Nicaragua

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Wed Apr 12, 2023 2:24 pm

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Ortega with Maduro recently. (Photo: cuadernosandinista.com)

Five years ago in Nicaragua: a coup attempt begins
By Daniel Kovalik, John Perry (Posted Apr 12, 2023)

Five years ago, Nicaragua was subject to a violent attempted coup that lasted from April through July, 2018. In the first of four articles, we look at how it was planned and how it started.

In the first few months of 2018, Nicaragua hardly appeared to be a strong candidate for an attempted coup. Daniel Ortega’s government had an 80 per cent approval rating in a poll a few months earlier. There had been eight years of continuous economic growth, during which the country achieved 90 per cent food sovereignty and cut hunger by 40 per cent (according to the UN’s global hunger index). In the decade since Ortega had been re-elected to the presidency, his government had rebuilt public health and education services, repaved the country’s roads and established a reliable, virtually nationwide electricity supply, based largely on renewable sources. It was hardly surprising that the Sandinista government had increased its vote share in three successive elections. Even the international media, though hostile towards Daniel Ortega, had to concede that he had “cemented popular support among poorer Nicaraguans” (The Guardian) and that “Many poor people who receive housing and other government benefits support him” (The New York Times).

But this very success presented danger. As the new book Nicaragua: A History of U.S. intervention and resistance points out, from Washington’s perspective it again posed “the threat of a good example… Something had to be done about Ortega’s strong popular support.” Nicaragua was the only exception in a Central America largely submissive to U.S. political and economic influence, especially after the coup in next-door Honduras had unseated the progressive President Mel Zelaya in 2009. Washington had tried and failed to prevent Ortega returning to power in 2007 and was now determined to try again. The Sandinista’s success had made the task much harder, but it believed it had found openings that it could exploit.

The hard core of dissent came from small and divided anti-Sandinista political parties. None were capable of winning power alone, and they were handicapped by having only one common objective: to oust Daniel Ortega. If they could temporarily bury their differences, they might harness support from Nicaragua’s relatively small upper class and from middle-class people whose opinions might be swayed by a vigorous anti-government campaign. Having brought these groups together, the U.S. embassy warned the employers’ organization, COSEP, that they must move away from cooperation with the government, citing the U.S. Congress’s consideration of the NICA Act and threatening economic sanctions if Nicaragua stayed out of line with U.S. policy.

As the book explains, Nicaragua’s relatively loose regulation of local nonprofits at that time enabled the U.S. to pour as much as $200 million into opposition media, NGOs and “human rights” bodies via agencies like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID. Kenneth Wollack, now chairman of the NED, was soon to brag to the U.S. Congress that different U.S. agencies had trained some 8,000 young Nicaraguans in “democracy promotion.” Indeed, as the NED-funded Global Americans said, these agencies were “laying the groundwork for insurrection.” With training from USAID, many of these young people would contribute to the huge social media campaign which was poised to take effect. Supplies of money, weapons, drugs and food were quietly built up, for use in the coup attempt. Youngsters from poorer and often criminal groups would soon receive $10-15 daily payments to erect and defend roadblocks to gain control of neighborhoods in key cities.

There were two other key components. U.S. agencies put resources into local opposition media outlets such as the La Prensa newspaper and websites Confidencial and 100%Noticias. The same happened with local “human rights” agencies (one of which was actually set up by the Reagan administration in the 1980s) who would ensure that any casualties in the coming conflict would be blamed on the government. Both the “independent” media and the “human rights” groups would later be accepted, unquestioningly, as authentic sources by the international media and bodies such as Amnesty International.

After these preparations, all that was needed was an appropriate spark to light the insurrectional fire. In early April, it looked like this had been provided (literally) by a wildfire in the remote Indio Maiz forest reserve. Despite government efforts to douse the blaze, protests by young people about its “inaction” quickly sprouted and were taken up by international media. However, the unrest could only be sustained for a few days: with help from unseasonal rain, the fire was extinguished.

A second opportunity arose, later the same month. Like many governments, Nicaragua’s was under pressure to reform its public pensions system, whose finances had become unsustainable. It had faced down private sector calls for deep cuts in pensions, proposing much smaller ones and—in return—improving pensioners’ health benefits. In other circumstances the changes would have been uncontroversial but, whipped up by right-wing news outlets and social media, some minor protests by older people took place. They were quickly joined on the streets by “students” who suddenly had an unlikely interested in pensions and in some cities by the delinquent groups orchestrated by opposition leaders such as ex-Sandinista guerilla fighter, Dora Maria Tellez. April 18 saw violent confrontations between opposition groups and the police or young Sandinistas, including attacks on revolutionary landmarks such as the historic “command center” in Masaya. While no one was killed that day, the social media campaign swung into operation: thousands of Facebook posts alleged deaths from police shootings that had either not occurred or were due to other causes.

