Nicaragua

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 09, 2020 1:22 pm

Nicaragua maintains strict vigilance against the coronavirus

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House-to-house visits by community brigades is one of the measures implemented by the Ministry of Health to maintain epidemiological control. | Photo: The Voice of Sandinismo

Published April 6, 2020

he health authorities in the nation affirm that, once the global pandemic was decreed, they adjusted their lines of work to the protocols established by the WHO.

The general secretary of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA), Carlos Sáenz, assured this Monday that strict epidemiological surveillance is maintained in the country at border posts and at homes, the latter, through visits by community brigades, in charge of territorial investigations.

According to the health authorities, both measures contribute to containing the spread of the coronavirus, which is why they were put into practice from the moment the global pandemic was declared. Similarly, Nicaragua adjusted its lines of work in accordance with the protocols established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and began training its specialists.

In this way, 19 hospitals were arranged to provide medical attention to possible suspects, while a group of laboratories confirmed these diagnoses by conducting established tests to determine the presence or not of the virus.

The Nicaraguan health system has vast experience in the surveillance and monitoring of respiratory conditions, whose number of cases increases between the months of October and November, with a higher incidence on vulnerable populations such as minors and older adults.

Regarding the three confirmed cases in the Caribbean country, the official explained that adequate care is maintained for them and systematic follow-up of their contacts through phone calls, eventual visits and the taking of blood samples to examine their viral biomarkers.

Sáenz highlighted the necessary confidence that the Nicaraguan people must have about their health system, with which "we will continue to contain this disease in order to have the least possible effect." He also recalled the need to maintain personal hygiene through the washing hands with soap and water, coughing and sneezing at an internal angle of the elbow, disinfecting surfaces and maintaining distance between people.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/nicaragu ... -0048.html

Google Translator

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Up to Nicaragua 8 thousand doses of Interferon Alfa from Cuba

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The arrival of the new batch of the drug is part of the health cooperation maintained by both nations. | Photo: El Digital 19

Published on April 9, 2020 (6 hours 46 minutes ago)

The arrival of the new batch of the drug is part of the cooperation in the field of health that both nations maintain.

On Wednesday, Nicaragua received eight thousand additional doses of the drug Interferon Alfa 2B developed by Cuba for the attention of Covid-19 cases in the Central American country.

According to the Nicaraguan Government's press release, the arrival of the new batch of the drug is part of the cooperation in the field of health maintained by both nations.

The medicine was transported from Cuba to the Central American country in an airplane of the Venezuelan airline Conviasa.

The Inteferon Alfa 2B is produced by the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, whose Director, Dr. Marta Ayala Ávila, has formed the delegation of Cuban doctors present in Nicaragua since March 18 to help in the prevention campaign of the Covid-19.

For its part, Nicaragua sent 600 thousand doses of Influenza vaccine to Cuba, which will be used in the routine vaccination campaigns carried out by the Cuban Government on the island.

The Influenza vaccine is produced in the Nicaraguan capital by the Mechnikov plant, which is the product of scientific and technological collaboration between Russia, Nicaragua and Cuba.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/nicaragu ... -0002.html

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"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Sat Jun 06, 2020 6:42 pm

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Nicaragua – False Witness, False Memory
June 5, 2020
By Stephen Sefton, Tortilla con Sal – May 31, 2020

On Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The standard Western canonical sources of record, namely international institutions, non-governmental organizations and media outlets, practically universally contend that all three countries are authoritarian or even tyrannical regimes, denying their peoples’ basic democratic rights. The current COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the reverse is true.

Cuba has led the world as an example of human and scientific solidarity, while Venezuela and Nicaragua have clearly protected their people’s well being better than their neighbors. But the same North American and European governments falsely accusing Venezuela and Nicaragua of tyrannical repression, have themselves addressed a complex public health problem by mobilizing police forces to enforce aggressive, ill-conceived restrictive measures against populations deliberately cowed by fear.

Nicaragua - False Witness, False Memory

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Cuba’s “Henry Reeve” medical brigade arrives in Nicaragua
(Photo: La Voz del Sandinismo)

For their part, Cuba and Venezuela have overcome the COVID-19 crisis despite cruel, illegal, unilateral extortion measures seeking purposefully to diminish popular support for their governments. So far, Nicaragua has faced somewhat less aggressive financial coercive measures, but they have still seriously affected the country’s ability to access resources to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These criminal coercive measures denying the basic rights of people in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have proven of little interest to the Organization of American States, or to unjustifiably prestigious human rights NGOs like Amnesty International or the International Federation for Human Rights and of no interest at all to chronically mendacious Western news media. Since these sources also form the basis for much academic research, their false witness in turn contaminates the historical, economic and social science record.



In the case of Nicaragua, reporting in North America and Europe on the country’s policy against COVID-19 follows identical patterns to false Western reporting of the violent failed coup attempt of 2018. Back in 2018, the media and NGO disinformation offensive in support of the violent failed coup attempt from April 18th to July 17th insistently repeated two main lies. The first lie was that the sandinista government used lethal force to repress spontaneous peaceful protests supported by a majority of Nicaragua’s people. The second lie began even before the coup attempt was defeated in mid-July, namely, that in Nicaragua opposition activists suffered unjust persecution for crimes of which they were falsely accused.

No impartial review of the available sources supports these two falsehoods. Opposition representatives and the international media spreading their lies, deliberately avoid addressing many unanswered questions about numerous lethal opposition crimes of violence. The enduring false witness of Amnesty International’s reports on Nicaragua reflects the typical human rights à la carte culture of all the main international human rights institutions especially the consistent doubletalk on Nicaragua in relation to concerns about freedom of expression. This inherent breakdown in conventional reporting standards inevitably also results in examples of academics compounding those institutional, NGO and media falsehoods, leading to a systematic contamination and corruption of the historical record.

Similarly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicaragua’s US controlled opposition has also insistently emphasized two main lies. Firstly, that the sandinista government has been negligent and incompetent, doing nothing to prepare for the pandemic. Secondly, that it has systematically hidden a disporportionately high number of people dying from the virus, while silencing responsible critics recommending quarantine measures. In fact, Nicaragua has been very successful in the careful balance it has struck protecting its population fom the virus while facilitating relatively normal social and economic life. This contrasts sharply with the way its northern neighbors, particularly El Salvador and Honduras have tended to use COVID-19 as pretext for repression.

Nicaragua - False Witness, False Memory

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MINSA health workers go house to house imparting education on COVID-19 and monitoring possible cases. (Photo El 19 Digital)

In regional terms, Nicaragua’s preventive community approach to health care has emerged as model for how an impoverished country can control the virus while ensuring that social and economic life continue. However, Nicaragua’s US funded opposition suppress that regional context, focusing on false accusations which their propaganda outlets often illustrate with audiovisual material or photographs from other countries, just as they did in 2018, for example using photographs from Ecuador of bodies awaiting burial. In effect, the current opposition psychological warfare offensive is simply another stage of the US government inspired endless push for regime change.

Opposition aligned doctors are promoting a false campaign on COVID-19 in Nicaragua, setting up spurious medical associations and a propaganda “observatory” spreading false information and statistics. They claim falsely that the government’s Ministry of Health is rigging data when in fact it is impossible in a small country of just 6.5 million people to hide cases of COVID-19. Like its revolutionary allies in Cuba and Venezuela, Nicaragua’s government is battling both COVID-19 and disinformation aimed at destabilizing and damaging the economy, exactly the same opposition objectives as in 2018, resulting from their chronic inability to win democratic elections.



In both the failed coup attempt in 2018 and in the current psychological warfare campaign, the fundamental tactic has been to deploy cynical reporting dressed up as concern for human rights. Opposition politicians in Nicaragua hysterically calling for quarantine measures have deployed the same “guided by science” demagoguery as their counterparts elsewhere. In fact, as even Richard Horton of the “Lancet” journal of medical science has conceded, “Scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world…” further noting, “Journal editors deserve their fair share of criticism too. We aid and abet the worst behaviours”. His own editorial practice as regards Nicaragua confirms that frank admission, despite a belated effort to give both sides of the current story.

From Ukraine, Syria and Iran to Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, examples abound of Western institutions, NGOs and news media bearing false witness. Bodies such as those of the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization of American States have cynically misreported events, falsely seeking to justify efforts at illegitimate, coercive regime change by the United States and its European allies. Over time, the persistent false witness embodied in phony, faithless reporting crystallizes into false memory, becoming for all practical purposes the canonical historical record for the great majority of people living in North America and Europe.

It often seems that no amount of rational argument can roll back a dominant irrational narrative deployed via wholesale false coverage from mainstream news media, reinforced by mass deception campaigns on social media. However, Nicaragua demonstrated in 2018 that a large number of people can certainly be fooled and bewildered for a short while, but only for a matter of weeks. President Daniel Ortega and his sandinista government team trusted Nicaragua’s majority to understand their own material and national interests in 2018, just as they know they can do now, as they work to overcome COVID-19. Whatever Western history books may end up saying, Nicaragua’s people have repeatedly elected their authorities based on their lived experience of the country’s broken, perverse, US-owned opposition and the formidable strength of the sandinista model of national development.

https://orinocotribune.com/nicaragua-fa ... se-memory/

happy to see this piece, I had heard some outlandish shit on npr concerning Nicaragua but with so much else going on....
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:03 pm

The Strength of the Sandinista Model
By: Nicaraguan government

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The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega | Photo: EFE

Published 29 May 2020

In the entire history of Nicaragua, it is only with the two governments of the Sandinista Front, that the popular interests of the great majority, that are poor, have been prioritized.

The strength of the Sandinista Model is based on characteristics and results. The characteristics are that the FSLN is patriotic, democratic, it promotes inclusion and participation under the concept that the Peoples are the President and the manifestation of Popular Power. The FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) defends popular interests, enjoys the confidence of the people, and has a social and political base with a high degree of commitment, which constitutes the basis of its great capacity to organize and mobilize the Nicaraguan society through volunteerism.

At the current stage of the Sandinista Revolution, the People as Leaders, facilitated by a Good Government based on the values ​​and principles of the people themselves, have reaped significant social, environmental, economic and productive results, after so many years of sowing in struggle.

It is the characteristics and results previously described that largely constitute the strength of the Sandinista Model. Historically and currently, the groups opposed to the Sandinista Front form a political enclave mastered and guided by North American foreign policy.

The Sandinista Front is the patriotic backstop of the Nicaraguan political spectrum, heir to the struggle of Sandino and Zeledón and the entire history of defending self-determination, independence and sovereignty.

The Sandinista Front is the father of democracy in Nicaragua. Before the 1984 elections, there was nothing quite like a sovereign and free election. In 1990, the FSLN became the first political force to transfer power peacefully with the results of a free and sovereign election.

In the period 1990-2007, the FSLN made a loyal opposition and acted within the constraints of the Constitution, even when there were periods of governance crisis due to the weakness of the governments in power.

Of course, democracy is more than just elections and it is the Sandinista Front that has promoted the inclusion and massive participation of the Nicaraguan People under the concept of the People as President and the manifestation of Popular Power.

In the entire history of Nicaragua, it is only with the two governments of the Sandinista Front, that the popular interests of the great majority, that are poor, have been prioritized.

One of the strengths of the GRUN Model is the confidence that the people have in the Sandinista Front and in the wisdom of Commander Daniel Ortega to defend and promote the interests of the poor even in difficult circumstances; a trust that has a historical root that comes from the fight against Somocismo, the fight in the 1980´s against the Contra backed by the CIA and two North American administrations, the policy of Governing from below, defending the interests of the poor during the 16 years of neoliberal governments and in the current government in which the leading role of the people, facilitated by the government, has made significant progress for the poor, for women, for indigenous people and people of African descent, that is, a trust forged in historical practice.

Another strength of the model is the high level of commitment toward a solid social and political base, with proven loyalty and a willingness to sacrifice. This forms the basis for the extraordinary capacity to organize and mobilize the Nicaraguan people, through volunteerism, which includes a large percentage of the people themselves, especially youth and women.

The Sandinista Popular Revolution has had clear stages: In the first stage the objective was the national liberation from tyranny. In the second, revolutionary transformations were advanced for the people, but in the end the objective was to survive the brutal American aggression of a decade. In the third stage, the objective was to defend revolutionary advances from neoliberal attempts to reverse them. It is in the current fourth stage that the people, as leaders, facilitated by Good Government based on the values ​​and principles that the Nicaraguan people have reaped, after so many years of sowing in struggle; significant social, environmental, economic and productive results.

The people have recognized the progress with votes in the polls for the Commander: 38% in 2006, 62% in 2011 and 72% in 2016.

The growing strength of the FSLN and its successful model, as well as the weakness of a disjointed opposition, led a part of the opposition and the United States in 2018 to try to add Nicaragua to the list of coups d'état and attempts sponsored by imperialism in this century: Venezuela (2002), Honduras (2009), Ecuador (2010), Paraguay (2012), Brazil (2016), Bolivia (2019).

Armed roadblocks on highways and streets; the armed invasions of neighborhoods and houses; the burning of city halls and other buildings, vehicles and construction equipment; looting of stores and other businesses; the kidnapping, torture and murder of Sandinistas; 198 people died, including 24 policemen, while 401 policemen were wounded by bullets; all this in the midst of a false news campaign and massive psychological warfare based on the media and social networks. In the end, the coup collapsed and the people triumphed, showing the strength of the model.

SOCIAL STRENGTH

GRUN SOCIAL PROJECTS:

The GRUN has promoted a model of human development and participatory, representative democracy and social justice, which can be verified in:

The transformation of health, education and recreation, among others, to which the entire population can access without exclusion and without distinction. Everyone has the right to enjoy the benefits that may be granted to them.

The prioritization of public investment or state investment in areas of Human Development has been guaranteed every year in the GRUN budget that invests in free health and education, as well as to guarantee security, food, care and protection, as well as the right to have decent housing for the people of Nicaragua.

The expansion of the coverage and quality of drinking water and electricity services, as well as highways and roads. New roads have been built, and electricity has been brought to almost the entire country (97.57%) and drinking water to areas of the country that lacked these benefits.

The creation, expansion, and restoration of parks in all the municipalities of the country. New parks have been built and existing ones in need of repair, have been improved.

