Right-wing Nicaraguan media outlets funded by the US government constantly spread blatant fake news to attack the Sandinistas – and defamed journalist Benjamin Norton with demonstrably false claims.
(Se puede leer esta nota en español aquí.)
Ever since the leftist Sandinista Front returned to power through democratic elections in Nicaragua in 2006, the US government has poured tens of millions of dollars into funding right-wing media outlets in the country.
This present journalist, Benjamin Norton, has documented how CIA cutouts like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) bankroll these anti-Sandinista media outlets that played a key role in a bloody 2018 coup attempt, spreading fake news and inciting violence against government supporters.
Right-wing Nicaraguan media companies that have been substantially funded by the US government include the leading newspapers La Prensa and Confidencial, as well as anti-Sandinista website Nicaragua Investiga and ultra right-wing TV network 100% Noticias.
Together, these outlets have an established record of publishing demonstrably false claims. And yet major news networks in the United States and Europe frequently rely on these publications to spread their own demonstrably false claims about Nicaragua.
Given my journalistic role in exposing their propaganda tactics and shady funding sources, many of these same US government-backed media outlets are now attacking me, Benjamin Norton, in a defamatory smear campaign.
I responded to their dishonest attacks in a Spanish-language interview on Nicaragua’s channel 13.
US government bankrolls Nicaragua’s right-wing mouthpiece La Prensa
At the heart of the Nicaraguan right wing’s propaganda apparatus is La Prensa, a 95-year-old newspaper owned by the most powerful oligarch family in the country, the Chamorros – top recipients of US government support and funding.
The Chamorros have long served as Washington’s most loyal assets in Nicaragua. The ultra-rich dynasty boasts seven presidents since the Republic of Nicaragua was formed in the mid-1800s, and the family historically led the Conservative Party, inviting US military interventions and occupations to protect their corrupt right-wing rule.
La Prensa was founded in 1926 explicitly to serve as a propaganda organ of the Conservatives, and has continued acting as the de facto mouthpiece of Nicaragua’s right wing.
In its war on Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista government in the 1980s, the United States funded La Prensa through the NED, using the newspaper to spread disinformation on behalf of the CIA’s Contra death squads.
Today, La Prensa is still bankrolled by USAID, a supposed “aid” agency that Washington uses as a front for coup attempts in Venezuela and meddling operations in Syria. In the 1980s, USAID sent weapons to the Contras on so-called “humanitarian” flights.
The US embassy barely conceals its support for La Prensa. In December 2018, months after the violent right-wing coup attempt fizzled out, US Ambassador Kevin Sullivan visited the offices of La Prensa, praised its staff, and posted a photo on Twitter. (The same day, Sullivan also visited the offices of El Nuevo Diario, another anti-Sandinista newspaper owned and run by the Chamorro dynasty.)
Visité esta mañana los diarios @laprensa y @elnuevodiario. En ambas reuniones expresé mi apoyo a la libertad de expresión y de prensa, que son libertades fundamentales en toda democracia pic.twitter.com/FtaklyQr0x
— Kevin K. Sullivan (@USAmbNicaragua) December 12, 2018
A year before, Ambassador Sullivan met with the editorial council of La Prensa, and posted a photo showing its elite members – among them US-backed oligarch Cristiana Chamorro, whom Washington had apparently hoped to recognize as a Juan Guaidó-style interim president of a parallel Nicaraguan coup regime.
Un gusto charlar con el consejo editorial de @laprensa. Gracias! pic.twitter.com/1UZRMySJwt
— Kevin K. Sullivan (@USAmbNicaragua) January 20, 2017
Regularly meeting with La Prensa and the Chamorro oligarchs who run it appears to be a key part of the US ambassador’s job, because Sullivan constantly posts photos of them on his official social media accounts. It seems Washington is making sure it gets its money’s worth.
Felicito al diario @laprensa por sus 90 años informando y haciendo prevalecer un periodismo libre e independiente pic.twitter.com/UBF2XvFCHW
— Kevin K. Sullivan (@USAmbNicaragua) March 2, 2016
When La Prensa’s wealthy US-educated publisher Jaime Chamorro Cardenal died in 2021, the ambassador tweeted a heartfelt eulogy, heaping praise on La Prensa and “the noble legacy of his family.”
Jaime Chamorro guió a La Prensa a través de muchas adversidades. Al continuar el noble legado de su familia, cultivó generaciones de periodistas nicaragüenses con su modo discreto. Un firme defensor de la prensa libre. Nuestra profunda simpatía para su familia, amigos y colegas. pic.twitter.com/9ojhuLPMOE
— Kevin K. Sullivan (@USAmbNicaragua) July 30, 2021
La Prensa spreads blatant fake news
Foreign corporate media outlets frequently laud La Prensa as Nicaragua’s most “reliable” paper. The New York Times in fact collaborates closely with the publication – while never disclosing its US government funding.