By April 19, the scene was set for greater violence as “students” suddenly had access to hundreds of homemade mortar guns, deployed at roadblocks (“tranques”) made by ripping up paving stones. On that day, the first of 22 police officers was killed. A second was fatally shot on April 21 and within just four days 121 had been injured, mainly as a result of gunfire. The coup attempt had begun.

https://mronline.org/2023/04/12/five-ye ... pt-begins/

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Black People Used to Attack Revolutionary Governments
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 12 Apr 2023

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Review of a book which claims an "authoritarian turn" for Nicaragua's Black community. (Image: Labour Hub)

The question of how Black people fare in a particular country can be a legitimate issue or a ruse used in the furtherance of U.S. war propaganda.


“We used to talk about, when I was a kid, in college, about ‘America’s Backyard’. It’s not America’s backyard. Everything south of the Mexican border is ‘America’s Front Yard’. And we’re equal people. We don’t dictate what happens in any other part of this continent or the South American continent. We have to work very hard on it.” President Joe Biden

Even while claiming to believe in the sovereignty of all American states, Joe Biden couldn’t help but use hackneyed phrases about whether the rest of the hemisphere is in his yard. He exposed himself and what the U.S. state does in the Caribbean and Central America and South America.

Regime change is still the goal whenever people in the region dare to attempt self-determination. Haiti remains under threat of invasions under the guise of protecting its people. The U.S. pressures revolutionary governments with sanctions and some are under attack through proxy wars and coups.

The 2021 protests in Cuba showed clear proof of a U.S. hand. Demonstrations orchestrated from abroad were characterized as a widespread movement to change the government and suddenly Black people in that country received special attention. “Cuba’s Black Communities Bear the Brunt of Regime’s Crackdown ” said the Wall Street Journal. “Long marginalized Afro Cubans at forefront of Island’s unrest ,” was the Washington Post headline and Politico chimed in with “Afro Cubans on the Brink .”

None of these outlets express support for the struggles of Black people in this country, or analyze the conditions they live under, yet they suddenly gave great attention to Black people in Cuba and portrayed them all as government opponents. The reasoning was obvious, using the white and prosperous Cuban exile community as props was not going to work. Better for the U.S. to fund Black Cuban rappers to sing anti-government propaganda.

Of course Cuba wasn’t the end of the story. Nicaragua was next on the list for U.S. interventions in 2021. That country has been a target of U.S. imperialism for decades.

In the 1850s, an American named William Walker involved himself in a Nicaraguan civil war, raised an army of mercenaries, and proclaimed himself president of that nation. He also sought to relegalize slavery, which Nicaragua had abolished. For a time his government was recognized by president Franklin Pierce. Walker was ultimately deposed and executed but U.S. inference didn’t stop.

Marines occupied the country three times between 1909 and 1933. The Somoza family ruled with US support until the 1979 Sandinista revolution. Of course, the U.S. involved itself again and Ronald Reagan waged a deadly contra war during his terms in office.

Now the war against an independent and sovereign Nicaragua goes on, but with some new twists. In 2018 the Donald Trump administration backed a coup attempt which terrorized the nation for three months and killed more than 200 people. The Nicaraguan government under president Daniel Ortega was accused of human rights abuses for doing what any other state would do, imprison those who tried to overthrow it. These penalties were enacted after the golpistas, the coup makers, violated an amnesty and continued to work with the U.S. against the Nicaraguan government. When Ortega recently released 222 of the plotters and deported them to the U.S., a group of them were greeted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, including some who had committed murders .

As in Cuba, Black Nicaraguans have become the face of U.S. inspired opposition. Black academics here write books about an “authoritarian turn ” in that country. They do not mention how the 2018 coup attempt devastated that country, and conveniently erase the U.S. role in instigating the violence and now in protecting the perpetrators. Nor do they mention that during the 2021 presidential election, the Sandinista government received most of their votes from the Atlantic coast communities where the Afro descended population predominates.

Of course this entire western hemisphere is infected with racism. It can’t be otherwise when it was built on the backs of African and indigenous genocides. If Black Cubans or Nicaraguans fare worse than other groups in their societies, they are no different than Black people in the U.S. It is cynical in the extreme to use the oppressed to make the case for old fashioned Yankee imperialism. But war propaganda is a lie by its very nature, and critiques of nations labeled as adversaries should be seen as just that.

