USAID described this responsibility as follows: “Identification of potential Nicaraguan partners for rapid impact Grants Under Task Order to promote transition-related activities.”The initiative allotted $540,000 in grants to entice Nicaraguan opposition groups into assisting the regime-change effort. The USAID document spelled out in detail the specific destabilization strategy that this liaison would follow.The Grayzone called the Democracy International office with a request for comment on the LinkedIn job listing, the RAIN program, and the USAID document. The protracted social unrest in Hong Kong is an attempt to overthrow the special administrative region government and turn the city into an "independent or …
“It is nauseating, the document; bearing to read it is difficult,” he said in outrage. Join now. Or you can simply remain as treasonists, hitmen, and traitors.The USAID document shows Washington pushing the latter option, and driving the country into a deepened conflict.Subscribe to the Monthly Review e-newsletter (max of 1-3 per month).This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics a young man born on the day of Hiroshima nuclear bombing was selected to be the last torch bearer on the relay, to signify that Japan had stood up from nuclear ruin. But under the Trump administration, it has kicked its coup efforts in Latin America into hyper drive.In April 2020, USAID was taken over by de facto director John Barsa, a hardline Republican businessman, Trump ally, and son of anti-communist Cuban immigrants. It stressed in the document that its coup would be “gender sensitive in compliance” and based on “gender-informed analytical work.” (Although the The USAID document balanced its liberal language on gender with neoconservative rhetoric claiming, “Malign foreign influences, principally Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia, will continue to attempt to strengthen the corrupt autocratic Ortega regime.”The existence of the USAID regime-change document was first reported on July 31 on the popular Nicaraguan radio and video show Grigsby, a prominent leftist media personality with a large following at the base of the Sandinista Front, condemned the US plot. That is unacceptable!“What if Nicaragua did that in the United States, if for example Daniel Ortega said, ‘Hey, we’re going to help the protesters in Portland’?” he added.But they reserve to themselves the right to act against the democratic institutionality of a country.Grigsby concluded by condemning “yankee imperialism” and slamming Nicaraguan opposition figures who are participating in this regime-change scheme.“You all can do one of two things,” he thundered at the opposition.Follow the rules of democracy, accept your defeat, and participate in the political game. Lv 4. (In the second-poorest country in the Western hemisphere, where the minimum wage is between $200 and $300 per month, half a million dollars is no petty sum. )The USAID document insisted that “Nicaragua’s immediate future remains highly uncertain.” Yet it acknowledged that the right-wing opposition is divided and unpopular, admitting that its leadership has not “coalesced around a party or candidate.”Taking into account the weakness of the opposition heading into the 2021 national elections, the USAID plan outlines three scenarios for the overthrow of the socialist government and a “transition” to a US-friendly neoliberal regime.The first is an “Orderly Transition scenario,” a far-fetched situation in which an unpopular US-backed opposition group somehow manages to win the election.The second potential regime-change scenario is described as a “Sudden, Unanticipated Transition,” in “which one or more political crises, such as a snap or failed election, a presidential resignation, a major health crisis, a major natural disaster, or internal conflicts, lead to sudden regime crisis and transition either to an interim government or a new government.” This is the coup option, and USAID makes it clear that it would be more than happy with such a situation, and wants its RAIN liaison to prepare for it.The third is a “Delayed Transition scenario,” in which the Sandinista government remains in power. We said, “Local Nicaraguan media outlets have criticized USAID’s RAIN program, which is described in the Democracy International job posting, and characterized it as what appears to be an attempt at orchestrating a coup in the country. The pages spelling out the regime-change plot employ precisely the same language and phrases as a job listing that was posted in late July by another U.S. government-funded organization, Democracy International. '”This employee would help develop a “Transition Response Plan” – a regime-change scheme.