Nicaragua

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NICANOTES NEWSLETTER

NicaNotes: On the 45th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution: Lessons from My Time in Nicaragua
June 27, 2024
By Adrienne Ayers

(Adrienne is an African organizer native to Waawiyatanong land (Detroit, MI). She was recently a part of the “Women in Nicaragua: Power and Protagonism” delegation in January 2024 through Casa Ben Linder. Adrienne is a Reiki Master Teacher and operates a free reiki clinic which serves as a People’s Program for Detroit residents. Her work uplifts the belief that revolution is in the hands of the people. You can find out more about her work at healinthewaters.com.)


Members of the National Assembly told the “Power and Protagonism” delegation that, “The whole world is subject to propaganda. In [times of] these dirty and negative campaigns, people continue to fight to be free and we will continue to develop. Negativity from imperialist countries is something we can expect.” Adrienne is fifth from left.

Many African revolutionaries I have studied or personally known, both those who have transitioned to the ancestor realm and those still alive, have called the work of organizing “the struggle” an ongoing fight to obtain victory for the right to life, protection of the Earth, human rights, and dignity of all oppressed people globally. While living in the imperial core, it is the responsibility of those who accept the role to organize to strengthen our belief and continuously refine our thoughts and actions in alignment with the necessity to free the land and free the people. This involves a commitment to dismantling colonial capitalist and imperialist systems and moving towards socialist revolution.
More specifically, we are responsible for building political homes with concrete structures to invite the masses to organize with us while strategizing on how to build trust, and open their hearts, minds, and capacity to join us, which is no simple feat. The path to achieving and maintaining victory is also no easy journey, especially when we, the masses in the US, are hindered by unlearning, and reacting to the capitalist & imperialist ideological state which has informed our values thus guides our actions. Hence, we have the struggle.

However, for every moment of struggle and despair in global struggles for the liberation of African and all oppressed people, there exist hope and lessons in the historical and present-day examples of the Nicaraguan people. Although engaging in political education through books with comrades is imperative to achieving and maintaining revolution, simultaneously if you are able, one of the best opportunities to learn about revolutionary processes beyond reading is to visit the very countries where revolution took place and is actively ongoing. If you, like me, believe in the necessity of intentional organizing for revolution, we must also be clear in understanding that our work extends beyond a goal of liberating the colonized masses of the US. Our organizing must also engage in learning from and build solidarity with socialist countries that are already liberated such as Nicaragua.

This is to be done through active participation in dismantling the beast at home in order to one day see the lifting of sanctions and embargoes that work to destabilize the land, material accessibility, and political will of the Nicaraguan people. We have much to learn and apply, and who better to learn from than Nicaragua, a country that understands it is through their own hands, both through organizing the people and military means, that liberation from imperialist oppressors and revolution is possible.

In January 2024, six months before the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, I had an opportunity to visit Nicaragua as part of the Power and Protagonism: Women in Nicaragua delegation. Delegates were hosted by the Casa Ben Linder Art and Solidarity Center in Managua. It felt politically significant to embark on this journey as Nicaragua is an example of a socialist country that actually won against imperialist forces, has people centered systems and institutions worth defending that they worked tirelessly to build, and that actively maintains the political will of their people.

Despite US enforced sanctions and embargoes, the Nicaraguan government has relied on its own efforts as well as allyship not limited to but including countries such as China and Cuba, to continue to meet the most pressing material needs of its people. Their efforts have allowed for the development of people-centered education, medical care, housing, and food systems. There is also an inspiring presence of co-operative models which continue to meet the needs of their people while simultaneously strengthening their political will.

As we organize towards a new system in the US, it’s important to ask ‘What strategies and tactics can we apply from historical examples of those who have achieved revolution, what must change, and where are we headed?’ It is important to imagine what models we want to create or replicate within this new system to not only meet the needs of our community but ensure healing as we recover from neo-colonial genocidal rule, and advance as a people.

When I imagine maintaining revolution, I envision autonomous zones for African and Indigenous descendants—not to be imposed by western ideology—such as the North and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions in Nicaragua. During my on-the-ground studies, I was blessed with an opportunity to meet with members of their parliament, known as the Nicaraguan National Assembly. Shaira Downs Morgan of the National Assembly gave us a general idea of the importance of such regions and why they came to be. The need for autonomous zones was and is to ensure a space for healing for African and Indigenous peoples, provide safety from anti African and Indigenous racism, ensure that the influence of colonialist values can be drastically limited, and guarantee their own forms of government administration and agreements with their people. Where will the region in the US exist for Africans and Indigenous people to heal amongst ourselves while prioritizing the imperative customs, traditions, and ways of life specific to our people? This is a question worth considering and the autonomous models within the Nicaraguan socialist state is an idea worth exploring.

During our time with the National Assembly, I asked members questions pertaining to their feelings regarding the detrimental impact of US capitalist and imperialist backed propaganda on the Nicaraguan people. Such propaganda serves many purposes, including turning the people of a socialist state against their own government resulting in protests, riots, and even participation in coups to undo the progress of their state. Nicaragua faces sanctions and embargoes that destabilize material conditions while the country is, at the same time, countering propaganda from the US and opposition groups such as the MRS (Sandinista Renovation Movement), which has been known to call for US intervention in the country’s sovereignty. The enemy works to create the illusion that a better way of life, centering individual wants and maintained by capitalist ideology, is advantageous to the people. All of this takes place while hindering the ability of affected governments to develop their nations in the ways that are best for the people they serve. In response, members of the Assembly were quoted as stating “The whole world is subject to propaganda. In these dirty and negative campaigns, people continue to fight to be free and we will continue to develop. Negativity from imperialist countries is something we can expect.” The Nicaraguan people are not only clear on who their enemy is and why, they are prepared to organize to continue the work they have always done despite these attempts. The work continues.

Nicaraguan advances in the health and education sectors also provide goals for us to consider as we work towards alternative systems such as socialism. Our visit with Minister of Health Dr. Martha Reyes on January 10th was where we learned that the Nicaraguan constitution guarantees free health care to everyone while prioritizing the most vulnerable populations with a focus on prevention and protection. If health care for all is to be guaranteed, one would imagine that enough of the budget must be allocated to ensure this can be possible. Currently, 66% of the national budget in Nicaragua goes to health care and education. The Nicaraguan health system works hand in hand with the education system. Backpacks, school supplies, and shoes are provided to children yearly, and there is a vaccination program in the schools. How does one manage to prioritize the health of all people but especially children and the most vulnerable despite US interference? In the words of Dr. Reyes “We have to do miracles with what we have. With the little bit that we have, we have to do a lot. If we don’t have the support of an organized community, we can’t do anything at all.” She mentioned that they made advancements thanks to the political will of the Government which follows a strategic family and community model.

Since 2007, the Ministry of Health has been working to develop a family health model and their work has evolved to ensure the prioritization of maternal issues. The Ministry’s efforts have resulted in the creation of 181 Casa Maternas or maternity wait homes (which are always close to the local hospital) around the country with an emphasis on presence in rural areas to help improve maternal mortality rates. The maternal health care system is so trusted in Nicaragua that 98% of expecting individuals make the conscious choice to have hospital births, with only 2-3% opting for home births. These statistics may also be so high due to the fact that, in Nicaragua, midwives are automatically a part of the healthcare system. Midwives are allowed to direct the entire birth and hospitals are equipped to support traditional births.

As a wellness practitioner whose work is not isolated from strategic on the ground political organizing, I was absolutely amazed but not surprised at how organized communities and people-centered governments could also result in a strong presence of traditional medicine options within the health system. Currently there are 191 natural medicine clinics in 151 out of the 153 municipalities, all of which are at no cost to the people who receive services. Natural medicine options are also present within rehabilitation clinics, and acupuncture is an option in some hospitals.

The realization that the work we are faced with is not a destination nor an experience that will appear through the good will of individuals but instead happens amongst a unified group of organized individuals, was an idea that was personally reinforced within me. On January 12th, we visited a co-operative organization, the Foundation Amongst Women. Established in 1995, the group operates on one acre of land and works to improve the lives of peasant women in the countryside. The women mentioned that their work includes a Network of Water Defenders, Network of Rural Communicators, Network of Community Defense, and Network of Agriculture.

As I’ve reflected on the necessary components of organizing work in the US, aspects that I often focus on are developing the political will of the people, intentional organizing apparatuses within political homes, strategies to invite the masses into building and maintaining liberated territory, and survival programs as tactics to sustain the people and open their capacity to accept invitations into organizing. However, one thing I often overlooked is the importance of access to land in order to survive as we do this work and to support our work. When I asked members of the Foundation Amongst Women what they would suggest we include in our organizing for revolution, they were very clear that three things were important – enough land, political education, and values.

I believe there is only room for the truth and I am reflecting on how National Assembly members ended our time with them by offering the following words of advice rooted in their reality “We (Nicaraugans) don’t consider the right to vote as the only way to achieve democracy. It isn’t obligatory.” Since the truth is it is the duty of socialist organizations to help us transform ourselves, our neighbors, and the masses, we must remember the Nicaraguan way of life as a shining light. Liberation will always be in the hands of the people, and in the words of Jalil A. Muntaquim, “We are our own liberators.”

I am an African organizer born and raised in occupied Waawiyatanong territory (Detroit, Michigan), and I believe that engaging in the process of organized revolution requires lifelong discipline to the role of a student and the courage to apply our studies with praxis to shift our material conditions with the masses. I give gratitude for the lessons from the political will and revolutionary fervor of the Nicaraguan people, the spirit and lessons of Kwame Ture, as well as lessons from Peoples Program in Oakland, the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, and the Black Alliance for Peace who continuously expand my understanding of what it means to free the land and free the people. I am an African organizer, and I am learning from and standing with Nicaragua and against the global imperialist forces that attempt to destabilize their land and people.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy
Child Malnutrition Reduced 40%
The various actions carried out by the government have reduced acute malnutrition in children aged 0 to 6 years by 40 percent, from 5.8% in 2016 to 3.5% in 2024. According to the latest report, there was also a 48 percent decrease in chronic malnutrition which dropped from 13.7% in 2016 to 7.1% in 2024. This work has been accompanied by the community health network, health and education workers, local political authorities, Sandinista Youth and Nicaraguan families themselves. From March 1 to May 16, 2024, the National Nutritional Census was carried out in schools and in house-to-house visits to measure the weight, height, age and sex of children. (La Primerisima, 19 June 2024)

Government Submits New Education Strategy to National Consultation
On June 20, the government presented its new National Education Strategy for the period 2024-2026, the main objective of which is to strengthen inclusive, intercultural and gender-equal education. Minister of National Technology Loyda Barreda explained that the plan contains 16 strategic axes and 80 lines of work that will be consulted nationally with teachers, school principals, parents, and students, including members of the Federation of Secondary School Students (FES), a process that will end on July 23 at a National Education Congress. Minister of Education Mendy Aráuz said that the government promotes free and quality education as a fundamental right for human development and the fight against poverty. Professor Arturo Collado, UNESCO’s representative in Nicaragua, highlighted the important progress made in education in Nicaragua under the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity. Nicaragua continues strengthening the Distance Education Program in the countryside, with 714 centers of attention. The newly announced program will strengthen the model of participation of individuals, families and communities contributing to and enriching the new National Education Strategy in all its modalities, through the generation of proposals for educational actions. (La Primerisima, 20 June 2024)

More than 3,000 Medical Services Provided at Mega Orthopedics Fair
More than 3,000 people received medical attention on June 22 at the Orthopedics Mega Fair that took place in the Casa Materna “Luz y Vida” in the city of Ocotal. The activity was attended by 80 doctors from all over the country who provided care in natural medicine and complementary therapies, X-ray studies, electromyography, minor surgeries and hip and knee surgeries. It is worth mentioning that the surgical procedures were performed at the Alfonso Moncada Guillen Hospital in that city. The patients treated were from Wiwilí, Jalapa, Santa María and other municipalities of the department of Nueva Segovia, and were brought in buses provided by the Ministry of Health. During the fair, Dr. Sonia Castro, presidential advisor on health issues, emphasized the importance of bringing health services closer to the population that need them most; she also mentioned that the activity was held to celebrate the 88th anniversary of the birth of FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca Amador and the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/mas-de-3 ... ortopedia/ (La Primerisima, 23 June 2024)

Military Hospital Has Best CT & MRI Scanning Units in the Region
The Military Hospital has the best equipment in the country to perform CT scans or MRIs. The equipment has two state-of-the-art resonators: one of three teslas (tesla is the unit of measurement of magnetic flux density) and another of 1.5 teslas, each one installed in a special room specifically equipped to house them. The CT scan is an imaging test that uses powerful magnets and radio waves to create images of the body. Ionizing radiation (x-rays) is not used. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) alone is called a slice. They can be stored on a computer or printed on film. One exam can produce thousands of images. CT scans can be performed on the abdomen, cervix, chest, head, heart, lumbar region or pelvis. (La Primerisima, 25 June 2024)

Youth Congress Held
More than 300 athletes, university students and artists participated in the Fuerza Victoriosa de Nuestro Pueblo Youth Congress, which took place on June 22 at the UNAN (National Autonomous University of Nicaragua) in Managua. The event was organized by the Ministry of Youth (MINJUVE) in collaboration with the Nicaraguan Institute of Sports (IND) and the Institute of Culture of Peoples and Youth, with the purpose of recognizing and strengthening the achievements of youth in the fields of art, culture and sports. The Congress encouraged the exchange of experiences and the training of facilitators who will inspire other young people to follow their passions and become examples at the national and international level. The activity took place within the framework of the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/celebran ... -juventud/
(La Primerisima, 23 June 2024)

The Sandinista Government Condemns Terrorism against Russia
Nicaraguan authorities sent a message to President Vladimir Putin expressing their “profound rejection and condemnation of the criminal terrorist attacks” perpetrated last weekend in different parts of the Russian Federation. [Twenty people were killed in terrorist attacks in the Russian region of Dagestan on June 23.] The letter, signed by President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, states that these acts that represent more violence and pain for so many families must be emphatically repudiated. They also sent their condolences and solidarity to Putin, the people and all those brothers and sisters who continue to be affected by fascist insanity. (La Primerisima, 24 June 2024)

https://afgj.org/on-the-45th-anniversar ... -nicaragua

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NicaNotes: How Safe Is Nicaragua? A Comparative Reflection
July 4, 2024
By James Phillips

(James Phillips is a cultural and political anthropologist who has been a student of life in Nicaragua and Honduras for four decades. His most recent book on Honduras is Extracting Honduras: Resource Exploitation, Displacement, and Forced Migration.)


Nicaraguan children march before a baseball tournament in Matagalpa. Having a government that promotes communitarian trust and supports meeting the needs of everyone seems to be a crucial factor in whether people feel “safe.”

On the night before I was married in 1985, during the wedding rehearsal dinner, my “best man,” Gary MacEoin, knew that my wife and I were heading to Nicaragua a week later, where the country was in the middle of the Contra War. My wife’s parents were concerned for our safety. Gary proposed a toast, “To the second safest city in the hemisphere…Managua!” My wife’s uncle Nick, a diehard Reagan supporter, asked, “What’s the safest city?’ Gary replied: “Havana, of course.” Nick said, “He’s probably right.” (Gary was the author of more than twenty books about Latin America).

In the 1980s and again during the past fifteen years, I have often had occasion to travel from Honduras to Nicaragua overland, crossing the border at Las Manos, then down the road from Dipilto to Ocotal to Estelí. By the time I get to Ocotal, I can begin to see and feel the difference, and by the time I reach Estelí, it is palpable—the sigh of relief. Others, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, foreign visitors have told me they could feel the difference. It is subtle, this feeling of safety, and it can be missed by those who have not had the experience of living in other Central American countries besides Nicaragua. Admittedly, a subjective and fleeting feeling, but there is a more objective reality behind it.

During the past fifteen years, while the murder rate in Honduras has at times reached 80 per hundred thousand and then stayed around 40, Nicaragua’s murder rate hovered around 7 per hundred thousand. But these are numbers. Beyond the statistics is the experience…. What does it mean to feel safe? What does a safe country mean?

The 1980s

Nicaragua has held a sense of comparative safety for me over many years. In the 1980s, I lived in northern Nicaragua as a long-term volunteer with Witness for Peace. This was during the Contra War, and my WFP work took me at times into Honduras. There, General Gustavo Alvarez, with the acquiescence of a weak civilian government, had declared a state of national security. The excuse was to protect the country against invasion from Nicaragua. The excuse was a lie, but the national security state made Hondurans anything but secure and safe. At military checkpoints on all the major roads, people were pulled off busses and trucks, men were frisked and some were detained. Military units entered restaurants, movie theaters, pool halls. and dragged out young men to be forced into the military, sent to prison, or disappeared. Military Battalion 316, known to everyone as a death squad, systematically killed or “disappeared” hundreds. There were torture houses used by the police and the military. Human rights leaders and journalists whom my wife and I interviewed were under constant death threat.

In southern Honduras, along the Nicaraguan border, Catholic aid workers told me that nearly ten thousand Hondurans were displaced by the Contra camps that were set up to wage war across the border. My only sense of security was my U.S. citizenship, since Honduras was a vassal state of the US. But even I could feel the fear and insecurity of the Hondurans with whom I interacted. The worst part was that this “security state” broke down the basic trust that people and communities need to function. Rule number one was to be careful with whom you share your thoughts and opinions. It was only the tremendous courage of so many Hondurans that made life functional and the fear bearable.

On the Nicaraguan side of the border, people and rural communities were experiencing the brutality of Contra attacks, and people certainly lived in fear, which I also felt, living among them. But the situation was clear. It was the Contras and the Reagan Administration, not the revolutionary government, that was creating the chaos and insecurity. Nicaraguans worked in community, whether in urban neighborhoods or in rural villages, to mitigate disasters and provide protection. There was conflict and distrust, but it was always managed, gently, if possible, by the local community. In Honduras, however, communities and trust were systematically destroyed. The big difference here was that the Nicaraguan revolutionary government was with the people, not against them. We always knew what the situation held, but in Honduras we seldom knew. Hondurans feared and avoided their army, if they could. Nicaraguans did not usually fear or avoid the Sandinista Army or the police, but regarded them as protectors.

I should make clear that this sense of comparative safety was not the same as happiness or contentment. It was not even about physical security, since no one could guarantee that in the middle of the war. I knew that local feuds and disputes were sometimes subsumed into the larger conflict. For me, the sense of safety in Nicaragua in the middle of the Contra War was the sense that trusting others was the basic survival mode, and it was taken for granted unless there was evidence otherwise. In Honduras, distrust—or at least caution and skepticism— was the basic survival mode, unless there was reason to trust. In Nicaragua, one could miss the nuances and still be safe. In Honduras, missing nuances could be dangerous.