The role of people living within the empire is a simple one. Oppose interventions and interference carried out against other countries. For Black people there is another admonition. Never trust anyone claiming that Black people living in a revolutionary state are being treated any worse than you are. Regardless of their nation’s problems it is unlikely that they face as many negative outcomes as we do here. Black rappers may get USAID money to help undermine another country, but any advantages end at the whim of the imperialist system.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/black ... ernments-0
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Fri Apr 21, 2023 1:53 pm

Nicaragua 2018: The Triumph of a Sovereign Future
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on APRIL 17, 2023
Stephen Sefton

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When reflecting on the significance of the defeat of the coup attempt in Nicaragua in 2018, it is easy to forget the regional context at that fateful moment and focus only on the terrible events in the national context. But it is also important to remember always that the ruling elites in the United States and their local allies in the region were at that time and are still constantly striving to sabotage and if possible reverse the emancipation processes of the peoples of the region that had gained strength since 2006. In 2018, corrupt right-wing governments allied with the United States dominated most of Latin America and collaborated closely, especially to help the government of President Donald Trump intensify its criminal hybrid war against Venezuela and the blockade against Cuba.

Timeline of the failed coup attempt in Nicaragua in 2018 (PDF 375Kb) https://www.tortillaconsal.com/April-Ju ... _final.pdf

Only Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela kept alive in that period the vision of a sovereign regional integration promoting the interests of their countries’ majorities. The right-wing Sebastian Piñera had won the presidency in Chile. In Argentina, Mauricio Macri and his cronies were deepening the country’s economic crisis, seeking a corrupt arrangement with the International Monetary Fund to favor the financial interests of the national oligarchy. Despite their extremely low levels of popular support, Michel Temer in Brazil and Lenin Moreno in Ecuador oversaw the implementation of neoliberal policies against their peoples while their allies in the judiciary abused the criminal justice system to attack their progressive political rivals.

In Colombia, Ivan Duque acted to systematically prevent the implementation of the Peace Agreements while dozens of community leaders and former FARC combatants who had welcomed the peace were killed every month. In Peru, due to their own bitter internal political disputes, the national oligarchy exploited the judicial and legislative system to keep the country in a permanent crisis of governance. In Paraguay, the corrupt government of Horacio Cartes was coming to the end of its term. In Uruguay, the Frente Amplio government of Tabaré Vasquez was also coming to the end of its period severely damaged by lack of popular support and the forced resignation of its Vice President Raul Sendic.

All this throws into relief the events of 2018 in Nicaragua and reveals their dual aspect. In one sense, it was another attack by the empire seeking to maintain the Monroe Doctrine and its usual regional dominance and control. At the domestic level, it was one more episode in the endless class war waged by the national oligarchy insisting on wanting to maintain their privileged dominant status in relation to the dispossessed majority. In a broader sense, the 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua represents another moment of the Western elites’ ruthless assault on the idea of the nation state, which is the main defense of the world’s peoples against the depredations of giant multinational corporations, which are the essence of globalization.

So the failed coup attempt of 2018 in Nicaragua can be seen from different perspectives. In part, it was a popular battle against a political, social, economic and cultural retreat into the past. At the local level, a reactionary minority made an alliance with foreign powers because they lacked the political strength and popular support to win elections. Externally, the United States insisted on its imperative of regional control to intervene and force a change of government favoring its interests. What happened in 2018 repeated historical patterns in Nicaragua that have persisted from the time of William Walker, from the Knox Memo and the Chamorro-Bryan Treaty to the Espino Negro Pact, the assassination of General Sandino and the Contra war against the Sandinista Popular Revolution of the 1980s.

If 2018 was a battle against returning to the sinister past of submission to empire and to the political and economic repression of US puppet governments, it was also a battle to defend the prosperity and advances in force at that time, the result of good government by Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo and their sandinista ministerial team. More profoundly, it was an absolutely fundamental defense of a future of true political and economic democracy, of security, prosperity and tranquility for the population, of development and peace. Above all, it was a defense of the future national sovereignty which has been not only the basis of all the recent economic, social, cultural and spiritual victories of Nicaragua’s people, but which is also an essential element of the new multipolar or pluricentric world now under construction.

