Nicaragua

Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Fasts for Peace: An Interview with Father Miguel D’Escoto

Envío team

Nicaragua is celebrating the sixth anniversary of its revolution at a particularly difficult moment. Enormous resources have been channeled to military defense within the county, to the reorganization of a war-battered economy handicapped even further by the embargo, to assuring that projects can still go forward, and to extending the growing solidarity with Nicaragua by other nations. To every successful adjustment, the Reagan administration reacts with even greater aggression. In the occasional moments when Nicaraguans raise their eyes from these tasks, their visions of a peaceful future are cast in the shadow of a possible direct invasion.

Nothing epitomizes this eleventh-hour drama more than the announcement by Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Father Miguel D’Escoto that he would begin an indefinite period of total fasting and prayer to denounce the Reagan administration’s policy toward his country. Father D’Escoto has been a tireless emissary of Nicaragua’s desire for peace, moving through the political circles of the world as few others have ever done. He has taken this profound decision only after seeing every diplomatic effort matched by the willful obstruction of the US government.

How does Nicaragua’s foreign minister view the combination of events that have led to the present crisis? What has moved him to this decision of conscience? The Central American Historic Institute posed these and other questions to Father D’Escoto as he prepared to begin is fast on July 7, in the parish of the populous Managua neighborhood “Monseñor Lezcano.”

envío: There have been many spectacular moments during Nicaragua’s revolutionary process; dramatic accusations have been made and urgent calls to alert have been sounded. Many say that these gestures are nothing more than signs of the weakness of a process that constantly needs a “show” to make itself believable and to inspire solidarity. To some, perhaps, it will seem that the fast of Nicaragua’s foreign minister is another chapter in the same story, an absurd decision precipitated by powerlessness, a new attention-getting show because the political negotiating cards have all been played. It could also appear as a manipulation of religious sentiments and public opinion by the revolutionary government.

D’Escoto: I have anticipated all these opinions and judgments. They are wrong, but I do not expect to be believed when I say that. At any rate, I give my word as a priest that this is a very personal decision, one which I have arrived at in conscience as a Christian and as a priest faced with the death and destruction in Nicaragua due to the war of aggression declared against us by the government of the United States. This situation causes me great suffering. I feel a responsibility to act, and to act in all ways possible. This US-financed war is such that the conventional methods of defense we have used and must continue using to defend the lives of our people are insufficient. I believe they should be complemented by other methods. My decision to fast is one of these other methods.

I’ve been thinking along these lines for a long time. I’ve always wanted to integrate deeds which express my priesthood and my faith with my work as foreign minister. This fast is a religious act. I have consulted not only my companions in the Nicaraguan government, but also my brothers in Maryknoll, my religious superiors, other Christians, priests and nuns in Nicaragua. I never make decisions in an individualistic way. But I would also say that this decision has been coming for a long time and I am not improvising anything now.

Two ideas, two experiences of faith, have been maturing in me in my life as a Christian and a priest. As a citizen and also as foreign minister of Nicaragua, during all these years, these convictions have become stronger and are now making demands on me.

One conviction is what we Christians call “the mystery of the cross.” I’m convinced that when through words and deeds we proclaim with clarity that God is Father of all and we are all brothers and sisters, denouncing anything that opposes this, we become persecuted, slandered and ultimately suffer the cross. As builders of this sisterhood and brotherhood, we become a target of hostility from those who defend the unjust order, the old order where people are neither equal nor sisters and brothers. This has also happened to Nicaragua, as a nation building a project of justice and of sisterhood and brotherhood. This struggle to do something new has made Nicaragua a target of aggression from those in the United States who tolerate no change.

The other idea I am convinced of is that violence is not Christian, that methods of violence are not Christian. This does not mean that I disqualify those Christians who, in a variety of circumstances, have found themselves forced to use violence. What I do mean is that the Christian ideal, when it can be lived in its fullness, is a non-violent ideal, it is a project of nonviolence. For me there is no doubt we must struggle. There is so much in this world for which to struggle. Quietism is truly a heresy. In Nicaragua, the legacy of the Somozas and US aggression have imposed on us the necessity of defense. But I believe that it is more and more necessary to complement military defense with other methods. In Nicaragua we Christians should incorporate non-violent methods into our legitimate military defense. I always think of Martin Luther King, who went so far in this line of thinking. For me, he is without a doubt the greatest saint of our times. We Christians are countering aggressive violence with legitimate defense, but we also have the responsibility to make creative non-violence a key element of the good news we proclaim and practice daily.

