iran were working as intended, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded that ‘things are much worse for the Iranian people, and we’re convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime,'” the signers added.

Experts have repeatedly noted that while sanctions harm everyday people in targeted countries, leaders of those nations use their positions as dictators to enrich themselves and members of their inner circles. Sanctions also fail to work as intended to topple targeted regimes. Cuba’s revolutionary government has outlasted a dozen U.S. presidents. Iran has been under U.S. sanctions since the late 1970s, yet its Islamic regime remains entrenched and has forged closer relations with Russia and China. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is still in power despite two decades of U.S. sanctions. North Korea’s dynastic dictatorship shows no signs of cracking after seven decades of sanctions.

Others have highlighted the hypocrisy of the United States sanctioning nations over ideological differences while supporting brutal dictatorships including Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, and Equatorial Guinea, and other gross human rights violators like apartheid Israel, which is on trial for genocide at the World Court. Instead of punishing Israel, the U.S. House of Representatives—with the assent of dozens of Democratic lawmakers—passed legislation to sanction officials of the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor is seeking to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders.

“The Geneva Conventions, for all of their limitations and subsequent violations, were a triumph of international law in the protection of civilians during times of war,” the new letter asserts. “Yet today, hundreds of millions of civilians around the world suffer—and hundreds of thousands have died—even in times of ostensible peace under the broad economic sanctions imposed unilaterally and illegally by the United States.”

“As members of the legal community, we call on the United States to comply with existing international law by ending the use of broad unilateral coercive measures,” the signers added. “Seventy-five years after the Geneva Conventions, collective punishment must end.”

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

President Ortega Names New Foreign Minister
Nicaragua’s Vice President Rosario Murillo, in her daily live talk, announced that Valdrack Jaentschke has been named the country’s new Foreign Minister. She added that he is the first Afro-descendant person to occupy such a high position, high recognition for the many merits of the Afro-descendant community in the country. Murillo said, “We want to reiterate that the appointment of Valdrack Jaentschke has to do with the merits that we recognize in the Nicaraguan Afro-descendant community, and also the merits of Nicaraguans in general who have the character to represent us with dignity and pride, as retired Foreign Minister Denis Moncada has done. Valdrack has told me that in the next few days we are going to organize a meeting to greet the diplomatic corps and missions accredited to our country.” The new Foreign Minister, in an interview with the media, expressed his gratitude for the trust placed in him by the President and Vice-President.

Jaentschke said, “I believe that President Daniel and Vice President Rosario have faithfully continued the FSLN Historical Program: The inclusion of the Peoples of the Caribbean Coast is one of the most important objectives. And the Sandinista Front is the only one that has been able to understand and interpret the importance of the inclusion of the Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendants in the construction of the nation, in the strengthening of the national Identity and national unity. And I feel proud because you call me ‘the first Afro-descendant.’ That is only possible with the Sandinista Front. It is also a recognition our history of struggle, it is a recognition of this process of national unity that we have been building in Nicaragua.” (La Primerisima, 8 September 2024)

FAO and OIRSA Recognize Nicaragua’s Phytosanitary Controls 
After an international workshop held by the Food and Agricultural Organization and the International Regional Organization for Agricultural Health (OIRSA) in Nicaragua last month, Nicaragua was recognized as the best protected in the Central American region and even in Latin America in phytosanitary controls. Institute of Agricultural Protection and Health (IPSA) director in Nicaragua Ricardo Somarriba said that indeed the FAO, OIRSA, the Andean Community (CAN), and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), have recognized not only that Nicaragua is free of many pests, but that it has modern laboratories and first line personnel. Nicaragua has achieved the most international certifications by 187 countries to export many traditional and non-traditional products. Somarriba continued, “Nicaragua has the best phytosanitary sanitation in the world recognized by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the FAO. Because of this we have been involved in different international events sharing what Nicaragua is doing in protection and surveillance systems, demonstrated in the field.” For example, Somarriba said, “We have the best measures against Tropical Fusarium Race 4 which protect banana and plantain plantations, production and exports.” Nicaragua has the only pest incinerator in the entire continent, with a capacity of 5.1 tons. “You might wonder how we have done it in Nicaragua, a small country, with limited resources. Because we have a leadership with vision that protects the lives of Nicaraguans,” he said. (Informe Pastran, 5 September 2024)

Japan Will Build a Bridge in Mulukukú
Tomoyuki Odani, representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reported that the government of Japan will soon begin the construction of a bridge in the municipality of Mulukukú, North Caribbean, with a length of 176 meters and an estimated investment of US$30 million. This bridge will serve one of the country’s important secondary roads and will replace the current bridge, which is 30 years old. The new design will feature advanced Japanese technology, using materials and construction methods that will ensure durability for up to 100 years. In addition, techniques will be implemented to protect the structure from floods and other natural phenomena, ensuring its long-term durability. (La Primerisima, 10 September, 2024)