In 2018, the Nicaraguan people faced choosing between passively submitting to the lies, violence, anarchy and arrogance of the coup plotters or acting decisively to defend the sovereignty that the coup leaders and their foreign owners wanted to take away from them. On the one hand, we could see the reactionary bishops, the failed traitorous politicians, the greedy opportunistic business leaders, the corrupt management class of the bought NGO sector and the criminal thugs abusing the population in the roadblocks. On the other hand, Nicaragua’s People could see their own reflection as protagonists of the revolutionary model of the government’s National Plan for Human Development and Poverty Reduction, a plan for peace, development and justice based on the historical program of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Over the weeks and months from April to July 2018, mixed in with the coup attempt’s horrific abuses, odious crimes and widespread terrorism, popular feeling steadily grew rejecting the coup leaders self-evident cynicism, hypocrisy and lack of seriousness during the sessions of the national dialogue. In the end the clear choice lay between between defending the achievements of the People and their revolutionary process or submitting to a new repressive government of odious, mediocre leaders directed by their Yankee patrons. Over the last few days Comandante Daniel has summarized what happened in 2018 as follows:

“There was an attempted coup d’état here, and as usual, the historical imperialists, the Europeans, the European empires, vassals of the North American Empire, immediately joined in. But, thanks to the People’s decision, the coup was aborted and we have managed to resume the conditions that we had up until 2018, of stability, Peace, security, economic growth, progress in the fight against poverty and this has strengthened the People’s Consciousness and also strengthens the defense capacity of the Nicaraguan people.”

It is no accident that Comandante Daniel made that comment during a meeting with a delegation from the Cooperation Agency of the People’s Republic of China. The defeat of the coup attempt in Nicaragua was a key event in a regional and global context characterized by the desperate efforts of the United States and its allies to destroy any initiative that structurally favors the region’s dispossessed majorities. The US suffered another defeat with the landslide electoral victory of the Bolivian people in 2020, reversing the coup d’etat in that country following the elections in 2019.

Similarly, the Venezuelan people have repeatedly defeated the tremendous, constant US economic aggression and sabotage, just as the Cuban people have done for over 60 years. All these victories are increasingly shaping a Latin America and Caribbean based on respect and equality between sovereign nations instead of privileging the interests of the region’s national oligarchies allied to North American and European elites. That is why the victory of the Nicaraguan people over the failed coup attempt in 2018 was such a great triumph for the region’s sovereign future, so essential to consolidate Nicaragua’s development in a new world of international relations genuinely based on international relations of justice and Peace.

*DANIEL: “Thanks to the People’s decisiveness, the coup was aborted and we
have managed to recover the conditions that we had prior to 2018“


https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/04/ ... gn-future/

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Russian Foreign Minister arrives in Nicaragua

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is on a diplomatic tour of Latin America until April 21. Apr. 19, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@AthenaMia2nd

Published 19 April 2023

Lavrov's tour of Latin America will last until April 21, with Cuba as the last destination.



Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived Wednesday in Managua, Nicaragua, as part of his tour of the Latin American region.

After holding high-level meetings in Brazil and Venezuela, the Russian diplomat landed at the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport in the Nicaraguan capital.

He was received by his counterpart in the Central American country, Denis Moncada, and the special representative of the President of Nicaragua for relations with Russia, Laureano Ortega.

During his state visit, Lavrov is scheduled to meet with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the country's Vice President Rosario Murillo.


The vice president welcomed the Russian foreign minister stating that Nicaragua and Russia are brotherly peoples "who believe in peace, in constructive and respectful dialogue, and in the world, that multipolar world we are seeing being born."

The head of the Russian diplomacy is scheduled to head to Cuba, the last stop on his diplomatic tour of Latin America until April 21. Lavrov has already visited Brazil and Venezuela.



https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0017.html
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon May 15, 2023 10:34 pm

Nicaragua: What We Learned About Agroecology
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 13, 2023
Rick Kohn

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As part of a seminar course at the University of Maryland, students travel to Nicaragua to see firsthand how the country has confronted the challenges of hunger and poverty and achieved food self-sufficiency.

At the University of Maryland’s College of Agriculture, we have developed a seminar course titled “Sustainable Agriculture and Environment in Nicaragua” offered every fall as well as a short travel-abroad experience to Nicaragua in the Winter term (first weeks of January). Last year, ten students and two faculty members from the University of Maryland visited Nicaragua on a trip hosted by the Friends of ATC, the international solidarity organization of the Association of Rural Workers (Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo) led by Erika Takeo, our host.

Why did we choose to study in Nicaragua? Hunger, poverty, and illiteracy are major issues plaguing much of the world, and climate change is one of the greatest threats to humans on the planet. Nicaragua is setting an example for sustainable development that addresses all these issues.