The massification of sports at the national level, among children, adolescents and youth has not only built new sports spaces, but it has also promoted and facilitated access for all the general population to these places for recreation.

The rescue, protection, safeguard, promotion and dissemination of the historical and cultural heritage, taking care of museums, as well as the implementation of programs so that the population can visit the historical sites of the country and learn about the culture of the peoples in general.

Regarding labor rights, the rights of workers have been defended and the culture of entrepreneurship has been implemented, which has promoted new sources of work and employment.

In the area of ​​Social Security, the affiliation of workers has increased, particularly by expanding in rural areas, cooperatives, unions, home help and self-employed workers.

On land ownership and planning, property titles have been delivered to people who live in different areas without possessing legal documents.

In relation to prevention and care in the family, we have been promoting not only laws, but education at all levels for the care and protection of families in general.

For people with different disabilities, we have been guaranteeing a culture of respect, ensuring that these people can have the right and access to jobs, education, regardless of their condition.

As for the elderly, laws have been promoted that benefit older adults, creating comprehensive care centers, discounts on payments for their basic services (electricity and water), as well as favorable prices for access to touristic sites.

Likewise, the GRUN has developed:

Maternal Homes in Nicaragua. Pregnant mothers are accommodated by providing pre-delivery care and the newborn is cared for.

Love for the little ones. Its objective is the early stimulation of boys and girls under the age of six, a process that begins from the prenatal period and promotes breastfeeding, surveillance, growth and development, as well as the vaccination process, ensuring health, nutrition and personal hygiene of minors.

Snack and School Packages: It consists of the preparation of food in the study centers by the parents with meals provided by the government, along with school supplies delivered to the boys and girls.

Literacy and Youth and Adult Education: It allows people who do not have studies, to complete them in a short time.

Zero Usury Program: It is a program aimed at women who are self-employed, providing them with improved credit terms and interests rates that are less than the ones offered by banks and “small loan institutions”.

All with A Voice Program: Personalized attention to people with disabilities through medical check-ups, delivery of medications, food packages, education, among other benefits.

Solidarity Roof Plan: Consists of the delivery of sheets of zinc for families in need to improve their living conditions.

Houses for the People: Construction and delivery of social housing for the population living in poverty.

Productive and Food Programs: Delivery of cows, poultry and fruit seeds, to reduce malnutrition and poverty in the short term.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK THAT STRENGTHENS THE GRUN'S CHRISTIAN, SOCIALIST AND SOLIDARITY MODEL.

The GRUN, since 2007 to date has promoted new laws and updated and modernized others, which have as a priority the strengthening and restitution of the rights of the Nicaraguan people. Among these we have:

Laws that guarantee Nicaraguan citizens a better quality of life: Law No. 693, the Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security Law; Law No. 721, Law on the social sale of medicines; and Law No. 842, Law for the protection of the rights of consumers and users.

Laws that protect and strengthen the family and its members: Law No. 870, Family Code; Law No. 677, Special Law for the promotion of housing construction and access to affordable housing; Law No. 688, Law for the promotion of the dairy sector and the glass of school milk; Law No. 718, Special Law for the Protection of Multiple Birth Families; and Law No. 720, Law for the Elderly.

Laws that protect the rights of people with some type of special needs: Law No. 675, Nicaraguan Sign Language Law; Law No. 650, Law for the Protection of the human rights of people with mental illnesses; and Law No. 763, Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Laws that promote equality, dignity and equity of rights to all Nicaraguans: Law No. 648, Law on Equal Rights and Opportunities; and Law No. 757, Law of dignified and equitable treatment of indigenous peoples and people of African descent.

Laws that promote a life free of violence: Law No. 779, Comprehensive Law against Violence against Women and reforms to Law No. 641 Penal Code.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE GRUN'S SOCIAL PROGRAMS.

International organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Food Program (WFP), have highlighted and recognized that the Nicaraguan government has made significant progress on issues of poverty reduction in general, the creation of economic opportunities in rural areas for families to produce their food, and the positive performance of the economy, maintaining growth levels that are higher than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean.

ENVIRONMENTAL STRENGTH

Since the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity assumed the destiny of the country, a policy of protection and defense of Our Mother Earth has been put into practice, which is manifested in the proposals of the National Program for Human Development.

The lines of action that are applied to carry out this policy are mainly environmental education; defense and protection of natural resources and forest development; the conservation, recovery, collection and harvesting of water; mitigation, adaptation and risk management in the face of climate change; sustainable land management; the regulation and control of environmental pollution for the conservation of ecosystems and human health; as well as preventing the environmental impact of economic activities that take place in the country.

Within the framework of this policy, year after year, a Great National Reforestation Crusade is promoted as part of a reforestation strategy in forest areas and in regions suffering from land degradation. In this sense, a community forestry model is applied, in which the indigenous and Afro-descendant communities of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua are actively involved, as well as farmers along the agricultural frontier. On the other hand, Nicaragua received the approval of the Forest Carbon Cooperative Fund, through which rural communities and indigenous peoples living in the forests of the Caribbean Coast, Bosawás and Indio Maíz, will reduce deforestation and forest degradation, reducing emissions of approximately 11 million tons of Carbon Dioxide and receiving in return positive incentives for 55 million dollars in five years. This goal only represents 50% of the potential of the Caribbean region in reducing emissions. This is done through the MARENA ENDE-REDD + program, with the assistance of the World Bank.

The technological and technical capacities of MARENA, INETER, INAFOR and Regional Governments of the Caribbean Coast have been strengthened, with the establishment and operation of a forest monitoring system, which will allow the monitoring, recording and verification of the reduction of carbon emissions and the greenhouse gas effect due to deforestation and forest degradation processes at the national level and direct actions for the restoration of forest landscapes.

In the search for the use of water resources, the construction of water harvesting works and reservoirs for productive uses and recovery of this vital liquid is promoted. All of this within a strategy that seeks to recover and preserve water, the potential of water in river basins, soil fertility and the conservation of the flora and fauna of our country, which constitutes between 7% and 8% of the world's biodiversity.

At the international level, the GRUN has stood out in firm defense of Mother Earth and has raised its voice so that the whole of humanity mobilizes to reverse the consequences of climate change. Nicaragua has been a banner for developing countries in discussions in the different spaces of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, maintaining the principles of "common but differentiated responsibilities", "historical responsibilities of developed countries", "the principle of cooperation” and “the principle of respect for sovereignty” Nicaragua also stresses the need for developed countries to assume a moral commitment to finance developing countries in their efforts to mitigate, adapt, and address loses and damages caused by centuries of pollution from developed countries. Nicaragua has an active participation in the different decision-making instances of the Climate Change Convention such as the Green Climate Fund, the Permanent Finance Committee, the Subsidiary Bodies, among others.

Nicaragua signed the Paris Agreement in 2017, because in most countries of the world there was a consensus that the 2015 commitments in Paris are insufficient to prevent an increase in the global average temperature to 2ºC and much less to 1.5ºC, and also agree that the reduction goals for gases such as CO2 and methane in developed countries should be increased. Thus, Nicaragua's solitary position in Paris in 2015, became a consensus position in 2017.

The State of Nicaragua has continued to collaborate with the international community in promoting collective action on climate change, maintaining a firm and coherent position in defense of the environment and making continued efforts to adapt and mitigate the consequences of climate deterioration.

Our government has met the goals, commitments and agreements of the Climate Change Convention and the goals for reducing emissions have been defined through the reports of the "National Determined Contributions", which are currently in the process of being reviewed and improved to define our goals in terms of reducing gas emissions.

A national policy for mitigation and adaptation to climate change has been defined. This policy has a focus on sustainable development, compatible with disaster risk management, innovation and efficient use of resources, an ecosystem approach, gender equity, citizen participation, feasibility of measures, climate finance, recognition of indigenous peoples and indigenous communities, and education on climate change.

ECONOMIC STRENGTH

The IMF projects that the world economy will suffer a sharp contraction of -3% in 2020, much worse than that registered during the financial crisis of 2008–09. ECLAC, for its part, forecasts -5.3% for the Latin American region in 2020. On the other hand, according to the estimates of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), measures like the ones currently in place could reduce the world economy by -2.0% per month, or an annualized rate of -24%, approaching the levels of the Great Depression of the 930s.

The COVID-19 pandemic is inflicting a huge and escalating human cost worldwide. The health crisis is also having a serious impact on economic activity. Preliminary data for the response to the pandemic for the first quarter of 2020 indicate that the US economy (Gross Domestic Product, GDP) fell -4.8%, the largest decline in the first three months of the year since 2008 during the global financial crisis, when the US economy contracted by -8.4%

According to the Central American Integration System (SICA), through the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat (SIECA) and together with the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Monetary Council (SECMCA), the updated scenario with the perspectives collected as of April 2020, estimates for 2020 a decrease in the economy of Central America of -6.9% and a rate of generalized and sustained increase in the prices of goods and services (inflation) of 0.6% for the region. By 2021, the decrease in the economy at the regional level would be -1.4% and the estimated inflation rate would be 1.9%.

Some estimates also indicate that 29 million people in Latin America could fall into poverty, reversing a decade of efforts to reduce income inequality.

Faced with such unfavorable scenarios at the regional level and the world in general, the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity (GRUN), has not closed the economy, nor declared an absolute quarantine, since in Nicaragua approximately 80% of employment is informal, working brothers and sisters who live from day to day, and while 41% of the population lives in the countryside and require activities outside the home every day. All of them would be seriously affected. Added to this, that since the crisis of April 2018, GDP has experienced a successive contraction of up to -4.0% in 2018 and -3.9% in 2019.

The government, in addition to attending and facing the pandemic, is having to defend itself from the media attack and appeals to "stay at home", promoted by the leaders of the failed coup, with the aim of further destroying the economy, hindering productive and commercial activities, which would cause significant losses in household income and in the economic performance of companies, especially small and medium-sized ones. Government policy is protecting peasants, informal workers, small and medium-sized enterprises, the poor in general, and the national economy.

The strategy of balance of the GRUN and its Christian, Socialist and Solidarity Model, from the first day, has been to keep the economy afloat, reduce poverty and inequality levels, promote a monetary and financial policy of the government in harmony and in times of crises, like the one we are currently going through, avoiding a catastrophe in GDP by the end of 2020.

We have in our favor the flow of agricultural activities, productive transformation and provision of public services for families in the countryside and cities; the supply of basic consumer products has been maintained, while the price level of the products and services that the population demands daily remains stable. This contrasts with other countries where there has been panic buying and speculative price rises leading to shortages.

GOOD PERFORMANCE OF MONETARY POLICY

The policies implemented by the BCN and the good performance of the variables of the monetary sector led to the strengthening of the Gross International Reserves (RIB). Thus, the RIB closed 2019 at a higher level than in 2018 (2,397.4 million dollars). The exchange rate remained as expected, inflation was stable in one digit and the total amount of cash in the hands of the public (Monetary Base) stands at C$34,477.7 million, C$4,345 million more than in 2018.

GOOD PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT FINANCE

Government finances showed good performance in 2019, the execution of the State budget and its components (public spending and taxes) were handled in a prudent manner. As a result of this, public debt has shown a tendency to decrease.

Likewise, the Christian, Socialist and Solidarity Model has been in charge of providing generous incentives to attract more investment to the country, especially for export-oriented sectors, including free zones, tourism, mining and forestry.

A PRO-INVESTMENT GOVERNMENT

The Government of Nicaragua recognizes the positive impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) in an economy like that of Nicaragua, so it actively and openly promotes it as a country committed to its employees, the community, and the environment.

The appointment of a Presidential Delegate for Investments to coordinate investment promotion efforts and ensure the successful development of these projects reaffirms the government's positive stance towards foreign direct investment.

PRONicaragua, the official investment promotion agency, was highlighted with the best results among all investment promotion agencies in the world in the 2012 Global Comparative Study of Investment Promotion (GIPB), published by the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

WORLD ECONOMIC FREEDOM REPORT

Nicaragua's economy is among the freest in the world, according to the recent World Economic Freedom (EFW) report, published by the Fraser Institute. In the 2018 edition of the report, the country ranked 54 out of 162, with a score of 7.27 out of 10.

This annual report measures economic freedom (levels of personal decision, ability to enter markets, security of private properties, the rule of law, etc.) by analyzing the policies and institutions of more than 160 countries and Hong Kong.

CONNECTIVITY AND MARKET ACCESS

Nicaragua's geographical position and its connectivity with the rest of the world, in addition to the benefits related to the different preferential access agreements, increase its potential to export to non-traditional markets.

Preferential agreements have become an important component of trade liberalization in Nicaragua, therefore, the country continues to seek opportunities to ensure its successful insertion in international trade and the global economy.

Likewise, Nicaragua has signed Free Trade Agreements with the United States, Mexico, Panama, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic, Chile, South Korea, Ecuador and the European Union. It also belongs to the Central American Common Market, to the Bolivarian Alliance for Peoples Of Our America (ALBA) and a Generalized System of Preferences with Japan, Norway, Canada, Russia and Switzerland and has additional treaties under negotiation.

INVESTMENT PROMOTION LAWS

The relevant laws regarding Investment Promotion are: Law Nº. 344, Law for the Promotion of Foreign Investments; Law No. 822, Tax Agreement Law; Law No. 382, Law of Temporary Admission Regime for Active Improvement and Facilitation of Exports; Law No. 917, Free Export Zones Law; Law No. 532, Law for the Promotion of Electric Generation with Renewable Sources; Law No. 387, Special Law on Exploration and Exploitation of Mines; Law No. 306, Incentives Law for the Nicaraguan tourism industry; Law No. 694, Income Promotion Law for Retired and Retired Residents.

COMPETITIVE OPERATING COSTS

Nicaragua offers one of the most competitive cost structures in the region, which allows companies to increase their competitiveness and reduce their operating costs and provide greater added value to their products or services.

Before establishing operations in a country, every company must go through an important process of due diligence and evaluation, where operating costs play an influential role in the final result of the decision to invest.

MINIMUM WAGE

Minimum wage in the different economic sectors in Nicaragua range from US$0.92 to US$2.06 an hour, including social benefits.

Social benefits represent an additional 52.0 percent to the minimum wage, these include: social security, contributions to the National Technological Institute (INATEC), paid vacations and Christmas bonuses, among others.