2018 and Since

I was not in Nicaragua during the violent events of April-July of 2018. I was there in September and October when I interviewed a range of people, including longtime Nicaraguan friends from the 1980s and US and British expats who had lived in Nicaragua for many years. Some lived in cities, others in small rural communities. I encountered a spectrum of opinions ranging from strong criticism of the government to strong support. The most interesting to me were the many people, especially in rural areas, who offered a critical and nuanced support for the Nicaraguan government. I was struck by the way in which people freely expressed their feelings and opinions. I attribute that, in large part, to a sense of safety—often unconscious or latent—that people felt even, and maybe especially, when they were most vocal. I also discovered that in some rural communities that were less directly affected by the violence of April-July, there seemed to be a sense of calm that, I think, was in part a product of the revolution itself.

I was in Honduras also during this time. Hondurans referred to the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez as a narco-dictatorship. I was in several places where I narrowly escaped being killed. Hondurans who had lived through the national security state of the 1980s said that this time under Hernandez was as bad as, or worse than the 1980s. During this time, under Hernandez, as many as 60,000 to 100,000 Hondurans fled their country in some years. (Total national population approx. 9.5 million). I know the stories of some of these migrants who made it to U.S. immigration courts where I and others provided expert witness on their behalf. In 2021, Hondurans resoundingly defeated the narco-dictator at the ballot box and elected a new government that promised major changes. Hondurans are trying courageously to build a society of more trust and safety, perhaps a little more like that of their Nicaraguan neighbors.

The decades long campaign of the United States to depose the Sandinistas and roll back the revolution has used negative news and propaganda as weapons. But many of the examples used to show that Nicaraguans are not “safe” are actually examples that could reflect the opposite. One was the portrayal of Nicaragua as a country from which many thousands were fleeing. In the year from October, 2022 to September, 2023, 294,283 Nicaraguans migrated to neighboring Costa Rica. These figures were use in negative propaganda to “prove” that Nicaraguans are abandoning their country, fleeing for safety.

The propaganda fails to explain that much of this is a longtime pattern of temporary migration in search of (temporary) work. Or that in recent years drought in Nicaragua and U.S. economic sanctions have made it harder for some Nicaraguans to find work. More to the point, it also fails to explain why in the same year, 296,119 Nicaraguans returned to Nicaragua from Costa Rica, almost as many as had left. For whatever problems it has, Nicaragua has remained a place of relative safety and security for many who have experienced life in Costa Rica. A somewhat similar pattern seems to be developing with Nicaraguans who have come to the United States.

A Gift of Safety?

My experiences and reflections on what Nicaraguans have taught me probably come down to a few fundamental realizations. The contrast between a society based on communitarian trust and on meeting the basic needs of everyone, or a society based on one based on individualist struggle where the few enrich themselves as the expense of the many—is at the root of the sense of safety, even when physical security is not a certainty. Having a government that promotes and supports one or the other vision of society seems to be a crucial factor in whether people feel “safe.” Being safe is an intangible that thrives or dies in very tangible conditions.

I do not know to what extent experiencing the brutality of the Somoza dictatorship, the defense of the values of the revolution, the trial by fire of the Contra War, the years under neoliberal governments, and the violent interventions of 2018 may have shaped and made more important the sense of safety that Nicaragua seems to treasure today, but I can imagine that it must be so. In any case, Nicaragua continues to try to preserve this precious gift in and for a world wracked by distrust, insecurity, and trauma.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy
Nicaragua Now Holds SICA Presidency
As of July 1, Nicaragua holds the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Central American Integration System (SICA) until December 31, 2024. The SICA Presidency is exercised by a SICA Member State to smooth relations between the governments and the organs and institutions of the SICA System for the continued development of the Regional Integration Agenda. It is assumed on a rotating basis in geographical order for a period of six months. Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada received the accreditation from the President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, who held the Pro Tempore Presidency between January 1 and June 30, 2024. On June 29 Honduran authorities transferred to Nicaragua the Pro Tempore Presidency for the period from July to December 2024. (La Primerisima, 1 July 2024)

Nicaragua Urges Strengthening Multilateralism and Solidarity
The Government of Nicaragua expressed the need to strengthen multilateralism and solidarity, as well as the permanent search for peace and humanism, as guiding principles to overcome the great challenges facing humanity today. From June 25 to 27 the United Nations held the humanitarian affairs segment of the Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC. Senior representatives of member states convened to discuss the main themes of the meeting: “Putting humanity before conflict; climate change; strengthening humanitarian aid; and respect for international humanitarian law.” The alternate permanent representative of Nicaragua, Eleane Pichardo Urbina, pointed out the devastating situation in the Gaza Strip, where almost 40,000 people have already been killed and millions displaced. During her speech, she also stressed that we cannot ignore the more than three billion people threatened by climate change, especially in the region of Central America, the Island States and the African Continent. She explained that the cause of this climate crisis is due to the unsustainable production and consumption model of developed countries. (La Primerisima, 26 June 2024)

Anniversary of World Court Ruling the US an Aggressor State
“Today marks 38 years since June 27, 1986, when the International Court of Justice condemned the government of the United States as an aggressor state for its repeated violations of international law in its war against Nicaragua,” said Gustavo Porras, president of the National Assembly. He added that this was an “unprecedented” ruling of the World Court because it symbolized the struggle waged by peace-loving humanity against the threat of the empires of the world. “We have in force Law Number 17 approved on July 3, 1986, published in the Official Gazette of July 23, 1986, which declared June 27 as the Day of Respect for International Law,” he pointed out. Porras said that dates like these should be remembered, because they have guaranteed that Nicaragua is considered a peace-loving nation, respectful of International Law. (La Primerisima, 27 June 2024)

Government to Build Solar Energy Plant for ENACAL
The solar energy plant at San Isidro in the Department of Matagalpa will be the first government-built clean energy plant in Central America. All previous plants in Central America have been built and run by private companies. Construction began on June 26 on the plant that will produce 63 megawatts of energy, will cost US$89 million, and will be run by ENACAL, the Nicaraguan water and sewerage agency. Vice-President Rosario Murillo said that the solar energy park will produce energy for the pumps that will provide water for Nicaraguan families. Representatives of the government of Nicaragua and delegation from the People’s Republic of China laid the first stone for the construction of the plant. The plant is the first energy infrastructure to be financed by the Chinese government, with an investment of US$90 million. (Informe Pastran, 26 June 2024; La Primerisima, 26 June 2024)

5,200 Trees Planted in May and June
As part of the “Green, I want you green” campaign, between May and June, reforestation was promoted in water recharge sites and treatment plants in the cities of León, Jinotepe, Moyogalpa and Altagracia. According to a press release, 5,200 fruit and ornamental trees were planted: avocado, soursop (guanabana), guava, mango, hogberry (nancite), elephant-ear trees (Guanacaste), mahogany, monkey pod tree (genízaro), pochote, among others. These actions are carried out in partnership with municipalities, construction companies and the Guardabarranco Environmental Movement. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/siembran ... -del-pais/ (La Primerisima, 26 June 2024)

Ivan Acosta Named Minister Advisor to the President
On June 28, President Daniel Ortega named Ivan Acosta Montalván as Minister Advisor to the President for International Organizations. Acosta previously served as Finance Minister. (Gaceta Oficial, 28 June 2024)

Six Years Later, Carazo Does Not Forget Bismarck Martínez!
On June 29, the sixth anniversary of his murder, Sandinista militants in Carazo marched to the site where Bismark Martinez’ body was discovered a year after he was killed, saying that they would not forget him. In one of the most brutal murders committed during the failed coup d’etat between April and July 2018, Bismarck Martinez was kidnapped while traveling in his car from Managua to Jinotepe to visit his family. He was subjected to torture for many hours and then shot to death, his body thrown into a riverbed. For many months, Bismarck’s family, who are Sandinistas living in Jinotepe, government authorities, and the National Police searched for him until they finally found his remains in 2019. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/seis-ano ... -martinez/ (La Primerisima, 29 June 2024)

Mining Triangle to Get New Hospital
The mining triangle, composed of the cities of Bonanza, Siuna, and Rosita, will be getting a new state-of-the-art hospital that will be located in Siuna. National Assembly Deputy Loria Raquel Dixon said that the hospital is something that the people of the Caribbean Coast and particularly the people of the Mining Triangle deserve. “This hospital has been a pending debt which we have deserved for years,” she stated. The construction and equipping of the hospital are being financed by a US$103 million loan from the government of Saudi Arabia. (Informe Pastran, 2 July 2024)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-how-safe-is- ... reflection

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NicaNotes:

US Imposes Sanctions on Countries for Passing Measures that Copy US Law

By John Perry

(John Perry is based in Masaya, Nicaragua, and writes for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, London Review of Books, FAIR, Covert Action Magazine and others.)

[This article was first published in Covert Action Magazine.]

Politicians in the small Caucasian state of Georgia have been sanctioned by Washington for “undermining democracy” and depriving Georgian people of “fundamental freedoms”, simply because its parliament has passed a law to control foreign influence over Georgian politics.

Politicians in another small country, Nicaragua, were subjected to U.S. sanctions after doing the same. Although the two countries are very different, there are striking similarities in the ways that Washington and its allies have striven to undermine their sovereignty.

Before implementing its equivalent of the US Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), Nicaragua’s population of under seven million sustained no fewer than 7,000 NGOs, many of which were dependent on foreign funding. Photo: Revista de Frente

In both cases, legislation to limit foreign influence followed coup attempts against popularly elected governments. The governing Georgian Dream party, having won three elections since 2012, has survived two, U.S.-orchestrated coup attempts since 2020.

Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista Party had also won three elections in 12 years when a coup was thwarted in 2018 (it has since won another election, in 2021). Both countries’ governments found that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) financed from abroad were heavily involved in these insurrections and moved to control them. And both modelled their legislation—not on Russia as is claimed—but on longstanding U.S. federal law.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) came into force in the U.S. in 1938. It requires NGOs, other organizations, and individuals who receive funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents”. FARA-style legislation now exists in many other countries.

In recent years the U.S. has used FARA to crack down on what the New York Times called “prominent Washington research groups [receiving] tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments,” creating a “muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington.”

The Times article is replete with arguments for taming the influence of foreign governments on U.S. politics. Indeed, Washington’s most recent concern has been to expose what have been dubbed “Trojan horse” charities, those NGOs that have political objectives behind their charitable work.

However, neither Washington nor its allies abroad or in the corporate media approve of countries outside the West adopting similar powers. The reason is of course that they might expose the very Trojan horses created by Washington or by European capitals to interfere in those countries’ politics or even to provoke regime change.

Both Georgia and Nicaragua want to protect their sovereignty and try to limit foreign influence over their national affairs—aims that are uncontroversial in western countries.

Before implementing its equivalent of FARA, Nicaragua’s population of under seven million sustained no less than 7,000 NGOs, most of which were likely to have been dependent on foreign funding. Georgia’s current position is far more extreme: a country of just 3.8 million people hosts around 26,000 NGOs, the vast majority funded from abroad.

Of course, in both countries these nonprofits have often been involved in worthwhile humanitarian work. But, again in both cases, Washington and its allies have also been financing bodies that can legitimately be called Trojan horses.

And as Kit Klarenburg points out in The Grayzone, NGOs in Georgia have until now benefitted from lax rules about foreign funding – as indeed did those in Nicaragua before its 2020 legislation took effect.

What does a Trojan horse NGO actually do? Their websites typically have mission statements and programs aimed at “promoting democratic values,” “capacity building,” “strengthening civil society,” advocating “good governance,” “raising civic awareness” and finding “a new generation of democratic youth leaders.”

These are essentially labels for what is really pro-Western propaganda, often directed at young people who are simultaneously encouraged to adopt “modern,” “liberal” values and lifestyles and be critical of their governments for failing to toe Washington’s line.

There are prizes: salaried jobs, training courses (perhaps overseas) for NGO recruits, opportunities to learn English, and more. As Jacobin puts it, “working in an NGO is a fast track to high incomes, perks like foreign travel and embassy receptions, and being part of the elite.”

Unmentioned in public documents might be training in organizing “non-violent” anti-government protests and exploiting social media to foster discontent. In the Georgian context, this is called a “color revolution” which, as The Nation puts it, “has become a byword for pro-Western, protest-driven regime change”. In Nicaragua, Yorlis Luna talked to young people who explained how Trojan horse NGOs schooled them to prepare for the “peaceful protests” that quickly became a violent coup attempt in 2018.

When well-funded NGOs join forces with local “human rights” bodies and with local media that are also foreign-funded, the combined effects can be powerful. In Georgia, The Nation quotes labor activist Sopo Japaridze as saying that there does not appear to be a single major foreign-funded civil society or media organization that is not fervently opposed to the elected government. “The entire ecosystem is against them,” he says, “and the NGOs have more power and influence than the government does internationally.” Similar words could have been used to describe Nicaragua in 2018.

While regime change was the U.S. objective in both countries, the motivation differed. Nicaragua was targeted because it poses the “threat of a good example”—a socialist-oriented country in a region which the US views as its “backyard.”

Georgia is being targeted because of its balanced political position, moving towards future membership of the European Union while maintaining peaceful relations with its next-door neighbor, Russia. As its prime minister points out, both Washington and its EU allies want Georgia firmly in the anti-Russia camp, a new “frontline against Russia.”

Where does a Trojan horse NGO get its funding for its regime-change work? Apart from the findings of Nicaragua Network election interference delegations in 2006 and 2011, the foreign funding of Nicaraguan NGOs was little known-about before the coup attempt in April 2018. However, within a month of the initiation of the coup attempt, an article in Global Americans, "Laying the groundwork for insurrection", highlighted Washington’s role.

Then on June 14, Kenneth Wollack, now chairman of the state-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), bragged to the U..S Congress that they had trained 8,000 young Nicaraguans to take part in the uprising. USAID later launched a specific program aimed at influencing the outcome of the 2021 elections. I have documented the role of US-funded NGOs in the coup attempt and in subsequent regime-change efforts in Nicaragua.

In Georgia, foreign funding of NGOs is out in the open. Jacobin says that 90 per cent of NGOs are financed from abroad, and prominent ones such as the Economic Policy Research Center, the Europe Georgia Institute and the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information make no secret of having funding sources such as the NED, European Union and even NATO. One that receives NED funding, the Shame Movement, is explicit about its aim of drawing Georgia into the European Union.

Klarenburg reports that in 2023, when Georgian Dream made a previous attempt to bring in a FARA-style law, it had to capitulate when vast, violent crowds, with the Shame Movement “in the vanguard”, threatened to overrun parliament and bring about a color revolution.

The “outsized role” played by foreign-funded bodies has, according to Jacobin, “led the country into a chronic democratic crisis.” It is therefore hardly surprising that the government continues to push ahead with legislation to control them.

What is such a law and what happens when it is implemented? FARA-style laws generally do not prohibit foreign funding, they simply require it to be declared, so that the way it is used can be documented and made transparent. NGOs that are really Trojan horses can then be identified. Closures of NGOs inevitably result—but usually only a small minority are identified as Trojan horses.

Most closures come about because NGOs cannot or will not comply with more stringent accounting requirements, or the change brings to light redundant NGOs that exist in name only.

In Australia, over 10,000 nonprofits were closed when its FARA-style law was implemented. The equivalent authorities in the U.S. and UK close thousands of NGOs each year for non-compliance or because they cease to operate.

Nicaragua has closed about half of the NGOs it had before its FARA-style law took effect, and while the initial closures were Trojan horses the vast majority have lost their NGO status through non-compliance or because they are effectively defunct.

The Trojan horse role of NGOs was perhaps most obvious in Russia, a developed country which nevertheless had many foreign-funded charities before it introduced a FARA-style law in 2012. Scott Ritter reports that the law “proved to be the death knell for U.S., UK, and EU-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that had spent more than two decades trying to, according to their leaders, shape Russian civil society along western lines.”

In 2015, Russia blacklisted the National Endowment for Democracy but nevertheless, in 2021, the NED still had more than 60 Russia-oriented projects, valued in millions of dollars, but presumably now based outside the country.

When the foreign funding of NGOs comes under threat from an equivalent to FARA, it is hardly surprising that the NGOs protest.

This happened in the U.S. when it toughened foreign agent rules in 2022, provoking a response from NGOs across the political spectrum.

It happened in Australia in 2018 and in the UK in 2023 when they announced similar laws. Protests from NGOs in Georgia were to be expected, just as they were in Nicaragua, because the NGO sectors are heavily dependent on foreign funding and fear its loss, job cuts and possible closures.

What characterizes the protests in Georgia and Nicaragua, and indeed other non-Western countries such as Thailand where controls on NGOs have been tightened, is that the threat of FARA-style legislation is used to create a sort of moral panic by human rights bodies, the corporate media and the spokespeople of Western governments.

According to this narrative, such a law will not just bring over-zealous regulation of one sector of society, but threaten the whole society’s freedom of expression and its democratic values. This claim is used to justify the mobilization of well-publicized anti-government protests, ostensibly non-violent, but which can rapidly provoke a response from police that can justify violence in return.

As political scientist Glenn Diesen points out, “the media shows some pictures of protests and we are ready to redefine democracy as the rule of a loud Western-backed minority to support intimidations, sanctions and a coup.”

While the cases of Georgia and Nicaragua differ somewhat, because in Georgia “non-violent” protests responded to the impending legal changes while in Nicaragua they were ostensibly about minor changes in state-funded pensions, in both cases the regime-change motivation of the protesters quickly became apparent.

Diesen notes that the same occurred in Ukraine in 2014: Western governments and NGOs “backed an unconstitutional coup against a democratically elected government and the coup was only supported by a minority of Ukrainians. Yet, it was sold to us as ‘pro-Ukrainian’ and a ‘democratic revolution’ so we supported it without any critical debate.”

The unconstitutional coup in Ukraine was, from Washington’s viewpoint, a success. But similar actions in Georgia and Nicaragua have – so far – been counterproductive. To alleviate the damage being done by US sanctions, Nicaragua is developing close relations with both China and Russia. Meanwhile, after passing the legislation to control NGOs this month, the Georgian Dream party is reported to be “actively working” to restore the country’s diplomatic relations with Russia.

One final intriguing connection between Georgia and Nicaragua is the presence of a global NGO called the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), headed by Slobodan Djinovic, who claim to have trained regime-change activists in 52 countries. CANVAS, supported by USAID, had been training activists in Georgia at the end of 2023 when the “color revolution” appeared to be imminent.

Whether CANVAS had a role in Nicaragua’s 2018 insurrection is unclear, but the NGO has certainly been active in Venezuela and a CANVAS official visited Nicaragua in the aftermath of the coup attempt. Djinovic uses Nicaragua’s failed coup as a case study in a course on “non-violence” that he teaches at Harvard.