Nicaragua has virtually eliminated hunger and attained 90% self-sufficiency in food production while also increasing food exports. Literacy has vastly improved, and the country offers free education from preschool through college and professional school. Additionally, life expectancy has increased, and infant mortality has been drastically reduced. Free basic healthcare is accessible to all. Nicaragua has improved its agricultural practices, promoting climate-resilient management such as water and soil management to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Interestingly, Nicaragua has achieved these impressive feats while decreasing its per capita greenhouse gas emissions, which were already only one-eighth as much as for the United States. Despite facing illegal US sanctions and interventions, Nicaragua’s economy continues to grow steadily across all major sectors.

Nicaragua’s achievements in sustainable development have been so remarkable that as a professor of Animal Science at the University of Maryland for the last 28 years, it would feel dishonest for me not to mention them while teaching about improving agricultural practices to reduce environmental impacts. My work involves teaching animal nutrition and management and advising government regulators and farmers on minimizing environmental harm from animal agriculture. My research has included finding ways to improve animal feeding and management to decrease nutrient losses from farms to estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay, as well as identifying methods to lower gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

The statistics on Nicaragua are striking. Despite being a developing nation with labor-intensive agricultural production, the country has made noteworthy progress in addressing multiple objectives such as meeting human needs for food, education, and healthcare, reducing poverty, and improving the environment. Moreover, Nicaragua has managed to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change caused mostly by developed countries. Inspired by these achievements, I created a two-part course on Nicaraguan agriculture at the University of Maryland to examine Nicaragua’s efforts in this field, and to assess whether we could learn from their example.

Will Corporate Agriculture Save the Planet with a Second Green Revolution?

Producing more food to feed the hungry as world population grows could lead to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions because expanding croplands often means destroying carbon-sequestering grasslands and forests. Additionally, the impacts of climate change, such as droughts or hurricanes, can adversely affect agriculture and exacerbate hunger and poverty. To meet the nutritional requirements of an expanding global population, we must use our land resources more efficiently and with less environmental impact per unit of food produced. This approach will enable us to address hunger and poverty while minimizing our carbon footprint.

Developing countries are encouraged to make their agricultural processes more similar to ours. But our system of agriculture was “developed” though genocide of native populations and slavery, as well as destruction of natural flora and fauna, and today is still driven by the corporate profit motive. One can understand from looking at our history why some developing countries may not want to repeat this process of “development” through maximization of corporate profits.

Our system selects for the companies that are most profitable, and fortunately companies that make best use of their resources often are more competitive and survive resulting in an overall increase in efficiency. At the same time, optimizing profitability sometimes promotes choices that impair the productivity of land or has negative environmental impact.

We have vast tracks of land across multiple states being put into the same monoculture crops. Those crops are shipped around the country and processed. Part of grains are used for biofuel and parts for human and animal foods. The nutrient cycles are broken, causing excess nutrient loss to the environment in some regions. At the same time, fossil fuels and mining make chemical fertilizers to replace nutrients removed from other regions. The application of new nitrogen fertilizers accelerates the production of nitrous oxides, a highly potent greenhouse gas. Pesticides and genetic engineering eliminate foods for wildlife. Soil carbon decreases for many crops, putting more greenhouse gas in the air and decreasing the capacity of the soils to hold on to water and other nutrients. Still, the US has sustained this system for decades, and I think it is likely more stable than some people believe. In other countries with different topography and climate, however, these same practices are expanding deserts. For examples look at deforestation of the Amazon and the expansion of the Sahara Desert.

People still go hungry in the US. Many agricultural workers make terrible wages for back-breaking labor. Diet-related illnesses are prevalent and overprocessed foods contribute to it. US life expectancy has fallen as rates of suicide, drug addiction, and violence are all trending upwards. Many people go without health insurance. Poverty continues to be a significant problem in the “richest” country on earth.

Is the economic model we are using really something that developing nations should be trying to copy? Developed countries emit many multiples more greenhouse gas per capita than developing countries. Imagine how much greenhouse gas emissions will increase if all the world’s developing countries were recreated in the image of the developed ones. The alternative of keeping poverty and hunger as the status quo is also not acceptable. Therefore, the example Nicaragua provides needs to be studied very carefully.

Irrespective of what system we choose for ourselves to obtain food, Nicaragua is a sovereign country, and they have the right to set their own course in development, and not copy the path taken by the US if they don’t want to. However, large corporations survive by growing: by finding new markets and a larger work force.

Nicaragua is setting out on its own path.

