An open letter on Nicaragua.....

10/15

Father Luis

I wrote the following letter to Father Luis following the events at Holy Rood. Since he has not responded, I am making this an "open letter".....

Father Luis

I write you as a colleague pastor and  companero in the ongoing struggle to create a more just, humane, inclusive and sustainable world.  I am writing specifically about the mass and presentation yesterday at the Holy Rood Church 

I share your analysis of predatory  imperialist capitalism as being the principal threat to the peoples  of the earth and the earth itself and a truly demonic force. I have been with you in events under the aegis of the Revolutionary Communist Party and have been a guest on their Revolution Nothing Less web show. 

More specifically I have been involved in solidarity with Nicaragua for nearly 40 years now. I chaired  the Presbyterian Church USA Central American Task Forces between 1982-89 and co authored reports setting our church’s public policy in opposition to the US intervention in the region, most specifically the Contra War.  We declared Liberation Theology to be the most significant development in church theology since the Reformation, indeed a new reformation. 

With others I stood on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua to put our bodies between the Contras and the Nicaraguan people. This was the first action of what would become Witness for Peace. I have travelled extensively throughout the region. And have been involved in Sanctuary work for almost 40 years and was a cofounder and coauthor of the International Sanctuary Declaration and work group.  For years I served on the board of a small family foundation that made annual grants to Pastors for Peace and for many years have been on the faculty of the Newark School of Theology teaching Liberation Theology.

I could list more but will only add that I have gone to jail many times and  an active cultural worker and member of the Peoples Music Network. 

I do not list these as a boast but to indicate to you the profound struggle I had to go through to come to a point of deciding to break solidarity with the current Ortega-Murillo regime. To do so is not to break solidarity with Nicaragua, because Ortega and Murillo are not Nicaragua. As you are aware, the decision to break solidarity is one that can come only with critical analysis, reflection and prayer especially with regards to potential outcomes. My solidarity with the Nicaraguan people remains steadfast and ultimately requires my opposition to Ortega-Murillo.

During recent years, I have been to Nicaragua as recently as 2019.  I have met with mothers of children killed in the protests, families of political prisoners, as well as religious and political figures including those who remain connected to the regime. I have travelled to  Costa Rica and visited with the exile community there. Including students who not only have been expelled and cannot return but who have had their records erased as if they never existed. 

I have met with artists like Carlos Mejia Godoy, the creator of La Misa Campesina, and his brother Luis. And Katia Cardenal, the voice of the revolution. They are now in exile and cannot return. Politicians like Victor Hugo Tinoco, a FSLN guerrilla and foreign ministry deputy and UN. Ambassador, arrested and imprisoned. And now even revolutionary hero Sergio Ramirez has been charged and a warrant for his arrest issued! 

Are you aware that before his death Ernesto Cardenal, author of the Gospel of Solentimame, said of the Ortega regime, “it is a robbery of the people and dictatorship not a revolutionary movement”?

It is clear to me that Daniel Ortega has betrayed the revolution and tarnished the legacy and name of Augosto C. Sandino (presente.) What was presented in the service and Moncada’s presentation was all the right words, but does not reflect present reality.  It is the myth of what we wanted Nicaragua to be, el nuevo amanecer. But today it is not.

One image that will remain from what I observed yesterday  is of a well dressed young white woman physically barring the entry of a working class Nicaraguan woman in humble clothes to an event in solidarity with Nicaragua. Although well intended I am sure, the irony was jarring.

When another woman tried to pass on a letter from over 500 solidarity workers…including Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and Margaret Randall, it was torn to shreds and tossed back.

More painful is what took place outside. It pained me deeply to see privileged white “progressives”shouting at a group of Nicaraguans who for the most part were minimum wage workers. Calling them “self hating Nicaraguans” who “should be ashamed of themselves.” The Nicaraguan group included people who had fought as FSLN guerrillas and served as diplomats. And a student exiled just last weekend. I was assailed as being in league with the CIA. Such behavior is shameful and unacceptable and surely not consistent with Jesus’ project of liberation.

In recent weeks, opposition leaders have held Jornadas with biblical reflection and critical analysis of the current situation including testimony from political prisoners from Honduras, EL Salvador and Guatemala. These families of political  prisoners see themselves in common cause. Ortega has become more a traditional caudillo and not a true revolutionary.

I am well aware of the history of US intervention in Central America. And continued trouble making. But that has nothing to do with those who are in legitimate opposition. In the ’80’s we used to say “ I don’t have to believe everything the Sandinistas do is right in order to know that everything we do is wrong.” Today the reverse is equally true…”I don’t have to  believe what the  US is doing is right in order to know what Ortega-Murillo are doing is wrong.”

My fear is that progressives…many of them people of privilege …will be willing to sacrifice the people of Nicaragua to preserve their belief in a myth.  We speak of autonomia…privileged progressives cannot proclaim themselves more knowledgeable about  what to do than Nicaraguans themselves. 

My only request of you at this point is to be open to a conversation with a representative group.  And see what might develop from that conversation,  Those who wish to see the revolution restored  to its original values deserve a hearing.  We say “Jesus es el camino la verdad y la vida.” Surely we can engage in struggle to discern what is true.

In peace and in hope for a better world…

Rev.Dr. Robert L. Brashear

Robert Brashear is moderator elect of New York City Presbytery, He serves on the national Central America Work Group reporting to the 2022 General Assembly (having chaired 3 Task Forces in the '80's) He is also on work group of the International Sanctuary Declaration.