Sanctions imposed by the White House on Georgian officials who are promoting FARA-style legislation mirror the steps taken against the Nicaraguan government when it did the same in 2020. Instead of admitting that laws to oversee the foreign funding of non-government organizations have been adopted by many Western-aligned countries, Georgia’s plan has been dubbed “Russian Law,” just as—at the time—Nicaragua’s equivalent was labelled “Putin Law”.

Corporate media such as the BBC have repeated Washington’s line and quote Secretary of State Blinken at length, without pointing out his hypocrisy in criticizing a country for adopting legislation that is, in reality, based on U.S. law, not Russia’s.

The irony is that FARA was originally sold as a means of defending democracy when it was introduced in the U.S. But if FARA is used in a country which Washington or its allies regard as disobedient, it is painted as an attack on democracy and as a step on the road to authoritarian government.

Dubbing the legislation as “Russian law” or “Putin law” makes the message clear.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Multi-Million Dollar Investment to Build and Modernize Hospitals
In the last 17 years, the Sandinista government has negotiated 18 international loan contracts to build and modernize hospital infrastructure for a total of US$653 million. Along with that, US$193.3 million for health facilities has come from the nation’s general budget, US$69.3 million from foreign donations, and US$390 million through agreements with different international financial organizations, according to an announcement by the vice-chair of the National Assembly Economy Committee, Deputy José Santos Figueroa. For example, the primary hospital infrastructure in the region of Las Minas (the towns of Bonanza, Siuna and Rosita), currently consists of four departmental hospitals, 53 health centers, 11 maternity homes and two homes for people with special needs. (La Primerisima, 2 July 2024)

6,000 Medical Services at Mega Health Fair in Nueva Guinea
On July 6 the Ministry of Health held a Mega Health Fair in Internal Medicine at the Jacinto Hernández Hospital in Nueva Guinea, in the South Caribbean Autonomous Region. During the activity, 6,230 health care services were provided to families from the municipalities of El Rama, Muelle de Los Bueyes, El Coral and Nueva Guinea. At the Mega Health Fair, doctors provided care in infectious diseases, neurology, and gastroenterology. There were 58 specialists from different health units of the country, as well as nurses. Intercultural nursing students from the Caribbean Coast Regional University (URACCAN) in Nueva Guinea also participated. The activity was carried out in salute to the 45th anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/mas-de-6 ... va-guinea/ (La Primerisima, 7 July 2024)

Nicaragua Has More than 3,000 Health Facilities
The Ministry of Health currently runs 3,100 medical units, including hospitals, health posts, health centers, and maternity homes to provide care to the population in the 153 municipalities of the country. There are 76 hospitals, of which 32 are national referral hospitals and 44 are primary care hospitals; 142 health centers; 2,700 health posts and 182 maternity wait homes. This year the Óscar Danilo Rosales Hospital, which will be the largest in Central America, will be inaugurated in Leon. It will have state-of-the-art technology. Hospitals in Nueva Segovia and Bilwi are also expected to be inaugurated in the coming months. During this second stage of the revolution, 28 national hospitals and 25 primary care hospitals have been built, improved, expanded or rehabilitated. Nicaragua is currently experiencing a revolution in public health, thanks to the will of the Sandinista government to improve the attention to Nicaraguans. There has been an investment of $US103 million for the construction of the Carlos Centeno Hospital in the municipality of Siuna. This hospital will have 310 beds for a population of some 300,000 inhabitants. It will be the second hospital in the North Caribbean, since the construction of the Nuevo Amanecer Hospital in Bilwi is already underway. (La Primerisima, 9 July 2024)

Government Has Built more than 40,000 New Roads
Authorities of the Nicaraguan Institute of Municipal Development (INIFOM) highlighted substantive advances in the construction of new streets, roads and recreational spaces in the last 17 years. According to engineer Iván Lacayo, during the second stage of the Revolution, more than 40,000 streets and more than 50,000 kilometers of roads have been built in the different municipalities. "Throughout the country, we have a road network of approximately 46,000 streets and 51,000 kilometers of roads that every year are maintained by the municipalities," he said. The municipalities this year on average maintained some 3,500 streets, including new and improved streets, and about 5,000 kilometers of road with the national agencies, which work very closely with the municipalities, he said. The head of INIFOM said that another advance is the construction of more recreational and sports spaces, which have increased by 50% in relation to 2007. The challenge now is to take this infrastructure to rural areas, he said. (La Primerisima 3 July 2024)

More than 500 Guests Confirmed for the 45/19 Celebration
Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the arrival of more than 550 delegates from various countries to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Popular. During her daily address on Channel 4 Television, Murillo said that these "brothers and sisters come from groups in solidarity with Nicaragua, with our people; brothers and sisters who come from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Spain, France, United Kingdom, from our America, United States, from Chile come 100 brothers and sisters who are the fighters who were here in times of triumph, of victories, of struggle, in different historical moments." She said that guests from Canada, Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Cuba, Venezuela and Palestine will also be participating. (La Primerisima, 4 July 2024)

Trade Schools in Siuna Certify over 100 Youths
The authorities of the National Technological Institute gave certificates to 124 young men and women of the municipality of Siuna, accrediting them as trained in cosmetology, pastry arts, sewing, home electricity, English and Excel. The training courses for these young people lasted three months and were supported by the municipal government and the Bernardino Díaz Ochoa Nacional Technological Institute.

Eighty percent of the graduates have started their own businesses and are thriving.

Ingrid Velásquez Mejía, who completed the sewing course, said that she learned to make her own costumes, which she wore last Friday, in addition to learning how to make different types of clothing, all free of charge. The director of the center, Dagoberto Sevilla, said that these young people are ready to prosper. (La Primerisima, 6 July 2024)

Corn Island Entrepreneurs Receive Production Packages
120 women seafood traders and four collection centers on Corn Island, South Caribbean Coast, received production packages from the Nicaraguan Institute of Fish and Agriculture, INPESCA, and the local mayor's office. The entrepreneurs received essential utensils and equipment such as pans, chopping boards, folding tables, scales, gloves, stainless steel knives and coolers. The collection centers received stainless steel tables, rubber boots, gloves, baskets, coolers, stainless steel pans, and scales, thus strengthening their tools for efficient marketing. This is part of the Emergency Response Project to Hurricanes Eta and Iota [2020 category four hurricanes] which seek to assist in the recovery of livelihoods through the activation of artisanal fishing. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/emprende ... roductivo/ (La Primerisima, 8 July 2024)

Jinotepe Remembers Four Youth Murdered 45 Years Ago
The Sandinista militancy of Jinotepe paid homage to the four students murdered on July 9, 1979, in an attack carried out by the Somocista National Guard. On that day four youth were murdered: Marlon Calderón, 17 years old; Hugo Santiago López González, 26 years old; Alberto Fanor Chévez Cuadra, 16 years old; and Mario José Álvarez, 20 years old. They were all leaders of high school and university student organizations. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/jinotepe ... e-45-anos/ (La Primerisima, 9 July 2024)

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US Government Exploits Animosity Towards Migrants to Demonize Socialist Countries
JULY 11, 2024


Migrants at border wall waiting to surrender to immigration officials in El Paso, TX, March 25, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Adrees Latif.

By Jill Clark-Gollub – Jul 9, 2024

The Republican party has been waging a blatantly racist campaign to criminalize migrants. Instead of pushing back on that narrative, the party that purports to be for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Democrats) is exploiting this racist anger to discredit a country it has targeted for regime change—Nicaragua—apparently for not sufficiently suppressing the rights of migrants. As Congresswoman Maria Salazar (R-FL) told a Biden administration representative at a recent hearing, “We agree on the end goal.” This is part of a relentless campaign to punish countries that dare to resist Washington’s agenda with suffocating unilateral coercive measures (aka “sanctions”).

Congresswoman Salazar convened a June 27 hearing of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere about “The Curse of Socialism in Central America and the Caribbean,” an apt sequel to her 2023 Congressional resolution “Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism.” The hearing’s purpose seemed to be to denigrate and punish Nicaragua and Cuba, and to threaten Honduras (and any other country that follows their example).

It included bizarre accusations regarding the crime of human trafficking. For at least five years now, Cuba detractors have been alleging that the world-renowned Henry Reeve Brigade, which sends Cuban physicians around the world bringing medical care to address humanitarian disasters, is a human trafficking ring. This sinister argument claims that no doctors would willingly accept the modest wages that Cuban doctors receive, nor could the doctors possibly be motivated by humanitarian interests or anything other than personal enrichment, so they must be victims of trafficking. Lodging such unfounded complaints about a serious human rights issue could undermine efforts to combat real instances of human trafficking. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines human trafficking as, “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.” No evidence has ever been put forth that the Cuban doctors are subject to force, fraud, or deception. On the contrary, the doctors have given numerous interviews regarding how proud and pleased they are to help people through the Henry Reeve Brigade. Yet these unfounded accusations persist.

Now Nicaragua is being accused of human trafficking, too, because it applies immigration policies that respect international law. Accusations that Nicaragua was “weaponizing migration” to exacerbate the crisis on the southern US border began in Nicaraguan opposition circles around 2022 once Cubans and Haitians began traveling through Nicaragua on the way to the United States. While the US violates well-established norms to protect refugees and asylum seekers, Nicaragua has become an escape valve for people fleeing the humanitarian crises in Cuba and Haiti that are largely caused by US policy. Thinly veiled racist accusations have since been taken up by US corporate media, with allegations that the Nicaraguan government is somehow profiting from the flow of migrants through its country and is in fact engaged in or encouraging human trafficking. Such charges come devoid of any evidence of how government authorities might profit from the situation. And while migrants are indeed vulnerable to predators, human trafficking rings go hand-in-hand with organized crime—including drug and weapons trafficking—scourges that are noticeably absent from Nicaragua. Even Manuel Orozco, one of loudest purveyors of this dishonest theory admits that, “It’s a complicated issue because everyone has the right [to] free movement.”

This narrative has been expanded as migrants from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, seeing the doors of Western Europe closed to them, have been seeking new paths to the United States. Flying into Central America is a way to avoid the dangerous Darien Gap in Panama, and Nicaragua’s inexpensive or free visas make it more economical than other options.



The accusations have taken a dangerous turn as Nicaragua is now blamed for the crimes of anyone who passes through its territory. Such is the case of eight migrants from Tajikistan alleged to have ties with ISIS, who are said to have passed through Nicaragua on their way to the US border. Never mind that they passed through several countries in addition to Nicaragua on their way to the US, or that they even fooled US immigration authorities about their criminal records, Nicaragua is now being called a “State Sponsor or Terrorism” because such individuals might have passed through its territory.

Congresswoman Salazar appears eager to pursue this charge and have Nicaragua join Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list. During the June hearing, she excoriated the State Department spokesman for any collaboration with the Cuban government to fight terrorism and admonished the Biden administration to refrain from any thought of removing Cuba from “the list.” Readers may be aware that the spurious placement of Cuba on the list in 2021 has greatly exacerbated the six-decade-old blockade of the island nation, making it even harder for the country to procure essential supplies and food, provoking a humanitarian and migration crisis. Congress is now trying to make Cuba’s spot on this list permanent.

The justification for Nicaragua’s placement on the list is equally flimsy and could bring tremendous suffering to the Central American country, too. When Rep. Salazar told the State Department witness, “Why don’t you put them on the terrorist list as well? … Put Nicaragua?” The response was, “I will take back your recommendation.”

Before closing the meeting, Rep. Salazar mentioned that she wanted to remove Nicaragua from the DR-CAFTA agreement, because “that is what will hurt them [the government],” even though she admitted that it will also hurt ordinary Nicaraguans.

As for Honduras, Salazar’s assessment is summed up with these words about the report on Honduran democracy that the State Department is preparing: “I would give Madame President an F!” and … “Are you sending Madame President the message that she should not be messing with Honduran democracy and she should not be moving to the left like Chavez, Maduro, Ortega, Fidel?”

The Monroe Doctrine and the Cold War appear to be alive and well in the US Congress and State Department. Although Venezuela was not mentioned at this hearing, readers may be aware that the United States reinstated coercive measures on that country in April based on allegations surrounding its preferred candidate in this month’s presidential election. We can expect more pain and suffering to be heaped on the Venezuelan people if they re-elect the man who is leading in the polls: President Maduro.

The combination of the June hearing and last year’s Congressional resolution against socialism makes clear that regime change is not the only goal of US coercive measures. They are also meant to make sure that countries providing universal healthcare, education, and social services—such as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela—whom many call “threats of a good example,” become examples of what kind of punishment the US government is willing to impose on those who break out from under its influence. This is meant to serve as a dire warning to others, such as the people of Honduras, who are exploring new paths.

For this reason, we must defend other nations from our government’s economic aggression. One tool that we have to educate and mobilize people is the Americas Without Sanctions campaign, which, among other resources, includes a link to support Congresswoman Velázquez’ resolution to annul the Monroe Doctrine and establish better relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. We MUST end the blockade of Cuba and get it off the SSOT list! We must prevent any more countries from being placed on the list, and eliminate all unilateral coercive measures! They are illegal under international law, and immoral because they impose collective punishment and harm the most vulnerable citizens.

We must do everything we can to save the peoples of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and other nations from these ongoing attacks on their self-determination.

https://orinocotribune.com/us-governmen ... countries/

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170 Years of U.S. Aggression Against Nicaragua
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 16, 2024
Rick Sterling



On July 19, Nicaraguans will be celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution

When the Monroe Doctrine was declared, in 1823, it was aimed at European colonial powers. It told them to butt out: the US “sphere of influence” included all of Latin America and the Caribbean. During the past two centuries, virtually every Latin American and Caribbean country has had to endure US intervention and interference in their internal affairs. The coups, political manipulation and aggression directed by Washington have been relentless.

One of the most victimized countries has been Nicaragua. In this article, I will review the different types of aggression used by Washington against Nicaragua. This is not ancient history; the interference continues to today. The methods change but the purpose remains the same: to subjugate nominally independent countries and use them in the interests of US corporations, elites and government. When nations resist domination and insist on independence, the US goal becomes to prevent them from succeeding.

July 19, 2024

On July 19 Nicaragua will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. On that day, Nicaraguans overthrew the US backed Somoza dictatorship. In Managua, Nicaraguans will honor the day and re-assert their sovereignty and independence. Nicaraguan leaders will likely denounce US interference and their right to have friendly relations with any country they choose to. At the same time, we will surely see negative comments about Nicaragua from Washington and US media.

There have been eight distinct types of US interference and aggression against Nicaragua.

1 – Conquest 1855-56

In 1855, with a small army of US and European soldiers, William Walker arrived in Nicaragua. The country was in the midst of a civil war and the foreign military turned the tide. When Walker’s forces seized control of the Nicaraguan city of Grenada, he declared himself President of Nicaragua. Walker’s presidency was quickly recognized by US President Franklin Pierce. Supported by southern slave holding US states, one of Walker’s early actions as Nicaraguan president was to re-legalize slavery which had been outlawed in 1832. Nicaraguans did not accept this. Within a couple years, Walker’s forces were defeated, and in 1857 he was executed in neighboring Honduras.

2 – Military occupation 1909-1933

Beginning in 1909, US Marines invaded and occupied Nicaragua when US financial interests were not being considered paramount. Nicaraguans were considering borrowing money from European countries to finance a canal running across the isthmus. For the next three decades, the US Marines were ever present to insure Washington and Wall Street controlled major decisions. USMC Major General Smedly Butler later reflected on his role: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism…. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers.” Beginning in 1927, US foreign military dominance was increasingly challenged by a peasant army led by Augusto Cesar Sandino. Sandino’s July 1, 1927 manifesto denounces the collaborators and commits to “defend the national honor and redeem the oppressed.” By 1930, Sandino’s army was 5,000 strong and inflicting serious blows. In 1933 the last US Marines left Nicaragua following the election of Juan Batista Sacasa.

3 – US-backed dictatorship 1934-1969

The US Marines departed but left behind trained surrogates. In 1934, the “National Guard” reneged on a peace agreement with Sandino and murdered him, his brother and two generals. They proceeded to destroy Sandino’s army and then overthrew the elected government. With US support, the Somoza family dominated the country for the next forty-five years. Poverty and illiteracy were widespread while corruption was rampant. In 1961, armed opposition to the Somoza dictatorship was formed under the banner of the Sandinista Front for the Liberation of Nicaragua (FSLN). After fifty thousand deaths, the Somoza dictatorship was overthrown on 19 July 1979.

4 – Terrorism 1969-1980

Under the FSLN, Nicaragua made huge improvements with land reform and a very successful literacy campaign. For the first time, medical help was made available in remote communities and schools were open to all children. But in Washington, the Reagan administration could not accept an independent Nicaragua. US President Reagan was obsessed with overthrowing the Sandinista government. They tried to do this by creating a “Contra” army which attacked community clinics, bombed gas pipelines and infrastructure and killed healthcare and rural cooperative members. They even killed foreign aid workers such as young US engineer Ben Linder who was constructing a small hydroelectric dam to provide electricity to a remote village.

In the face of such obvious crimes, Nicaragua filed charges against the United States before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). They won their case and the US was ordered to pay compensation for the damages caused. Flaunting the ruling of the highest court in the world, the Reagan administration refused to pay damages to Nicaragua and continued to support the terrorist army. Under popular pressure, Congress passed the Boland amendment outlawing US assistance to the terrorist Contras. The Reagan administration ignored this as well, funding the Contras through a scheme where weapons were sent to the Contras in small private airplanes. The same planes were used to bring Colombian cocaine into the US. The profits went to the Contras while crack cocaine flooded poor and largely Black communities. A recent book from a CIA “Black Ops”agent documents the creation, training and financing of the terrorist Contras.

5 – Economic warfare 1985 to 1990

In 1985, an economic embargo was applied by the US against Nicaragua. US products could no longer be exported to Nicaragua and Nicaraguan products were barred from entering the US. The goal was clearly to hurt the Nicaraguan economy and pressure the Nicaraguan people to turn against the government. The justification stated: “I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, find that the policies and actions of the Government of Nicaragua constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.” (underline added) The truth was the exact opposite: the policies of aggression by the United States was an extreme threat to Nicaragua.

6 – Election interference 1984 to today

The first democratic election in Nicaragua’s history took place in 1984. The FSLN won against a very divided opposition. Chuck Kaufman analyzed what happened then and afterward:

“Already in 1984, we saw the United States place itself as the final judge and jury as to whether or not an election was legitimate… Delegitimizing elections is one of the primary overt tools used by the United States to subvert democracy around the world…. The 1990 election is where the US game plan for election intervention was written, perfected and victorious…. Through the use of money and pressure, the US took advantage of Nicaragua’s lack of laws controlling foreign money in its elections to create a unified 14 party anti-Sandinista coalition … The US then spent more money per Nicaraguan voter than George H W Bush and Michael Dukakis combined spent per US voter in our 1988 presidential election. At the same time the US warned Nicaraguan voters that the Contra War, which had cost them 40,000 sons and daughters, would continue if Daniel Ortega won reelection.”