When Nicaraguans were forced to follow our “advice” in the past, either from the mid 1800s through Somoza or during the neoliberal period from 1990 to 2007, their economies sometimes become more “efficient” by US standards while income disparities increased, people went hungry, illiteracy skyrocketed, land and water became more polluted.

It is common for people to become overwhelmed and depressed thinking about these issues, which makes you want to turn away and ignore them. That’s why the inspiration and hope that we get from Nicaragua is so important – because in Nicaragua we have a case where all these issues are addressed, and the people who live there are thriving while emitting an eighth as much GHG per person as in the US.

People often say Nicaragua is the third poorest country in the hemisphere (or previously the second poorest) based on the per capita GDP. But the GDP is the totality of the economic activity, it is not a measure of whether people’s basic needs are met. When you consider that Nicaragua has the second lowest poverty rate in Latin America, and even the poor have access to good quality basic healthcare, food, and free education through professional school, you might say Nicaragua is one of the least poor countries in the hemisphere.

Today after 500 years of colonialism and intervention in Nicaragua by the Spanish and then the US, Nicaragua clearly lacks the infrastructure needed for robust economic activity comparable to a developed country. However, because of the choices they’ve made in recent years, their economic activity is targeted toward meeting the needs of the entire population instead of only serving the interests of the wealthiest Nicaraguans and foreign corporations. And this means that instead of targeting their economy on weapons of war, security and surveillance, and consumerism, they have focused on healthcare, education, infrastructure like roads, electricity, potable water, hospitals, and parks. And we could see first-hand what that is like.

How has Nicaragua been able to accomplish so much?

As we traveled around Nicaragua, we could see viable agricultural production everywhere. We listened to farmers, agricultural and environmental experts, and leaders. We tasted luscious fruits and vegetables and savory dishes. We learned specific techniques to manage soils and animals, including many techniques passed down through generations from ancestors. Native American populations taught the European about their traditional agricultural methods and how they had domesticated many of the food crops everyone now consumes (e.g. maize, potatoes, beans, squash, tomatoes and avocados), but the Europeans weren’t the best of students over the generations. The Native American ancestors knew to prevent erosion by planting rows perpendicular to the slopes and using contour ditches or terraces to prevent water runoff from eroding soils. They cropped legumes like beans with corn to use the nitrogen-fixing ability of the legume crop to enrich the soils for the corn. They incorporated trees throughout the landscapes, trapping carbon, retaining soils, providing shade.

But beyond the techniques on the farm, I was especially interested in learning how Nicaraguans today transferred the knowledge from farm to farm though organizations like the ATC. We met with the excellent teachers working with the ATC as well as university faculty, and jointly participated in workshops on agroecology, nutrition, and pasture walks. In the US corporate-driven agricultural system, most technology is developed and transferred from the top down, whereas in Nicaragua the organizations representing farm workers and small farm owners themselves set priorities for research (what to try) and technology transfer to best address their own needs.

We also learned about laws to promote equitable and efficient development, like the Agroecology Law, or the Zero Hunger Law. These laws provide incentives and education for small farmers, create markets to sell foods, provide plants or chickens to start small-scale farm enterprises, and provide low interest loans. For example, programs have introduced less-common commodities like dragon fruit and tilapia farming.

Moreover, we learned about their philosophy, and their democratic, people-centered approach to making decisions and implementing change. Nicaragua has a mixed economy including both large corporations and small farmers. The small farmers and farm workers are organized into groups that enable them to learn about government policies and have input, unlike the US system in which policies are largely written by the largest companies in the industry. In Nicaragua, decisions are made to address the multifaceted needs of society—reduce poverty and hunger, obtain food sovereignty, good working conditions, protect the environment—for all the stakeholders. This approach infringes on the potential for a few companies to take complete control. The idea that peasant farmers have valid ideas is hard concept for corporate experts to comprehend, let alone embrace. And yet the results are impossible to deny.

Nicaragua is a small country compared to the size of multinational corporations, but it still poses a tremendous threat. Their approach is demonstrably working to fight hunger and poverty and decrease greenhouse gases while adapting to climate change. None of that would seem like it should present a problem for the United States. However, they have achieved these results while also becoming food sovereign and without fully embracing agribusiness corporations that hope to monopolize the business of food production. This means Nicaragua poses the threat of a good example to the rest of Latin America and the world. Thus, overthrowing the Nicaraguan government is a priority, and in the meantime, a propaganda war is used to justify aggression against Nicaragua and to mask the success they have had.

