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Anti-government protests in Nicaragua broke out in early April, 2018 over a fire in the Indio Maíz Reservation that burned 13,500 acres in nine days. Protesters faulted the government of Nicaragua for failure to extinguish the fire promptly. However, it is unclear that there is anything that could have been done to extinguish it sooner.

At the time of the fire, the Indio Maíz was in an advanced stage of drought and littered with dead trees, downed by Hurricane Otto, which scored a direct hit on the Indio Maíz as a category 3 hurricane. The Indio Maíz is a rough roadless jungle and Nicaragua lacked equipment to fight the fire from the air. Help from Mexico in the form of fire-fighting helicopters appears to have been crucial.

Comparisons with recent fires in the United States are helpful here. The Camp Fire burned over 150,000 acres in California and killed over 80 people. Even with advanced fire-fighting equipment, it took 18 days to completely contain it. No one faults the California forest service for the Camp Fire (except Donald Trump who claimed they should have been “raking” the forest). There appears to be a double standard here.

Indeed, the two fires can both be traced to the same root cause — a hotter, drier climate for which the United States bears tremendous responsibility while Nicaragua bears little.

The government of Nicaragua was faulted for unpopular “reforms” to Social Security. However, these cuts were all rescinded due to popular opposition. In the face of austerity imposed by wealthy international bankers, Nicaragua is far from the only country to attempt to cut Social Security and pensions. And here in the United States, the government thinks nothing of forcing federal workers to do dangerous jobs for no pay while Congress and the president bicker over a wall that never should even have been considered in the first place. Again, there appears to be a double standard here.

The government of Nicaragua is faulted for paramilitary and police violence. However, it is unclear who was responsible for much of the violence. This is the hallmark of a CIA instigated coup, violence and chaos. Police uniforms are cheap. False flag operations abound. And no one can be sure who is behind anonymous paramilitary thugs.

To anyone who has read All the Shah's Men, Stephen Kinzer's seminal book on the 1953 CIA coup which overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran, this all sounds eerily familiar. Kinzer documented how the CIA brought down Iran's government and spread chaos throughout the country by hiring thugs and criminals and paying journalists to write articles blaming the government. Over the years the CIA has refined its techniques.

The Nicaraguan government is faulted for attacks on the opposition press; yet there is nary a word about Julian Assange, who has been forced to live in exile in the Ecuadoran embassy in London for years to avoid arrest and extradition to the United States. Julian Assange, the editor and founder of Wikileaks, published a famous video of US troops shooting down unarmed Iraqi civilians. He is probably the most important journalist of the 21st Century to date. Again, there appears to be a double standard.