Below are the minimum wages by law for 2019:

Minimum Wage 2019 (Dollars

Sector

Monthly US$

Hourly US$

Construction, Financial Services and Insurance

428.79

2.06

Electricity and Water, Commerce, Restaurants and Hotels, Transportation, Storage and Communications

351.44

1.68

Mines and Quarries

344.11

1.65

Fisheries

291.34

1.4

Personal and Communal Community Services

268.61

1.29

Manufacturing

257.63

1.24

Fiscal Regime Industries

271.19

1.3

Central and Municipal Government

238.94

1.15

Small and Micro Artisanal Industries and National Tourism

205.87

0.99

Agribusiness*

191.6

0.92

Fuente: Ministerio del Trabajo (MITRAB). Tasa de cambio promedio 2019: 33.13. Incluye beneficios sociales. *Salario mínimo más alimentación.

Regarding companies that are under the free zone regime, the minimum wage is the most competitive at the regional level, which makes Nicaragua an ideal country to establish labor-intensive operations, as can be seen in the following table:

Nota: Incluye beneficios sociales, Nicaragua base 100
Fuente: Ministerio de Trabajo de cada país 2019

TELECOMMUNICATIONS COSTS

In Nicaragua there are several telecommunications companies, including Claro and Tigo, which offer E1 telephone service, widely used by companies that handle a high level of calls in their operations. Additionally, advanced digital line plans are offered that include services such as call waiting, three-way conference, caller ID, voicemail, and text messages (SMS). In these types of plans, the cost per minute for international calls to the United States and Canada is approximately USD $ 0.20 / min.


INTERNET COSTS

The main providers of business connections in Nicaragua are Claro, Amnet, Navega, IBW, Ideay, among others. All of them offer various dedicated business data packages whose approximate average prices can range from $70 for a 256 K/s connection to $640 for a 3,072 K/s connection.

WATER SERVICE COSTS

The Nicaraguan Company of Aqueducts and Sanitary Sewers (ENACAL) is the entity in charge of providing the country's water and sewerage service. This company is regulated and controlled by the Nicaraguan Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (INAA). In Nicaragua, an average company whose monthly consumption is greater than 50 m3 of water has an approximate rate of US$0.40 per m3. ENACAL also applies a charge per m3 of consumption to companies with private wells.

ENERGY COSTS

In Nicaragua, the energy distribution service is provided by the company DISNORTE-DISSUR and is regulated by the Nicaraguan Energy Institute (INE). Industrial companies have the option of opting for energy rates with or without time discrimination. For an industrial company with a monthly contracted load greater than 200 KW and under this category without discrimination, the cost per KWh consumed is around US$0.19.

Additionally, for companies with a minimum concentrated load requirement of one megawatt per month, there is the option of opting for the "Large Consumer" category and obtaining a preferential rate by purchasing directly from the generators.

In the same way, self-generation of renewable energy for self-consumption is allowed and even better, according to law 1011 to reform article 32 of Law 272 Law of the Electric Industry, the sale of surplus Electric Power delivered by the Generator to the distribution network and that is committed by means of an energy purchase and sale contract with the Distributing Companies, will be exempt from the application and / or withholding of all kinds of taxes, fees and special contributions, given that the Generator is not an Economic Agent.

PRODUCTIVE STRENGTH

The Production, Consumption and Trade System

The coordination between the policies, programs, projects and specific actions developed by the different levels of government, allows for greater effectiveness in the implementation of sectoral and national plans, as well as greater efficiency and transparency in the execution of the national budget and funds from external sources, all this based on the National Program for Human Development, the integrated work of State institutions and framed in the Model of Dialogue and Consensus of the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity (GRUN).

The dialogue and consensus model

Under this model sectoral policies, as well as the programs and projects directed to the development of the productive sectors, are formulated and executed with the effective prominence of the local actors.

This allows for private actors to feeling not as "beneficiaries" of public policies, but as "protagonists", actively participating in the processes, and also that these policies, programs or projects correspond effectively to the productive, environmental, economic and social realities of the territories in which they will be executed.

The focus on Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy

Since its inception, the GRUN identified that more than 70% of employment and 40% of Nicaragua's GDP were generated by the family, community and cooperative economy and that the actions that were being developed through the famous “Zero Hunger” programs and “Zero usury” in order to reduce the vulnerability of rural and urban families submerged in poverty by neoliberal governments, would have the potential to significantly increase these percentages of contribution to employment and national production, and would be a fundamental part of the successive National Human Development Plans and Programs. Since 2012, when the Ministry of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy (known as MEFCCA) was organized, this sector has been strengthened.

The new approach in the Creative Economy

Among the axes of the National Program for Human Development 2018-2021 is the implementation of an entrepreneurial culture, developing programs at all levels that stimulate teaching-learning, innovation, improved management, productivity and competitiveness of Undertakings in strategic alliances with and between private institutions, the central government, municipalities and social organizations.

The Creative Economy, from the strategic vision of the government and its institutions, allows for the achieving of higher levels of productivity, added value, professional qualification, quality work, competitiveness of SMEs and all companies, and the development of the country, by promoting the consolidation of national and local institutions, the development of infrastructures, the promotion of markets and businesses, the strengthening and stimulation of human talents, the production and use of knowledge and technologies, and the increase in creative production.




HOW DOES NICARAGUA ADVANCE DESPITE UNILATERALLY IMPOSED SANCTIONS

Despite the economic aggressions promoted and imposed by the United States Government, such as the "Nica Act", Nicaragua is working together with missions abroad, with solidarity countries willing to contribute to the progress and economic development of the country in executing an active resource and investment management policy with the international community.

Regarding investment, despite coercive measures, we continue to be an important platform for investment and export to the international market; therefore, investment in Nicaragua has continued to develop. Nicaragua has friendship and cooperation agreements with friendly countries and foreign companies have bought national manufacturers; investment in sectors such as agribusiness, infrastructure, tourism, energy and Mining is being promoted; Entrepreneurs and companies continue to arrive eager to invest in opportunities in Nicaragua.

COVID-19 AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION 2020

Given the Great Depression (economic crisis), there will be few countries in the developing world that are stable and with open economies, that is, without capital or profit flow controls. Thus, they will be able to attract foreign investment with solid opportunities. That is the case of Nicaragua in terms of tourism, renewable energy, mining and forestry.

Tourism

In Nicaragua, as in the whole world, one of the economic sectors that has been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic has been tourism, a sector that was already suffering the consequences of the failed coup of the year 2018. Upon exiting the Pandemic, all tourist countries will start from the same position of zero.

The recovery potential of the Nicaraguan tourism sector is great since several specialized media have been publishing, even in times of pandemic, articles highlighting important aspects of Nicaragua, such as the beauty of its colonial cities, extreme sports on the slopes of its volcanoes and the variety of its landscapes and ecosystems, as well as its high citizen security and low costs, which are some of its distinctive features. At the same time, the GRUN has been making significant investments in infrastructure that improve access and facilities in places of great tourist potential.

Renewable energy

Nicaragua is the country of lakes and volcanoes to which it is added that geographically it is located in the tropical region of the planet, affording our country a huge potential for the production of renewable energy from our natural resources, allowing the generation of photovoltaic, wind, geothermal and biomass energy. The National Electric Transmission Company (ENATREL) is executing new electric power projects in Nicaragua; at this time, they are working on the construction and expansion of 18 energy substations, this investment consists of 300 million dollars.

This range of natural conditions that the country has to produce environmentally friendly electricity and foreign investment facilities has sparked the interest of investors to produce enough energy to export and sell it through the SIEPAC Network that connects all of Central America, from Guatemala to Panama.

Mining

Metal mining has been a traditional economic activity in Nicaragua, due to the recognized wealth of its gold and silver mines, but lately its potential in multimetal mines has also been recognized.

The installation of a metal refinery in the country would allow us to add national added value to mining exports, and even open the possibility of capturing ore from other countries in the area and processing it in Nicaragua.

Forestry

It has been estimated that around 44% of the national territory (5.3 million hectares) is land with a pure forest vocation, while an additional 29% (3.5 million hectares) is land suitable for production under agroforestry or silvopastoral systems.

The Government of Reconciliation and National Unity has established a reforestation strategy, based on public efforts with different specific programs to recover protected areas, through forest plantations in degraded areas and on soils with a forest vocation.

Private forest plantations

In recent years, the private sector in Nicaragua has invested about $150 million dollars in the forestry sector, and several private companies continue to expand their investments in conditions that favor our country, given the situation of many precious wood species that were exploited in Southeast Asia, which is suffering from indiscriminate exploitation, since it is the lucrative business of the military leaders that govern various countries in that part of the world.

Currently the sector has a management area of ​​32,899 ha including its planted and conservation areas.

Sustainable agriculture and livestock

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the instability of industrial agricultural production. In contrast, agricultural activity in Nicaragua is fundamentally based on family production. According to data from the 2011 National Census of Agriculture (CENAGRO), 98% of producers and 90% of agricultural land can be characterized within family farming and contributes an estimated 60% of national agricultural GDP, mainly from the production of basic grains (corn, rice, beans and sorghum) and livestock.

This is a strength inasmuch as, on the one hand, family systems do not require further hiring of labor outside the family unit, and, on the other, the marketing of their surpluses is easily carried out in local markets, and it does not depend on complex logistics.

On the other hand, it is possible to foresee that, once the COVID-19 pandemic has been overcome, consumer concern for food safety will increase significantly, and Nicaraguan agricultural production, except for some specific items that are produced in larger industrialized processes (for example, flood rice or sugar cane), are characterized by limited use of agro-toxic inputs.

What will be necessary would be to promote more decisively the sustainable intensification of livestock production, which would allow the producer to increase the animal load, freeing up grazing areas that could be used for reforestation and / or for the diversification of the farm from of agroforestry production.

Fishery and aquaculture

This productive potential is insufficiently exploited, mainly due to the lack of a national flag industrial fishing fleet, so the development potential of the industry is still very great. Due to its coastal lagoons on the Caribbean Coast, Nicaragua also has potential for aquaculture production.

Nicaragua has more than 10 thousand km2 of inland waters, including the 8,264 km2 of Lake Cocibolca and 1,025 km2 of Xolotlán, as well as some 90 coastal lagoons on the Caribbean coast, so its potential for aquaculture production is also great. There is already a shrimp aquaculture industry in Puerto Morazán, on the Gulf of Fonseca, which produced US$40.7 million in exports in 2018.

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Fri Jun 12, 2020 1:23 pm

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To Hell With Hippocrates! – Opposition Doctors and Covid-19 in Nicaragua
June 12, 2020
Magda Lanuza – Jun 10, 2020

Hatred and falsehood – opposition doctors are attacking Nicaragua’s health system and their own medical colleagues
In the current pandemic, Nicaragua’s health workers are split in two. Most nurses and doctors in the public health system work every day, without rest, under tremendous stress, but with great love and commitment, safeguarding patients lives with ethics and total responsibility. But another group of doctors does the opposite and, since March 18, 2020, when the first case of COVID-19 occurred in Nicaragua, they have not rested either. They work not in the hospitals, but instead on a relentless propaganda campaign, led by medical professionals who may wear white coats, but harbor sinister intentions.


Enter stage right – “The government is doing nothing!”
The first stage of their campaign was to cry: THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING NOTHING. They resorted to fear using their status as medical professionals with specializations to give “expert opinion” to Nicaragua’s pro-regime change media and by making astute use of social networks. They repeatedly affirm that Nicaragua’s people are completely abandoned by the authorities and therefore unprotected in the face of this pandemic. Out of their shirt sleeves they slip pseudo-mathematical calculations serving to alarm the population. They predicted 23,000 dead and 238,000 infected by May 10th this year. In fact, the figures for June 9th, 2020 are 1,464 cases with only 55 deaths. The opposition used exactly this tactic of falsely inflating the death toll during their violent failed coup attempt of April 2018.



The second stage has been one of constant attempts to discredit the authorities of the Health Ministry (MINSA) and their own medical colleagues working in the public health system. To this end, they appear behind pompous names of organizations such as the Nicaraguan Medical Association (active since the 2018 coup attempt), a Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee (activated at the time COVID-19 began), the Esteli Medical Society and other more recent ones. All feed the upstart Citizen Observatory organization, which only became known in April 2020.

This organization of medical professionals has precisely one “specialization”, namely giving false numbers of deaths and illnesses, by hundreds and thousands. No sources or names are mentioned because they have no legitimate access to official statistics. Their numbers have a purely Machiavellian logic, claiming hundreds and thousands of sick, dead and buried people every day. They falsely accuse MINSA of not having prepared for the emergency, claiming that the health system has been dismantled, so that supposedly the best option for the population is to stay at home and die.

The most recent stage of their campaign strategy is to serve as birds of ill omen, constantly chattering, repeating death announcements until people are scared out of their wits. They publish lists they have obtained of deceased patients from public hospitals, but not mentioning those who die in their private hospitals. In addition, they have also published a list of doctors and nurses who they say have died up until the first week of June. With that list of their own ex-colleagues, they post photographs, but, as might be expected, doctors who have not fallen ill or died, for example Dr. Rubén Flores Villavicencio and Dr. Guadalupe Joya among others, have publicly denied their demise and brought legal action those behind the campaign of phony deaths. This is nothing new, the opposition did exactly the same in April 2018.


All of these actions are part of the insanity and hatred characterizing Nicaragua’s political opposition. Their strategy aims to convince the Nicaraguan population that these “medical professionals” really are concerned about and working for people’s health. So they pose as if they were legitimate authorities entitled to make public health recommendations, give orders and call for a general quarantine. This tactic aims to achieve what the attempted coup of April 2018 could not. They hope the pandemic will remove Nicaragua’s elected president before the next elections in 2021. For the opposition, the principal objective is to take advantage of the pandemic using the money they have received from the US authorities to “combat” COVID-19 in Nicaragua, more than US$16 million. With this agenda, a small group of doctors, organized and financed by Nicaragua’s political opposition repeat the same message in unison over and over again, amplified by local media coverage, social networks and international news agencies,.

Just as some students were very helpful in starting the failed coup in April 2018, now with the current pandemic, the political opposition has struck a perfect deal with this small group of doctors. All the doctors promoting this “health care coup” have a clear history of resentment and they are overcome with hatred. Lacking medical ethics, instead of giving medical care, they dedicate themselves to smear campaigns and political activism against the government.