But inside Nicaragua, La Prensa is notorious for frequently publishing ridiculous fake news to demonize the Sandinista government and its supporters.
A case study of La Prensa’s propaganda tactics came in September, when the outlet showed how dishonest it is willing to be in its desperate campaign to smear the Sandinistas.
On September 18, Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada spoke in Mexico at the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
In his remarks, Moncada criticized the Argentine government for conspiring with Washington against Nicaragua and Venezuela. He lamented that “the government of Argentina has become an instrument of North American imperialism, subordinating itself to its hegemonic interests, designing, as they themselves say, with the US government a ‘strategy’ to violate and deny the national sovereignty of our Nicaragua.”
Moncada was careful to distinguish the Argentine government from its people, emphasizing that his comments were directed at “the government of Argentina, not its people, whom we respect.”
But La Prensa completely misrepresented the foreign minister’s speech, publishing an article with the headline “Denis Moncada attacks Argentina in CELAC summit: ‘Argentina is not a people whom we respect‘.”
La Prensa flagrantly misrepresented Moncada’s remarks, reporting the exact opposite of what he really said.
Más noticias falsas descaradas de @LaPrensa, el pasquín de propaganda derechista financiado por EEUU:
La Prensa dice que el canciller de Nicaragua atacó al pueblo argentino, pero en realidad dijo lo contrario: “el gobierno de Argentina, NO su pueblo, al que nosotros respetamos” pic.twitter.com/x5LWXgYPYR
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 19, 2021
Video of Moncada’s speech, along with the official transcript, clearly, undeniably proves that the Nicaraguan foreign minister said “the government of Argentina, not its people, whom we respect.”
Despite the fact that its story was blatantly false, La Prensa did not change the headline and or issue a correction.
And La Prensa was not the only US government-funded media outlet in Nicaragua that published this fake news story.
Another right-wing newspaper run by the Chamorro family, Confidencial, published the same lies, in an article titled “Moncada in CELAC summit: ‘Argentina is not a people whom we respect‘.”
Confidencial is funded by the NED through parent companies owned and managed by oligarch Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the brother of oligarch Cristiana Chamorro of La Prensa.
Las mismas noticias falsas en @Confidencial_Ni, otro pasquín financiado por EEUU, dirigido por el oligarca golpista @cefeche, un mercenario mediático
Esto no es periodismo. Son mentiras al servicio del imperialismo estadounidense, que financia esta basurahttps://t.co/oiy732GcwR pic.twitter.com/ulNV0jmGXr
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 19, 2021
These demonstrably false articles in La Prensa and Confidencial were part of a clear propaganda drive aimed at hurting the Nicaraguan government’s diplomatic image on the international stage during the regional CELAC summit.
Yet this was far from the only fake news campaign these US governemnt-funded newspapers have overseen. The next target of their propaganda smears was this present reporter, Benjamin Norton.
US government-funded Nicaraguan media outlets spread fake news to discredit 2021 elections and defame Benjamin Norton
In November 2021, US government-funded media outlets went into a frenzy to try to discredit Nicaragua’s national elections.
I reported on the election on the ground, interviewing Nicaraguan voters to share their experiences.
Given my role as an independent journalist challenging the otherwise uniform wave of anti-Sandinista propaganda in mainstream corporate media, La Prensa turned its guns on me.
On November 8, the day after the elections, La Prensa published a lie-filled hit piece attacking me.
The US government-funded right-wing media outlet misrepresented a comment I had made in an interview I did with Nicaragua’s Canal 6, a pro-Sandinista TV channel, on the night of the vote, blatantly taking my remarks out of context in a dishonest political smear campaign.
El periodista estadounidense, Benjamin Norton que fungió como acompañante electoral dijo a un medio oficialista que él no vio filas en los centros de votación. https://t.co/vQCL6lJdLR
— LA PRENSA Nicaragua (@laprensa) November 8, 2021
In my interview with Canal 6, I recounted my experience as a foreign journalist observing the November 7 elections in the major city of Chinandega. I mentioned that it was impressive that I had not seen long lines, because the process was well organized, and Nicaraguans were able to vote quickly and transparently.
I explained that there is a lot of voter suppression in the United States, and there are many obstacles to voting, especially for Black, Latino, and poor communities. US elections are usually held on a weekday, and are often poorly organized, which means that voters frequently have to wait in long lines, for hours.
Similarly, I noted that there were long line in the elections I had observed in Bolivia in 2020, where the US-backed right-wing coup regime sought to suppress the vote in order to prevent the return of the Movement Toward Socialism party of Evo Morales, and in Ecuador in 2021, where the corrupt neoliberal Lenín Moreno regime was trying to stop the leftist Correísta movement from coming back.
Unlike in those contexts of government-sponsored voter suppression, I explained, Nicaragua’s November 7 elections were held on a Sunday and, as I saw with my own eyes, were efficiently organized, transparent, and quick, making it easy for people to vote.