I am very conscious that most traditional theology approves of “just war” and of “tyrannicide.” I defend this in Nicaragua. But I understand that, as an ideal, we cannot remain at this point forever, as if we had arrived at the goal. No, this is nothing more than a concession in a world that is in the process of growth and maturing. We must begin to work for non-violence. I know that one must have patience, and must begin introducing non-violent ideas and methods, developing new and daring actions, to expand consciousness in this area. I trust that, little by little, the new order will open up a path and the old order will crumble…

I have always defended these convictions and I believe that the policy and diplomacy of a small country like Nicaragua should include these initiatives as well. I want to take one step along this road. I feel I must.

I remember when I joined the FSLN’s struggle. The other activists clearly understood my thoughts, my feeling about all these things. But they said to me, and I understood them perfectly, that the tool of non-violence was not developed here, among us, and that it was impossible to harvest what we had never been able to plant. And they told me that when we triumphed, then yes, we could plant and harvest and make of all of Nicaragua a non-violent country. Later, in my work as foreign minister, with this war that has been imposed on us, these ideals remained on ice, with the expectation of a better moment in which to plant the fields… This, I believe, is one of those moments and I should act according to these convictions.

envío: The Nicaraguan situation periodically passes through very serious moments, through some stages more critical than others. Is there something that makes this current situation more serious than others? How do you assess this present moment?

D’Escoto: I was sick in June, from an old pain in my back, and I had a lot of time to reflect on what we should do, on the seriousness of our situation, and on the future of our people…

I see things this way: to date we have fought successfully against US government aggression on four battlefields: military, diplomatic, economic, and legal.

The Reagan administration has tried to conquer us through the counterrevolutionary war. On this military battlefield, we have resisted and are winning. US analysts themselves share this opinion. General Paul Gorman has already declared that the CIA mercenaries cannot overthrow the Sandinista government, and have no possibility of winning the war either in the short or long run. The only thing left, then, is to decide to use US troops…

It has also tried to isolate us from Western Europe and Latin America and thus force us into alignment with the socialist countries, and with other countries that have been stigmatized politically for not bending to US pressure. It is true that the US government’s tremendous pressure on its allies has somewhat eroded international sympathy toward our process, but it has not gotten what it wanted, that is, to isolate us. At this point the embargo has been sort of like a blessing in disguise, because we are receiving a lot of solidarity from Europe. On the recent trip to Europe with Daniel Ortega we saw the strong rejection of Reagan’s policies and the will to maintain relations with us. In the diplomatic camp, the Reagan administration is also being defeated.

We have resisted, too, on the economic battlefield, and the US government has not been able to do us in. It has tried to isolate us from Western markets, but again it has not succeeded. Nicaragua is not isolated from any country or market in the world. They can’t do it. With the war they’ve tried to ruin our production, but in spite of everything, we forge ahead and our economy, war and all, is more stable than that of the rest of Central America. Today every country including ours is in a serious economic crisis, but ours is far from the worst. With the solidarity of so many countries of the world we will be able prevent major economic deterioration.

In the legal area, I am one hundred percent sure that the World Court will decide in our favor. I don’t doubt it in the least. This case, which will go down in history as the most important that the Court has seen, will show the illegality of US government behavior. This will be a great triumph for the revolution.

When you analyze the whole situation in this way, and I think this analysis is correct, when you have seen how we are succeeding on all fronts, you would assume that President Reagan would have had to stop his aggression, turn his policy around, and learn to live with us. Yet he has not done that, and there is not one sign that he has any intention to do it. He has mortgaged his political reputation to the aggression against Nicaragua. All of this, all the work over these years, has made me see very clearly that his desire is to destroy us and that the decision to invade has already been made.

envío: There has been so much talk about invasion, some people are starting to think it’s like the little boy who cried wolf. Is invasion a real possibility, a probability that must be seriously taken into account?

D’Escoto: We wish we were mistaken, but we’re not talking of a fantasy. The decision to invade us has already been made. And after these years of military preparation, of propaganda, of political pressure, the administration needs only two more things to launch the invasion. It needs to create conditions within the US and it needs to fabricate an explosive incident with which to justify it.

It’s easy to create a pretext at this time, especially in Costa Rica where the country’s increasing militarization and high tolerance for the counterrevolution accentuate the gravity of the situation. Precisely for this reason we have wanted to press Costa Rica for the neutralization of our common border. We have also told them that even if they don’t accept that, we are willing to unilaterally demilitarize our own border. In launching this initiative, we want our gesture to be clearly understood, that it is our will for peace. It is obvious that the US cannot accept our offer because it needs this zone precisely to create an explosive incident. This situation is relatively new and it seems to me to be serious.

If it is not Costa Rica, the US will look for a pretext in another place, another way. Reagan has several within easy reach, including some newly designed by Congress that will empower him to launch an invasion.

