Nicaragua police evacuate US ambassador to safety from protests

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur

Nicaragua police evacuate US ambassador to safety from protests
Posted : Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:46:37 GMT

Managua/Washington - The US ambassador to Nicaragua was evacuated by police Friday from a university in the capital city after demonstrators threw fireworks at him over remarks he made about the government. The ambassador, Robert Callahan, took refuge in a classroom at the Central American University (UCA, a Jesuit institution,) until he was removed to safety. He had been attending an intercultural event with other ambassadors.

Local television showed images of a nervous-looking Callahan surrounded by US embassy security officials and the anti-riot squad of the Nicaraguan police.

On Thursday, hundreds of supporters of the government of President Daniel Ortega demonstrated in front of the US embassy, where they demanded Callahan's expulsion from the country.

Callahan provoked anger last week when he criticized a Supreme Court decision that removes term limits and allows Ortega to run for a second term.

In Washington, Nicaragua protested before the Organization of American States that Callahan had interfered in the internal affairs of the Central American country with his comments.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/292631,nicaragu...

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Ambassador Robert Callahan

Agence France-Presse:

Nicaraguans Protest Remarks by U.S. Envoy

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Thousands of Nicaraguans pelted the United States Embassy here with rocks and homemade explosives on Thursday, demanding that the ambassador be expelled for criticizing a ruling that allows President Daniel Ortega to seek re-election.

Mr. Ortega’s administration issued a statement calling the comments by the ambassador, Robert J. Callahan, an “inadmissible” interference in Nicaragua’s internal affairs, but he stopped short of asking for the ambassador’s removal.

Mr. Callahan had commented on the Oct. 19 ruling by the Supreme Court, which deemed “unenforceable” a constitutional amendment banning a president from seeking re-election to a second consecutive term in office.

The court, whose 16 members are all supporters of Mr. Ortega, ruled that he did not have to call a referendum to allow him to run for re-election in 2011. The United States called the court’s decision one more of Nicaragua’s “questionable and irregular governmental actions.”

Mr. Callahan raised more resentment here when he told a group of businessmen on Wednesday that the court had acted improperly, with unusual speed, in secret, with judges “from just one political movement, and with no public discussion.

“Get out! Get out!” thousands of demonstrators shouted on Thursday outside the United States diplomatic mission. According to witnesses, some protesters used handmade mortar launchers to fire explosives at the 62-acre embassy complex, which opened two years ago.

Despite efforts by the riot police to disperse the protesters with tear gas, many were able to smash lights and security cameras and mar the building with scratches and “Yankees go home” graffiti.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/americas/30WebN...

[dipsydoodle]

1. Odd subject for someone to unrec.

Rec.

[rpannier]

4. Agreed

It's a report on what happened

Not political. Doesn't appear to carry a bias either way.

Either someone has a very thin skin, didn't really read the article or hit unrec by mistake

[No Elephants]

5. Maybe Mrs. Callahan, his mom, posts here?

Or maybe someone thought this might reflect badly upon the Obama administration? Or the Secretary of State? Who knows?



"Unrecommend" seems so babyish and petty, I have a feeling that the less one thinks about it, the better off one is likely to be.

[Vidar]

2. Good for the crowd!

[rpannier]

3. Police reported the protestors threw home made explosives

and you're ok with that?

A lot of people could have gotten hurt.

[edwardian]

8. Homemade explosives=fireworks.

The envoys comments could lead to people getting hurt. Good for the Nicas. Yanqui go home!!!!

[IsItJustMe]

11. It sounds like you may be somewhat of a drama queen. I read fireworks.

[rpannier]

26. Then you should have read both stories posted

Agence France-Presse:

Nicaraguans Protest Remarks by U.S. Envoy

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Thousands of Nicaraguans pelted the United States Embassy here with rocks and homemade explosives

[Mike K]

19. "Explosives?"

The report says some in the crowd tossed firecrackers.

Could a firecracker hurt someone? Yes. But that rarely happens. And being "hurt" by a firecracker, which, technically, does "explode," is a long way off from what that which we normally think of as an "explosive" would do.