In truth, if Nicaragua were indeed filled with so many sick people and suffering thousands of deaths, and if their concern for the health of the Nicaraguan people were genuine, they would offer to work in a coordinated manner with the Ministry of Health, giving their input to the problem in a responsible way. Many private doctors around the world do this. But the Nicaraguan opposition doctors prefer to preen themselves on television, in front of microphones and on social networks, spreading any number of lies so as to create panic in the population.


Why is there so much hatred?
Although Nicaragua’s constitution guarantees the right to public health, in the 16 years from 1990 to 2006, the three neoliberal governments of that period not only reduced the country’s health budget, but they also began privatizing the public health sector, in various stages. Even while dying patients were being laid out on corridor floors in public hospitals for lack of beds, they had to pay for much of the care they received. For some health professionals, especially doctors with specializations, it was a chance to learn how to make money from public sector hospitals.



In 2007 when the Sandinista government returned to office and the right to free, universal health care was restored, a number of doctors were dismissed for dishonestly taking advantage of public resources. That was the beginning of their discontent against the government, which later turned into hatred, even though they have generally done much better for themselves in private medicine and teaching in universities as professors. Some now manage luxury private hospitals and clinics whose services are paid for exclusively in US dollars. For them, health is no longer a human right but rather just another market commodity.

That generation of neoliberal doctors was followed by another smaller group as a result of the violent, failed coup attempt in April 2018. The opposition aligned doctors of 2007 were the teachers and mentors of this second group, who were working in public hospitals. During that failed 2018 coup attempt, they left their jobs in the MINSA hospitals of León, Jinotepe and Estelí and went out to march against MINSA and the government. In August 2018, after popular outcry, MINSA, as an employer in any country in the world has the right to do, dismissed more than 100 doctors in these hospitals.

Minsa did so because their actions prejudiced the health of patients for whom they were supposed be caring. However, even today some doctors who are opposition supporters still work in public sector hospitals and from their workplaces feed false information while also failing to fulfill their duties. This is another strategy the opposition aligned doctors are using, namely, giving sub-standard care to the population seeking help so as to continue to discredit Nicaragua’s public health service, one unique in Central America for investing 21% of its national budget in heath care.


These two successive waves of opposition aligned doctors are leading the current political campaign in Nicaragua. They gladly take advantage of the pandemic to discredit the government, spread alarm and lie to people. They are responsible for the mental and emotional health problems many people in Nicaragua are now suffering, because from the very start of the the pandemic they have been spreading regular doses of insanity every single day. As a result, a great many people in the country have experienced a kind of collective paranoia with all the ensuing negative consequences for people’s health. The opposition doctors’ unrealistic, scaremongering statements are shamelessly taken up by international news media.

Feigning concern for the health of Nicaraguans, in fact the campaign attacking MINSA is an unscrupulous hoax by doctors colluding with Nicaragua’s political opposition, who have never had the least concern for the health of the country’s people. Although obscene, it is a fact that the country’s private clinics and hospitals have benefited greatly from the campaign against the public health system, because it has been a new opportunity to promise health and sell treatment for profit. But once patients with COVID-19 reach a critical state and run out of money, the private clinics and hospitals seek their transfer to public sector hospitals.

It is unethical and illegal from every point of view. In the midst of the pandemic, private sector doctors supporting the country’s political opposition are manipulating people, lying and sowing hatred. No government, no health authority and no doctor in the world was prepared for this global health emergency. Given all the difficulties resulting from the destruction of Nicaragua’s economy in the abortive 2018 coup attempt, attacking the health system now during the pandemic, to the point of damaging it even more, is effectively killing people.

But in addition to this campaign attacking Nicaragua’s health system, the opposition doctors also support calls for more coercive international economic measures so as to impose on Nicaragua an economic blockade until it is financially choked to death. It is completely perverse to exploit the suffering COVID-19 is inflicting on all Nicaragua’s families just so as to get political and economic benefits in the best mafia style. The main objective of Nicaragua’s opposition is to savage anyone who thinks differently and hope to be able overthrow the elected government, imitating similar fascist demands in Spain. In times of crisis, we get to know the best and the worst of human beings. That’s why in this emergency, the opposition doctors’ masks have dropped, discarded in the gutter just like their Hippocratic oath, only to reveal the human wretchedness of their lives.

Forget about them. Honour and glory to all the hospital staff caring day in and day out to our patients in MINSA’s 87 public hospitals, 17 of them built in the last 15 years, 8 of them simultaneously !

Featured image: Members of the 300-strong sanitation squad who work for the Managua city council, Courtesy of El 19 Digital (https://www.el19digital.com).

Source URL: Tortilla Con Sal

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 30, 2020 12:51 pm

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Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua
June 29, 2020 orinocotribune COVID-19, food sovereignty, Latin America, Nicaragua, Pandemic
By Rita Jill Clark-Gollub (Washington), Erika Takeo (Managua), and Avery Raimondo (Los Angeles) – Jun 22, 2020

“A nation that cannot feed itself is not free.”
Fausto Torrez, Nicaraguan Rural Workers Association

An array of UN agencies is predicting a global hunger pandemic triggered by COVID-19 lockdowns, with the head of the World Food Program stating that there is “a real danger that more people could potentially die from the economic impact of COVID-19 than from the virus itself.”[1] At least 10 million more Latin Americans are expected to join the 3.4 million who were already experiencing chronic food insecurity.[2] These devastating effects will be long-term, as each percentage point drop in global GDP is expected to cause 0.7 million more children to be stunted from undernutrition.[3] There are clear signs that the food shortages have already arrived, as flags indicating hunger are spotted outside homes from Colombia to the Northern Triangle of Central America,[4] while violently repressed hunger protests have occurred in places such as Honduras[5] and Chile.[6] As a street vendor in El Salvador put it, “If the virus doesn’t kill us, hunger will.”[7]



But in the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, there are no hunger flags flying. The market stalls are stocked, customers are buying, and prices are stable. Nicaraguan small farmers produce almost all the food the nation consumes, and have some left over for export. We will examine how this is possible.

At the June 9, 2020 launching of his Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition,[8] UN Secretary-General António Guterres not only called for urgent action to address this hunger crisis, but also to take the opportunity to shift towards more sustainable food systems. This transition is something that the world’s peasants have been calling for since they founded La Vía Campesina (LVC) in 1993. It is now urgent to listen to what over 200 million peasants, women farmers, indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, fisherfolk, and pastoralists have been saying about our food systems:

“The pandemic has highlighted yet another ill of countries becoming too dependent on large international food industries [and their international supply chains]. For decades, governments did little to protect small farms and food producers which were pushed out of business by these growing dysfunctional corporate giants. … They stood idle as their countries grew increasingly dependent on a few major suppliers of food who forced local producers to sell their produce at unfairly low prices so corporate executives can keep growing their profit margins.”[9]

Agribusiness is also exacerbating the world’s most pressing problems: its Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) crowd immune-stressed animals, making them susceptible to viruses that can cross over to humans;[10] its fossil fuel- and chemical-intensive practices account for at least a third of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change;[11] and its genetically modified seeds are known to diminish biodiversity. Moreover, in Latin American commercial food systems, it is fueling price increases during the pandemic.[12]

La Vía Campesina’s answer is food sovereignty, which is defined as “the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.”[13] It prioritizes: 1. local agricultural production in order to feed the people; and 2. peasants’ and landless people’s access to land, water, seeds, and credit. This approach actually works in combating hunger, as peasants and smallholders produce 70-75 percent of the world’s food on less than one quarter of the world’s farmland.[14] When peasant movements partner with progressive governments, the results can be astounding, as in the case of Nicaragua.



The peasant movement in Nicaragua

The Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (Rural Workers Association or ATC) was founded during the war to overthrow the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship, one year before the 1979 victory of the Sandinista People’s Revolution. It brought together peasants, both small farmers wanting to procure their own land as well as farm workers organizing for union rights. The ATC has continued to represent these groups of workers throughout its 42-year history and was one of the national organizations that founded La Vía Campesina in 1993.[15]

Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua

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Peasant march in 1980s. “We are not birds who live in the air; we are not fish who live in the sea; We are Men who live off the land.”


In the 1980s, the Nicaraguan revolutionary government launched a massive land reform program, which distributed about half the country’s arable land (5 million acres) to 120,000 peasant families. Several other peasant groups formed during that first decade of the revolution as the cooperative farming movement prospered, even coming to include the families of former contra fighters, who had been adversaries of the Sandinista government. Later, during the neoliberal administrations of 1990-2006, these groups worked to defend the gains of the revolution, sometimes including worker occupations of state farms to prevent them from being privatized. By 2006, and inspired by the 1987 Constitution that guarantees protection against hunger,[16] some 73 Nicaraguan organizations belonged to the Interest Group for Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security (GISSAN) that was advocating for a Food Sovereignty Law. Several of them helped the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) get elected back into office at the end of that year.[17]



Food Sovereignty since 2007

In the current stage of Sandinista governance that started in 2007, the strategy to increase food sovereignty by providing land has continued. Almost 140,000 land titles (some from land distributed during the 1980s land reform) were issued to small producers from 2007 to 2019. Women have particularly benefited from receiving proper titles to their land (55 percent) and 304 indigenous and Afro-descendant communities on the Caribbean coast have received collective titles. The titled area amounts to 37,842 Km2, or 31.16 percent of the national territory.[18]

Social programs that help small farmers feed themselves and their communities have imbued life in the countryside with dignity while reducing hunger. These initiatives are inspired by Augusto C. Sandino’s vision of an economy based on land-owning peasants and indigenous peoples farming in organized cooperatives—a core component of the FSLN’s Historic Program. Law 693 on Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security, enacted in 2009, was one of the first in Latin America to recognize the concept of food sovereignty and actually build it with government support.[19] The commitment of the FSLN government to food sovereignty has led to dozens of programs to improve the livelihoods and autonomy of small farmers while strengthening local food systems.

The signature initiative is the Hambre Cero (Zero Hunger) program which began in 2007 and provides pigs, cows, chickens, plants, seeds, and building materials to women in rural areas to diversify their production, improve the family diet, and strengthen women-led household economies.[20] By 2016, the program had benefited 150,000 families or 1 million people, increasing both their food security and the nation’s food sovereignty.[21]

Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua

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Some 150,000 families in the Zero Hunger program have received farm animals and farming inputs (photo-credit: Susan Meiselas, Fundación Entre Mujeres).

Interviews completed as part of a solidarity testimonies project[22] with ATC members in the Marlon Alvarado community, many of whom are also beneficiaries of government programs, illustrate the impact of Hambre Cero. For example, one woman said:

“I have always been in social movements, since I was young. We are a group of women working here. We are united and in solidarity, all of us. …The ATC has taught us about women’s entrepreneurship… The government is encouraging us to always cultivate our land, so that we have our food. They give us citrus, they give us bananas, papaya, lemons. We just have to go harvest. We have jocote, mango. They always continue the [Hambre Cero] program so that we grow something. In our plot, we are always growing something.”

Another woman in the same community said:

“I have two male pigs, boars, for breeding: if someone else has a sow, they bring it to the boar and I get a piglet in return. For every sow they bring to the boar, I get a little pig. Or if someone says to me, ‘I have all the piglets sold; I’ll give you the money. What do you say?’ ‘Okay,’ I say. We agree.”

Additionally, the Ministry of the Family, Community, and Cooperative Economy (MEFCCA) and municipal governments organize farmers markets to improve peasant incomes while making nutritious, locally-grown food accessible to consumers, that is produced without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) works to improve and maintain the country’s genetic material by organizing community seed banks,[23] and the National Technological Institute (INATEC) provides free technical degrees in agriculture, livestock care, value-added processing, and beekeeping, to name a few.[24] A new program called NicaVida will reach 30,000 rural families with tools, fencing, water tanks, chickens, and other materials to improve family diets and household economies in the Dry Corridor[25] areas which are particularly impacted by climate change.[26]

Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua

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Emerita Vega of the Marlon Alvarado community in Santa Teresa Carazo, coordinator of the ATC women’s group, in her pineapple parcel. Pineapples provided by a government farm diversification program through INTA (photo-credit: “Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo”, Rural Workers Association, or ATC).

The breadth and territorial reach of these programs keep Nicaragua’s peasants and small farmers free from dependence on global markets; their diversified production is organized to feed their families and local communities, with increasing access to seeds, water, and credit, thereby creating the conditions to achieve food sovereignty.

A poverty and hunger fighting program targeting urban residents is Zero Usury, which is part of the national food ecosystem since it serves many who work in open-air markets. This program, administered by the MEFFCA, gives low interest loans and grants to small business owners (primarily women) and offers free entrepreneurship training, funded in part by Venezuela and other ALBA countries. Over 800,000 women have benefited from the program since 2007, which has been crucial to the success of the popular economy (self-employed workers, small farmers, family businesses, and cooperatives) which accounts for over 70 percent of employment.

Long-time activist and current presidential advisor Orlando Núñez explains the philosophy behind these programs and why they work:

“The heart of the Hambre Cero program is giving capital to peasant families. A cow is capital because she reproduces; sows, seeds, and hens reproduce. The first message is not to treat people like poor people; they are only poor because they have been impoverished. … Offering poor people a glass of milk or a slice of bread is an act of charity, not revolution. … The revolutionary thing about Hambre Cero in Nicaragua is that it treats people like economic actors. …That is the most revolutionary message of the Sandinista revolution.”[27]

The initiatives for this second phase of the Sandinista Revolution are all complemented by the grassroots work of social movements. The ATC and LVC have established a campus of the Latin American Institute of Agroecology (IALA) in Nicaragua for youth from Nicaragua and throughout the Mesoamerican and Caribbean region. The school not only imparts technical training on agro ecological production of crops and animals, but also political and ideological education so that students come to understand today’s clash between two models of agriculture: one (the agribusiness model) in which food is a business for the benefit of corporations, and another (the food sovereignty model) in which food is a human right for all. The program encourages peasants to be each other’s teachers and have agency over their own lives, reclaiming their peasant identity and culture. It is an education that focuses on staying in the countryside and producing food that stays within the local market.