US intervention was “successful” in bringing the US-supported team into power in Managua. A slim majority of Nicaraguans cried uncle in the face of US aggression and threats. The US and western media was surprised when Daniel Ortega and the FSLN peacefully left office and passed on the leadership.

Neoliberal policies reigned for the next 16 years. While they were good for the wealthy and elites, they were a disaster for the majority of Nicaraguans. Health care and education was again privatized. Land reform measures and the literacy campaign were ended. Illiteracy again became widespread. State controlled infrastructure including roads, water and electricity was not improved, it was in disrepair and decline.

In the elections of 2006, Daniel Ortega and the FSLN won a plurality. There were multiple reasons: first, the economy and deteriorating infrastructure was a disaster. Second, the US failed to unite the right. Third, US election interference was publicly revealed after the US ambassador unwisely told some visiting activists how many millions were allotted for interfering in the election.

7 – Subversion through NGOs and “color revolution”

After 16 years in opposition, the FSLN came back to power in 2007 under the leadership of Ortega. With ever increasing electoral support, they have governed since then. The reasons for their popularity are practical. Healthcare and education are provided free. Roads and highways have been greatly improved and now extend across the country to the Caribbean. Electricity and running water have been continuously expanded and are now available throughout 98% of the country. Nicaragua is in the world top 10% in gender equality and renewable energy. Nicaragua actively assists small farmers and is 90% food sovereign.

Washington has not rushed to congratulate Nicaragua on their successes. On the contrary, this success has been noted with displeasure and Nicaragua has returned to the list of countries targeted for destabilization.

Over the past decades, the US has developed a softer approach to undermining governments which are deemed to be “adversary”. A key component of this is funding “non-governmental organizations” (NGOs). These organizations may have innocuous or even progressive sounding purposes but inevitably serve US goals. The NGOs receive much of their funding from US government related organizations such as USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy. As documented by Max Blumenthal in June 2018, the NGOs proudly boasted of their role in “laying the groundwork for insurrection” and “nurturing the current uprisings”.

With salaries which are high in comparison to local standards, the NGOs attract and influence ambitious students and youth. The directors of the NGOs learn which youth are promising to their objectives and what issues motivate them. In Nicaragua there were dozens of NGOs with a mission of “democracy promotion”. In essence these were training sessions in anti-government activism. Other focal points were journalism and the use of social media. There was little or no monitoring of these foreign funded activities.

In the spring of 2018, there was an attempt to overthrow the elected Sandinista government. The coup attempt was driven by youth influenced by US funded NGOs with muscle provided by mercenary thugs and gangs. The coup attempt, from beginning to end, is described in a series of articles by Nicaraguan resident and journalist John Perry and author Dan Kovalik. This was similar to “color revolutions” carried out in numerous other countries on US target list. The common characteristics are: youth mobilized by US funded NGOs, heavy use of social media, false or exaggerated accusations of government violence, false claims that the protests are strictly “peaceful” when there are actually widespread provocations and violence.

Nicaragua passed through this stage from April to July 2018. The insurrection died when it became clear the violence was instigated by the protesters and the average Nicaraguan was being deeply hurt by the continued disruption and roadblocks. Dozens of police and hundreds of civilians were killed in the confrontations. Hundreds of government buildings, police stations and schools were attacked and the economy severely disrupted.

Ultimately, the insurrection and coup attempt collapsed. With police ordered to stay in their barracks, it was clear who was responsible for the violence. The public became increasingly angry at the protesters because their roadblocks and violence were ruining lives and the economy. The silver lining is that it sparked a realization in the FSLN that they needed to be more vigilant about education of youth and monitoring foreign funded organizations.

8 – Information warfare and extreme sanctions

Beginning with the 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua, the US information war on Nicaragua escalated dramatically. In 2020, Nicaragua started regulating foreign-backed organizations. Given that foreign supported organizations played a big role in the insurrection resulting in hundreds of deaths and billions in economic damage, the need to do this was clear. The new regulations require foreign-backed organizations to document where their funding comes from and how it is spent. The US has the same requirement known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), but that does not stop western media from claiming that these laws are “dismantling civil society”. On the contrary, many NGOs registered and continued as before. Those who refused to register were denied a permit, just as they would be in the United States.

US government influence extends to many “human rights” groups and some branches of the United Nations. For example the UN’s Human Rights Council established a “Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua” to investigate alleged Nicaraguan human rights violations and abuses since April 2018. Their mandate was extended until February 2025 but they have issued two preliminary reports that claim Nicaragua is committing crimes, violations and abuses including “persecution of any dissenting voice”, torture and the “deprivation of Nicaraguan nationality.”

The reports by three “experts”, none of whom is Nicaraguan, are extremely biased. They have been rebutted in a detailed article co-written by international legal scholar Alfred de Zayas. It is endorsed by 85 different organizations and over 450 individuals including Nicaraguan citizens and residents. The article reveals that the “experts” failed to comply with their own mandate to gather information from all sides. The report of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) is solely based on the opinions and accusations of the dissidents and is a mockery of what should be an objective report based on evidence from all sides.

Along with the drumbeat of negative accusations based on subjective or no evidence, the US keeps adding more and more sanctions on Nicaragua. Unknown to most Americans, sanctions (called ‘unilateral coercive measures’) have been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations General Assembly. They are considered to be in violation of international law and the UN Charter. Ignoring the opinions of 75% of the world, the US Treasury Department has recently issued a slew of sanctions on Nicaraguan officials, state corporations, judges, mayors and attorney general.

While trying to hurt the Nicaraguan economy, the US has started offering easy immigration to the US for Nicaraguans. They are even using Facebook and social media to lure Nicaragua youth. The goal seems to be to undermine the economy and encourage “brain drain” where youth with skills and ambition will be tempted to leave the country. After all, despite the positive gains and accomplishments, including free health care and education, most Nicaraguans are still poor. This phenomenon has been well documented in articles such as “New US Immigration Policies Effect on Nicaragua: Brain Drain and Deportation” and “US government exploits animosity toward migrants to demonize socialist countries”.

Summary

In late 2021, three years after the coup attempt, Nicaragua held its national election. Western criticisms of the election were refuted in this article. International observers were impressed with organization, large turnout and enthusiasm. The US administration and media falsely claimed the main opposition candidates had been imprisoned. In fact, the few imprisoned individuals represented no parties or significant base of support. They claimed to be “precandidates” not because they were viable contenders but because they sought to avoid prosecution while slandering the Nicaraguan government.

On the contrary, there were five opposition candidates representing genuine parties and movements. The voters had a real choice. With 66% of the electorate voting, 75% voted for Daniel Ortega and the FSLN over the competitors. The theme of the election was “Soberania”, beautifully sung by a young Nicaraguan patriot at the house where Cesar Augusto Sandino grew up.

Nicaragua continues to assert its sovereignty and pursue its own foreign policy. In September 2021, Nicaragua cut ties with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with China. In October 2022, Nicaragua refused to condemn Russia for its intervention in Ukraine, blaming the US and NATO for having provoked the conflict. On Oct 24 2023, Nicaragua called for an emergency session of the UN General Assembly to consider “protection of the Palestinian civilian population.” Later, Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said the Palestinian cause is one of the most just causes of our times. In January 2024, Nicaragua filed charges at the International Court of Justice against Germany for being an accomplice to genocide in Gaza.

In June the results of an extensive poll conducted by the independent and well regarded M&R Consultants were released. They indicate high satisfaction with the direction and leadership of the country. Confidence in the “stability, security, and economic progress” of the country has risen from 36.8% in 2018 to 74.8% today.

Nicaragua has good reason to be wary of the United States. In the eight different ways described above, the US has interfered with Nicaragua’s independence for 170 years. The vast majority of Nicaraguans continue to resist, calmly insisting on their independence and sovereignty. As the song “Soberania” says, “Respect my flag or go away.”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/07/ ... nicaragua/

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Several Presidents Join in Congratulating the Triumph of the Sandinista Revolution


Nicaraguan People with the flag of Sandinist Revolution, July 2024 Photo: @TovarichDelSur

July 17, 2024 Hour: 9:09 pm

From the 4 corners of the world, presidents and friends of Nicaragua celebrate the conquests of the Sandinista revolution

On Wednesday, on the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, presidents from around the world have expressed their congratulations and good wishes to President Daniel Ortega and Nicaragua.

From Asia, Chinese President Xi Jinping in a statement highlighted the work of defending the Nicaraguan revolution, a work carried out by all the united people, led by President Ortega.

In addition, the Asian giant initiated close relations between the Chinese people and the Sandinista people in the strengthening of cooperation.

Likewise, the same side of the world, North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, congratulated Managua and assured that the fruitful path of relations between North Korea and Nicaragua, not only in friendly matters but also to fight imperialism.


In Europe, the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, hailed the anniversary of the revolutionary triumph and highlighted the good state of the relations of mutual cooperation between Minsk and Managua.

Likewise, the interim president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Mokhbar, on behalf of Allah, wished health and well-being to the Nicaraguan people as well as applauded the conquests of the Sandinista Revolution.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/several- ... evolution/

[blindpig]

Memories of the 1979 Final Offensive

By Katherine Hoyt

[This article was first published by the Nicaragua Network on July 19, 2009, the thirtieth anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. We republish it now for the 45th anniversary.]

(Katherine Hoyt is retired co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network/Alliance for Global Justice. She lived for 16 years in Nicaragua between 1966 and 1984.)


The Sandinista fighters who were headquartered in Hoyt’s house. Many of them had already left to participate in the taking of Boaco. All photos taken by Hoyt on July 19, 1979.

Right after Bayardo [Dr. Bayardo Gonzalez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua] and I were married in 1967, my father had told us, “When ‘comes the revolution,’ you send us the kids!” At that time, the Somoza family looked well-entrenched in power with no revolution in sight and we certainly had no kids. But, of course, the revolution did come and we did send the kids.

We kept their Pan American tickets ready and their passports with exit visas stamped in them. We listened to “Radio Sandino” every night at 11:00p.m. for the announcement of the “final general strike.” We also received instructions on how to build air raid shelters and what supplies to have on hand.

By now the three FSLN tendencies, into which the Front had divided beginning in 1975, had reunited and, as Humberto Ortega later said, three other very important factors were present which made possible the victory: 1) The people were prepared and ready for a massive popular uprising; 2) The private sector was completely fed up with Somoza and was ready to support another general strike; and most importantly, 3) The FSLN, in a culmination of its eighteen years of struggle, was politically and militarily ready to lead the offensive.

On Mother’s Day, May 30, 1979, the announcement came: the final general strike would start June 4th. The next morning, I called Pan American Airlines and made the earliest reservations that I could: June 4th. My father would fly down to Los Angeles to pick up the children and fly with them to Seattle. Victoria was ten, and the twins were six. Victoria was a little mother to her brother and sister. Only years later did the children tell me how traumatic they found being separated from both of us and how they worried about being left orphans.

After we watched the children’s plane take off, Bayardo and I put our emergency bags over our shoulders and walked out to the highway. We wanted to spend the final offensive in Matagalpa but with no public transportation operating, we knew we might have to stay in Managua. We were lucky: a private car stopped and gave us a ride all the way home. On that first day of the strike all stores, businesses and doctors’ offices were closed, but it was quiet so we visited friends and relatives. On June 5, however, at 5:00 p.m., Sandinistas entered the city from the east and fighting began. Bayardo had gone out to visit friends. When he called, I said he should stay where he was and not try to get home. I have always believed that, if the children had still been with me, he would have tried to make it home and might have died on that first day.

Later that day I crossed the street to stay with Elbia Bravo who intended to remain in the city in her home behind her store. She had told us that we were welcome to stay with her and since I was alone, it seemed a good idea. We were four women: Doña Elbia, her mother Doña Licha, the young maid Angela, and I. By Thursday, we could hear what sounded like snipers on our roofs but didn’t know what side they were on. For the first time a jet plane flew over the city strafing the houses. When it was far away, the noise was bum, bum, bum, bum, and then an echo bum, bum, bum, bum. But if it was right on top of you then it was simply BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM. At Elbia’s house, as at our house, we were somewhat protected from strafing and rockets by the platform of the second story. People who lived in one-story houses with tile or tin roofs either had already made some kind of air raid shelter or quickly made one in these first days of the fighting. We ate, read and slept.

On Friday afternoon June 8, Elbia’s house received its first hit by a mortar shell against one of the back bedrooms. The room filled with glass shrapnel from the windows. We were all in the living room at the time and no one was hurt. The next day Elbia and I went up to one of the apartments that she rented on her second floor to see where another mortar had hit. It had made a substantial hole in the wall. (Luckily, the tenants had evacuated for farms outside the city.) It was then that we heard the plane overheard and the explosion behind her house at what had to be the fire department. We listened in horror to the screams and then to the sirens as an ambulance took victims to the hospital. We found out later that eight civilians had died and many more were wounded in the attack.

On Sunday, June 10, I crossed the street over to our house to feed the animals. There was fighting on the rooftops and hot lead (literally hot lead) fell into the kitchen. I crouched under the kitchen table until the fire fight ended. Later, Sandinista fighters told me that there were members of the National Guard on the roofs and that I had been putting my life in danger by crossing the street to feed our dog and cat. There were hard fought battles that week in Matagalpa to take San Jose Church in the south-central part of town and the old San Jose School building as well as the Social Club. We could tell that the fighting was intense but we couldn’t tell where or, more importantly, who was winning.

The next day planes flew overhead, strafing and dropping bombs all morning and most of the afternoon. At one point in the afternoon, I had occasion to look across the street at our house. The door was open and our German Shepherd was standing in the doorway looking out. I went over quickly to put him back in, realizing that someone might kill him. Nicaraguans believed that dogs that ate dead human flesh would get rabies and therefore any dog that was running free during battles when there were dead bodies lying out in the open was presumed to be rabid. I was quite certain that our dog had not bitten any dead bodies, but I wanted to get him inside before anybody else decided that he had and shot him. When I went into the house, I saw the reason why the door was open: there were 24 Molotov cocktails made from Flor de Caña rum bottles in two neat rows on the floor of the dining room and several red and black masks on the living room sofa. I said to myself, “They’re here.


Dr. González in front of ruins in downtown Matagalpa. Taken on July 19th.

Compañero Maceo, who had taken his nom de guerre from the Cuban independence fighter Antonio Maceo, was the responsable, that is, the one in charge, of the Sandinista brigade. He and another compañero, or compa as they called themselves, had supper with us that evening. At one point, Maceo said to me, “We’ll be using your house. You’ll have to pardon the mess.” Thus began our relationship with an outstanding group of young people who lived in our house for two months. They were Terceristas, members of the Third or Insurrectional Tendency that had been formed by Daniel and Humberto Ortega and others. The Terceristas believed that a broad multi-class coalition of the Nicaraguan people could be brought together under the leadership of the FSLN and could overthrow the dictatorship. The three tendencies within the FSLN had reunited only a few weeks before the final offensive so each still retained a separate command structure for its troops. Our nephew Jose (about whose whereabouts I still knew nothing at this time) turned out to be the responsable of the fighters of the Prolonged Popular Warfare tendency. His command post was on the other side of the block. Our block was strategic for the Sandinistas as they moved house by house toward the command post of the National Guard on the park next to the Cathedral.

The short-wave radio was our life-line. It was how we learned what was going on in the rest of Nicaragua. Radio Netherlands had the best news, followed by Radio Exterior de España. We also listened to the BBC, Radio Moscow, Radio Havana and the Voice of America. We heard reports that the fighting continued in Managua. Thousands were said to be dead from the bombing of residential neighborhoods. Fleeing North Americans could not get to the airport. The building of La Prensa newspaper was reported to be burning. Somoza was also bombing other opposition business and industrial sites on the North Highway out of Managua.

We were being shelled by mortars from a hill outside the city. Often the shelling came at night. On June 12, the storeroom next to where I was sleeping was hit. The noise was deafening. A ten-inch hole was blown out of the wall, the brick turned into an enormous quantity of red dust which covered everything in that and nearby rooms. After that, I lay sleepless in bed next to an exposed outside wall for a long time listening to the whoosh of each mortar as it was launched and counting the seconds until each explosion. The time between launch and explosion averaged 19 seconds.

We began cooking for the compas with food that they brought for us and themselves. Often a young man would sit with us and help us sort the pebbles and twigs out of the beans before we cooked them. Cooking, washing and other tasks were divided equally among men and women fighters when they were in the mountains. It was only when they came among civilians that we civilian women began taking over the cooking. We had time to talk with the compas, also. Maceo had been one of the leaders in the battle of Jinotega and told us about that unsuccessful effort that had not been worth the loss of the great peasant comandante German Pomares. “In Jinotega,” Maceo said, “we couldn’t get even a glass of water. In Matagalpa, we are stuffed with food!”

On their way down from Jinotega to Matagalpa, the compas passed through the tuberculosis sanitarium at Aranjuez. Maceo said that he spent two hours talking with an old man trying to convince him that he shouldn’t try to accompany them in the taking of Matagalpa. He told the story in admiration of the old man’s courage and valor. I heard the story thinking of a young man’s respect and caring for the old and sick. Down the highway from Aranjuez, at the entrance to the Hacienda Selva Negra, that same group of Sandinistas set up an ambush for the National Guard. Many National Guard soldiers were killed and the Sandinistas obtained needed weapons. The tank they destroyed remains on that spot as a monument to the battle.

On the night of the 14th, we women all slept in Elbia’s bedroom because it was a protected interior room. That night the compas broke through the double wall that separated Elbia’s house from the Perla Theater next door that had been held by the National Guard. The expected firefight did not materialize, however. The Guardia had abandoned the building.

I got news of Bayardo from the compas. He was working at a field hospital that the Sandinistas had set up at a Catholic orphanage and school. The first hospital that the doctors had tried to set up in a private clinic had been bombed and had to be abandoned. The orphanage was a better building. The doctors and the wounded would be safer there, I thought. But the Sandinistas monitored National Guard radio communications and heard orders being given to pilots to bomb the hospital. According to rumor, one pilot refused and deserted, taking his plane. Bayardo, a long-standing enemy of the National Guard, heard that orders to bomb our house had been picked up as well.

Short-wave radio news reports told us that on June 16, the FSLN took the National Guard post in Leon. The U.S. was urging no arms aid to either side in Nicaragua. On the 17th, we heard the news that the FSLN had called five people to form a provisional government. They were Daniel Ortega, Sergio Ramirez, Violeta de Chamorro, Moises Hassan and Alfonso Robelo.