Moscow and Managua Consolidating Their Agreements at All Levels   
The main task for Moscow and Managua is to ensure that the agreements reached between them are consolidated at all levels, stated Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, during a meeting with Special Representative for Relations with Russia, Laureano Ortega Murillo. The Russian legislator said, “We are using different formats of cooperation, but the most important thing is that communication be constant. This significantly contributes to the strengthening and development of our relations. We know that we can rely on you as our allies.” Volodin also emphasized that relations between Russia and Nicaragua are of a strategic nature thanks to the work of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Daniel Ortega. (La Primerisima, 8 September 2024)

Construction Generates More than 150,000 Jobs
Projects such as the expansion of the Pista Héroes de la Insurrección (a road that wraps around the east and south sides of Managua), the coastal beach highway, the new Punta Huete International Airport, among others, have involved the hiring of some 150,000 workers in the construction sector, according to estimates by Union of Workers Confederation representative Roger Barrantes. Miguel Ruíz, general secretary of the confederation, said, “If we add in indirect jobs, we are talking about half a million workers who are working in this important economic sector.” Ruíz indicated that, by the end of this year, the results in the construction industry will be positive allowing stability and accelerated economic growth. He reminded employers to comply with all the benefits contemplated in the national legislation and employees to comply with their obligations to guarantee stability in that sector. The union leader added that, just in construction projects, more than US$1.05 billion have been invested during this year alone. (Informe Pastran, 5 September 2024)

US Officials Defend Money-Laundering Evangelicals to Denigrate Nicaragua
On September 5, US Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) said about Nicaragua and the money laundering US evangelical group Mountain Gateway: “The release of 135 … political prisoners this morning brings much-needed relief … after facing the horror of unjust imprisonment under the Ortega-Murillo regime. I commend the Biden-Harris administration for its unwavering efforts to secure the release of these political prisoners …. However, this release does not alter the grim reality in Nicaragua. The Ortega-Murillo regime continues its systematic repression of opposition figures, civil society organizations, youth, and religious leaders, and anyone it perceives as a threat to its totalitarian control….” The truth, however, is something different.

Becca Renk who has lived in Nicaragua for more than 20 years, and others have been following the case for some time. Renk says that Mountain Gateway came to Nicaragua over a decade ago. Members set up a non-profit and began evangelizing. Soon after this, the U.S. father-son pastor team Jason and John Britton Hancock began setting up for-profit businesses using their non-profit’s Nicaraguan legal representative and financial officer as the legal representatives for the new businesses. These two were also pastors, and used other pastors from the church to run businesses as well. They make up the 11 that served prison sentences after being convicted in Nicaraguan courts of money laundering. It is unknown to us how many of the 135 that were tried, sentenced and are now in Guatemala without US citizenship were involved in the Mountain Gateway scam. The others were participating in actions to overthrow the Nicaraguan government and thus were convicted of crimes against the Security, Sovereignty and Stability of our Country (treason).

The money they received from abroad (of unknown origin), instead of being used to support the supposed altruistic purposes of Mountain Gateway Ministries, was diverted to the purchase of real estate, expensive vehicles, and other luxury items, using the tax exemptions that the laws of the country grant to non-profit organizations. The large amounts of money that were deposited in the organization’s bank account caused the Nicaraguan Financial Analysis Unit to issue a report of suspected money laundering as the lawful origin of the funds could not be corroborated. The National Police carried out an investigation of suspicious and inappropriate financial movements, as well as the accumulation of luxury goods in the name of the defendants and their families.

The defendants owned a handful of businesses: Puente Plomo S.A., Vertical Bridge Works, LLC., Conexión Vertical S.A y Operaciones Blandón Hancock S.A., and their shareholders were religious leaders, trusted members of their religious community and family members. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, “All these individuals and legal entities colluded to simulate religious activities and provide resources to these organizations in order to conceal their for-profit operations and thus make it difficult to trace these resources.”

The Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement in January that “compliance with the rights and constitutional guarantees of due process was verified, guaranteeing the right to defense of the detained co-defendants. The determination to sustain the accusation before the courts is based on the evidence provided, including witness statements, expert reports, documents, among others, which allowed the identification of the accused in the facts that constitute crimes against the Security, Sovereignty and Stability of the Country. Whatever the intentions of these missionaries may have been, it is clear that they were involved in activities far outside their religious purview, and that their accounting didn’t stand up to the scrutiny of the investigations. We’re all familiar with evangelists that use their missions to enrich themselves at the expense of the often poor faithful who support them, but how often are they actually held accountable for their actions?” [Editor’s note: The US government is well aware and may have supported the illegal behavior of the people involved with this fake mission. But asking for their release gives them the opportunity to once again get their disinformation out to the media and the population that Nicaragua is a repressive state. As far as anyone knows Nicaragua received nothing in exchange for releasing the prisoners. The government always says that it doesn’t negotiate this kind of thing.] (Becca Renk and 19 Digital, 10 September, 2024)