Throughout the country the ATC and other peasant organizations have been organizing local workshops to train agroecological promoters, support women’s cooperatives in marketing their farm products, formalize peasants’ land titles, and prepare on-farm biofertilizers and composts. All of this supports the construction of food sovereignty.

Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua

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Students at La Vía Campesina’s Latin American Institute of Agroecology campus in Santo Tomás, Chontales (photo-credit: Latin American Institute of Agroecology “Ixim Ulew”).

Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua

Image
ATC youth make biofertilizer in an agroecology workshop, in Santa Emilia, Matagalpa, 2015 (photo-credit: “Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo”, Rural Workers Association, or ATC).

Hunger outcomes in Nicaragua and Central America

All indications are that these programs have resulted in a better fed population in Nicaragua. In its 2019-2023 Strategic Plan for Nicaragua, the United Nations World Food Program said that “In the last decade… Nicaragua is one of the countries that has reduced hunger the most in the region,”[28] while the government reports that chronic child malnutrition dropped from 21.7 percent in 2006 to 11.1 percent in 2019 for children under 5 years of age.[29] Nicaragua was also one of the first countries to achieve Millennium Development Goal Number 1 of cutting undernutrition in half from 2.3 million in 1990-1992 to 1 million in 2014-2016, placing it among the countries of the region that had reduced hunger the most in the previous 25 years. Vitamin A deficiency among children under 5 was also eliminated.[30]

Nicaragua’s advances are reflected in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Hunger Map.[31] Unfortunately, that map shows that neighboring Honduras and El Salvador did not achieve the Millennium Development Goal on hunger reduction, and that Guatemala did not even make progress. This stagnancy may be related to the fact that US exports to the Northern Triangle countries increased substantially since the signing of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). These three countries imported about US$5.9 billion of agriculture products from the world in 2016, including beans and dairy products from Nicaragua, and corn, soybean meal, wheat, poultry, rice, and prepared foods from the US. Imports of many of these US foods increased by 100 percent or more from 2006-2016, coming to comprise about 40 percent of all food imports for these countries.[32] Unfortunately, food prices in these countries are on the rise precisely when people have less income with which to purchase food due to COVID-19 lockdowns at home and in the US, from which Central American countries receive remittances. Parts of Guatemala are already receiving half the remittances they received at this time last year.[33] Even Nicaragua’s wealthier neighbor to the south, Costa Rica, has become dependent on imported beans, rice, beef, and corn after opening the market through free trade agreements. At a recent LVC regional meeting, a Costa Rican peasant leader discussed how vulnerable the country has become, saying “COVID is stripping us bare.” Not only are grain prices rising while vegetable crops rot because they cannot reach consumers, unemployment is expected to double from 12.5 percent to 25 percent,[34] and 57 percent of Costa Ricans report having trouble making ends meet.[35] This brings major worries of increased hunger.

Food sovereignty and the pandemic in Nicaragua

Ninety percent of the food consumed in Nicaragua is produced within the national borders, 80 percent of it by peasants.[36] This includes all of the beans, corn, fruits, vegetables, honey, and dairy products, while there is sufficient surplus of beans and dairy to export. Nicaragua’s food self-sufficiency is growing precisely while other developing countries are increasingly becoming agro-exporters of a few crops (e.g. pineapples or bananas) while ever more dependent on imports to feed their populations. Rice is the only component of the basic diet that is not completely homegrown, but domestic rice production has increased from meeting 45 percent of the country’s demand in 2007 to 75 percent of demand today. The government is working with producers to bring it up to 100 percent within 5 years. Nicaragua is indeed very close to achieving food sovereignty, the true anti-hunger model, which bodes well for times of crisis such as now with the economic impacts of the pandemic and the interruption of food distribution supply chains in other countries.

In the context of the pandemic, both the government and social movement organizations are determined to take food sovereignty to the next level. For example, the government just launched a National Plan for Production focused on increasing production of basic grains to cover all internal food needs, and also guarantee the production of crops for export.[37] Food stocks are normal, prices are stable, production has continued normally since there has not been a work lockdown and most food is produced in small family units, and the rains have started for what looks to be a good planting season. Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan member organizations of LVC are launching the Agroecological Corridor, a process of territorializing agroecology based on peasant-to-peasant exchanges as a response to the threats being posed by climate change.[38] Because training of youth also must continue, coursework at LVC’s flagship Latin American Institute of Agroecology is taking place online[39] while the institute’s campus is implementing a full food production plan that includes grains, root vegetables, and animals. LVC has also launched the emergency campaign “Return to the Countryside”[40] to be adopted not just in Nicaragua, but internationally.

Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua

Image
Traditional field work by a pair of oxen in a (non-GMO) corn field in the northern department of Madriz (photo-credit: Friends of the ATC).
Other challenges to Nicaragua during the pandemic

COHA has previously reported on the Nicaraguan government’s robust response to COVID-19 within the health sphere, amidst a vigorous disinformation campaign waged against the population and government in what clearly appears to be a regime change operation funded by the US.[41] That regime change effort is no doubt partially inspired by Nicaragua’s food sovereignty policy, which threatens the dominance of US corporate agribusiness around the globe. For example, USAID has flooded food systems with Monsanto (now Bayer) GMO seeds in countries ranging from India[42] to Iraq[43] to several countries of Africa[44] and Latin America.[45] This approach could be undermined if more developing countries decide to produce their own food through agroecological practices.

USAID was one of the agencies funding opposition groups involved in a violent attempted coup in Nicaragua in 2018, as is well-documented in Live from Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup?[46] It is not surprising, then, that the representative of Cargill in Nicaragua and head of the U.S.-Nicaragua Chamber of Commerce was one of the leaders of the opposition during the attempted coup.[47] While Nicaragua does not have the oil and minerals that draw international attention to Venezuela and Bolivia, agribusiness is a hugely profitable industry and the Nicaraguan peasants are setting a powerful example by rejecting it and feeding their people to boot.

Fighting a disinformation campaign while the country faces the same pandemic that has overwhelmed much wealthier countries will certainly be challenging for Nicaragua, particularly since unilateral coercive measures illegally imposed by the US block access to aid funds. But at least her people have the comfort of knowing that there will be no death caused by hunger. In fact the food system recently withstood a formidable test during the 2018 coup attempt, when violent roadblocks held all the main roads and highways captive. Thanks to local food production and distribution systems, and clever determination to circumvent the roadblocks, people using the popular economy were still able to get food and at relatively stable prices, even when the Walmart-owned supermarket chains had empty shelves.

In an interview in late April, the leader of a peasant women’s organization was asked about Nicaragua’s handling of the coronavirus. Her concern was not as much about catching the virus as that,

“We will have food. It’s true that it is going to be hard; we will probably have a recession. But the important thing is that we have all the basic foodstuffs. We Nicaraguans are not quite 100 percent food self-sufficient. But we [in the Fundación Entre Mujeres] will do everything within our power to be as self-sufficient as we can so that the government does not need to give us aid and can give it to people who have greater needs than we have. We are taking a stance of dignity, being part of the solution.”[48]

That attitude, coupled with a commitment to agroecology and food sovereignty, is what has Monsanto/Bayer, Cargill, and their guardians at USAID worried.

This graphic by the Fundación Entre Mujeres (FEM) of northern Nicaragua shows the difference between market-based food systems and agroecology-based ones.

Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua

Image
This graphic by the Fundación Entre Mujeres (FEM) of northern Nicaragua shows the difference between market-based food systems and agroecology-based ones.
Rita Jill Clark-Gollub is a COHA Assistant Editor/Translator, based in Washington, DC

Erika Takeo is a member of the International Relations Secretariat of the Rural Workers Association (ATC) and Coordinator of the Friends of the ATC solidarity network and is based in Nicaragua

Avery Raimondo, from Friends of the ATC solidarity network, is based in Los Angeles, California

The following guest editors commented on this text:

Christina Schiavoni is an independent food sovereignty researcher and activist.

Magda Lanuza, a Nicaraguan who lives in El Salvador, holds a Master’s in International Sustainable Development from Brandeis University and has several years of experience working on social development and environmental protection in Central America.

[Main photo: Lucila Reyes of the Marlon Alvarado community, in Santa Teresa, Carazo where women play an active role in the construction of food sovereignty through peasant organizations and government programs. Shown with tomatoes grown in her agroecological garden. Photo-credit: Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (Rural Workers Association or ATC)]

(Council Hemispheric Affairs)

Notes

[1] “World food agency chief: World could see famines of ‘biblical proportions’ within months,” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronaviru ... s-warning/

[2] “Latin America and Caribbean: Millions more could miss meals due to COVID-19 pandemic,” https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/05/1065032

[3] “2020 Global Nutrition Report,” https://globalnutritionreport.org/

[4] “La contraseña de hambre en Latinoamérica: colgar un trapo rojo,” https://www.lavozdeasturias.es/noticia/ ... P17991.htm and

https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/mund ... -1720.html

[5] “Reprimen manifestantes que exigían comida en medio de crisis por coronavirus,” https://notibomba.com/honduras-reprimen ... ronavirus/

[6] “Coronavirus: Chile protesters clash with police over lockdown,” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52717402

[7] “En Guatemala y El Salvador piden comida con banderas blancas,” https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/mund ... -1720.html

[8] “Policy Brief: The impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition,” https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/fil ... curity.pdf

[9] “The Solution to Food Insecurity is Food Sovereignty,”

https://viacampesina.org/en/the-solutio ... vereignty/

[10] “Factory farms: A pandemic in the making,” https://uspirg.org/blogs/blog/usp/facto ... mic-making

[11] “Agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. But it can also be part of the solution. https://investigatemidwest.org/2019/09/ ... -solution/ and “Lessons from the Green Revolution,” https://nature.berkeley.edu/srr/Allianc ... olutio.htm

[12] “Costlier Food Hits Latin America’s Poor and Adds to Unrest Risk,” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... nrest-risk

[13] La Vía Campesina, 2008, Food Sovereignty for Africa: A challenge at our fingertips, <http://viacampesina.net/downloads/PDF/B ... INGLES.pdf> p.2

[14] “Hungry for land: small farmers feed the world with less than a quarter of all farmland,” https://www.grain.org/article/entries/4 ... l-farmland

[15] Website: Friends of the ATC, History, https://friendsatc.org/history/

[16]https://nicaragua.justia.com/nacionales ... e%20los%on on20nicarag%C3%BCenses,Art%C3%ADculo%2064.

[17] Araujo and Godek, “Opportunities and Challenges for Food Sovereignty Policies in Latin America: The Case of Nicaragua,” in Rethinking Food Systems – Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law, (New York: Springer, 2014), 51-72.

[18] “Nicaragua’s human rights achievements over the last 10 years,” http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/6571

[19] Araujo and Godek.

[20]CELAC website, Food and Nutrition Security Platform, https://plataformacelac.org/en/pais/nic

[21] “Revolución Sandinista restituye derechos a mujeres y los campesinos,” http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/7702

[22]“Testimonies,” https://friendsatc.org/about/resources/testimonies/

[23] McCune, Nils (2016): “Family, territory, nation: post-neoliberal on agroecological scaling in Nicaragua,” available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _Nicaragua

[24] INATEC website: https://www.tecnacional.edu.ni/educacion-tecnica/

[25] “How the Climate Crisis is Driving Central American Migration,” https://www.climaterealityproject.org/b ... %20America.

[26] “Nicaraguan Dry Corridor Rural Family Sustainable Development Project,” https://www.ifad.org/en/web/operations/ ... 2000001242

[27] “Revolución Sandinista restituye derechos a mujeres y los campesinos,” http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/7702

[28] “Draft Nicaragua country strategic plan (2019-2023),” https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP- ... /download/

[29] “To the people of Nicaragua and to the world, COVID-19 report, a singular strategy,” page 32, http://www.tortillaconsal.com/white_boo ... 5-2020.pdf

[30] “Nicaragua Interim Country Strategic Plan,” https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP- ... /download/

[31] “FAO Hunger Map 2015,” http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4674e.pdf

[32] “US Agricultural Exports to Central America’s Northern Triangle Prosper Under CAFTA-DR,” https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/us-agricu ... griculture.

[33] “How Covid-19 is threatening Central America’s economic lifeline,” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52550389

[34] “Desempleo sube y llega a su mayor porcentaje en 10 años todavía sin reflejar los efectos de la covid-19,” https://www.nacion.com/economia/indicad ... IWQ/story/

[35] “Desempleo y reducción de ingresos agobian a costarricenses durante la crisis del COVID-19,” https://www.ucr.ac.cr/noticias/2020/04/ ... id-19.html

[36] “Sector agropecuario ha tenido crecimiento significativo en los últimos 12 años,” https://www.el19digital.com/articulos/v ... os-12-anos

[37] “Nicaragua expone plan nacional de producción 2020 a organizaciones no gubernamentales,” https://barricada.com.ni/nicaragua-expo ... XIDtSETBmI

[38] https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we ... resources/

[39] “Peasant Training Doesn’t Stop: IALA Ixim Ulew Now Online,” https://friendsatc.org/blog/peasant-tra ... ow-online/

[40] “CLOC-Vía Campesina Returning to the Countryside,” https://viacampesina.org/en/cloc-via-ca ... untryside/

[41] “Nicaragua Battles COVID-19 and a Disinformation Campaign,” http://www.coha.org/nicaragua-battles-c ... -campaign/

[42] “USAID, Monsanto, and the real reason behind Delhi’s horrific smoke season,” https://www.ecologise.in/2018/10/20/the ... ke-season/

[43] “Henry Kissinger’s Food Occupation of Iraq Continues to Destroy the Fertile Crescent,” https://mintpressnews.ru/kissingers-occ ... re/226407/

[44] “USAID and GM Food Aid,” https://www.iatp.org/sites/default/file ... od_Aid.htm

[45] “The Monsanto Effect: Poisoning Latin America,” https://earth.org/the-monsanto-effect-p ... n-america/ and

Website: https://en.centralamericadata.com/en/se ... onsanto%22

[46] Kaufman, “US Regime-Change Funding Mechanisms,” in Live from Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup? pp. 173-188, https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233. ... e_2019.pdf.