Occasionally Bayardo could get away from the hospital to spend the night with me. One morning we were still eating breakfast when the bombing began. First the Perla Theater next door was hit. The compas came rushing into Elbia’s house through the hole in the wall. Then, seconds later, we were hit. We all headed for the door. I was the first to cross the street to our house with our dog on his leash followed by the other women and then the men. As I crossed, I looked back and saw Elbia’s second story and the supermarket next door on the south side totally engulfed in flames. The compas had been debating whether to distribute all the food in the supermarket or to leave it there for use as needed. Now it was gone. We could hear cans exploding from the heat inside the store. The bomb had been an incendiary device of some kind, possibly napalm.

To continue reading, click here.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Poll: Overwhelming Majority Trusts Ortega and Country's Direction
The latest survey of the firm M & R Consultores, released on July 10, indicates that 83.2 percent of the population consider that President Daniel Ortega is leading the country in the right direction. The poll puts the approval of the Sandinista leader's government at 82.4% and the hope generated by the government at 91.8 percent. Eighty percent consider that Ortega is seeking unity and reconciliation. Eighty-two percent consider that the President's government is democratic and in accordance with the laws of the country. Vice President Rosario Murillo said, "At the door of the 45th Anniversary, we received an excellent survey that positions the government of the ‘People President’ with extraordinary numbers that disprove all the pettiness of those who see Nicaragua with eyes and heart damaged by hatred. It totally disproves their fallacy." See more details: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/abrumado ... -del-pais/ (La Primerisima, 10 July 2024)

Estelí Celebrates 45th Anniversary of its Liberation
On July 16th, Sandinistas greeted the 45th anniversary of the liberation of the city of Estelí with a series of activities, including speeches and a parade of mounted riders.


The famous “Molotov Man,” photo by Susan Meiselas

Pablo Aráuz, a brave Estelí guerrilla fighter known as the “Molotov Man,” recalled that it was precisely on the day of the liberation of the city that the historic photo that went around the world was taken of him. “Because it was the day to get the Somocista Guard out and achieve the July 16th liberation of Estelí.” Estelí Mayor Francisco Valenzuela stated that the July 16th cavalcade is a tradition of the people to accompany the triumph. “Today we are here paying tribute to Commander Francisco Rivera “El Zorro,” the leader of the three insurrections in Estelí, whom many of you accompanied in this libertarian journey of revolution, of freedom, of the three times heroic city of Estelí,” he said. The mayor added that it is also a tribute to the Heroes and Martyrs of the Revolution and to the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which continues to transform the country. The parade of horseback riders held in the morning had the representation of all the rural communities of the municipality, men and women who mobilized to share the day of revolutionary celebration. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/esteli-c ... iberacion/
(La Primerisima, 16 July 2024)

Nicaragua and China Agree on New Cooperation Projects
On July 10 representatives of the Government of Nicaragua and the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), signed a series of agreements to expand cooperation between the two nations. The documents signed were a memorandum of understanding and an economic and technical cooperation agreement between the two nations as well as an exchange of notes on the supply of buses for Nicaraguan public transportation. Currently, CIDCA is actively cooperating with Nicaragua in the sectors of health, energy, housing, food security, transportation and human resources training.

The documents were signed for the Chinese cooperation agency by Luo Zhaohui, President of the Agency, and for Nicaragua by Laureano Ortega, Murillo Presidential Advisor. The signing took place within the framework of the Forum for Shared Global Action organized by China. The Nicaraguan delegation is composed of Laureano Ortega Murillo, Presidential Advisor; Valdrack Jaentschke, Minister Advisor to the President for International Affairs; and Michael Campbell, Nicaraguan Ambassador to China. (La Primerisima, 12 July 2024)

PGR Assumes Functions of INIFOM to Strengthen Municipal Management
The Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (Procurador General de la República-PRG) will assume responsibility for strengthening the administration of the municipalities, after the repeal by the National Assembly of the law that created the Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development (INIFOM). The government attorney for the municipalities will be in charge of financial aspects, legal advice and investments, planning, follow-up and evaluation in the implementation of municipal strategies. All patrimony, movable and immovable assets that belong to INIFOM are now property of the national government and will be administered by the PGR. The President of the National Assembly, Dr. Gustavo Porras, said that the approval of this initiative is based on a transformation process carried out by the Sandinista Government to make the state's functions more efficient. "This is part of a cycle of transformation and remodeling of the state in this area, a change in which we gave powers to the PGR to create its own Attorney’s Offices and we also endorse the creation of the Attorney's Office for Municipalities. This is part of a process where we are reforming and moving from a state designed in the liberal model to a national state at the service of the people, that is to say, a revolutionary state in evolution," he explained. (La Primerisima, 12 July 2024)

President Ortega Publishes Decree Declaring Youth a National Patrimony
As announced last June 20 by Vice President Rosario Murillo, President Daniel Ortega has declared "the courageous and valuable youth of our blessed Homeland as National Heritage of Nicaragua". In June, Vice President Murillo explained that with the Decree (signed this past Sunday, July 14) President Ortega would enhance the role of the Nicaraguan youth as protagonists in the national liberation struggles. The Decree is "in salute to the history of victories of the Nicaraguan people, and in particular of the Nicaraguan youth of all times, declaring the Nicaraguan youth, that ‘divine treasure’ in the words of the father and magical master of the Nicaraguan soul, Rubén Darío, declaring the Nicaraguan youth of all times as National Patrimony of Nicaragua," Murillo said. (La Primerisima, 14 July 2024)

Nicaragua One of the Highest in Gender Equity
Nicaragua ranks sixth in gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum, which recognizes that the inequality gap between men and women is closing in the country. The other countries in the top ten, according to the report, are Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, and Namibia. (Informe Pastran, 16 July 2024)

Scholarships Awarded to University Students at the Campus in Madriz
The National Autonomous University of Nicaragua-León, through the University in the Countryside Program, awarded 280 students from the municipality of San José de Cusmapa, Madriz, with the Bernardino Díaz Ochoa Scholarship to encourage their academic performance. This scholarship has as its main objective to support students with their transportation expenses, thus facilitating their access to education and the continuity of their studies. The scholarships represent a significant effort by UNAN-León to improve educational achievement in rural areas and to ensure that students have the necessary tools to achieve academic success. (La Primerisima, 14 July 2024)

Strengthening Urban Transportation
The renewal of Managua's public transportation bus fleet with Russian and Chinese manufactured vehicles has increased the number of users from 800,000 to one million passengers per day. The government received a new fleet of Chinese buses as part of the initiatives of the Sandinista government to transform the public transportation model in the capital. 250 new units of Yutong buses manufactured in the People's Republic of China will be delivered to different transportation cooperatives to complete 1,100 units, guaranteeing improved conditions for users in all districts, municipalities and new urbanizations in the Department of Managua. Fare will be maintained at C$ 2.50, about $.07 US dollars per passenger, the cheapest in the world. The government, since 2007 has renewed the public transport fleet and kept the fare subsidy intact to benefit users. At the end of last week, a Nicaraguan government delegation signed new cooperation agreements with China and among them is guaranteed the supply of more buses for the renovation of service at national level. This year alone the arrival of 2,000 units of Chinese Yutong buses is planned. (Informe Pastran, 15 July 2024)


https://app.fastmail.com/mail/Inbox/T1b ... u=1e19408c

[blindpig]

Nicaraguan Democracy Exposes the U.S. Oligarchy
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 24 Jul 2024



The Republic of Nicaragua recently celebrated 45 years of its revolutionary government. The U.S. labels it and other nations that demand self-determination and sovereignty as “undemocratic." But the U.S oligarchic class prevented a president from running for re-election four years after rigging the process to put him in office. The United States is no democracy.

“And what do the US presidents represent? They are nothing more than functionaries, from either Party, serving the Military Industry. Such that the more wars there are, then the more business there is for the Military Industry! Serving the great US companies. That is, not even serving the US people, but rather enriching the wealthiest people in the United States.”
Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua

There is probably no group of people more isolated from the rest of humanity than residents of the United States. Far from being the “leader of the free world” and a robust democracy where the exchange of ideas is respected, the United States is under the thumb of billionaire oligarchs who restrict what we see and hear. The corporate media play the role of servant and keep the people simultaneously uninformed and misinformed. Knowledge of the rest of the world is extremely limited and only those who are sufficiently self-motivated will venture outside of the bubble. Yet doing so is imperative.

This columnist was again fortunate to participate in a delegation visiting the nation of Nicaragua during the commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the victory of the Sandinista revolution. On July 19, 1979 , Sandinista forces triumphed over the U.S.-backed Somoza regime after years of armed struggle.

If one does a cursory internet search of the words Nicaragua or the name of its president Daniel Ortega there will be references to words like dictatorship or authoritarianism or to failed socialism. It is unlikely that there would be references to a president elected by his people or to the Contra War waged by the Ronald Reagan administration. The U.S. government-funded, and the CIA trained the “contras,” a counterrevolutionary force that attempted to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. One has to diligently search in order to find that in 1986 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the U.S. to pay reparations to Nicaragua for training, arming, and equipping Contra fighters, attacking Nicaragua’s infrastructure, mining Nicaragua’s harbors, imposing an embargo, and directing the Contras to violate international human rights law. Nearly 40 years later, the U.S. still refuses to pay as ordered by the ICJ, the world’s court charged with upholding international law.

Reagan was not the last U.S. president to attack that country. In 2018 the Donald Trump administration waged a hybrid war against Nicaragua including a violent coup attempt that disrupted the country for months and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. After Ortega was re-elected in 2021, Joe Biden immediately claimed that the vote was fraudulent and ordered more sanctions through the RENACER Act .

Anyone relying on corporate media for news about Nicaragua knows nothing about the popular “vigilias” that are held on the evening of July 18. Vigilias are community rallies where the public gather to remember their successful struggle against U.S. imperialism. Like the U.S. independence day holiday, families gather with music, food, and patriotic speeches, but unlike in this country, the celebration is a righteous one. People who lived through the struggle for liberation gather together to remember and to build their country as they see fit.

This year the revolution anniversary coincided with a crisis in U.S. politics. In 2020 Joe Biden was maneuvered into the presidency by wealthy party donors and their functionaries. In 2024 he was struggling with months of low approval ratings and a disastrous debate performance. His subsequent efforts at damage control were no better. In one interview he referred to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as “the Black man ” when he couldn’t remember his name. Oblivious to the fact that his campaign floundered in large part because he gave Israel a blank check of money, weapons, and impunity in the killing of some 186,000 people in Gaza, he claimed , “I’m the guy who did more for the Palestinian community than anybody.”

Two days after the anniversary of Sandinista victory, the oligarchs successfully completed their plan that had been in progress for some time and Biden announced his withdrawal from the race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Almost immediately every sector of the Democratic Party declared loyalty to Harris and proclaimed that she was the best possible choice for president.

The democracy that is allegedly lacking in Nicaragua is in fact missing from the U.S. Biden was put in office by rich donors in 2020 but they took him out in 2024. He was their choice because they feared that liberal reformer Bernie Sanders might again emerge as a favorite among progressive voters. They lied about Biden’s health for four years and hoped that Trump would be hobbled by his conviction for fraud and upcoming court cases charging election interference and an “insurrection” on January 6, 2021.

The Democratic Party is facing a crisis because of its very undemocratic nature. Instead of presenting new faces to their voters, they relied on the damaged goods they were lucky to win with in 2020. They pushed Biden through again but all their luck had run out. Democratic voters were never given a real choice and are now being harangued into supporting the Kamala Harris anointing.

Nicaragua has not aided and abetted a genocide in Gaza. Nor has it killed thousands of Ukrainians in a proxy war. It is committed to providing free health care and free university education. Both of these policies are declared to be impossibilities in the United States and are dismissed out of hand by democrats and republicans alike. Anyone advocating for these and other measures that would benefit the people is also dismissed and sent into political exile by both wings of the duopoly.

What is democracy? The dictionary definitions usually reference “government by the people” or similar language. The U.S. is full of legislatures at the local, state, and federal levels. They are governed by the people only when there is mass mobilization and ongoing organization by democratic forces. Otherwise, they are captives of the monied classes who decide what the people will and will not have.

Ortega is quite correct. Presidents in this country are functionaries who do just what the ruling class commands them to do. They have no standing to condemn other nations. The people of the U.S. can learn from Nicaraguans and others about the necessity of struggling for a real democracy

https://blackagendareport.com/nicaragua ... -oligarchy

******



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DANIEL: "The prestige of the People's Republic of China under President Xi Jinping is a prestige that has managed to settle across the planet, and in the BRICS they form a very important group that is a brake on imperialist policies"


President Comandante Daniel and Vice President Compañera Rosario hand over new buses to transport cooperatives in Managua

July 15th 2024



Address by Daniel



Beloved Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters; Beloved Families; Brothers and Sisters in Transportation; Compañera Rosario, Vice President of the Republic;



Brother Chen Xi, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Nicaragua; compañero Laureano Ortega, Special Representative of the Government for China; compañero Santi Zhou Qing, Representative of the YUTONG Company; compañero Fidel Moreno, Secretary of the Mayor's Office of Managua. Fidel is all terrain, he is heavy duty transport; compañero Amaru Ramírez, Deputy Minister of Transport; compañero Daniel Sánchez, President of URECOOTRACO; compañero Aura Lila Rodríguez, Director of the Pioneers Cooperative; compañero Alcides Ponce Navarro, President of the Democratic Union Cooperative.



Today we are delivering these buses so that they contribute to the transportation of families, of children going to school, of young people going to school, going to university; of workers, women, doctors, teachers, of all sectors of Nicaraguan Society, who use collective Ttransport as their means of transport.



Today, July 15th, is the day our Brother Julio Buitrago, a young man, fell in combat. Julio was in college but went on to combat with the Sandinista Front, and the feat, the heroism, of Julio, who fell in combat 55 years ago today, on July 15th 1969, is well known. He was alone! He was surrounded by 300 National Guard, trained by the Yankees, they brought small tanks, they brought airplanes, and he resisted until his last cartridge. And there Julio took flight to another Plane of Life, filling Nicaragua's Youth with more vigor, greater Glory and greater Combativeness.



And in tribute to Julio we make this handover on this day, in tribute to Julio who represents Nicaragua's Youth, giving their lives for Nicaragua, fighting for Nicaragua.



Also today we have sent from the Presidency to the National Assembly, such that tomorrow the Assembly will approve that Nicaragua's Youth is Patrimony of this Patriotic Nation, all Youth, with no distinctions of any kind. All youth are the Patrimony of this Patriotic Nation.



As our Brother, Ambassador Chen Xi, well noted, our relations with China are historic, Ambassador Chen Xi recalled the years of the Triumph of China's Revolution, and they will be commemorating now 75 and us 45. What does this mean? That it took 30 years for the Triumph of the Sandinista Revolution to follow on, and before the Triumph of the Nicaraguan Revolution was the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution, which was immediately intertwined with the People's Republic of China, when the Great Chairman Mao Tse-Tung was at the head of the People's Republic of China.



When we were fighting, from the 1960s onwards, against the tyranny of Somoza, we maintained links with the leaders of the Chinese Party; compañeras and compañeros of the Sandinista Front traveled there, to China, in those years. And naturally we were inspired by the Chinese Revolution, a Revolution that had an impact on the world, with such an immense territory and with a division in the country, and the ability that the Chinese Leadership, headed by Mao, displayed in uniting that Great Nation, where there were a great many differences between the provinces. They had to be united, and he united them.


Then the Chinese Revolution came to grow, it came to advance, facing counter-revolutions, and later the Chinese People's Revolution managed to take a great leap forward, such that now, with President Xi Jinping, much wider doors are opening for humanity.



And he has expressed it very clearly: How can we make the World into a World of Peace, a World of Complementarity, a World where we help each other, where Great Powers do not use their might to impose themselves and to exploit Peoples.



And China has been fulfilling its Principles, which are Revolutionary Principles, they are the Principles of the Chinese Communist Party, with which we have always maintained relations. Tomás was there, in China, in various seminars held there in China in which leaders of the revolutionary parties of Central America took part, Victor Tirado had also been there before.



And China today, is really serving as a compass, pointing the Way which other Nations share as well, that Planet Earth cannot continue to live under the boot of Empires which accumulate wealth at the expense of Developing Peoples, crushing them, invading them, murdering them. This has to change, and it will surely have to change, because every day we find more countries defending these positions.



And we have seen the presentation of these demonstrations of Nicaraguan Culture and Art, which have their roots in the Original Peoples, our Ancestors.



We have seen and congratulate the dancers of "El Solar de Monimbó", of the Macehuatl Folk Ballet, under the direction and choreography of Maestro René Jaime. An embrace for Brother René Jaime, and for Alejandro too, of course, there, sharing.



We have also seen there the artistic presentations from the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, from the North, because there are as many kinds as there are many communities in the Caribbean, and today these communities are Autonomous, they have an Autonomous Government, and their Authorities own their lands, which were handed over to them by the Revolution.


And we have seen at the end that Dance, Sirpiki Mairin, which means “Beautiful Woman” in Miskito, from the Macehuatl Ballet, with the choreography and under the direction of Maestro René Jaime, and also of Alejandro Cuadra.



So, congratulations to the dancers and to the directors of these wonderful dances.



I was commenting here to Fidel, because there are now 1,000 buses, just imagine, 1,000 buses in record time, and this year 1,000 more are coming. And I was telling Fidel to see to it with the Transport compañeros, that we guarantee some buses for the Caribbean Coast, so that they reach Bluefields and reach Bilwi, so that they reach the Mines Region; that is, that the embrace of Solidarity from the Chinese People reaches the Miskito Peoples, the Ramas, the Afro-descendant population, the Mayagna, the Garifuna.



May this embrace of Solidarity from the Chinese People reach all these communities, because now the highways are there, and the highways are still advancing. So there should be no problem now for these buses to circulate on the Caribbean Coast.


And I was telling you that, later we will have the dance of the “Managua's Fiestas and Sones de Toros”, which is a presentation of young students from the Culture Centers of Managua. With choreography and direction by Maestro Elvin Vanegas. So, go ahead, Managua!



We congratulate the dance students of the local neighborhood dance schools, they are forming themselves there and for giving thanks to the Ambassador's greeting and to the 45th Anniversary.



I mentioned the Sandinista Brothers and Sisters who visited China at the time of the war here, when we were at war and we had not yet triumphed. Already in the 1980s we had the honor of visiting the People's Republic of China, we were there with Rosario and with a very large delegation, Father d'Escoto, a large Delegation, and there we managed to meet as the Brothers and Sisters that we are.



Well, in the 1990s the neoliberal politicians imposed by the Gringos came along, and the first thing they did was break off relations with the People's Republic of China.



