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Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's reply to a media question regarding the anniversary of the decision of the UN International Court of Justice in The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America case delivered on June 27, 1986

4 July 2023 20:27
1316-04-07-2023

Question: Will you comment please on reports about the anniversary ofvictory in The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America case in The Hague court, which is being marked in Managua?

Maria Zakharova: I would like to say that the issue concerns a historical judgement delivered by the UN International Court of Justice on June 27, 1986, which obliged the United States to make reparation to the Republic of Nicaragua for the damage done by the American military and paramilitary operations in the territory of the republic in the 1980s. According to the documents provided by Nicaragua in accordance with the established procedure, the damage was estimated at tens of billions of dollars. However, it was not a complete victory, because the United States has been disregarding that judgement for the past 37 years.

We fully support the demand to restore historical justice made by President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega in his recent address to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. We also consider it to be absolutely unacceptable that the United States continues its aggressive policy against that sovereign state in the spirit of the Western countries' neo-colonial aspirations.

I would like to remind everyone that at that time Washington unleashed a civil war in Nicaragua, including by training, arming and financing the Contras, who had won international ignominy through their bloody terror against the people of Nicaragua and the Government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Throughout the republic's history, the United States conducted about 15 interventions into Nicaragua under various pretexts. For example, in 1854, it razed the city of San Juan del Sur to the ground because the American ambassador had been slapped in the face for trying to interfere in the trial of an American national who was suspected of murdering a black person.

As for the Contras, the Western media presented them exclusively as "freedom fighters." This cynical division of criminals into "good guys" and "bad guys" is still with us. It was used with regard to Islamic terrorists, including in Russia, and it is being used in other countries as well. This is the essence of the "rules-based order" which Washington is advocating because it not only allows the United States and its satellites to act arbitrarily and with impunity but also provides justification for their "upright" actions against undesirables.