[47] Zeese and McCune, “Correcting the record: what is really happening in Nicaragua?” in Live from Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup? p. 182, https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233. ... e_2019.pdf

[48] “NicaNotes: Peasant Women Take Stance of Dignity in Face of Crisis,” https://afgj.org/nicanotes-peasant-wome ... -of-crisis

https://orinocotribune.com/feeding-the- ... nicaragua/
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:52 pm

USAID details its regime change plan for Nicaragua
Submitted by tortilla on Sáb, 01/08/2020 - 16:13
Wiston López. Radio La Primerísima, 31 de julio 2020
http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/notic ... u-lanza-de

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Text of the document here (PDF -161Kb)

An orchestrated plan financed by the United States to launch a coup d'état in Nicaragua over the next two years was leaked in a document from the US embassy and presented July 31, 2020 by Nicaraguan journalist William Grigsby on his political analysis program "Sin Fronteras", on Radio La Primerísima.

Grigsby says the new coup plan is in response to the fact that the US realizes President Daniel Ortega will win the November 2021 elections. The 18 page document is RFTOP No: 72052420R00004, with the title RAIN or Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua.

The document is one of “Terms of Reference” used to contract a US company to take charge of carrying out the coup. The company will head the plan to try to destroy public order and do other violent actions before, during and/or after the 2021 elections.

The funds to implement this plan are or have been allocated through the International Development Agency (AID) which is also the US institution that has provided the most money openly in recent years to the Nicaraguan opposition for coup activities.

The document establishes three scenarios that they call "democratic transition in Nicaragua:"

"RAIN will pursue these activities against a variety of scenarios generally falling under three categories:

1. Free, fair and transparent elections lead to an orderly transition" [i.e.the US candidate wins]

"2. A sudden political transition occurs following a crisis" [i.e. a coup leads to a US backed government]

"3. Transition does not happen in an orderly and timely manner. The regime remains resilient in the face of domestic and international pressure. It is also possible that the regime may remain in power following electoral reforms and a fair election, but without changes to the rule of law or democratic governance." [i.e. without changes that benefit US corporations]

It is of some importance that through the document it is clear that the U.S. government realizes it is a good possibility that the FSLN party will win the 2021 elections in a transparent manner that receives international approval.

The document says that the purpose of hiring the company is to create the conditions for a coup d'état in Nicaragua involving the media, businessmen, nongovernmental organizations and students, just like the 2018 failed coup attempt.

Another section states that if the opposition were to win the elections the new government must immediately submit to the policies and guidelines established by the United States. This scenario includes persecution of Sandinistas, dissolving the National Police and the Army, among other institutions.

The document calls on its actors to try to deepen political and economic problems as well as the health crisis, taking into account the context of the Covid-19.

Despite the amount of money that the opposition has received from the United States, more than 31 million dollars between the end of 2017 and May 1, 2020, the document states that the opposition is not unified around a political party or candidate. And the plan contemplates abrupt changes and the ability to respond quickly to “install a new government.” The document also states that “conflicts often arise between peasant groups and the rest of the opposition, and students often distrust business leaders."

Confident that there will be a coup d'état in Nicaragua, USAID writes that the best option may be to have the opposition refuse to participate in elections [which is what happened in 1984 because of the US]. They write various times that it is possible that the government will win the elections even after electoral reforms, and that the elections could be seen as fair internationally.

Under this type of situation, the company hired by USAID must be prepared to respond immediately in directing civil society to implement actions that destabilize the country.

USAID will fund activities to destabilize the country, using local partners, public opinion analysis, and social network monitoring to create false news.

The document also details the participation of the United States Embassy in Managua, which will be in charge of executing a series of diplomatic actions such as the creation of a commission to legitimize a new government imposed by a coup d'état.

As it is clear that to the US that in 2021 the FSLN will be victorious, USAID proposes a “delayed or unforeseen transition of government” where it seeks to create a political and economic crisis.

The document was written in March or April and it is clear they thought the Covid Pandemic would cause great stress on the Nicaraguan health system and that this would be one way to bring about a “crisis” and exert “pressure.” “Once a great health, political and economic crisis is created in Nicaragua,” USAID intensifies its new programmatic strategy, which will lead to destabilizing the country. In other words their plan counted on the development of “unrest” in the population from Covid-19 that could be utilized.

In the plan they create a series of assumptions before the coup d'état, which are the ones that the company hired by the United States will put into action together with civil society to succeed; so it calls on the opposition and the exiles to carry out actions of interference in a unified way.

Finally, the document makes it clear that the people of Nicaragua will be left without basic services as a result of the coup d'état orchestrated and financed by the United States, while they plan for organized crime to increase.

http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/9888
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:10 pm

Youth, main protagonist of the essential tasks of the world
Posted by Central Redaction | Aug 12, 2020 | Ephemeris of the Revolution , History

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Today, August 12, International Youth Day is celebrated, this year with the slogan "Commitment of youth to global action."

The Barricada Historia team shares a brief review of the reason for this celebration and the commitments that are acquired with Youth worldwide.

August 12, International Youth Day
The United Nations General Assembly approved the World Youth Action Program in 1995. This program included youth problems and encouraged UN member countries to work towards their solution.

Four years later, in 1999, it was decided to set August 12 as International Youth Day to encourage government institutions to take political measures that protect young people and allow their personal, social and professional development in a safe way.

Youth engagement for global action
From the World Program of Action for Youth, they have established as objectives for this 2020 the increase of the participation of young people in political mechanisms to increase the equity of political processes and contribute to creating better and more sustainable policies. In addition, they warn that the vast majority of global problems that exist today require global action that has the significant participation of young people to be addressed correctly.

The International Youth Day of this 2020 seeks to highlight the need for youth participation through the following three interconnected transmissions:

Commitment at the local / community level
Commitment at the national level (formulation of laws, policies and their implementation)
Global commitment
Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda
In addition to the inclusion of young people in political mechanisms, the other major objective of the World Youth Report is youth entrepreneurship.

This venture does not focus exclusively on employment opportunities, but also on youth participation in society. In addition, from the World Program of Action for Youth they also want to focus on new technologies and their use to advance towards sustainable development.

After having studied the impact of young people on business ecosystems, the World Action Program considers it important to create policies that facilitate their entrepreneurship, encompassing the needs, characteristics, limitations and ambitions of young people.

World Youth Day 2020 is celebrated on August 12. The creation of policies that involve young people in the problems of society and that help them advance in their entrepreneurship projects will help create a future of greater sustainability.

Protagonism of the Nicaraguan Youth
The promotion to the National Government headed by Commander Daniel Ortega in 2007, meant a greater awakening of the youth who today are the protagonists of essential tasks such as social mobilization of solidarity, the construction of houses for the people, care for the people in different emergencies and tragedies, and conscious executor in the more than 50 social programs promoted by the revolution.

Likewise, the JS participates in different social solidarity and youth rights movements through the Solidarity Promotory, the Network of Young Communicators, the Alexis Arguello Sports Movement, the Guardabarranco Environmental Movement, the Leonel Rugama Cultural Movement and the Student Federation. Secondary (FES).

The rights of young people to education and university, to free health care, to access to culture, to healthy recreation, to the technological possibilities of the modern world have been realized or restored; and to technical, economic and employment training opportunities, through the promotion of entrepreneurship. All living in a safe and peaceful country.

The majority of the Nicaraguan population is young, so we must promote and combine this positive demographic fact with the awareness and participation of young people to extend and deepen the progressive transformations that the country is experiencing.

Faced with the complexities of the modern world, we must know how to channel all the transforming energy of youth and know how to forge a generational dialogue that helps to ensure the replacement and continuity of the Sandinista Revolution.

Sources:

Antenna 3

Sandinista vision

https://barricada.com.ni/juventud-prota ... les-mundo/

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Sat Oct 03, 2020 1:52 pm

NICANOTES
NicaNotes: Tourism in Nicaragua: Breaking with the Defunct Idea of Development
October 1, 2020
By Daniel McCurdy

[A longer version of this article was included in the book “The Revolution Won’t Be Stopped: Nicaragua Advances Despite US Unconventional Warfare” published by the AfGJ. Go to p. 123.]

One of the particularities of tourism in Nicaragua is its democratization. Since the Sandinista government won elections in 2006 and came to power in 2007, the promotion and expansion of the tourism sector is increasingly important for Nicaraguans, contributing significantly to a rise in incomes for many lower-income families. Contrary to the focus on tourism (or even ‘ecotourism) for export in many countries, the Nicaraguan government’s tourism policies incentivize Nicaraguan working-class family tourism. This has been the result not only of tourism promotion outside of the country, but primarily a consequence of the Nicaraguan government’s social, economic and legal policies directed towards re-embedding the economy in the biosphere and in Nicaraguans.

As Anasha Campbell, Nicaragua’s Tourism Minister points out, “in Nicaragua, tourism is based on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Eighty percent of the tourism industry is based on SMEs and the democratization of government investments means that benefits go directly to the Nicaraguan people. They do not go to big capital, which mostly exports the benefits of this sector.” While multinational corporations and big business do exist in Nicaragua, they do not dominate the economy. The fact that SMEs are at the heart of the tourism economy means that “the Nicaraguan people and Nicaraguan families are the ones who offer their services and products in the tourism industry.” [ii]

Most goods and services related to tourism, like many other income-generating and life-sustaining activities in Nicaragua, come from what Nicaraguan sociologist Orlando Nuñez Soto calls “the popular economy” (or “the people’s economy”). This “economic subject” is formally “composed of the family, community, cooperative and associative sector and is organized into the Council for Social Economy (CES), where low-income farmers, peasants, fishermen, artisans and merchants are grouped together.” The popular economy, as Nuñez points out, produces more than fifty percent of the wealth in Nicaragua in terms of income (big business produces around thirty percent while the public sector produces fourteen percent).[iii] Considering government policy in general, and tourism policies specifically, one can observe that it is precisely the popular economy that is at the center of the Sandinista government’s priorities.

Tourism Minister Campbell, one of a majority of women who head Nicaraguan government ministries, emphasizes that, “For us, tourism is seen as a strategy for the human development of the Nicaraguan people. From 2015 until now tourism has been the main income generating sector for the Nicaraguan economy in general. That means work for the Nicaraguan people, but it also means that the people of Nicaragua have seen the sector as a means to generate their income; both to develop their families and to develop their own community.”[iv]

Tourism Policy, the Biosphere and Nicaraguan Culture(s)

Nicaraguan government tourism policy[v] has specifically focused on being coherent with orienting resources and plans in order to integrate the concept of equity with the biosphere and Nicaraguan culture(s). The pillars of the strategy are the following:

Develop tourism activity based on national identity, integrating the very lives of Nicaraguans, (their way of being, idiosyncrasies, culture, traditions, religiosity, gastronomy, history and national heritage) within national and international tourism.
Integrate productive activities, like agriculture and the Family and Community Economy, into tourism networks.
Link tourism activities and networks with small businesses and productive enterprises.
Promote and develop National Tourism in order to strengthen Nicaraguan identity and pride by integrating with tourism the knowledge and identification of culture, values, traditions and attractions of the different regions and departments of the country.
Incorporate tourism in all sectors; public, large, medium, small and micro private enterprises, and family and community economy.
Encourage shared responsibility in tourism management between the different types of users.
Promote a special role for the people, Nicaraguan families and communities within tourist activity, as part of its attractiveness.
Promote training for all participants in tourism as a mechanism to improve the quality, care and responsibility with which to provide tourism services and complementary activities.
Promote the Nicaraguan values that permit the evolution of a responsible tourism that encourages respect and places people, families, women and children and the environment at that center.
Promote investments that improve conditions and infrastructure not just with tourism in mind but also the rights and desires of Nicaraguan people.
Notwithstanding the contradictions of implementing change in a predominantly capitalist world, Nicaraguan government initiatives have attempted to push back against the governing economic world-view, asserting its sovereign right to act according to values of culture, democracy and justice as perceived by Nicaraguans and in the Nicaraguan context – not Western-imposed interpretations.

Tourism (both international and domestic) has also allowed for a renewal in the relationship between the Pacific and the Caribbean (Atlantic) Coasts of Nicaragua. For the majority of Nicaragua’s history, the Atlantic Coast was marginalized from the rest of the country. However, the Sandinista government has focused on rehabilitating the relationship between both parts of the country. As a result of improvements in infrastructure, health and education on the Atlantic Coast, tourism policy also promotes the experience of, as Campbell puts it, “a different part of Nicaraguan history; how to interact with the different cultures.” Campbell says that she, herself, is part of the policy of diversity and peace:

“I am one of those examples. I am from Bluefields (on the Atlantic Coast) and this democratization of tourism brings it together, brings that ease of interaction between Nicaraguans, between the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua…that in itself is how tourism has been providing benefits to all the different parts of society, helping to bring about understanding among the people, encompassing that multicultural and multiethnic part of the nation in general. Therefore, we believe, not only in terms of employment or income generation, that tourism enhances that understanding between cultures and also contributes to strengthening the culture of peace in all countries. Nicaragua is no exception.”

Between 2007 and 2018, tourism policy in Nicaragua served as an example around the world.[vi] In addition to being the second fastest growing destination in the entire American continent (eighth in the world), Nicaragua was also classified as one of the safest countries to visit in Central America, second in Latin America. Security and tourism attractiveness, however, should not be looked at in a vacuum. These are the results of a comprehensive governmental effort to bring a sense of dignity back to the people through free health care and education, access to electricity and water, roads, food-sovereignty and more.

2018 Coup Attempt and Tourism

But the government of Nicaragua was, unfortunately (in the eyes of Western capitalism and “democracy”) not going in the right direction with these policies.[vii] The Nicaraguan capitalist conservative sectors and the oligarchy, in coordination with the US government, could not stand the continued success of a government that was not directly controlled by their interests. As Kevin Zeese and Nils McCune put it in their article Correcting the record: What is really happening in Nicaragua, the problem is “the example Nicaragua has set for a successful social and economic model outside the US sphere of domination.”[viii]

Nicaraguan tourism policies aren’t necessarily a ‘problem’ for the US government in of themselves, as much as the fact that they successfully attracted foreign (i.e. US) tourists to visit the country. If there is a threat of successful “tourism” in Nicaragua, it is that Nicaragua, a country with few resources compared to wealthy countries like the US, could improve so much in terms of general human social, economic and health well-being.[ix]

The United States’ long-term regime change efforts in Nicaragua culminated in an attempted coup that saw the tourism sector come to nearly a full stop in mid 2018.[x] The main initial objectives of the “soft” coup-attempt were to discredit Nicaraguan government policies and delegitimize the president, Daniel Ortega, in the hopes of imposing a new government more favorable to US and oligarchical interests.