Then we had to be patient, patient above all, to fight the battle by governing from below, during three neoliberal governments. Three Neoliberal governments passed, and we fought the battle from below. And we fought for the Transport sectors, we fought that battle in the streets, with the workers defending their businesses and with the peasants defending the land, and in defense of the 6% for the Universities, for free education, because everything was being privatized.



We returned to Government, always in communication with the People's Republic of China, looking for the moment when we could normalize relations again. We have been united in our struggles, in the battles that the Chinese people have been waging to improve their conditions, to strengthen themselves in all fields, to stand in solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America, with the Peoples of the World.



China is an extraordinary example of what a Great Power can be by engaging respectfully with small nations in all these Regions that I have mentioned to you. Undoubtedly, the prestige of the People's Republic of China under President Xi Jinping is a prestige that has managed to settle across the planet, and in the BRICS they form a very important group that is a brake on imperialist policies, the policies of invasion, of sanctions. It is a brake, and thus the New World is being shaped, the New World that will bring Peace and Happiness to Humanity.



I have every faith in God, in Christ, that Peace will reign on Planet Earth, even if the Imperialists of the Earth try to prevent it.



Long live Nicaragua, Blessed and Forever Free!

Long Live Nicaragua, Christian, Socialist and in Solidarity!

Long live the Chinese people!

Long live President Xi Jinping!





Remarks by Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,

after the handover of new buses to Managua's Transport Cooperatives


July 15th 2024



Thank you very much. A very good evening. A History of Victories...!



I was talking to the Transport compañeras and compañeros, and saying to them: How we have defended these Victories... With our Soul, with our Heart, and above all with Faith, with Great Hope and Trust in God. And God has given us the Strength, the Fortitude, to Overcome, always combative, always given over to Patriotic Love, and that Strength, that Infinite Strength is what builds all Victories. Yesterday's Memorable Victories!



Julio Buitrago, is an example of what we Nicaraguans are, a Great Example, an Example that is in each of us. It is not just photos that we are looking at... It is the very Nicaraguan Soul that manifests itself in Julio!



In July, Julio was born... Victorious July! And July is all of us, Julio Buitrago is All of Us, for we know what we are, what we will be, that We overcome, and that we will overcome!



That's why, when one sees the non-entities talking, spouting their nonsense, everyone knows they are nothing, nobodies, not even burnt-out remnants... They are nothing! They simply are. They really are null and void, in terms of the Nicaraguan People's great history of Bravery, of Courage. That Story makes us feel very much blessed, first of all, and also so very proud of being who we are, and of our Strength of Spirit.



It is this Strength that God gives us which leads us to wake up each day invoking Him, to strengthen our capacity to Work, in Unity, in Union, and in understanding how it is that in Union, in Unity, in Concord, as Brothers and Sisters, as a Nicaraguan Family, we are Going Onward.



Progress...! Our Future is made of Progress, of Prosperity, of Infinite Joy. Of days to celebrate our Nicaraguan courage... 45/19, Nicaraguan courage! A history of Victories...!



I always say to myself, emotionally, because I am moved by all the Remembrances and I am also moved by all the Memory... Remembrances and Memory! Memory in terms of the Historical Times that we have had to know and live through. We are privileged!



I get emotional, and say to myself: How much we have been able to do, and therefore, how much we can do now! Because this People of ours, all of us, these Sacred Lands that have given us miracles and portents: Rubén Darío, a miracle in this country; General Benjamín Zeledón; our Original Peoples; Nicarao, Diriangén, Adiact; and General Zeledón, as we say too, our General of Free Men and Women... How many Treasures! How much Heritage!



And today that our Comandante Daniel has sent to the National Assembly the Decree of National Patrimony for Nicaragua's Youth of All Times, we know it is that Vigor, that Glory, that Courage, that Valor, which assures us of all the Victories that are coming. The Victories of the Future! Always trusting in God, and always knowing that while we propose, God disposes.



That is why we also know that we listen, feel, vibrate to and are attentive to God's Will. We can plan to go this way, but we also understand those messages of Providence that tells us: No, over there! And that means, to always be aware, in the midst of all the brawling, the scrapping in the street, the ruckus I call it, of the usual delinquents, knowing that none of it matters, nor makes any difference in terms of Historic Times.



What counts is the Wisdom we have had, and that we have now, to listen to the Voice of God, and to be ready to work, to make our way, to advance, All Together. And this is the call that we always make, one we always give: It is All Together that We Go Onward. And of course, by the Hand of God, as we never tire of saying, by the Hand of God, praising Him, invoking Him, and recognizing His Great Power over this Blessed Nicaragua, Sovereign and Proud, Forever Dignified and Free.



Warm embraces to all Nicaragua's Families, in these days when we celebrate the Triumphs that God has given us based on Our Courage and Character; in these days when we celebrate ourselves as a Nicaraguan People, which knows of Struggles and Honor; in these days when we celebrate ourselves with Infinite Love, Love for Nicaragua, Love between Ourselves, the Love that Creates. Because hatred destroys. Love creates. And We are creating the future we deserve.



Warm embraces to everyone. Thank you, Compañeras and Compañeros. Thank you.

https://www.tortillaconsal.com/bitacora ... 0f23d1b926

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NicaNotes: One Day in the Life – Building a School in Nicaragua in 1984
August 22, 2024

[This is another in our series of articles remembering the history of the movement in solidarity with the Nicaraguan Revolution. It recounts a day in the life of a British volunteer on a school building brigade forty years ago. It was first published by the UK’s Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign.]


An NSC demonstration outside the US embassy in London is protesting against the US refusal to comply with the International Court of Justice ruling in
1986. Photo: Julio Etchart

In 1984/5 the first Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign (NSC) work brigade spent four months working on a school building project, part of the Sandinista government’s rural education programme.

During the time the brigade was in Nicaragua the Sandinistas won the free and fair elections of 1984. Despite this the full force of the Reagan administration military, economic and political war on Nicaragua continued with support from the Margaret Thatcher government.

In 1986, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled the US war on Nicaragua illegal under international law, a verdict the US refused to accept arguing that the ICJ had no right of jurisdiction on the case.

The US has never paid the US$17 billion it was estimated to owe Nicaragua in compensation for the loss of life and destruction of the country’s economy and infrastructure caused by acts of terrorism.

This is the story of a typical day in the life of the NSC building brigade and some of the consequences of the US attempts of overthrow Nicaragua’s elected government.

………………………………………….

Corazon Magico (Magic Heart), the latest hit in the Nicaraguan charts, crackles forth from Radio Sandino followed by a government message about increasing cotton production.

It’s 5:00 am and all life begins to stir in the community of Santa Paula in the middle of a vast expanse of cotton fields where we are staying.

Candida, the mother of the family shouts ‘Levantate, levantate,’ to 11-year-old Gregorio and seven-year-old Ediberto. Six days a week they go off to pick the cotton: their wages are a vital supplement to the family’s meagre income. [In the past, the school year in the rural areas began after the harvests of coffee and cotton were completed.]

Candida, who has little patience with unreliable men, berates Santi, an older man who lives in the house. He forgot to pick up rations of beans, rice, maize and sugar from the distribution centre yesterday.


Picking cotton in the heat of Nicaragua’s dry season is tough, exhausting, dusty work. Volunteer brigades from many countries built schools and helped pick cotton and coffee in revolutionary Nicaragua in the 1980s.

As it starts to get light at 5.30am, the tractor and trailer arrive to take the workers off to pick cotton. It’s the hottest part of the dry season and the scorched, treeless plain is like a giant furnace. The Nicaraguan workers are well protected against the spiky, scratchy cotton, sprayed with defoliant to make picking easier; it’s tough, exhausting, dusty work.

Meanwhile, our eight-person brigade together with our Nicaraguan supervisor continues work building a school. Julian is seen disappearing into a field with a spade and some balls of cotton – OK as a toilet paper substitute – except if you forget to remove the seeds!

After three month’s work the school is beginning to look more like a building and less like a satellite tracking station. At 9:00 am we have a welcome break for coffee, grapefruit, and mangos. We chat with the Nicaraguans, coining adaptations of Nicaraguan and English proverbs: “A garobo (iguana) in the hand is worth two in the tree” is one of the better ones.

There follows a long discussion about water for mixing the cement. There is an acute shortage of fuel and spare parts because of US sanctions, so no tractor and trailer are available to get water from the river. Constant invention is a necessity. We half fill a barrel of water from a well, put it on some planks on a wheelbarrow…and hold our breath.

By this time the wind is blowing up fine powdery dust with occasional whirlwinds sending plumes of topsoil into the air. We clean the cement out of the wheelbarrow, place a mattress and a six-month-old baby on it and Carlos goes off happily for his daily wheelbarrow ride.

Later, we return to our Nicaraguan families where the children are drawing water from the well, collecting firewood, and dragging the reluctant pig to its sleeping place in the kitchen. One of their favourite tasks is topping up bottles of diesel and lighting the rag stuffed into the bottle. These bombas are the family’s only source of light.


Ediberto and Pedro in the kitchen of the family where some of the brigadistas stayed. Photo: NSC

Towards sunset the children gather for a game of baseball using a small branch from a tree and an old sock stuffed with cotton. They manoeuvre around a caterpillar tractor that ground to a halt a couple of years ago and has not moved since, another victim of the US war on Nicaragua.

After a supper of beans, rice, boiled bananas and iguana, the sun quickly goes down and we all sit outside in the coolness and tranquillity of the evening, chatting, playing with the children, spotting stars and satellites in the cloudless sky, and discussing the endless suffering caused by the brutal, senseless US-sponsored war.

* * * * *

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy
Nicaragua: First Place in Electricity Coverage in the Region
Electricity coverage in Nicaragua reached 99.50% as of July and in the remainder of the year it will easily reach the goal of 99.57%. Minister of Energy Salvador Mansell said that, “Our government has been providing all the infrastructure at the national level including equipment in each municipality and department for 104 electrical substations.” He added that while, in the past, they were expanding coverage now, with coverage almost complete, they are replacing deteriorated equipment, transmission lines and substations. (Informe Pastran, 20 August 2024)

More than 53,000 Food Packages Delivered to Different Sectors
The Nicaraguan Basic Food Company (ENABAS) is preparing the delivery of 53,718 food packages corresponding to the month of August to mothers of children who died in Reagan’s war in the 1980s; also, to critical cases in the Todos con Vos [differently abled] Program and critical social emergency cases. It is expected that 20,575 packages will be delivered to Mothers of the Fallen and Todos con Vos cases; and 33,143 social emergency cases They will be distributed from August 26 to August 30. (La Primerisima, 15 August, 2024)

National Early Warning System to be Renewed
Nicaragua will soon have a new National Early Warning System. An agreement was signed with a company from the People’s Republic of China and approved on August 14 by the National Assembly. According to National Assembly Deputy Wálmaro Gutiérrez, this financing agreement has a cost of US$33 million and will strengthen the monitoring system in case of natural disasters. Gutierrez emphasized that the company with which the loan was signed is an international leader in warning systems, which means that lives will continue to be saved in the face of natural disasters. “This loan is important, because it is useless to have the best highways, the best roads, the best hospitals, the best health centers, the best schools, the best access to education, to health, if we do not preserve life. And that is where the importance of this loan lies. The most important thing is to preserve life. And that is what this project is focused on,” he emphasized. (La Primerisima, 14 August 2024)

Exports Total US$2.02 billion through June
Nicaragua’s total exports for the second quarter of this year reached US$2.02 billion, according to the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN). The BCN report and foreign trade statistics, indicate that, of the total, 56.3 percent corresponded to exports of goods such as gold, seafood, beef, and sugar (US$1.14 billion), and the rest to free trade zone goods (US$884.6 million). The report explains that, in accumulated terms, total exports to June of US$3.947 billion presented an inter-annual decrease of 0.9 percent, as a result of the 2.2 percent decrease in free trade zone exports. In cumulative terms, total imports to June amounted to US$5.19 billion, showing a 9.0 percent year-on-year growth, due to the 12.9 percent increase in merchandise imports. (La Primerisima, 12 August, 2024)

New Rules of the Game for NGOs Are Defined
On August 15 Vice President Rosario Murillo stated that “a new way of functioning for non-governmental organizations in Nicaragua” would soon be announced. Then, on August 16, the government issued a press release which said that “As of today, non-governmental organizations operating in Nicaragua will be governed by a new operating model that we have characterized as ‘Partnership Alliances.’ Each NGO, in compliance with its legal obligations, will present, through the Ministry of the Interior and/or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the case may be, specific proposals for programs and projects of alliances, around particular themes, according to their definition and/or vocation.”

The press release went on to say, “The Government and the State entities may, or may not, accept the proposals and guarantee that everything stipulated in the Laws of the Republic is complied with. Once the project is developed, executed and fully completed, the NGO may propose another (a new) Partnership Alliance, according to its nature and/or field of action. Each new Partnership Alliance must comply with Nicaraguan legislation in all aspects and formalities.” The press release concluded, “We recognize the fraternal contribution of NGOs, in respectful and harmonious contexts, as indispensable for the welfare of all those involved in solidarity management and development.” Read the full press release here. (La Primerisima, 16 August, 2024)

Chinese Businessmen to Strengthen Foreign Trade
On August 20 the People’s Republic of China and Nicaragua signed important agreements and held a business forum at which the close collaboration and economic and commercial association between the two countries was reaffirmed and a Free Trade Agreement was put into practice. Since the establishment of relations in 2021, China has become Nicaragua’s third largest trading partner. A Free Trade Agreement was signed between the two nations in 2023. The delegation from China included eight officials from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Commerce as well as 24 businessmen from China. Laureano Ortega, Nicaraguan Presidential Advisor for Investments, said that the officials “come to work with our country, with our companies, with Nicaraguan partners, to promote the export of Nicaraguan products to the market of the People’s Republic of China.” (La Primerisima, 19 and 20 August 2024)

Mega Health Fair in Estelí
At a mega health fair at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Estelí, 5,442 women received 10,627 kinds of medical attention. The women were from Pueblo Nuevo, Condega, San Juan de Limay, La Trinidad, San Nicolás and Estelí. During the mega fair, obstetric, cervical, Doppler, breast and pelvic ultrasounds were performed. Laboratory studies, pap smear examinations and readings were also carried out, as well as attention to premalignant lesions of the cervix. Patients also underwent colposcopies, surgeries and biopsies. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/garantiz ... en-esteli/ (La Primerisima, 18 August 2024)

President Ortega to Deliver Buses in Salute to 1978 Take-over of the National Palace
Vice President Rosario Murillo, reported that President Daniel Ortega will be delivering busses to Managua transportation cooperatives in salute to the 46th anniversary of the taking of the National Palace by Sandinista commandos. “This week Daniel will be delivering transportation units to cooperatives in Managua, as we have announced, saluting August 22; it is 46 years since the taking of the National Palace, of that great feat,” she clarified. “The feat of taking the National Palace was incredible, showing the heroism of our people represented in the Sandinista National Liberation Front Victory Units at that time. In these times of blessing, prosperity, of peace, of many triumphs, we are advancing,” she said. On another subject, she said that a new report from the Ministry of Health showed “less contagion of dengue, leptospirosis and influenza.” (La Primerisima, 19 August 2024)

Presidency of the Republic Confirms Presidential Advisors
On August 16 the Nicaraguan Government released a statement confirming the advisors to President Daniel Ortega with the rank of minister, as part of an optimization of the service to the population from the government structures. The report stated that it is working on the creation of systems within the government, organized by related topics, to promote more coherence and efficiency in ministerial work. The statement said, “We inform Nicaraguan families that the following comrades have been confirmed as advisors to the President of the Republic, with the rank of Ministers”:

Commander of the Revolution Bayardo Arce Castaño, Advisor for Economic and Financial Affairs
Leonardo Ovidio Reyes Ramírez, President of the Central Bank and Advisor on all Banking and Financial Matters, and all Productive Sectors
General Commissioner Horacio Sebastián Rocha López, Advisor for Security Matters
Samuel Santos López, Advisor for Policy and International Affairs
Salvador Vanegas Guido, Advisor for All Modalities in Education
Manuel Ali Rivas Vallecillo, Security Advisor
Steadman Fagot Müller, Advisor for Policies toward Indigenous Peoples
José Francisco López, Advisor for Production and Trade
Mohamed Mohamed Farrara Lashtar, Advisor for Africa, Middle East and Arab Countries
Sonia Castro Gonzalez, Advisor for Health Issues
Carolina Asunción Dávila Murillo, Advisor for Health Issues
Valdrack Ludwing Jaentschke Whitaker, Advisor for Policy Issues and International Affairs
Orlando José Tardencilla, Advisor for Policy and International Relations
Ivan Lara Palacios, Advisor for Policy and International Relations
Iván Acosta Montalván, Advisor for International Organizations
Wilmor Efraín López Martínez, Advisor for Traditional and Popular Culture and Advisor to the Vice-Presidency of the Republic
Justa del Rosario Pérez Acuña, Advisor to the Vice-Presidency for Tourism Issues (La Primerisima, 16 August 2024)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-one-day-in-t ... ua-in-1984

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President Daniel Ortega Condemns Lula and Petro, Warns of the Battle to Come
Posted by Internationalist 360° on August 27, 2024
Radio La Primerísima



“If Lula Wants Respect, He Should Respect Nicaragua and Venezuela”

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega described as shameful the position of Brazilian President Lula da Silva of not recognizing the victory of President Nicolás Maduro in the recent elections in Venezuela.


Use the autotranslate feature

In the telematic meeting, the President was accompanied by Vice President Rosario Murillo, Venezuelan diplomats José Arrúe, ambassador, and Ansonith Albano, in charge of Political Affairs, and by Valdrack Jaentschke, Advisor for Policy and International Affairs.

During the ALBA-TPC extraordinary summit held remotely, Comandante Ortega recalled that he met Lula in Brazil when after the triumph of the Sandinista People’s Revolution he visited him in Brazil as a leader of the trade unions.

The Sandinista leader narrated that in 1980 the Revolutionary Government invited Lula to participate in the event of the first anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, occasion in which President Ortega introduced him to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and later, when Lula was organizing his party, there were permanent contacts between both parties.

He recounted the reasons why Lula is upset with Nicaragua:

“One day he went to visit the Pope, then Lula called, from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry asking to talk to me, because he had a message from the Pope. First, if the Pope of a State, which is clearly in favor of the empire, wants to communicate with us, he can do it. We continuously communicate with them, with Chancellor Parolin, we have already had several talks with him and we speak to him very clearly and Parolin listens, so we do not need intermediaries, nor did we ask Lula to be an intermediary, so we did not respond to Lula and he got upset”.

“Later, in an interview, he was asked why the dictator, after having been a revolutionary, has become another Somoza. He answered that he is not what he was before, now he is another dictator. So, Lula, what can I say to you, since you have spoken about this publicly? And how many terms have you been in government? You have been in government for two terms. It seems that you like being president and from that presidency, in that great country that is Brazil, you want to become the representative of the Yankees in Latin America, that is why we broke off relations with Brazil”, explained the Sandinista leader.

