Dead Mujeres in Nicaragua

This is what happens when a government gets involved in medical decisions that should be left between a woman and her doctor. For the religious types, add in the woman’s God to the conversation.

Last November it became a crime for a woman to have an abortion in Nicaragua, even if her life was in mortal danger. So far it has resulted in the death of at least 82 women. Rory Carroll reports on the fight to have the law changed

[snip]

In the run-up to last November’s election, the cardinal spearheaded a campaign for a blanket abortion ban. Ortega, desperate to regain power, mobilised the Sandinistas behind the cardinal’s campaign and helped get the ban enacted just days before the poll. The former revolutionary, now reinvented as a devout Catholic, was rewarded with the presidency.

Ortega, who did not respond to interview requests for this article, has stayed pious in power. Last month he whipped Sandinista assembly deputies into voting with rightwing parties 66-3 to uphold the ban. Many former officials are disgusted with a leader and party they no longer recognise. “It’s cynical and it’s sad, especially when you consider our high rate of sexual violence and very young mothers,” says Moisés Arana, a former mayor of Bluefields. “Here there is a lot of religiosity but only a little Christianity.”

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Yup.

 

Nicaragua’s President Takes U.S. to Task

Not surprising, as Daniel Ortega has a long history of opposition to imperialist conquests in Latin America by corporate boardrooms.

“The presidents of the U.S. change. And they may come to office with the greatest of intentions and they may feel that they are doing good for humanity, but they fail to understand that they are no more than instruments of one more empire in a long list of empires that have been imposed on our planet,” Ortega said, waving his arms.

Ortega had started off addressing the central theme of this year’s General Assembly meeting — climate change — but he quickly launched into a tirade against global capitalism, meandering from his notes and speaking well beyond his allotted 15 minutes.

The world is under “the most impressive, huge dictatorship that has existed — the empire of North America,” he said. An “imperialist minority is imposing global capitalism to impoverish us all and impose apartheid against Latin American immigrants and against African immigrants.”

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Cue the U.S. media’s yearly lament about the dangerous leftward tilt of Latin American politics. Last year, they were appalled at the suggestion that George Bush was el diablo (he’s at least a minion, c’mon…admit your true feelings on this).

It’s all so predictable.