However, in the months after the 2018 coup-attempt failed, and despite a relentless and continued barrage of fake news – not only in Nicaraguan-opposition and international media outlets but also on official US and European foreign ministry websites – regarding the situation, tourism slowly started returning to Nicaragua.

Challenges to a Different Future in Tourism: Development, Capitalism and Path-Dependency

Since its formative years as a state, Nicaragua has played a small but revelatory role in the global economy of resource extraction and capital circulation. The European discovery of ‘America’ and the industrial revolution made Nicaragua’s geographical location and landscape greatly susceptible to the demands of international commerce and, as a result, US hemispheric commercial interest.

From coffee, cattle and cotton to mining and cheap labor, the demands of the global trade in goods (and labor) have shaped Nicaragua’s landscape. Successive US-imposed Nicaraguan governments deepened the entrenchment of Nicaragua’s economy, culture, and politics into the global order of capital circulation. In 1979, however, the Sandinista Revolution put this trajectory of traditional development and growth into question.

To break from this trajectory is extremely difficult and complicated. From Sandinista government policies in the 1980’s to its policies during the last fourteen years, the most significant challenge to creating an alternative to ‘development’ has been to overcome the combination of long-term US government intervention and the chains of “path dependency”, imposed by political, legal, socio-economic and psychological local and international structures. For Nicaragua to break away from the path chartered by global capitalism means confronting the traditional paradigms of development and growth, a transformation that is not as easy as “dandole vuelta a una tortilla” (Nicaraguan saying; literally meaning “flipping a tortilla;” metaphorically meaning changing a situation quickly).

Presently, international tourism is vital for Nicaragua, as are other export goods, since it not only allows people from around the world to discover “the land of lakes and volcanoes,” but, thanks to government policy, it provides Nicaraguans with the possibility of a dignified means of income that does not directly over-exploit humans and the environment. However, given that tourism, as all other export-revenue (dollar) generating activities, is inevitably part of the global metabolism of capitalism, the challenge for Nicaragua in the future will be to decrease its dependency on the double-sided coin of foreign exchange and export activities.

This is not an easy task because it means transforming how and what people consume. It means transforming not only what Nicaraguans consume – most Nicaraguans already consume very locally, except for the middle and upper classes – but also what tourists consume. This doesn’t mean cutting Nicaragua off from the world, but finding a balance that is favorable to Nicaraguans in times of instability. It means creating a new tourism that is low-carbon, circular, complimentary, respectful of people and the environment.

In his latest book, Paul Oquist, Minister and Private Secretary for National Policies for the Presidency of Nicaragua, remarks that “the hegemonic economic, social, and political structures, as well as mechanization, automation and artificial intelligence have concentrated wealth to the point where one percent of the world’s population controls over fifty percent of the world’s wealth. At the same time wealth redistribution mechanisms have been weakened. If this continues with the imminent rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, nearly worldwide economic, social, labor, and political instability and crises are completely predictable.”[xi]

Oquist and the Nicaraguan government are very conscious of the situation Nicaragua faces in light of global challenges. In writing about the dominant forms of development, Oquist says “we have lost touch with our place in the evolution of the universe and Mother Earth. Our most common answers to the big questions have worn thin and lack the spiritual urgency that can be the basis for a Survival Movement. For this we need to have an understanding of the Universe and Mother Earth and how we are an integral part of evolution, collectively and individually, that renews our identity and values, and elevates our level of consciousness of our current situation and the vulnerabilities and risks that threaten our existence. What is required is a transformation through a Survival Social Movement that constructs a low-carbon, climate-resistant and resilient, circular, sustainable society with far greater equality.”

In effect, Nicaraguan government (tourism) policies are rooted in the spirit of a “Survival Social Movement” seeking to discover, through real world practice, other ways of living fulfilling lives as individuals, families and communities, all this while facing enormous internal and external contradictions and pressures to succumb to the imperial God of development.



Di Fabio, Luca. “Economic Growth in Nicaragua Has Helped Reduce Poverty,” April 30, 2018. https://borgenproject.org/economic-grow ... e-poverty/.

[ii] “Turismo, Democracia y Desarrollo En Nicaragua.” 19 Digital, August 26, 2018. https://www.el19digital.com/articulos/v ... -nicaragua.

[iii] Nuñez Soto, Orlando, and César Martínez. “Who Produces the Wealth in Nicaragua?” Tortilla Con Sal, 2018. http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/7155.

[iv] “Turismo, Democracia y Desarrollo En Nicaragua.” 19 Digital, August 26, 2018.

[v] “Nicaragua, Crezcamos Juntos!: Políticas y Proyectos de Desarrollo Para Potenciar la Inversión 2017-2021.” ProNicaragua, 2016. https://www.el19digital.com/app/webroot ... onales.pdf.

[vi] Sayles, Jill. “Nicaragua Announces Commitment to Sustainability.” Travel Daily Media, 2017. https://www.traveldailymedia.com/nicara ... inability/, and also

“Tourism Booming in Nicaragua,” January 12, 2018. http://www.nicaraguasc.org.uk/news/arti ... -Nicaragua.

[vii] S. Wilson, Brian and Nils McCune. “US Imperialism and Nicaragua: ‘They Would Not Let Our Flower Blossom.’” In Live from Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup? A Reader. Alliance for Global Justice, 2019.

[viii] Zeese, Kevin, and Nils McCune. “Correcting the Record: What Is Really Happening in Nicaragua?,” July 11, 2018. https://www.globalresearch.ca/correctin ... ua/5647092.

[ix] McCurdy, Daniel. “Nicaragua: Improvements in Social and Economic Well-Being and the Nov. 6 Elections.” Center for Economic and Policy Research, November, 2011. https://cepr.net/nicaragua-improvements ... elections/.

[x] Live from Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup? A Reader. Alliance for Global Justice, 2019.

[xi] Oquist, Paul. Equilibra: The Philosophy and Political Economy of Existence and Extinction, 2020. https://read.amazon.com/kp/kshare?asin= ... nel=system.

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Thu Oct 08, 2020 11:29 am

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua 2018 – Uncensoring the truth
October 5, 2020
Originally published by tortilla con sal http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/10378



International Network in Solidarity with Nicaragua, September 28th 2020

A group of people in solidarity with Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution have recorded, transcribed and translated the testimonies of over 30 people of different backgrounds about their experience of the violent failed coup attempt in Nicaragua between April and July of 2018.
Nicaragua 2018 – Uncensoring the Truth (PDF4.8Mb)
No human rights organization and practically no journalists, writers or academics out of all those who have written so glibly about the crisis of 2018 in Nicaragua have taken the trouble to talk to any of the thousands of victims of violent opposition attacks during that crisis.

This fact makes nonsense of any pretense on their part to be reporting truthfully on the events in Nicaragua of 2018

Among well known writers, the only exceptions of which we are aware are the Italian journalist Giorgio Trucchi, Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton of the Grayzone, the writer and human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik, the independent journalists Dick y Miriam Emanuelsson, John Perry, Steve Sweeney of Morning Star and the Redfish documentary company video team.

The very simple reason for this reality is that the mainstream account of the violent failed 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua, repeated also by many so-called alternative media, portrayed the very opposite of what really happened.

International human rights institutions like the Inter American Commission for Human Rights and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights completely ignored opposition violence so as to be able to claim with the utmost falsehood that the government crushed peaceful protests with disproportionate, brutal violence.

That is a shameless lie. These institutions appear to have promoted that lie under pressure from the governments of the United States and the European Union

The testimonies gathered here demonstrate the undeniable false witness of these international institutions, of human rights NGOs and international news media, who comprehensively failed to report facts they found inconvenient.

A recurrent theme in gathering these testimonies is the total lack of interest in the experiences and suffering of the people concerned on the part of representatives and researchers of the Western human rights industry.

Some important points

Three things are important to understand in order to make sense of these interviews.

Firstly, the testimonies refer almost exclusively to incidents that took place while Nicaragua’s police were confined to their stations.

On April 22nd President Ortega publicly asked the Catholic Bishop’s Conference to serve as mediators of a national dialogue between the government and the opposition.

The bishop’s took two weeks to reply and, when they did, they set various conditions one of which was that the police be removed from the streets.

The Nicaraguan government agreed to this condition prior to the talks starting on May 16th and this explains why the general population was exposed over so many weeks to violent attacks and intimidation by opposition activists as described in these testimonies.

A second important point to understand is the operation of the so called “tranques” or roadblocks set up by the opposition activists at strategic points both in Nicaragua’s national highway system and within urban centers.

These roadblocks served as bases for the opposition to carry out their crimes and as control points to intimidate, monitor, rob and extort anyone passing through them, as these testimonies vividly describe.

The roadblocks were operated by opposition activists and paid delinquents who often ended up fighting among themselves over what they stole from all the people they extorted before letting them pass.

A third recurrent theme in these interviews is the issue of the 2019 amnesty setting free all the opposition activists and their delinquent accomplices charged, tried, convicted and imprisoned for criminal offenses committed during the 2018 crisis.

For bereaved families and for people who suffered directly from opposition violence in 2018, it took a huge act of faith on the part of Nicaragua’s people in the wisdom of President Daniel Ortega, Vice President Rosario Murillo and their government for that measure to be as successful as it has been..

That is why for people in Nicaragua all the victims and relatives of victims of opposition violence during the failed coup attempt are regarded as Heroes of Peace because they put the need for their country to heal and reconcile above their own personal suffering and grief.

But that is something far beyond the pitiful moral understanding, wholesale intellectual abdication and sly cynicism of practically all North American and European media journalists and editors, university academics, functionaries of the OAS and the Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner or any of the leading international human rights NGOs.

The “Rural Workers Movement”

These testimonies focus on victims of the so-called Rural Workers Movement, a small organization whose aggressive leaders, like Francisca Ramirez and Medardo Mairena, deliberately project a false image that they represent a large number of rural workers in Nicaragua.

In fact, local people calculate the core membership of the Rural Workers Movement at no more than around 2000, although by means of payment, intimidation and disinformation their protest marches occasionally mobilize many more.

By comparison the long established Association of Rural Workers (ATC) is a genuinely national organization with over 47000 members. Nationally, there are over 5300 registered cooperatives, mostly in the agricultural and livestock sector, with more than 350,000 members. Not one of those cooperatives is of the Rural Workers Movement.

This movement initially began supposedly in protest against Nicaragua’s proposed interoceanic canal. To promote herself as an important rural workers leader Ramirez boasts of having organized over 80 protests involving many thousands of people. At the same time she makes the contradictory claim that she is the victim of a dictatorship that denies freedom of speech.In any case, she has never developed her movement’s base significantly. The main area in which Ramirez and Mairena have mobilized support is the stretch of land between the area around El Tule on Lake Nicaragua’s eastern shore and the area south of Bluefields where the canal is planned to enter the Caribbean Sea.

This area covers the central and eastern parts of the municipality of Nueva Guinea and the adjacent territory of the municipality of Bluefields. The area’s settlement, especially in Nueva Guinea, developed in the 1970s.

This resulted partly from a mis-named land reform by the Somoza dictatorship which cleared landless rural families from areas on the Pacific Coast where the ruling Somoza clique wanted to grow cotton during the boom in cotton prices of that time. But many families made homeless following the 1972 earthquake were also effectively dumped in Nueva Guinea..

Many hundreds of families were moved to Nueva Guinea at different times during that period. They were settled on land with practically no support or amenities, resulting in an extremely impoverished population with no access to adequate health care or education.

Geographically, the area is still difficult of access, with poor road communications, especially around the municipal boundary between Nueva Guinea and Bluefields. This makes effective security provision for the local population by the police extremely difficult.

These geographical characteristics combine with a socio-economic profile very favorable for an organization like the Rural Workers Movement, enabling its leaders to cloak their criminal activities with a right wing political discourse.

Historically, the region has been a bastion of the right wing Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC). During the 1980s the US backed Contra fighters contested control of the area with the Sandinista army. The patterns of that history prevail to this day.

Medardo Mairena was elected as a councilor to the Regional authority of the Southern Caribbean Autonomous Region. A leading accomplice of Mairena, Pedro Mena, has been a PLC municipal councilor. Francisca Ramirez Torrez and her partner Migdonio López Chamorro have also both been long standing activists of the PLC.

During the 1980s, López Chamorro was a comandante in the ARDE branch of the Contra based in Costa Rica, with the nickname “Brasita”.

While Medardo Mairena and Francisca Ramirez project themselves overseas as noble fighters on behalf of impoverished rural families and as victims of unjust repression, their image locally is very different.

Mairena lost his Costa Rican residency and was expelled by the Costa Rican authorities accused of people trafficking.

Ramirez and her family, far from being impoverished peasants, are registered by the local police in Nueva Guinea as owning two large cattle trucks and a very expensive Toyota Land Cruiser SUV. Local people say she and her family own between 500 and 700 acres of land.

As of September 2020, Ramirez and her family are involved in litigation in Costa Rica over property she is alleged to have usurped from a local landowner there, as well as accusations of corrupt use of funding to help alleged “refugees” from Nicaragua.

Thanks largely to coaching and support from, among others, Monica Baltodano and her daughter Monica López via the Baltodano family’s now closed down NGO Popol Na, Ramirez and Mairena have also accessed substantial funding totaling certainly many hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of dollars.

Funding has come both directly from discretionary USAID funds managed by the US embassy in Managua and from foreign human rights NGOs like Ireland’s Frontline Defenders, among others. Ramirez and Mairena are totally opaque about how much money they have received and its use.

The witness testimonies collected here demonstrate that in practice the Rural Workers Movement operates effectively as an organized crime operation.

Ramirez and Mairena and their accomplices use extortion, menaces and outright murderous violence to intimidate local rural families into supporting them and keeping quiet about their crimes.

Medaro Mairena was tried and sentenced to long prison terms as the intellectual author of teh massacre in El Morrito of July 12th 2018 in which thugs organized by himself and Francisca Ramirez murdered four police officers and a primary school teacher. He was set free in 2019 under the terms of one of the the controversial government amnesties of that year.