“We are a small country, we do not have the economy and power of Brazil, but we have something very important: dignity and defense of our sovereignty,” he said.

He stated that Comandantes Chávez and Fidel

“logically agreed and considered the unity of our peoples, how to advance in that battle, in that struggle. For that reason, it is necessary to explain today the brutal, cowardly reaction of countries of governments, of Latin American countries, because I am sure, I am convinced that the Latin American peoples in their immense majority, the peasants, the workers, are with Nicolás Maduro, they are with the Bolivarian Revolution”.

He denounced the

“servile, treacherous, traitorous governments that have presented themselves as very progressive, as very revolutionary. That the elections must be repeated, they say, Brazil says so, Lula says so. But I understand the difficulties, logically, that Lula has”, such as those published in a Brazilian newspaper, which reported that the Foreign Ministry and other agencies of Lula’s government are full of right-wing neoliberal officials ‘who have pitted him against us’.

“The way Lula has behaved in the face of the victory of the legitimate president of Venezuela is shameful, repeating the slogans of the Yankees, of the Europeans, of those who have been dragged along, of the governments that have been dragged along. You are being dragged along too Lula! You are being dragged along Lula!”, he pointed out.

“If you want me to respect you, respect me Lula.If you want to be respected by the Bolivarian people, respect the victory of President Nicolas Maduro and respect me, Lula.

Poor Petro competing with Lula to be leader of the Yankees.

“What can I say to Petro, poor Petro, I see Petro as competing with Lula to see who will be the leader that will represent the Yankees in Latin America, that’s how I see Petro”, expressed the president of Nicaragua.

“Because poor Petro does not have the strength that Brazil logically has, because Brazil is the giant of Latin America, the giant, but as it is Lula’s government, it is not the good giant, it is Goliath wanting to sweep away David in Latin America, but Lula will not be able to do it,” said Daniel.

Daniel warns Venezuela of an armed counterrevolution.

He recalled that the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela, “was the explosion that made the empire tremble, because the Cuban Revolution, heroic, brave; well, logically it is a small country, with a small economy suffering the blockade, but the Bolivarian Revolution, with Commander Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías at the head, triumphed with a great force, with a great power, an explosion”.

He added that “I commented to Nicolás one day, that when we were involved in the guerrilla struggle, there were also guerrillas in Venezuela and that they were very strong and there were guerrillas in Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Che’s guerrilla in Bolivia, all over Latin America there were guerrillas, but none with the power of the guerrilla that was being installed in Venezuela”.

“We said, here the next victory is going to be in Venezuela. Thinking about a guerrilla victory, it is going to be in Venezuela and that is going to be a strength so that victories in Latin America can be reproduced. Venezuela, with the ingenuity, with the intelligence, with the vision of Commander Chavez, after the first armed attempt to defeat the Yankees here in Venezuela- he said that famous phrase (“for now”), what he said came true, when they decided to go through the electoral route. And I have said it in Venezuela several times, and I said it during the lifetime of Commander Chavez, Eternal Commander, you have managed to break the law of gravity here, because you have done something unprecedented in Latin America”, he explained.

He also recalled that

“in Chile the Revolution triumphed but it was demolished there, but also in Venezuela the Revolution triumphed with great force. In Chile the voting was a little tighter and the right wing had a lot of strength in the parliament, not to mention in the economic field. Here it was an overwhelming victory, which not only produced an explosion of joy in the Venezuelan people, but also produced explosions of joy in all the peoples of Our America”.

In this sense, he said:

“Who could have imagined at that moment, after that great victory, that the Yankees would organize a coup d’état against President Chávez? (The United States) was so irritated, they were so hurt by the coup they had received in a country like Venezuela, a moral power, a political power, an economic power -above all- they did not want to lose it. Then, the coup came and they even said: ‘every joy has its price’.And it had its price and Chávez returned to the presidency”.

President Daniel Ortega alerted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of the organization of an armed counterrevolution against Venezuela, as they did in Nicaragua in 1979.

Daniel pointed out that as this maneuver has already failed them,

“there is no turning back, there is no step back, Nicolas is the legitimate president, continuator of the battle of Chavez, and Chavez continuator of the Battle of Bolivar, therefore, Nicolas goes with the sword of Bolivar now in this battle”.

“If Nicaragua, a country that is a small, fragile, fragile crumb of land, with border countries where there are Yankee military bases, Honduras has Yankee military bases, and in Costa Rica they also set up Yankee military bases, since they could not prevent the triumph of the Revolution in 1979, after so many years, more than 40 years of Somoza’s imperialist domination and with thousands of deaths, what did they do? They organized a mercenary army”, he reminded the president.

And he added: “and you know, Nicolás, that this mercenary army Petro does not see that he is going to feed it, but in Colombia there are mercenaries, former President Uribe, you have heard all those Colombian presidents or former presidents how they are pronouncing themselves against the victory of the Bolivarian people”.

He pointed out that in Colombia “there are Yankee military bases, therefore, do not discard, imperialism today is more wounded than ever by this victory, do not discard, that they organize an armed counterrevolution like the one they organized in Nicaragua in 1979, in the triumph of the Revolution, which they financed, armed and trained it, supported by the military bases that the gringos have in Honduras and it was a long battle. It was 10 years of war again that we had to fight, 10 years more and with thousands of dead, more than 50 thousand victims, and we managed to defeat that army of mercenaries”.

“But here (in Venezuela) the battle would be much bigger, because they involve the Colombian Army, Colombian mercenaries, Colombian assassins and Colombian drug traffickers”, he said.

He indicated that with such a huge border that Venezuela has with Colombia, it would be necessary to prepare to give them a battle and defeat them.

“I am sure that if that battle takes place, they will defeat them, and be sure that if that battle takes place, they will have Sandinista fighters accompanying them in that battle. I am sure that, just as thousands of combatants joined the Nicaraguan battle against Somoza, thousands of Latin American and Caribbean combatants will also join the defense of the Bolivarian Revolution”, concluded Daniel.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/08/ ... e-to-come/

******

Nicaragua Responds to the European Union Due to the Interventionist Declarations



August 27, 2024 Hour: 10:25 pm

The Government of Nicaragua responded this Tuesday to statements of an interventionist nature by the high representative of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, regarding sovereign decisions of the Latin American nation.

The official statement also reported that “decisions of the Nicaraguan authorities are taken on the basis of the Constitution of the Republic, and the laws that as a country and independent people govern our sovereign institutional functioning”.

“We remind the Lords of the European Union that the history on which their countries are based is one of atrocities and crimes against humanity, committed in the voracious desire to subjugate peoples, to snatch away wealth, natural heritage, cultural and the supreme intelligence of the continents of the world” stressed the Government of Nicaragua.

The statement also said that “a visit to European museums is enough to see how proud they are of the savagery, barbarism, immorality with which countries and peoples conquered who took everything for nothing”.

BASTA YA DE INJERENCIA! pic.twitter.com/lrFHEfwZ8g

— El 19 Digital (@el19digital) August 27, 2024
In this regard, he noted that the genocidal acts carried out daily in Gaza constitute a “a reflection of the bloody crusades and conquests of empires, colonizers and neo-colonialists who still dare to dictate rules to the world that not only ignores them but condemns them”.

The Nicaraguan government called for a halt to the “interference, falsehoods, falsifications and abuses in the name of a pretended and dramatized democracy that bathed in blood, misery, sweat and tears the territories where they settled to kill, exterminate and rob”.

“Please, European gentlemen, with respect to the models and ways of life of brave, free peoples, we firmly reject the hypocrisy in their interventionist voices, and we condemn you every day, for your repudiable history of ignominies” highlighted the communiqué of the Sandinista government.

In this sense, the communiqué expressed its concern about the demands that it described as legitimate from peoples who have not been heard or fulfilled, by those who consider themselves “masters when they represent only the worst and most sacrilegious human species”.

Borrell’s statements are made because the European Union has assessed as very worrying the orders to close at least 1,500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Nicaragua and called on the government to put “End restrictions on civic space and respect the right to dissent”.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/nicaragu ... larations/

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Nicanotes: Nicaragua: cooperation, not conspiracy
August 28, 2024
Por Fabricio Casari

[Este artículo fue publicado por primera vez en español en El Digital 19 on August 17, 2024. It is translated here by Francisco Dominguez.]

(Fabrizio Casari is an Italian journalist and political analyst.)

The new law that will regulate the activities of non-governmental organizations in Nicaragua, outlining the contours of their functions, is called “Alianza de Asociación” (Partnership Alliance). The new law redefines and specifies their legal nature, pointing out the association with the Nicaraguan State as the only possible contractual form for their work. In essence, the new law is based on two aspects, one of a juridical-administrative nature and the other of an eminently value-based nature, directly linked to the purposes of NGO work, which cannot fail to contemplate the presence of a subsidiary nature based on the principle of solidarity and cooperation.


“Nicaragua is now equipped with a legislative instrument that defends the principle of solidarity but directs it in the direction of national interests. It represents the will to be open to the contribution of honest people and the capacity to close itself to interference.”

In the first aspect, the law traces and expands previous provisions on the matter, inspired by the law passed by the neo-liberal government of Violeta Chamorro in 1995, subsequently updated after the attempted coup d’état of 2018. It reiterates the obligation of administrative transparency for all associations, and, significantly, mandates the constant monitoring of funding, strict compliance, and accurate reporting of expenditure flows. It reiterates the obligation to report on funds from abroad and from foreign institutions and the obligation to document their amount, purpose and use.

On this subject, considering the obligation derived from Nicaragua’s membership in the international forum that fights money laundering and illicit currency trafficking, little can be said. The law moves in the right direction, which sees the State as responsible for the proper functioning and correct performance of any entity, whether private, public or international, operating in the national territory.

It is on the more strictly evaluative level where the new law presents a novelty with respect to previous and even similar laws in force in other countries, namely, the associative nature with the State. In practice, the Nicaraguan State offers and requires from NGOs a collaboration plan defined as a “Partnership Alliance”.

The law specifies that the NGO’s presence, accompanied by general and detailed documentation on the projects to be carried out, must be sent to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it requires each NGO to submit detailed proposals on specific topics according to their mission or vocation. These proposals, once the public interest has been ascertained, will form the basis of the “Alliance Partnership” with the State under which the NGO’s activities are to be carried out.

Of course, the government may or may not accept the projects, but in any case, it will ensure that all its activities are carried out in accordance with the law, as a mutual guarantee. Once a project is completed in its entirety, it will be possible to move on to a new proposal. It is clear, however, that no project will be exempt from the corresponding tax obligations: which, in addition to representing a principle of legal validity, potentially avoids any kind of advantage that could give rise to possible unfair competition with national companies wishing to try their luck in similar projects.

This law is undoubtedly a novelty for all countries with the presence of non-governmental organizations, but if we examine it more closely, we find a precise conception of NGO activity. Indeed, it is about the principle of subsidiarity, by virtue of which NGOs act or should act. That is, acting to complement and assist the public works and social activities of the State with specific projects. It announces a rigorous control of the fulfilment of the approved projects and specifies the purpose of the work of the NGOs in the field, which can only take place in a context of solidarity and fraternity with the good of Nicaragua as the ultimate goal.

The updating of the law, which establishes the general framework in which NGOs should exercise their role of subsidiary support to the creation of social works, became necessary precisely because of the well-established role of socio-political destabilization that many NGOs carry out by acting as representatives of Washington’s interests.

As demonstrated in Nicaragua, but also in Cuba and Venezuela, the US government and the European Union (EU), in alliance with the church hierarchies, the large land owners and the coup-supporting right wing, played a subversive and provocative role. (….) Until 2018 the strategic role of NGOs in the subversive processes within the countries that the U.S. and the EU intend to destabilize and lead towards political crisis had not been clear.

These so-called NGOs, funded by various U.S. agencies, instead of working (…) with public and community organizations (as would have been their task) devoted themselves for years to organizing opposition, political education, building dissent and preparing social sectors and individuals for confrontation with the legitimate and democratically-elected ruling political authority.

In 2018, they clearly demonstrated in Nicaragua that, far from representing a dimension of solidarity and generosity, they were an aggressive opposition force, wolves disguised as lambs when they were in front of cameras…. Their mission, once the horror phase began, became to turn armed thugs into peaceful students and to blame their crimes on a police force that, obeying the President’s orders, was stationed in their police stations. The aim was to spread a totally distorted image of what was happening in order to positively influence international public opinion and predispose it to foreign intervention if the conditions were right. Together with the Catholic Church, the NGOs represented the hypocritical and false tip of the sword of the coup, its masked face used to justify the unjustifiable, as well as the international funding collector that functioned without control…. The dollars destined for the coup reached the accounts of the NGOs and the Church and from there they were distributed to the enlisted terrorists.


“[Some] so-called NGOs, funded by various U.S. agencies, instead of working in subsidiarity with public and community organizations (as would have been their task) devoted themselves for years to organizing opposition, political education, building dissent and preparing social sectors and individuals for confrontation with the legitimate and democratically-elected ruling political authority.”

In fact, NGOs had multiplied in Nicaragua: there were thousands and thousands of them. A strange proliferation which, however, responded to the interests of the White House which had found a reliable and officially unsuspected financing channel. U.S. law, through the rules of administrative transparency of its agencies such as USAID and many others, allows funding to NGOs, which in Latin America and for at least 15 years have genetically modified their mission in areas where the United States needs to intervene from within.
This happens with non-profit organizations, associations and human rights organizations: real channels of financing to build and defend the interventionist project first and coup later. These NGOs were certainly not the spontaneous product of generous philanthropists from overseas: the most significant ones in Nicaragua belonged to the Chamorro family and the former MRS, which through them received money and political support from Miami and Washington.

This new law definitively brings to an end the era in which updated methods of penetration had consecrated the everlasting will of direct intervention in the political, social, cultural and media life of the country.

Today, in the face of any possible interference, Nicaragua is equipped with a legislative instrument that defends the principle of solidarity but directs it in the direction of national interests. It represents the will to be open to the contribution of honest people and the capacity to close itself to interference; it is the capacity to unmask destabilizing operations and to value the common good and popular needs. It is the respect for these, as well as for the institutional nature of the country, which puts in place welcome and solidarity, alliances and sharing. This opens the nation’s arms but sharpens its vision and prevents the transformation of cooperation into conspiracy. This is the task.

* * * * *

Bragas
Por Nan McCurdy
Buses for Cooperatives in Managua, Masaya and Chinandega
On August 24, the Sandinista government turned over 100 Yutong buses from the People’s Republic of China to 11 public transportation cooperatives in the departments of Managua, Masaya and Chinandega. The delivery of the buses took place in the auditorium of the 21st of January Cooperative in Managua, where license plates were also given to the carriers. The department of Managua received 66 buses, Masaya received 13 and Chinandega 21, completing 100 units that will be providing service to the population. With these new Yutong buses Nicaraguans will be able to travel more comfortably and safely. The members of the cooperatives called on the population to take care of the units, not to damage them, not to scratch the seats, and to keep them clean in order to guarantee better service. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/entregan ... hinandega/ (La Primerisima, 24 August 2024)

Exhibition in Honor of Otto de la Rocha
In commemoration of the 91st anniversary of the birth of the songwriter Otto de la Rocha, the Mayor’s Office of Managua, inaugurated the exhibition “Painting a Song,” where more than 100 works were presented, inspired by the stories and popular songs of this famous Nicaraguan singer-songwriter-actor. The art exhibited to honor de la Rocha included chalk, pastel, acrylic, graphite pencil, charcoal, and oil created by children, youth and adults from the drawing, painting and plastic arts courses of the Houses of Culture and Creativity of the municipality of Managua. The cultural activity was presided over by the secretary of the Managua City Council Jennifer Porras López, and Georgina Valdivia, widow of Otto de la Rocha, who together with the art students and their families, enjoyed a cultural event and the exhibition of portraits. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/abren-ex ... -la-rocha/

[You can listen to Otto de la Rocha singing his songs on YouTube.] (La Primerisima, 24 August 2024)
First Release of Baby Turtles at Chacocente
On August 23, MARENA released 60 baby turtles of the species Lepidochelys olivacea (known as Paslama in Nicaragua and Olive Ridley in English) on the shores of the Escalante River Wildlife Refuge in Chacocente, municipality of Santa Teresa, Department of Carazo. Assisting in the release were tourists, members of the Army, and protected area rangers. This first release of baby turtles for the 2024 season in Chacocente is a result of the implementation of the national “Together We Conserve Our Sea Turtles” campaign. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/primera- ... hacocente/ (La Primerisima, 24 August 2024)

Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington DC Commemorates the Literacy Campaign
The Government, through the Embassy of Nicaragua in Washington DC commemorated 44 years of the National Literacy Crusade with a reception organized in conjunction with the association “Things to do in DC.” The Chargé d’Affaires of Nicaragua in the United States, Lautaro Sandino, greeted the attendees on behalf of the Nicaraguan government. The hymn of the Literacy Crusade and related songs were the background of the activity that gathered about 60 people interested in the process of restoration of rights promoted by Nicaragua. Sandino stressed that at the triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution the illiteracy rate in Nicaragua was 55 percent, so the country became a great school and in five months with the participation of thousands of young people illiteracy was reduced to thirteen percent. He added that now illiteracy is 3.5 percent. This victory of the people is not only in education, but also in health, social and economic development. Executive Director of the “Things to do DC” Association, Gregory Bland, emphasized that Nicaragua’s hospitality, its people and government are always inspiring and that they will continue to carry out activities that allow them to learn about the history and efforts of the Nicaraguan people. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/embajada ... etizacion/ (La Primerisima, 24 August 2024)

Mega Orthopedic Fair in Siuna Attends Thousands
A total of 2,699 people received treatment at the mega orthopedic fair organized by the Sandinista government through MINSA at the Carlos Centeno Hospital in Siuna.

Doctors provided 4,935 treatments to patients from the Miskito, Mayagna and Mestizo peoples, coming from 593 communities and 92 neighborhoods of the municipalities of Rosita, Bonanza, Paiwas, Mulukukú, Prinzapolka and Siuna. This event brought together communities from the Mining Triangle and nearby areas, who took advantage of specialized orthopedic services, including consultations, evaluations and treatments.

The fair reaffirmed the government’s commitment to health and equitable access to quality services throughout the country. A total of 28 minor surgeries, 44 casts, 10 knee replacements, 4 arthroscopies, 3 trauma surgeries and 361 infiltrations were performed.

