Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America and has had a difficult path to democracy characterized by the ongoing struggles between generations of family dictatorship and civil war. Sean M. Lynn-Jones, an editor for the Belfer Center Studies in Harvard university, defined contemporary democracy as having several common elements. First, democracies are countries in which there are institutional mechanisms that allow the people to choose their leaders. Second, prospective leaders must compete for public support. And third, the power of government is restrained by its accountability to the people. According to Lynn-Jones, these are essential characteristics of political democracy. After the Cold War, the U.S embraced as the guiding
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It was adopted in the wake of decades of U.S intervention in Central America and following the lengthy U.S military occupation. Somoza took advantage of this policy and bluffed the U.S by supplying them with filtered media that didn’t allow the U.S to see the Nicaraguan government’s lack of democratic principles. Washington allegedly turned a blind eye because having an Anti-Soviet ally like Nicaragua, was what they needed the most to stop communism through Latin America. Further adding to the argument that the U.S is only driven by their national interest rather than by truly spreading democracy. Being driven by own interest obliterates the country in need’s own interest, and thus would be a negative impact toward …show more content…
In light of the NICA legislation that proposes economic sanction in Nicaragua, Solaun further argues that economic sanctions in Nicaragua already led to a violent revolution once, and bolstered a new dictatorial government. This formed the U.S supported counter revolution. (Solaun, 2005) The belief that U.S occupation to establish a free, democratic government directly led to the establishment of a military dictatorship in Nicaragua is an argument used against U.S intervention today. Claiming that the U.S if anything, would inflict a negative influence instead of a positive one. Based on the past history of U.S administrations trying to sanction the government economically in order to spread democracy to the country, and the attempt by military occupations have failed dramatically and have people unwilling to accept the influence of the
It was adopted in the wake of decades of U.S intervention in Central America and following the lengthy U.S military occupation. Somoza took advantage of this policy and bluffed the U.S by supplying them with filtered media that didn’t allow the U.S to see the Nicaraguan government’s lack of democratic principles. Washington allegedly turned a blind eye because having an Anti-Soviet ally like Nicaragua, was what they needed the most to stop communism through Latin America. Further adding to the argument that the U.S is only driven by their national interest rather than by truly spreading democracy. Being driven by own interest obliterates the country in need’s own interest, and thus would be a negative impact toward …show more content…
In light of the NICA legislation that proposes economic sanction in Nicaragua, Solaun further argues that economic sanctions in Nicaragua already led to a violent revolution once, and bolstered a new dictatorial government. This formed the U.S supported counter revolution. (Solaun, 2005) The belief that U.S occupation to establish a free, democratic government directly led to the establishment of a military dictatorship in Nicaragua is an argument used against U.S intervention today. Claiming that the U.S if anything, would inflict a negative influence instead of a positive one. Based on the past history of U.S administrations trying to sanction the government economically in order to spread democracy to the country, and the attempt by military occupations have failed dramatically and have people unwilling to accept the influence of the