A firecracker is a firecracker. An "explosive" is normally thought of as a grenade, a dynamite stick, a piece of C-4 or a truck filled with ammonium nitrate. To call a firecracker an explosive is a typically purposeful exaggeration by the police, whose essential mentality is basically the same the world over.

[rpannier]

27. From the OP post

Agence France-Presse:

Nicaraguans Protest Remarks by U.S. Envoy

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Thousands of Nicaraguans pelted the United States Embassy here with rocks and homemade explosives

As to your comment about the police...Since it comes from gthe Police in Managua, and they were the ones who were there I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I find it interesting so many here are okay with people resorting to violence over the wrods of someone.

[Kolesar]

7. The US supreme court could have "ruled" that bush* could run for a third term

Hell, they ruled to INSTALL bush*

[No Elephants]

6. I guess I have a quaint notion of ambassadors. I thought the job of diplomats was to be, well,

diplomatic. That ambassadors actually made a career of that, literally.

Go into the country and live there. Let them wine you and dine you. Wine and dine them. Give and receive gifts. Be charming. Forge relationships. Help the offspring of important parents get into Harvard, and so on.

Then, if some kerfuffle eventuated, or the US needed something, you'd use that huge reservoir of goodwill that you had built up to fix things for the benefit of the US.

Have no idea where I got that notion. Maybe some movie I saw when I was very young? Ambassadors R Us? Diplomacy for Dummies?

[Andronex]

10. A diplomat for an empire...

is a bit different I guess ?

[bemildred]

15. Yes, what a great diplomat this guy must be. nt

[Mike K]

20. El Diablo?

That Callahan is an exceptionally ugly fellow. He looks demonic, which could be why the Nicaraguans, who are extremely Catholic, threw firecrackers at him.

[a la izquierda]

9. The US has a long and ugly history of backhanded...

meddling in the region. The reaction is understandable.

[corpseratemedia]

12. the big stick isn't working so well anymore

our nation should stop only representing large corporate interests in the region through things like destabilization and death squads and learn to be equal, respectful partners...there's so much real prosperity we could achieve.

[Ed76638]

13. Good.

I'm guessing they've had enough of US interference.

[MNmom]

14. Look at what just happened in Honduras!! The elected

president (with leftist tendencies) tried to change the constitution so that the president could have a second term. The military carried out a coup! What is so undemocratic about a second term???????? The U.S. has a second term for president.

Then the U.S. has taken months in Honduras to help negotiate the return to power of the leftist, democratically elected president - effectively taking away his move to change the constitution for a second term, effectively undermining his effectiveness in making changes. No wonder the Nicaraguans reacted to the U.S. ambassador commenting on a second term for Ortega. Don't forget - the U.S. armed, trained and financed the contras to topple the Ortega government in the 80's!

[Andronex]

17. not correct

"president (with leftist tendencies) tried to change the constitution so that the president could have a second term."

No, that was a pretext the coup leaders used, which was repeated non stop in the corporate media. A new president was, is scheduled to be elected on the November 29, the same date President Manuel Zelaya wanted a consultation on possible new constitution, which would have taken many months possibly years to achieve, so unless leftist are able to travel back in time it was impossible for President Manuel Zelaya to get a second term.

[EFerrari]

16. LOL

And your momma, Callahan.

[Joanne98]

18. More proof that the Latin American policy hasn't changed one bit!

[Peace Patriot]

21. Callahan appt'ed by Junior; Negroponte's aide during death squad tenure in the '80s

(Jan 08) Bush names terrorist sympathizer as new ambassador to Nicaragua

U.S. president George W. Bush has just appointed Robert Callahan as the United State’s Ambassador to Nicaragua. Callahan was John Negroponte’s (the former Ambassador to Honduras) right hand man, spokesman and speachwriter while the two were co-ordinating the operations of the Contras in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

Some background information:

-The World Court ruled in their 1986 verdict in the case of Nicaragua v. United States, what the whole world already knew: that the Contras constituted an illegal terrorist movement and that the United States had violated international law by funding the Contras. The World Court ordered the United States to pay reparations to Nicaragua; reparations which the United States has refused to this day to pay.

