NicaNotes
September 17, 2026
Ortega, Elections, and the Context Western Media Won’t Print
By Richard Balzano
Balzano notes: “Nicaragua is behaving as though the United States poses a threat to Nicaraguan sovereignty. How could they possibly have gotten that idea?”
“Crackdown.” “Democratic backsliding.” “Authoritarian grip.” Journalists persecuted, opposition parties crushed—and now, according to the latest eruption from the Western press, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has abolished elections.
The peripheral left offers another interpretation: Ortega is preventing U.S.-backed political organizations implicated in subversion from participating in elections, while Nicaragua has restricted media organizations with subversive ties to Washington amid ongoing U.S. hostility. Whether one approves is beside the point. Nicaragua is behaving as though the United States poses a threat to Nicaraguan sovereignty. How could they possibly have gotten that idea?
First, the elections. During his July 19th address commemorating the Sandinista Revolution, Ortega declared that the era of parties “installed by the Yankees” returning to government was over: “There will be no more elections, there will be no more [elections] through which they can try to seize the government, seize power.” He immediately called for laws erecting a “wall” or “block” against golpistas and vendepatrias—coup plotters and traitors—adding that “no matter how much money the Yankees give them, they will not succeed.” Western headlines performed emergency surgery and emerged clutching: “There will be no elections.” The missing words alter the diagnosis. Nicaragua will hold elections, and perhaps candidates with ties to Washington will not be allowed to participate—that doesn’t seem all that radical given the context.
Ortega’s crackdown on journalism deserves reconsideration. Western accounts and institutions describe Nicaraguan journalists being persecuted, but few ask what those journalists were actually doing. Journalists “silenced” by Ortega hardly constituted some pristine Fourth Estate floating above Nicaraguan politics. Washington poured millions of dollars through USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, and allied institutions into an opposition-media ecosystem, much of it routed through organizations such as the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, supporting and training journalists and outlets including 100% Noticias and others embedded in the anti-Sandinista milieu. The Chamorro network itself straddled journalism, NGOs and opposition politics, while during the 2018 upheaval sections of this media apparatus did considerably more than observe from the press gallery: 100% Noticias broadcast sympathetically from the opposition tranques (roadblocks), provided anti-government activists a national platform, and its director Miguel Mora openly advocated a “Noriega-style” intervention to remove Ortega. When the government investigated foreign collusion, it closed outlets and prosecuted some of the figures involved. Western accounts largely began the story there, but foreign financing disappears, political participation becomes journalism, organizations intertwined with the opposition become merely “independent media,” and a confrontation between the Nicaraguan state and a U.S.-supported political-media apparatus is transformed into a familiar dictatorial repression narrative.
Nicaragua has good reason to take American meddling seriously. During the Banana Wars, U.S. Marines occupied the country for much of 1912–33 in what historian Greg Grandin called the United States’ “first Third World quagmire,” until resistance leader Augusto Sandino won a war of attrition, sending occupation forces packing. Washington has a legacy of leaving poor institutions behind in the wake of its occupations, and the Nicaraguan national guard was one of them, serving as the primary instrument of repression in the succeeding decades. Sandino was murdered by National Guard leader Somoza, and the Somoza dynasty followed: four decades of kleptocratic anticommunist family dictatorship.
A civil war unfolded in which Sandinista revolutionaries took power in 1979, at which time they committed an unforgivable crime of improving people’s lives. Literacy campaigns, healthcare, education, agrarian reform: resources began flowing toward ordinary Nicaraguans. Oxfam called Nicaragua exceptional for its government’s commitment to improving the people’s condition and encouraging their participation in development, and gave Washington’s nightmare its proper name: “the threat of a good example.” That a poor country might successfully direct resources toward peasants instead of oligarchs and foreign capital, and that neighboring peasants would notice, was considered a U.S. national security threat.