But what seems key to me at this moment, what moved me to decide on a fast, is the other factor. Reagan needs to create internal conditions in the US to launch an invasion, and it is clear that he has advanced a long way in achieving this goal. He succeeded in bending Congress to give in to his point of view, but he has not yet succeeded in convincing the US people. The more he talks, the less convincing he is. And this is because the US wants to play three roles at the same time—that of accuser, judge and executioner. The President has not persuaded his people, nor will he be able to. Here we have a gap that needs to be widened.

In this gap are the people of the United States. They are the ones who can and should stop Reagan. To achieve this, the most effective actions are those which they themselves are carrying out with courage, patience and constancy, those thousands of women and men who have made a “pledge of resistance” against the aggressiveness of US government leaders. They are “resisting” the policy of violence and terrorism with non-violent actions. They have to become more, they have to resist more, they have to widen the gap through this resistance. Achieving peace will depend in large part on their non-violent actions and on the conviction that they are essential. Reflecting on all this, on the terrible seriousness of this moment in which all possibilities seem to have been exhausted, I saw that we cannot wait. The hour has come to be more creative and more audacious in order to stop the US government, to make the continuation of its war of aggression and its plans for invasion impossible. It was then that I began to look for new complementary methods, new ways of fighting the battle…

envío: Are you then abandoning the military efforts? Are you talking about another method of struggle, unarmed struggle?

D’Escoto: No, I believe we have to continue fighting and strengthening those four battle front I mentioned before; there is no reason to abandon any of them. On the contrary, it is time to move into a fifth one, “the theological arena.” Those of us who are Christians, believers, ought to be in this arena, and defeat Reagan there too. He has been using, with greater insistence each time, “religious” arguments, “theological” reasons to persuade the US public. And because he has failed in all the other areas, this presentation of the conflict will become more acute: he, the United States, American civilization, represent “good.” In Nicaragua there is “evil,” terrorism, which must be destroyed and annihilated. As you can see, the argument is tremendously simplistic and for that reason alone there is cause for worry. But among some people he has been successful and convincing. Reagan has wanted to appropriate for himself the cherished struggles of the religious right in the United States. Religious allusions always appear in his speeches. He is not a Catholic but he always uses the Pope’s name…

I think that, given this manipulation of religious sentiments, our own bishops should be the ones to assume major responsibility, denouncing the falsity of all this argumentation… But they have not wanted to do so. Some of them, by their silence and in some cases by their words, have even provided Reagan with more arguments for his “theological war” against Nicaragua. In all the international forums we attend, we have to listen to US spokespeople allude to phrases of Monsignor Obando and Monsignor Vega as justifications for their aggression… I am familiar with this from personal experience and it causes me great suffering. It pains me particularly to see how hard this is for many believers in Nicaragua, especially the young people.

The theological battlefield exists and we must take up our positions. Not to make one or two or more documents of denunciation. No, the world is inundated with documents. Action is what is missing. We must do something! I have thought, therefore, that it is up to us, as Christians, to carry out non-violent actions which vividly express what cannot be said on paper. Thinking of all this, consulting my brothers, talking with Daniel about the gravity of the situation, I saw clearly before God that it was I, I as foreign minister and priest, who must be the first to do something and to do it now. That is why I decided to fast.

envío: And why this particular action, which is not exactly a hunger strike with a specific demand? What do you hope to achieve by this fast? What effect could an action such as this have?

D’Escoto: I think of the prophets who fasted during grave national crises in Israel. In sackcloth and ashes, in fasting, they appealed to God, on behalf of their people, that justice be done. In this way, with dramatic gestures, they tried to signal their grievances to government leaders…

I believe we have reached the point in this unequal war we are enduring, that we too must express—by dramatic testimonies, by non-violent action—what is happening to us here, because such gestures give weight to words. Through this fast I mean to emphasize all the diplomatic effort that Nicaragua has made on behalf of peace, life and dialogue. I also mean to denounce Reagan’s terrorist policy against our people. Above all, through this fast I am asking women and men of good will in the United States, in Latin America and in the whole world, to become aware that we are all players in this unfair war, so that they will act, so that they will do something.

I want to fast because it will be difficult for me. I know there is sacrifice and risk involved in what I’m going to do. I want to place my prayer and my sacrifice before God that he may hear us, that the world may hear us. I want to join my prayer to the suffering, to the cross, in nonviolent witness. What I will suffer is nothing compared with all that our people are suffering in this war.

During my fast I will remember the mothers who have lost their sons because of the aggression and this will give me strength. From this place of fasting and prayer, I will accompany all our soldiers who, with so much effort and privation, are risking their own lives to defend us and our country. I want to be together with them through my prayers. Together we must stop Reagan. We have made so many efforts during these years and yet nothing seems sufficient. What more can we do? This is why I decided to fast, so that in the US and throughout the world something like a religious insurrection is let loose, in which we believers take to the barricades and put a halt to the invasion, allowing us peace, allowing us to live.

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