Likewise, 78 ultrasounds, 376 X-rays, 33 electromyography tests, 943 laboratory tests were performed and 626 people were vaccinated against COVID-19. (La Primerisima, 25 August 2024)

Deputy Gladys Báez Awarded the Order General José Dolores Estrada
During a special session in commemoration of the 57th anniversary of the Battle of Pancasán, the National Assembly president, Dr. Gustavo Porras, awarded National Assembly Deputy Gladys Báez the Order of General José Dolores Estrada. Baez is the second vice-president of the National Assembly and survivor of the Battle of Pancasán. Porras explained that the decoration was awarded at the initiative of President Daniel Ortega, Vice President Rosario Murillo and the National Assembly. Baez received this highest order and distinction granted by the National Assembly for her heroism, guerrilla mystique and revolutionary trajectory. Deputy Raquel Dixon stated that Gladys Báez is a legendary, patriotic and brave woman, who has stood out in different stages of the country’s history. She joined the FSLN as a militant, participated in the 1967 Pancasán struggle, joined the Rigoberto López Pérez Western Front in the insurrections of León, and is currently a deputy in the National Assembly. Báez said, “I remember the trip to Pancasán: the vehicle we were in overturned and we fell into a ravine. Efrain Sanchez, Daniel Ortega and I were in that vehicle. Daniel got us out of the vehicle.” She went on to say, “Today as I receive this maximum distinction, I consider that I receive it not personally, but rather for all the people who have fought for the dignity and sovereignty of our homeland. Fifty years after Pancasán the enemy is still the same.” (La Primerisima, 27 August 2024)

11th Extraordinary Summit ALBA-TCP Supports Venezuela
At the Eleventh Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) held on August 26, 2024, the presidents of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega; Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel; and Bolivia, Luis Arce, expressed their support for the government of Venezuela in face of attacks from imperialist powers.

Here are extracts from the final declaration of that meeting:

We, the Heads of State and Government of the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBATCP), committed to the founding principles and values of solidarity, social justice and cooperation, and in adherence to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, meeting on August 26, 2024:

Recognizing that the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a founding member country of the ALBA-TCP, a project envisioned by the Liberator Simón Bolívar and the heroes of the independence efforts of Latin America and the Caribbean and carried forward by Commanders Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías and Fidel Castro Ruz, the member countries of this great Alliance acknowledge that this nation is sovereign and independent, with high democratic standards, which, in compliance with its sacred Constitution, organized presidential elections, in accordance with the corresponding regulatory schedule.

Throughout the years of growth of this great unionist and integrationist project, we have been witnesses to the work and leadership of President Nicolás Maduro Moros at the helm of this sister nation in the face of the fiercest onslaught of transnational powers, … as well as witnesses to an unparalleled onslaught against the Venezuelan nation, through over 930 unilateral and illegal coercive measures aimed at strangling the Venezuelan economy and society.

Therefore, we hereby:
Strongly condemn any coup d’état or attempted coup d’état, as they constitute a violent, illegal and unconstitutional effort that threatens democracy, peace and life itself, as well as the destabilizing plans and actions promoted by foreign powers, which attempt to disregard the will of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, expressed democratically and legitimately at the ballot box.

Strongly repudiate the brutal communication warfare, full of hatred, intolerance, discrimination and contempt through social networks, strategically aimed at the younger generations of Venezuelan society, victims of disinformation and hyper-information to promote violence, vandalism and barbarism. ….

Demand that the international community respect the sovereignty, self-determination and democratic will of the Venezuelan people. We regret the decision of some governments that question the electoral results in Venezuela and promote discourses that do not reflect the reality of the country. It is essential that all States recognize the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs and work together to foster dialogue and constructive cooperation rather than fuel divisions.

Recognize that Venezuela is a free, independent, democratic and sovereign State that has its own institutions and laws to address its internal affairs. In this regard, we welcome the decision of the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to settle this electoral controversy, in a worthy example of full exercise of sovereignty thus guaranteeing peace and tranquility to the Venezuelan people. ….

Congratulate the Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his people who, with resilience and adherence to justice, have been able to defeat the attempted coup d’état and we reaffirm our commitment and unrestricted support to the constitutional, legitimate and democratically elected government.

Reaffirm, once again, that Latin America and the Caribbean is a Zone of Peace. We demand the strict compliance with the obligation not to intervene, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any other State and to fully respect the inalienable right of every State to choose its political, economic, social and cultural system as an essential requirement to guarantee peaceful coexistence among nations, and peace and stability in our region.

We gather to defend, today more than ever, the Venezuelan people from the tentacles of fascism and we raise our voices to reject the interference, manipulation and imperialist, colonialist and coup intentions to seize our legitimate rights and resources, and which have caused so much harm to our peoples. Defending Venezuela is to defend the dream of union and brotherhood of our heroes and peoples.

Caracas, August 26, 2024 (El Digital 19, 26 August 2024)

https://afgj.org/es-LA/nicanotes-nicara ... f3d1f2b344

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NicaNotes: Gustavo Gutierrez, Messenger of Liberation
November 20, 2024
By James Phillips

(James Phillips is a cultural and political anthropologist and a former Jesuit with forty years as a student of Central America.)

Gustavo Gutierrez died on October 22, 2024, in Lima, Peru, at the age of 96. His death will not occasion headlines in the world’s major news media, but it should.



Gustavo Gutierrez’ seminal work A Theology of Liberation was first published in Spanish in 1971 and in English in 1973. Subsequent books included The Power of the Poor in History, We Drink from Our Own Wells, and a biography of Bartolomé de Las Casas entitled In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ.

Gutierrez is not well known in the United States, but in the history of human liberation he has a place alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., and others whose words and work have both inspired and uplifted the struggles of the oppressed for what King called freedom and what Gutierrez called liberation. Like King, Gutierrez understood that religious faith and history are not separate realms, but are intimately connected. For both of them, faith was a powerful force that could be employed either to control or to liberate people in both body and soul. For them, “faith” was both spiritual and political at once.

Gustavo Gutierrez was born in 1928, a Peruvian who became a Catholic priest and, later in life, entered the Dominican Religious Order. He was a scholar, a theologian who spent much time as a priest among the people, the poor. In 1971, after years of reflection and experience of the reality of life around him, he published A Theology of Liberation, which became a groundbreaking book. He wrote it at a time when dictatorships and military rule, complete with severe poverty and repression, were the lot of millions in Latin America. He began the Introduction to A Theology of Liberation with this (translated here from the Spanish):

“This book is an attempt at reflection, based on the gospel and the experience of men and women committed to the process of liberation in the oppressed and exploited land of Latin America. It is a theological reflection born of the experience of shared efforts to abolish the current unjust situation and to build a different society, freer and more human. Many in Latin America have started along the path of a commitment to liberation, and among them is a growing number of Christians; whatever the validity of these pages, it is due to their experiences and reflections.”

To some, theological reflection might seem like a rather tame, even counter-intuitive place to promote human liberation—spiritual perhaps, but not physical, political, societal liberation. But Gutierrez showed that such an attitude was based on a false assumption (encouraged by both church and state) that the “spiritual” was somehow distinct and separate from the rest of daily life. The traditional theology of the Catholic Church and much of Christianity depicted God as a great king, or judge overseeing the lives of individuals and separating the good from the bad. Punishment and reward were integral to this traditional theology. Gutierrez insisted that theology begin where people live, not in abstract philosophical principles. For him, understanding liberation started with recognizing that God is found in the streets and the fields, present and struggling alongside the people in community, rather than in the heavens judging people from on high. The God of liberation was neither judge nor ruler, but rather one who encouraged and inspired humans in their struggles for a better society, who changed tires, washed laundry, and taught in school.

For the theologians of liberation, the salvation promised by Christianity was not confined to saving one’s soul. It included the entire human, body and soul. It was not enough for religion to encourage charity for the poor and oppressed while remaining silent about the systems that oppressed the poor. Liberation was not simply individual salvation in isolation from participation in community. Liberation was essentially social. Gutierrez saw that we saved and liberated each other together in community. This also implied engagement in the political situation of society.

This understanding of God as one with the people, especially the poor and oppressed was not entirely new. In parts of Latin America, especially Central America, in the 1960s and 1970s, small groups of people (comunidades eclesiales de base—Christian base communities) were beginning to meet to reflect on the meaning of the Christian gospels in the light of their own daily experiences and of the political realities and movements around them. They did not merely accept the interpretations of church authorities. The idea of the kind of new and just society that arose from these biblical reflections led many to seek ways to make real such a society by joining or supporting political, even revolutionary movements that seemed to be seeking the same kind of society. They knew that these political and revolutionary movements were not perfect, only human, made of people like them seeking a better, more just society. Political movements could be practical vehicles toward a more just and free society.

In Nicaragua, many Christians joined the Sandinista-led revolution to depose the brutal dictatorship of the Somoza family. When Somoza fled, in 1979, the new revolutionary government included many who had embraced the theology of liberation, including at least three Catholic priests as cabinet ministers in the revolutionary government. This involved much soul-searching, especially about the morality of joining a movement that included violent means to overthrow a repressive reality. This alliance of Christians with a secular revolutionary movement was seen as a new phenomenon. Revolutionaries were supposed to be secular atheists and communists, but now people of faith were also revolutionaries alongside and in common cause with the others. Those who used only peaceful means and those who took up arms both worked to find a better society. Nicaragua exemplified this different reality, one that was evolving also in countries like El Salvador. The Nicaraguan revolution invited participation of atheists, religious people, young guerrilla fighters, and people who engaged in all sorts of more peaceful means to support the revolution. It is doubtful that Gutierrez foresaw all of this in 1971 as he wrote A Theology of Liberation, but his ideas and those of other liberation theologians helped prepare the way.

Others certainly saw the power of liberation theology. Gutierrez and the idea of liberation he promoted were threats to traditional church and state authorities who had colluded for centuries in maintaining control of societies for their own profit. The Vatican censured Gutierrez personally and issued statements condemning liberation theology as Marxist. This was the time of the Cold War, and the Marxist label was a catch-all for anything that seemed to threaten the position of the privileged. The Reagan Administration saw liberation theology as a threat to US. interests, and said so openly. Reagan knew that to destroy the Nicaraguan revolution he must destroy not only the Sandinista government but also the theology of liberation. He did this in part by claiming falsely and repeatedly that the Sandinista government was persecuting religion. Those of us in Nicaragua at the time (1980s) saw no such persecution, but rather free expressions of faith and religion everywhere.

So, Gutierrez and others incurred the wrath of both church and state, in this case the United States. Priests and others who embraced a theology of liberation in Latin America were removed by the Vatican or their bishops, or were targeted and killed. “Be a patriot, kill a priest,” was the alleged chant of the Salvadoran military that killed priests, nuns, and Archbishop Oscar Romero, in El Salvador, even as the U.S provided millions of dollars in aid to the Salvadoran military. In revolutionary Nicaragua, no priests or nuns were killed by the Sandinista government.

Despite being targeted and denounced by some powerful authorities, Gutierrez continued to write and speak about liberation, along with others who added their insights to the reality he had opened. The fundamental insights of liberation theology have survived. Much of its influence is felt and expressed now quietly and without fanfare. Many Christians in Latin America have internalized their faith and express it in work for the community and for others, building what MLK might have called a “beloved community” that they consider more important than church services or obedience to church hierarchy.

We in the United States are seeing the resurgence of a so-called Christian nationalism that is the opposite of the theology of liberation promoted by Gutierrez. Christian nationalism divides, condemns, and targets people and whole communities who challenge the kind of exclusive and punitive nation that Christian nationalists seem to want. We need to be reminded that an alternative vision of faith, politics, and society already exists and has been powerful before, one described and promoted by MLK and Gustavo Gutierrez. May they rest in peace as their work continues among us. Gustavo Gutierrez, presente!

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy
More than 3,000 Recyclers Trained by MARENA this Year
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) announced that during 2024 it has provided technical support to 168 collection centers,15 cooperatives, and 8 repair shops that carry out environmental practices like recycling. The objective is to reduce pollution and promote the circular economy. 3,339 people have been trained in collection centers, cooperatives, associations, auto dismantling and repair workshops in the integrated management of waste. Technical and legal advice has been provided to recyclers through an official environmental program. These actions are part of the National Strategy for the Integrated Management of Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Waste and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/mas-de-3 ... -este-ano/ (La Primerisima, 17 November 2024)

New Interoceanic Canal Route Plan Presented
On November 18, President Daniel Ortega presented to the public the proposal for a new route for an interoceanic canal through Nicaragua. During the ceremony opening of the XVII China-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit held in Managua, President Ortega presented the map of the new route that would go between the Port of Bluefields on the Caribbean coast and the Port of Corinto on the Pacific. Ortega invited Chinese, Latin American and Caribbean businesspeople to join Nicaraguans in this historic proposal. This canal would have a length of 445 kilometers and would pass through part of Lake Xolotlán (Lake Managua).

“It is clear that trade is growing more and more in the world, it is also true that following the route of President Xi Jinping, the Silk Road, more and more routes are opening that are bringing welfare to the people, and it is also true that one of the routes most used by …large and medium enterprises … is water transport on ships which transport tons of goods,” said Ortega. He pointed out that the Panama Canal has problems with having enough water. Ships often have to wait for days or weeks to pass, making trade more expensive. “There is no alternative, there should be an alternative, and we have the alternative here in Nicaragua,” he said. He explained that many studies have been done over the years and there is a shorter route that passes through Lake Cocibolca [Lake Nicaragua, where there could be more environmental damage]. He explained that this project through Lake Xolotlán is to start at the Port of Bluefields.

Ortega said that the canal would have a very wide channel to facilitate the passage of the largest ships with enormous loads [ships that can’t currently go through the Panama Canal]. The President asked “’What is missing?’ What is missing is that we join efforts; first with Latin American and Caribbean businesspeople. Logically our brothers from the People’s Republic of China will join us, and if there are other countries that want to join us, the doors are open to all.” “Nicaragua is ready to contribute for greater fluidity to maritime transport, to trade and we invite you all [to join us],” he concluded.

The Nicaraguan president greeted the 250 representatives of Chinese institutions and companies who he said come “to share love, joy, benefits, programs, investments and projects of all kinds to lift people out of misery and poverty.” He said also, “We are so pleased that 70 delegates from institutions and companies from Latin America and the Caribbean are here. In unity there is strength and this is a giant step that we are all taking together among small countries like ours, accompanied by a power that has much to contribute to the welfare of our people.” The president stressed that for Nicaragua this China-Latin America and Caribbean Business Summit is a historic event.

The ceremony was headed by the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and Vice President Rosario Murillo, together with the Vice President of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Yang Zhen, and the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Nicaragua, Chen Xi. The city of Zhengzhou will host the XVIII China – Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit next year. See photos and map of new route: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/daniel-y ... ial-china/ (La Primerisima, 18 November, 2024)

Constitutional Reform Would Create Co-Presidents
President Daniel Ortega has sent several reforms to the Nicaraguan Constitution to the National Assembly. One of them establishes in Article 133 the creation of the figure of co-presidents. Another of the reforms would reduce the number of magistrates in the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) to nine of which five would be women. On Nov. 20 the National Assembly formed a special commission which will be in charge of reviewing and making recommendations on the reforms as part of a process of updating and modernizing the Magna Carta. The President of the Assembly, Dr. Gustavo Porras, said that the Special Commission of Constitutional Character will be in charge of the study and consultation of opinions on the initiative. Dr. Porras said that the Law for the Partial Reform of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua is being referred to the Special Commission whose report must be discussed and approved twice in the legislature [in Nicaragua, Constitutional changes require votes in two different legislative terms – in this case 2024 and 2025.] It also reaffirms the recognition of Nicaragua’s original and Afro-descendant peoples and their own identity and culture, within a unitary and indivisible state. The right to free and quality education in all its levels including initial, basic, middle, technical, higher and teaching will be constitutionally established as well as the right to free and quality health care within the model of family and community health with the participation of the Nicaraguan people. (La Primerisima, 20 November 2024)

Tropical Storm Leaves Two Dead and More than 300 Homes Flooded
On Nov. 17 SINAPRED (National System for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Attention) authorities reported one death [and later another] and more than 300 houses flooded in different parts of the country due to tropical storm Sara which has caused days of constant rain. Bismarck Velásquez, 25 years old, was swept away on his motorcycle when he crossed a bridge in the Los Laureles neighborhood, in the municipality of San Francisco de Cuapa, department of Chontales. His body was found 10 kilometers from the site of the tragedy. COMUPRED reported 118 flooded houses in the municipality of León; 76 homes in the municipality of La Paz Centro, 76 homes in the municipality of Rivas, 69 homes in Ciudad Dario and at least 15 homes in Managua [the actual numbers are likely much higher as rain continues to fall]. SINAPRED reported that rivers have risen in at least 10 municipalities as a result of the constant rains. Authorities also report the fall of trees, collapse of roads, overflowing riverbeds, collapse of walls and roofs. The rains have also caused landslides. Since November 15, Nicaragua has been on yellow alert emergency due to the downpours caused by the tropical storm. Dr. Guillermo González, Minister Director of SINAPRED, ordered the execution of response plans and protection measures for the population in affected and potentially affected areas, including the preparation of shelters and the activation of disaster protocols. (La Primerisima, 17 November 2024)

Nicaragua Champion of Games for Students with Disabilities
Nicaragua obtained the highest number of gold medals and stood out in silver and bronze in the XI Central American School Sports Games for Students with Disabilities, organized by the Central American Council of Sports and Recreation (CODICADER) from November 12 to 17 in Panama City. The Nicaraguan delegation, with 83 male and female competitors, won 24 gold, 9 silver and 12 bronze medals for a total of 45 medals. The categories were from 12 to 15 years old and from 16 to 19 years old in five disabilities: Hearing, Visual, Down’s Syndrome, Intellectual Disability and Cerebral Palsy. There were three days of competitions for students with disabilities at primary and secondary level with athletes from Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua. These games not only represented a space to measure sports skills, but also a celebration of the talent and resilience of students with disabilities, who demonstrated that barriers can be broken with effort and determination. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/nicaragu ... capacidad/ (La Primerisima, 17 November 2024)

Nicaragua Signs Important Agreements with Chinese Companies
Laureano Ortega, Presidential Advisor for Investment, Trade and International Cooperation, said that, within the framework of the XVII China-Latin America and Caribbean Business Summit, important agreements and contracts were signed with Chinese companies to develop projects in Nicaragua that will create the opportunity to make leaps towards development, creating jobs and prosperity in the country. “It will help us in the fight against poverty, in achieving as China did the eradication of extreme poverty here in Nicaragua,” he stated. A new Eastern Market will be built [this market is the biggest in the region] as well as a metal recycling plant. Another part of the important agreement is the El Barro wind project, which will continue the development of renewable energies and will lower the cost of electricity in the country. In the health sector, a cooperation agreement was signed for the supply of drugs and the design and construction of a regional drug production and distribution center. The Business Summit was held this November 18 and 19 in Managua. (La Primerisima, 18 November 2024)
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