These witness testimonies from a wide variety of ordinary people victimized by Rural Workers Movement activists and their accomplices confirm that ever since the first big anti-canal protests of 2014, the Rural Workers Movement has been relentlessly violent, essentially adapting the terrorist practices of the 1980s US-trained wartime Contra to further their contemporary political agenda.

That criminal violence reached a crescendo in 2018 when Ramirez and Mairena operated systematic roadblocks extorting huge amounts of money from local people seeking to go to work, study, do business or seek health care.

Police sources in the area calculate that the amount extorted daily by Mairena and Ramirez at the roadblocks they controlled and from other illicit activities may have averaged as much as US$50,000 over around 80 days from the end of April to early July 2018, implying a possible total amount extorted of around US$4 million.

Even so international human rights organizations and North American and European information media still portray Francisca Ramirez and Medardo Mairena as selfless heroes striving to serve impoverished rural families in Nicaragua.

To the contrary, the testimonies gathered here confirm President Daniel’s Ortega’s contention made repeatedly to foreign news media during interviews in 2018, that armed opposition gangs in very remote rural areas are violently targeting vulnerable rural families and especially sandinistas in order to instil terror, destabilizing the country’s rural economy and destroying social peace

The testimonies gathered together here present the bitter truth about the activities of Francisca Ramirez, Medardo Mairena and their accomplices in the Rural Workers Movement.

https://afgj.org/nicaragua-2018-uncensoring-the-truth
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:14 pm

NicaNotes: Nicaragua, attacked for following the same policies as US against foreign meddling
October 15, 2020
By John Perry


(John Perry is a writer living in Masaya, Nicaragua.)

Reprinted from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs



US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched another attack on Nicaragua’s Sandinista government last month, accusing President Daniel Ortega of being a “dictator” who is “doubling down on repression and refusing to honor the democratic aspirations of the Nicaraguan people.” The State Department openly supports what it calls “a return to democracy in Nicaragua”, saying that “the people of Nicaragua rose up peacefully to call for change.”

Pompeo’s accusations came in a month in which Nicaragua’s National Assembly made three new legislative proposals, the most important of which aims to limit this kind of foreign interference in Nicaraguan politics. Predictably, a range of international bodies echoed Pompeo’s criticisms including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders and news agencies including Reuters, Fox News and others.

So what is the Nicaraguan government really doing? Are its action unusual compared with other countries? Is there a need for the new law?

Three bills have been introduced in the Nicaraguan legislature, its National Assembly, and are currently being debated:

One is to regulate “foreign agents.” New regulations would require those receiving foreign money for “political purposes” to register with the Ministry of the Interior and explain what the money is used for. Similar regulations exist in the US.
The second is to tackle cybercrime and penalize hacking; it would prohibit publication or dissemination of false or distorted information, “likely to spread anxiety, anguish or fear.”
The third is to enable sentences of life imprisonment for the worst violent crimes (as applies in the US, except of course in states which use capital punishment).
This article concentrates on the first of these new laws, as it is the most controversial, but we will briefly explain the other two.

Fake news and fake deaths

The second proposal arises from the desire to curb the massive “fake news” campaigns that began in 2018, with announcements of deaths that never took place. It also aims to prevent social media posts that call for attacks on people or publicize violent crimes such as torture by filming them and posting them. Most recently, there have been campaigns aimed at convincing people with COVID-19 symptoms not to go to hospital, and these undoubtedly did deter some people from getting help and made it more difficult for the government to control the pandemic. Whether such fake news can be successfully restricted is, of course, a debatable point, but the government’s legislative changes are explicable even if their likely effectiveness might be uncertain.

The third proposal also has origins in the violence of 2018, when opposition mobs kidnapped and tortured police officers, government officials and Sandinista supporters. But its immediate justification is the recent horrific rape and murder of two young sisters in the rural town of Mulukukú, by a criminal who had taken part in an opposition attack on the local police station in 2018, in which three police officers were killed. He had been captured in 2018, found guilty and imprisoned, but was included by the opposition in their list of so-called “political prisoners.” He was then released as part of the general amnesty of June 2019, instituted by the government under tremendous international pressure. Nicaragua’s legal system has no death sentences and limits prison terms to a maximum of 30 years; the law would enable judges to imprison for life those found guilty of the worst crimes. The Washington Post interpreted the law as threatening life sentences for government opponents, which is far from the truth.

The law to regulate “foreign agents”

The proposal causing the biggest outcry is the far more straightforward “foreign agents” bill. It would require all organizations, agencies or individuals, who work with, receive funds from or respond to organizations that are owned or controlled directly or indirectly by foreign governments or entities, to register as foreign agents with the Ministry of the Interior. Anonymous donations are prohibited. Donations must be received through any supervised financial institution and must explain amounts, destinations, uses and purposes of the money donated. Foreign agents must refrain from intervening in domestic political issues, which means that any organization, movement, political party, coalition or political alliance or association that receives foreign funding could not be involved in Nicaraguan politics. Wálmaro Gutiérrez, Chairman of the National Assembly Committee responsible for scrutiny of the new bill, offered this synopsis: “Only we Nicaraguans can resolve in Nicaragua the issues that concern us. In summary, that is what the foreign agents law says.”

Despite the protests from Amnesty International and others, and the Financial Times calling the new measure “Putin Law,” the world is full of precedents to control foreign involvement in political activities. For example, of the countries within the European Union, 13 have very strict laws relating to foreign political funding and only four have no restrictions at all. In Sweden, receiving money from a foreign power or someone acting on behalf of a foreign power is a criminal offence if the aim is to influence public opinion on matters relating to governance of the country or national security. The US Library of Congress has further examples from many different countries illustrating the wide range of different powers used.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the widest and strictest legal provisions apply in the United States. They prevent not just foreign governments, but foreign entities of any kind, from involvement in US political activity. Particular restrictions are imposed by the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), which requires a wide range of bodies that receive foreign funding to register as “foreign agents,” with severe penalties for non-compliance. A recent case involving a non-governmental organization (NGO) showed that the law requires registration for activities that are so broad in scope that most people would not consider them to be “political” at all (the NGO deals with environmental projects). The lawyers reporting this case advise NGOs that “they may be required to register under FARA, even if funding they receive from foreign governments is only part of the organization’s financial resources and the proposed work aligns with the non-profit’s existing mission.”

Political parties are not the only target of the new law

Why is the new law not limited to political parties, like the similar restrictions in (for example) some European countries? The reason is that Nicaragua has a small number of very politicized third-sector organizations: NGOs, “human rights” bodies and media organizations that receive foreign funding for political purposes (it also, of course, has thousands of NGOs that receive foreign money for legitimate purposes, such as poverty relief). An example occurred as this article was being written.

Posters have appeared on the streets of the capital, Managua, with messages such as “For Nicaragua, I’m able to change” or “Nicaragua matters to me” (see first photo). Allegedly, the poster campaign, run by Nicaragua’s Bishops’ Conference, began after Catholic bishops who support opposition groups met with US embassy officials, who agreed to pay the costs of the campaign. Whether or not this is true, the purpose of the posters is clear. While to someone unfamiliar with Nicaraguan politics the messages may appear harmless or even anodyne, to local people the words and colors make it obvious that they are publicity supporting the loose coalition of groups and parties who aim to oust Daniel Ortega in next year’s election. Indeed, as can be seen from the second photo, memes parodying the originals have already begun to appear in social media.

The posters may also form part of the latest US operation, known as “RAIN” (“Responsive Resistance in Nicaragua”), recently reported by COHA, through which the US plans to interfere in Nicaragua’s 2021 elections via USAID. But the US government’s practice of using third-sector bodies to influence Nicaraguan politics has a long history. It dates back at least to the time of the “Contra” war in the 1980s, a massive illegal operation funded and directed by the US that left tens of thousands of Nicaraguans dead and for which the International Court of Justice ordered the United States to pay compensation to Nicaragua. One of the legacies of that proxy war is that the Reagan administration created a Nicaraguan “human rights” NGO, the Nicaragua Association for Human Rights (ANPDH), to whitewash evidence of atrocities by the US’s own Contra forces. That NGO still operates today and continues to answer to the US by attributing opposition atrocities to the Nicaraguan government. (A short history of the ANPDH and similar bodies and their links to the US has appeared in The Grayzone.)

US funding of Nicaraguan “civil society” organizations resumed soon after the Sandinistas regained power in the election of 2006. The blog Behind Back Doors published documents revealing that one US agency, USAID, began a strategy in 2010 to influence the Nicaraguan elections over the following decade, allocating $76 million to projects with political parties, NGOs and opposition media. Some of this funding was directed via the National Democratic Institute (NDI), specifically to strengthen six opposition political parties (even though equivalent work by a foreign government in the US would of course be illegal). Among the many NGOs to receive funding was one, the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (named after the president who succeeded Daniel Ortega in 1990, and run by the most prominent of the opposition political families), which received over $6 million that it then directed to opposition media outlets (including ones owned by the Chamorros themselves). The aim of the program was to “undermin[e] the image of the Nicaraguan government at the beginning of the electoral process of 2016.” In the last two years, USAID audits, the most recent from August 2020, show that a further $2 million has been allocated under the same program. As Nicaraguan commentator William Grigsby explained in his radio program Sin Fronteras, one result of US funding is that more than 25 TV and radio stations, syndicated TV and radio programs, newspapers and websites freely produce anti-Sandinista rhetoric.

It is noteworthy that, when the Financial Times (FT) reported critical responses to the planned new laws, they included ones from the Chamorro family and from the body that represents the “independent” press, without pointing out their financial stake in continued US funding. The FT also reported criticism by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), without pointing out that it is one of the US state organs that is driving the problem which the Nicaraguan government seeks to tackle.

Why is the funding of local NGOs being challenged now?

Sandinista governments have been in power over much of the period since the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, during most of which time opposition NGOs have been able to operate within a normal framework of regulation of a kind that operates in most (if not all) countries of the world. The need for tighter controls became apparent two years ago. April 2018 saw the start of what the US still calls “peaceful public protests” but which in fact were very violent, with several NGOs, “human rights” bodies and opposition media actively supporting the violence or creating fake news as to who was responsible for it.

There is plentiful evidence of this violence, of course. The most recent, detailed reports come from central Nicaragua, in a series of harrowing interviews with victims recently conducted by Stephen Sefton. The NGOs and media bodies being targeted by the new law either denied that this violence was occurring or attempted to blame it on the police or Sandinistas. Many of the same NGOs and media were also involved in undermining the government’s strategy for dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, as COHA has already reported. Their campaigns caused suffering and loss of life among people deterred from going to public hospitals as a result of fake news about clandestine burials, deaths of prominent public figures or a collapse of the hospital system, often illustrated with photos or videos from other countries which they claimed were from Nicaragua.

As the 2021 election year approaches, the scale of the newly started “RAIN” project suggests to many observers that it has a dual purpose: supporting the opposition’s election campaign, but also laying the groundwork to delegitimize the elections in the event of another Sandinista victory. The US Embassy and the State Department will continue to assert that the Nicaraguan government is running “a sustained campaign of violence and repression,” contrary to Nicaraguans’ “right to free assembly and expression,” regardless of whether the new law is implemented. It is clearer than ever that some NGOs and similar bodies are an integral part of this offensive.

This abusive extension of the role of NGOs is, of course, a trend across Latin America and indeed the rest of the world. An article in the magazine of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, asks whether the “N” in “NGOs” has gone missing? It warns that, as “a significant proportion of their income comes from official government channels, NGOs will resemble more an instrument of foreign policy and less a force for change and advocacy.” In particular, it might be argued, those NGOs that allow themselves to be enlisted by the US government in its beneficial-sounding programs to “promote democracy” in different countries are in practice signing up to a very different purpose. There is now a range of US government bodies and private US institutions who work together to exercise soft power on behalf of the US regime change agenda in various countries through the medium of local NGOs.

William Robinson, who worked in Nicaragua in the 1980s, argues that the real objective is not only regime change:

“‘Democracy promotion’ programmes seek to cultivate these transnationally oriented elites who are favourably disposed to open up their countries to free trade and transnational corporate investment. They also seek to isolate those counter-elites who are not amenable to the transnational project and also to contain the masses from becoming politicized and mobilized on their own, independent of or in opposition to the transnational elite project by incorporating them ‘consensually’ into the political order these programmes seek to establish.”

In the context of Nicaragua, this suggests that democracy promotion through local NGOs, “human rights” bodies and media organizations is not merely about seeking Daniel Ortega’s defeat at the polls, but achieving a paradigm shift away from governments that prioritize the needs of the poor to put power back into the hands of the elite who answer to transnational interests, as in other countries of Central America which have not experienced Nicaragua’s revolutionary change.

Nicaragua is only exercising the same rights as those used by the United States

Chuck Kaufman of the Alliance for Global Justice maintains that Nicaragua has the right to know about and protect itself from foreign funding of its domestic opposition. He goes on to argue that “a country is not required to cooperate in its own overthrow by a foreign power.” This does of course have echoes of the United States’ own actions in rejecting foreign interference in its domestic politics. William Grigsby of Radio La Primerísima argues that the US is hypocritical in criticizing Nicaragua’s restrictions on foreign influence on local media outlets when the US government has itself put restrictions on the US media operations of companies based in China, Venezuela, Russia, and Qatar. Former libertarian Congressman Ron Paul is reported to have said, “It is particularly Orwellian to call US manipulation of foreign elections ‘promoting democracy.’ How would we Americans feel if for example the Chinese arrived with millions of dollars to support certain candidates deemed friendly to China?”

A year ago the US Senate Intelligence Committee, reviewing foreign interference in the 2016 US election, decried the fact that “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.” Yet if this sentence were amended to refer to “US goals,” “Nicaragua’s” democratic process and “Daniel Ortega,” it would precisely describe the dishonest practices that the US is following in Nicaragua, which the Sandinista government is determined to stop.

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-nicaragua-at ... n-meddling

"Do as I say, not as I do."

"What's good for the goose ain't necessarily what's good for the gander."

And so on, ad nauseum.

We should think about the fight the Nicaraguan people have fought and continue to fight and then look at ourselves in the mirror.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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