The predominant approach to development foisted on most of the developing world is to force cuts in spending on social programs, privatize public resources, and incentivize low-income sweatshops for foreign export. Although feeding the poor may sound nice, we are told it would cause economic collapse over time. Instead, the neoliberal model of development through exploitation is used despite the lack of significant progress. The contrasting positive results from Nicaragua are indeed a threat to the arguments for continuing “development” through exploitation, or in other words, Nicaragua threatens the world order.

If you are a University of Maryland student, I want to invite you to take our class at UMD. If you do not attend UMD, it is possible to take the seminar course online and participate in the study-abroad course in the first two weeks of January and get transfer credits. I want to acknowledge the ATC for helping organize the fall semester course, and for hosting the study abroad course. The ATC offers many programs both online and in person so consider being a part of an ATC delegation or internship. I encourage everyone to travel to Nicaragua to see for yourself what it’s like to live and thrive in a sustainable way.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/05/ ... roecology/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Fri May 19, 2023 2:07 pm

Nicaraguan Immigration Down Despite U.S. Efforts to Encourage It
By Nan McCurdy - May 18, 2023 0

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[Source: qcostarica.com]

New Biden administration measures may make it easier to apply for asylum.
Nicaragua migration north had been very low for 14 years, always under 1,000 border encounters per month. This is especially low when compared to border encounters with people from the Northern Triangle nations of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

But in March 2021, eight months before the Nicaraguan presidential elections, an increase in migration north began. This trend reached its height in December 2022 (35,488) but, in January 2023, fell precipitously (by almost 90%) to 3,789 border encounters. The most recent number, from March 2023, showed 5,342 border encounters.

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Data on border encounters with Nicaraguans in 2021, 2022 and 2023. [Source: afgj.org]

Why the increase in Nicaraguans migrating north after 14 years of it remaining low?
The Sandinista party won back the Nicaraguan presidency in January 2007 with a focus on poverty reduction, free education and health care. From that time through March 2021 there was only a trickle of migrants to the U.S.—an average of about 300 a month. But that began to change in 2021 when Nicaraguans who crossed into the U.S. and were encountered by border officials were not expelled, instead being given help with transportation to get to their final destinations.

In February 2021 many journalists began to hear what Nicaraguan migrants were telling family and friends, that once they crossed into the U.S., they should just find a border official and that official would likely help them with transportation getting to the home of family or friends so that they could work. The other news that traveled like wildfire was that there were jobs available and with pretty good wages (US$14 to $18 an hour). With these stories and, despite great advances in well-being in Nicaragua, the dream of migrating north spread like a virus.

From Nicaragua’s population of 6.6 million, more than 163,876 Nicaraguans were “encountered” at the U.S. border in FY2022 (September 30, 2021, to September 30, 2022)—70 times more than those who entered during the same period in 2020—just 2,291, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. In FY 2021 there were 50,109. In the first three months of FY 2023 (October, November and December 2022) there were 90,553.

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This graph shows how migration from Nicaragua has grown in the last three years from a very low level in U.S. Fiscal Year 2020 to a much higher level in the first months of Fiscal Year 2023, that is October-December 2022. [Source: cbp.gov]

The Biden and Trump administrations spent more than half a billion dollars since 2017 in Nicaragua destabilization efforts in hopes of overthrowing the Sandinistas, who had been targeted by the U.S. since 1979 when the people overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza—a faithful ally of the U.S. who took good care of U.S. investors and oligarchs but kept the rest of the population in poverty.

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Sandinista Revolution supporters wave FSLN flag and display portrait of Augusto C. Sandino, an anti-imperialist who took up arms against the U.S. Marines in the 1920s. [Source: icslatam.com]

U.S. subversion efforts culminated in a failed U.S.-orchestrated coup attempt in 2018.

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Violent protesters embarked on failed U.S.-backed coup plot against Daniel Ortega in 2018. [Source: lawcwm.org]

U.S.-imposed sanctions in 2018 and 2021 are one way the U.S. has turned the screws on Nicaragua’s economy in an attempt to punish the people for continuously supporting the Sandinistas.

Many other mechanisms they utilize require hundreds of millions of dollars.

As more U.S. citizens become aware of the socio-economic progress, like free universal health care and education, the best social infrastructure and roads in the region, greatly improved gender equity (ranked no. 7 world-wide), low maternal and child mortality, 90% food sovereignty, and 99.3% electricity coverage mainly with renewable energy, U.S. taxpayers may find they do not want their money being spent to try to undermine the Sandinistas.

Rather, they may want to see U.S. elected representatives emulating many of their policies.