Washington set about making the example fail by financing the torturous Contra insurgency, plastering the media with disinformation, and squeezing Nicaragua economically. Washington mined Nicaraguan harbors, and when the International Court of Justice found the U.S. in violation of international law and liable for reparations, the U.S. withdrew its acceptance of the court’s compulsory jurisdiction, vindicating long held suspicions that international law and human rights institutions were designed to police the Global South, not the other way around. Meanwhile, Nicaragua diverted enormous resources from social development into fighting a U.S.-sponsored war, while continuing to make payments on odious debts inherited from the Somozas, to the detriment of ordinary Nicaraguans. In 1990, battered Nicaraguans voted the Sandinistas out, and they left quietly. Daniel Ortega, a first-generation Sandinista revolutionary, returned sixteen years later through the ballot box.
All of which vanishes when Nicaragua appears in American media. Occupation becomes ancient history; the Contras become Cold War trivia; foreign financing becomes philanthropy; regime-change organizations become “civil society”; Washington-funded media become “independent”; and golpistas become merely “opposition politicians.”
Remember Russiagate? Americans raged that foreign interference represented an existential assault on democracy. Americans will not tolerate journalists taking money from foreign governments (except Israel) to disseminate stories cultivated by foreign intelligence agencies (except Mossad). Are we that drunk on American exceptionalism, and historically amnesic, that we believe it’s okay when we do it abroad? Americans reserve for themselves an unlimited right to vigilance while demanding extraordinary political permeability from countries whose sovereignty Washington has repeatedly violated. Post-colonial nations subjected to occupation, proxy wars, sanctions, coups and continuing foreign interference must tolerate foreign-funded journalism, NGOs and Trojan-horse political parties catering to classes enriched by the colonial economic order—or be declared authoritarian for exercising the vigilance necessary to preserve their sovereignty. The State Department cries “authoritarianism,” and well-intentioned folks in the imperial core who value a (relatively) free press and some semblance of (oligarchic) electoral democracy are too quick to believe it. Try running an American television network on CCP money while publicly calling for Putin to conduct a “Noriega-style operation” in Washington, and see how philosophical the State Department becomes about press freedom.
Briefs
By Nan McCurdy
Nicaragua Concludes Hearings at World Court in Support of Palestine
On September 10th, the Nicaraguan government’s Office of Communications issued a press release noting the completion of oral arguments before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague concerning the objections filed by the Federal Republic of Germany in the case brought by Nicaragua against Germany with respect to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Nicaragua’s case argues that Germany bears international legal responsibility for supporting Israel and supplying arms in the war against Gaza.
The communique explained that Nicaragua rejected Germany’s preliminary objections, demonstrated that a formal dispute exists, that the criteria for jurisdiction are met, and that Israel is not an indispensable party to the proceedings, since requested judgment explicitly refers to Germany’s independent legal obligations under international and treaty law. Nicaragua emphasized before the Court that this is an attempt by Germany to evade the Court’s scrutiny of its activities that violate international law and its failure to comply with the Court’s order of April 30, 2024.
Nicaragua reiterated that, in this case, it “invokes Germany’s responsibility in connection with multiple violations of international law, particularly with regard to the heinous scourge of genocide and international humanitarian law, but also with regard to the right to self-determination and the prohibition of racial discrimination, racial segregation, and apartheid and through its political, financial, and military support for Israel’s actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Nicaragua maintained that Germany cannot claim ignorance of the catastrophic situation facing the Palestinian people. The press release said that Germany has “ignored the Court’s Order of April 30, 2024, regarding arms transfers, has significantly increased its lucrative arms exports to Israel, has normalized illegal military tactics, and has systematically blocked any measures against Israel.” (La Primerisima, 12 September 2026) To watch the proceedings on YouTube, click here for the first session on Sept. 8 and click here for the second session (referenced in this article) on Sept. 10.
Limay and Pueblo Nuevo Join Consultation on Constitutional Amendments
Families from the municipalities of San Juan de Limay and Pueblo Nuevo participated in large numbers in the second stage of the consultation process on amendments to the Constitution. The consultation is taking place with all sectors of society in all parts of the country. During the consultation, locals shared their contributions, suggestions, and assessments, reaffirming this process as a forum for participatory democracy and citizen engagement.
The changes to the Constitution occur in three main articles:
Article 1 (Prohibition of Extraterritoriality): No law, regulation, or rule issued by another state, group of states, or international organization can have legal effect within Nicaragua.