-Callahan and Negroponte were co-ordinating terrorist activity from the embassy of Honduras, launching attacks against Nicaragua from the diplomatic immunity of a foreign embassy — itself an illegal act.

http://paulitics.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/bush-names-te... /

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In the 1980s, with John Negroponte as the US proconsul in the country's capital Tegucigalpa, ably abetted by current US ambassador to Managua, Robert Callahan, Honduras was run as a police State under the fanatical control of General Alvarez Martinez. Amnesty International's report for the period was entitled “Civilian Authority: Military Power”. Hundreds of people suffered forced disappearance. Torture was routine. Forced recruitment by the army was habitual. Honduras became a base for the corrupt narcotics-linked counterrevolutionary terror war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

http://www.tortillaconsal.com/defining_moment.html

(Note: This article is mostly about Honduras and Zelaya, and it is very interesting and detailed.)

------

I'm having trouble finding info on Nicaraguan court system. It is independent of the exec/leg branches. One article says there are 12 justices elected to 7 year terms by the National Assembly (congress). A more recently article says there are 16 justices, 8 appointed by the Sandinistas and 8 appointed by the opposition. One opposition justice just died. The oppo justices were not present for this ruling (? don't know why). And apparently the full 16 member court needs to approve it--according to pro-Ortega justice Francisco Rosales. (--quoted in an AFP news item; Rosales is the justice who announced the apparently preliminary decision--and I don't know if its prelim nature has been reported by other news outlets; it's rather an important detail.)

Also, Ortega was seeking a referendum on this issue, but meanwhile a suit brought by Sandinista elected officials got this prelim ruling. If the court doesn't or can't come up with a final decision, then I would expect the matter to go to a national vote.

(found the AFP story at Raw Story) http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Nicaraguan_high_court_allo...

--

It appears to me that most of the stories about this today are leaving out both who Callahan is, and that it is a preliminary ruling by the court. This Associated Pukes story (below) really bends things around (into outright non-truth), if the AFP story is correct. AFP says the pro-Ortega justice said it is a prelim decision; AP says an opposition justice said this, and further says that the "Electoral Commission" says the decision is "final." Looks to me like there is a lot of confusion and mis-information (not to mention ill intent) in the news stories.

(the AP story) (I'm having trouble with the url from the Star Tribune. It's the standard AP story of today on this matter, reprinted everywhere. I'll be back with a better url.) Here's the Yahoo AP reprint: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091021/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/l...

[Judi Lynn]

22. So George W. sent one of the criminals right back to the scene of the crime,

this time with full authority to bully the same people he had terrorized earlier. He added yet ANOTHER Iran/Contra monster to his administration. We're so blessed he's still on the job, aren't we?

If the Nicaraguan people know about his past, he's lucky firecrackers are ALL they launched at him.

There is NO END to their treachery, and this would tell us they intend to keep right on course to control all the people of the Americas, using any trick, any treachery within their grasp. If only more people were aware of what has been happening.

Thank you for running down the background on this malignant sociopath. It REALLY fills in some blanks. No wonder the American people didn't chose him as President, and they had to steal both elections.

[Peace Patriot]

23. You gotta wonder what Nicaraguans must think of Obama leaving a war criminal like Callahan

--appointed by the Bush Junta--as ambassador to Nicaragua. I know the Pukes are holding up Obama's appointments in Latin America (thus Obama gets blamed for this asshole's remarks and no doubt further dirty dealings!) but still, he could recall him, and I hope he does.

Obama's Latin American policy is still a mystery to me. His stated policy is peace, respect and cooperation in Latin America. And while it's plainly obvious that that policy (or intention) is being sabotaged by far rightwing Puke forces here, what is not obvious is how sincere the policy is, or probably more to the point, whether Sec of State Clinton is working in accord with, or at cross purposes to, Obama's stated policy. Does Obama say nice, hopeful stuff then walk away, and the real policy (same old same old) is what gets implemented? On the other hand, even Clinton wants deals with Brazil, and to get deals with Brazil these days--which also has a leftist government closely allied with Venezuela--you gotta play nice (respectful of democracy and sovereignty in Latin America, non-war-mongering).

