Source: Sputnik Mundo
What it’s about: The article, published by Sputnik Mundo on Friday morning, is a bare-bones piece centered on two tweets from Bolivian President Evo Morales. In the tweets, Morales criticizes the U.S. for its decision to discuss the crisis in Nicaragua at the UN Security Council and President Trump’s conduct in U.S. and international affairs. In the most incendiary tweet, Morales says: “If Trump is preoccupied with the well-being of Nicaragua he should lift the economic blockade against our brother country.”
Why it’s false: There are no active U.S. economic country sanctions against Nicaragua. While the U.S. did impose sanctions on three Nicaraguan officials in President Daniel Ortega’s inner circle in early July and visa restrictions against multiple unnamed officials in June, these measures have no impact on the broader Nicaraguan population. Morales’ tweets and the title of the Sputnik article (“Evo Morales calls for the U.S. to lift the economic blockade on Nicaragua”) insinuate the existence of economic sanctions against Nicaragua. That’s false. President Morales’ decision to place the blame of the Nicaragua crisis on an imagined U.S. “economic blockade” is unsurprising, but Sputnik’s echoing of those claims gives a dangerous veneer of legitimacy to those falsehoods.