But La Prensa removed all of that context from my interview and instead picked out a comment I had made, citing it as so-called “evidence” that there were no lines in Nicaragua’s 2021 elections, echoing disinformation that voter participation was supposedly very low because of a call for a boycott by the right-wing opposition.
La Prensa used this desperate fake news story to try to bolster its baseless claims that Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) had supposedly lied about 65% turnout.
When La Prensa published the flagrantly dishonest article, other anti-Sandinista propaganda outlets echoed the same fake news.
Nicaragua Investiga, another US government-funded website, published a nearly identical, false story titled “Benjamin Norton says there were no lines at the polls.” This is nonsensical. That is not what I said.
Then one of the most extreme, far-right media outlets in Nicaragua, 100% Noticias – which is also funded by the US government – posted a ridiculous article titled “Ben Norton recognizes that there were no lines in the voting.” Once again, it misrepresented my words, taking them clearly out of context to push its disinformation campaign.
#Nicaragua Ben Norton reconoce que no había filas en las votaciones https://t.co/hAcvCy59Dx a través de @100noticiasni
— 100%NOTICIAS (@100noticiasni) November 8, 2021
These ridiculous fake news stories put my name in the headline intentionally, so it would show up in Google search results, as part of their desperate disinformation campaign to try to divide the Sandinista movement with confusion and discredit the November 7 elections.
All of these articles, in US government-funded propaganda outlets, blatantly distorted what I said. I did not say there were no lines. I said I did not see long lines in which Nicaraguans had to wait for hours to vote; instead, there were short lines, because the election was well organized in a rapid, efficient vote process.
The photos and videos of the elections that I published on social media irrefutably show that there were indeed lines of people waiting to vote.
I took these photos at different voting centers in Nicaragua on election day on November 7
As you can see, there were a lot of people voting, in a transparent, well organized election. The polls were full, but people were able to go in, vote, and go home in a quick, open process pic.twitter.com/LizeKgRCcN
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 9, 2021
Similarly, many other international electoral observers, such as Rick Sterling, published photos on social media showing Nicaraguans waiting in lines to vote.
#Nicaragua family proud to vote. It is disgusting that US denies this reality. pic.twitter.com/UPn4ssoXIn
— rick sterling (@ricksterling99) November 7, 2021
But these right-wing media outlets in Nicaragua were never interested in the truth. They are propaganda weapons, sponsored by Washington, aimed at destabilizing and ultimately overthrowing the Sandinista government.
US government-funded right-wing media outlets incite violence against Nicaraguans
100% Noticias has been funded by USAID through the Chamorro Foundation, a central hub of the right-wing opposition.
100% Noticias played a major role in the 2018 coup attempt, publishing outlandish fake news, broadcasting live from the tranques (bloody barricades erected by extremists), and transmitting open calls for violence, murder, and a US military invasion.
While their coordinated fake news campaign against me fortunately did not lead to any violence, in other cases in the past, these extremist US government-funded media outlets have incited injuries and even deaths.
During the attmpted putsch, a security guard for the mayor’s office in the Nicaraguan city of Masaya, Reynaldo Urbina Cuadra, was kidnapped by insurgents and tortured so badly that his left arm was amputated.
Urbina filed a formal complaint with the Nicaraguan judicial system holding US government-funded 100% Noticias founder and director Miguel Mora responsible for inciting violence against him and the Masaya mayor’s office.
Reynaldo Urbina Cuadra, or “el chele,” the security guard for the Masaya mayor’s office who lost his arm after being tortured by coup-plotters (Photo credit: Benjamin Norton)
Similarly, during the coup attempt, a Nicaraguan police officer, Gabriel de Jesús Vado Ruiz, was kidnapped by anti-Sandinista extremists, tortured, dragged behind the back of a truck, and then lit on fire.
The wife of Gabriel Vado, Karla Teresa Torres Hernández, also legally held Mora responsible for the grisly murder, because the 100% Noticias demagogue had shared the police officer’s name with his audience, effectively inciting violence against him.
Yet Western so-called “press freedom” organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists have heaped praise on extremists like Miguel Mora and his coup-supporting colleague Lucía Pineda Ubau, giving their US-backed propaganda outlet prestigious awards.
In Nicaragua, people often jokingly refer to 100% Noticias (“100% News”) as 100% Mentiras (“100% Lies”). With these kinds of propaganda campaigns, it is very easy to see why.
These US government-funded right-wing media outlets in Nicaragua absurdly refer to themselves as “independent media,” but they are nothing of the sort. They get money from the world’s imperial hegemon to spread fake news to destabilize their country and violate its sovereignty on behalf of that empire.
La Prensa, Confidencial, Nicaragua Investiga, 100% Noticias, and other outlets have repeatedly shown themselves to be weapons of information warfare, sponsored by Washington.
These media outlets never issue corrections or retract their fake stories, because they are not news publications; they are tools of disinformation funded by CIA cutouts to destabilize Nicaragua.