It seems to me that Callahan has been working closely with the fascists in Nicaragua, for some time now, on slandering and de-legitimizing Nicaraguan elections, because the Sandinistas have been winning them. Normally, fascists couldn't give a crap about election integrity or democracy. Only when leftists win do they suddenly start fondling these notions. I remember picking up a few bits and pieces of 'news' from the Associated Pukes et al, over the last year or so, about something being wrong with municipal elections in Nicaragua? Something like that. Didn't investigate because there was so much else going on in Latin America--Bushwhack-instigated coup attempt in Bolivia, US/Colombia bombing/raid on Ecuador, formalization of UNASUR (South American "common market") and their action on Bolivia, Bushwhack reconstitution of the US 4th Fleet in the Caribbean, on-going intense slander of Chavez and Venezuela, etc., etc. I thought whatever it was was a minor problem.

Now I'm seeing something else--a pattern of rightwing charges of "election fraud," trumpeted by tools like Callahan, and of course by the corpo/fascist press, and in this case likely building up to a putsch in Nicaragua, when Ortega wins another term with even bigger numbers than before. The Bushwhacks did the same thing in Venezuela--charges of "election fraud," totally absurd charges, all proven false, combined with assassination/coup plots. So that has been Callahan's role in Nicaragua--setting this up--is what I'm thinking.

I would say, BE VERY WARY of Associated Pukes and other corpo-fascist 'reporting' on this matter--election integrity in Nicaragua, and Ortega's desire for a second term. And just remember, Oscar Arias, Nobel-prize winner darling of the US political establishment, engineered a second term for himself in Costa Rica (to serve the purposes of "free trade for the rich"), and so did Alvaro Uribe, the narco-thug running Colombia (a country with the worst human rights record on earth). And our own FDR ran for and won four terms in office (before the Pukes passed a law against the peoples' votes deciding a leader's term of office).

[Judi Lynn]

24. He was mentioned in an article posted by Joanne98 back in July.

It was posted in Editorials:

~snip~
Ambassador Robert Callahan arrived to Managua, Nicaragua, also at the beginning of August. Callahan has worked at the US embassies in La Paz, Bolivia, and San José, Costa Rica, and was a distinguished professor at the National War College. In 2004, he was sent to Iraq as press attaché at the US Embassy in Baghdad. Upon his return, he established the press and propaganda office at the newly created Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) in Washington, which today is the most powerful entity in the US intelligence community.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

~~~~~~~~~
On edit, "EXCERPT FROM: “PENTAGON’S 21st CENTURY COUNTERINSURGENCY WARS: LATIN AMERICA AND SOUTH ASIA” by Rick Rozoff

~snip~
Russian analyst Nil Nikandrov wrote that throughout 2008 John Negroponte, US ambassador to Hondurans from 1981-1985 and a key architect of the Reagan administration’s contra wars and military build-up in Central America, “was building in Central America an intelligence and diplomacy network charged with the mission of regaining the positions lost by the US as well as of neutralizing left regimes and ALBA integration initiative.

“At present the US ambassadors to Latin American countries – Hugo Llorens to Honduras , Robert I. Blau {Deputy Chief} to El Salvador , Stephen G. McFarland to Guatemala , and Robert J. Callahan to Nicaragua – are Negroponte’s people. All of them have practical experience in destabilizing and subverting political regimes unfriendly to the US , launching propaganda campaigns, and creating fifth columns in the form of various NGOs.” <36>

If the attempt in the Honduras to effect “regime change” other than through the recently fashionable mode of “color revolutions” should give rise to a conflict between the Micheletti junta and its Central American neighbors – or with the ALBA bloc – the US would prefer to have a military client regime do its dirty work for it. Mexico currently has its own problems to contend with and so Colombia would be the chief candidate for the job.

Coups and counterinsurgencies engineered and supported by Washington are no longer relics of the past century. Coups of the Georgian variety and its offshoots or of the Honduran model and Vietnam-style counterinsurgency wars have been reactivated as foreign policy options of choice. What is new is the degree of international coordination now practiced by the US and its allies.

More:
http://hondurasoye.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/pentagon-co... /

[roody]

25. Go, Nicas!