Article 2 (Disqualification from Public Office): This article stipulates that individuals who fall under the following grounds may not be candidates for elected office nor hold public office by appointment of the president or election by the National Assembly: Coup plotters and traitors to the nation; individuals who incite or promote foreign interference or call for military intervention; those who organize with foreign funding or support economic, commercial, or financial blockades; persons who call for sanctions against Nicaragua; those who fail to comply with the fundamental principles of the Constitution.
Article 3 (Term of Office for Elected Positions): This article amends the term of office for positions filled by popular election and for those filled by election or appointment by the National Assembly, setting it at seven years. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/2026/09/11/san-juan-de-limay-y-pueblo-nuevo-se-suman-a-consulta-sobre-reformas-carta-magna/ (La Primerisima, 12 September 2026)
Patients Regain Their Sight Thanks to Surgeries in León
Twelve patients from León have regained their sight and are now seeing life through new eyes. This was made possible by an ophthalmological surgery campaign held at the Dr. Oscar Danilo Rosales Teaching Hospital (HEODRA) in the city of León. The event provided specialized care and surgical procedures to families from León and other municipalities in the western region. According to recently published information, HEODRA has been holding ophthalmology events that include specialized evaluations and surgeries to correct cataracts and pterygium (surfer’s eye or carnosidad). The new hospital features modern infrastructure, operating rooms, and technology to strengthen specialized care and improve patient diagnosis and treatment. The event was held to celebrate the first anniversary of the new hospital. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/2026/09/13/pacientes-recuperan-vision-gracias-a-cirugias-en-leon/ (La Primerisima, 13 September 2026)
Brian Willson Denounces U.S. Warmongering
Solidarity hero and peace activist Brian Willson gave an interview on RT’s *Entrevista* program, in which he discussed his career, the evolution of his political views, and his criticism of the U.S. political and military system. During the interview, Willson recalled how his experience in the Vietnam War in 1969, witnessing systematic war crimes, clashed with the education he had received during the Cold War, leading him to question his country’s official narrative.
He also recalled the 1987 protest at the naval station in Concord, California, where he was struck by a train carrying weapons destined for the Nicaraguan counterrevolution—an incident in which he lost both legs. The train didn’t slow down even though they could see him on the tracks.
Willson also shared his views on the current geopolitical context. He argued that in the U.S., government decisions made by Congress and the presidency serve the economic interests of campaign donors and arms manufacturers, sidelining the will of the people and perpetuating armed conflicts. He noted that Washington’s military actions and interventions are accelerating the decline of the dollar’s hegemony and the weakening of a unipolar system, giving way to a balance of power shared with nations such as Russia, China, and Iran. Willson questioned why the U.S. administration allocates billions of dollars to fund conflicts and interventions abroad while thousands of war veterans face homelessness and a lack of medical care or housing in their own country. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/2026/09/15/brian-Willson-denuncia-el-belicismo-de-eeuu/ (La Primerisima, 15 September 2026)
Commitment to Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy
A Nicaraguan delegation, through its mission in Austria, is participating in the 70th regular session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference, which is being held from September 14 to 18 in Vienna. With its participation in this forum for multilateral dialogue, Nicaragua reaffirms its firm commitment to the strictly peaceful use of nuclear energy. Nicaragua focuses its priorities on strengthening technical capacities in key areas for sustainable development. (La Primerisima, 15 September 2026)
The Torch of Independence: Symbol of History and a Prosperous Future
With national pride, on September 12, the President’s Youth Organization led the yearly procession of the Central American Union Torch through Nicaragua from north to south, a sacred symbol of the freedom and sovereignty of the Central American region’s peoples. On September 15th, Nicaragua, along with the other Central American countries, celebrates independence from Spanish colonial rule, proclaimed in 1821. On September 14,1856, the Battle of San Jacinto took place. It was a victory over William Walker and his US filibuster forces, celebrated as a symbol of national sovereignty and resistance to foreign intervention. Both the 14th and the 15th of September are celebrated yearly in Nicaragua. (La Primerisima, 12 September 2026)