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Nicaragua has the third-lowest poverty rate in Latin America. [Source: thepostedia.com]

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Nicaragua is ranked 7th in Gender Equity. [Source: Global Gender Gap on facebook.com]

The Biden administration and the corporate media have tried to convince the U.S. public that the Nicaraguan government is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security and part of what they call “the troika of tyranny”—along with two other maligned countries—Cuba and Venezuela.

But in Nicaragua’s case this narrative did not jibe with the fact that people were not leaving, especially when citizens of neighboring Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have migrated in droves for the last 14 years or more.

Thus, the uptick in Nicaraguan migration in 2021 and 2022 allows the U.S. government and media to assert that “people are fleeing repression!” and constitutionally elected President Daniel Ortega “is a dictator.”

U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended a record 2.2 million migrants at the southwest border in the 2022 fiscal year ending September 30. Close to half were rapidly expelled under Title 42, which ended on May 11. More than 2.7 million migrants were expelled to Mexico or their home nations under Title 42, which allowed border guards to rapidly expel migrants with no possibility of requesting asylum.

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A member of the Texas National Guard stands by a vehicle along the Rio Bravo River, the border between Mexico and the U.S., as seen from El Paso, Texas. [Source: reuters.com]

The media do not tell you that the U.S. puts pop-up advertisements on Nicaraguans’ Facebook and Instagram accounts every day about good jobs in the U.S., or that Nicaraguans are treated much better when they cross the border than their Central American brothers and sisters.

With the increase in Nicaraguan migrants it was easier for the U.S. to blame migration on the Nicaraguan government. However, from 2007 through 2020, all under the Sandinista government, a negligible number of Nicaraguans went north, a drop in the bucket compared to the high numbers of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

So it makes no sense that the Sandinista government was the reason that people migrated in record numbers from 2021 to 2022, especially since every aspect of life has improved in Nicaragua yearly from 2007 to April 2018 and again from late 2020 to date. The break in that trend was due to the U.S.-directed coup attempt in 2018, the pandemic and two hurricanes.

The New York Times in December wrote that Nicaraguans were leaving because of violence. Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America and one of the safest in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has about one-eighth the rate of murders as Honduras, and about one-fourth that of El Salvador and Guatemala. Nicaragua is the number one country in the world for percentage of population who say they always feel at peace—some 73%!

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[Source: dallasnews.com]

In September 2021 Joe Biden said that “it is not rational” to deport to Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela migrants arriving from those countries: “I am now mindful of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. The possibility of sending them back to those countries is not rational.”

Illegal U.S. sanctions have limited multilateral loans, especially from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. The World Bank did not provide loans between March 2018 and November 2020. The sanctions have spurred migration—supposedly something the U.S. does not want—so, according to Tom Ricker in a 2022 analysis of migration from Nicaragua, the sanctions have backfired, leading to more migration north.

For at least 40 years many Nicaraguans worked all or part of the year in Costa Rica, many gaining legal status. But Costa Rica’s economy was hurt by Covid and fewer jobs in that country resulted in more people returning to Nicaragua than going to Costa Rica in 2020 and 2021. In 2021, more than 5,000 more Nicaraguans left Costa Rica than entered it. Lack of jobs in Costa Rica, for those who have historically worked there, was one of the reasons for more migration north to the United States.

Other pull factors are the U.S. labor shortage and the fact that Nicaraguans were largely exempt from Title 42 at the U.S. border. If people can successfully cross the border, the border guards help them get to their destination, they likely find work and, compared to their home countries, good paying work which allows them to send money home. Other pull factors are U.S. companies advertising jobs on social media to Nicaraguans.

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[Source: latimes.com]

Factors that contribute to migration from Mexico and Central America
It is uncertain how many people are migrating to the U.S. from Central America. But the Migration Policy Institute says that, of the 3.4 million Central Americans living in the U.S., about 85% of them are from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in 2020 as the pandemic slowed world-wide migration, some 450,000 people arrived at the southern border. In 2021 the number nearly quadrupled to 1.7 million migrants who were expelled or detained in the U.S. or in Mexico.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are currently more than 10 million job openings in the U.S. and only 5.7 million unemployed. In Minnesota there are only 43 workers for every 100 job openings. I know eleven undocumented Nicaraguan migrants working in Minnesota for pretty decent wages. All these migrants had received the message to look for a border official after crossing over; and now they are working in the U.S. under Title 8. At every hearing they are given more time to stay in the U.S. without a final decision about their status.

About one-fourth of all migrants living in the U.S., some 11 million, are undocumented and 55% of those are from Mexico. The number peaked in 2007 and has since dropped slightly. The highest increase was from 1994 to 2000 with the signing of NAFTA which destroyed an entire sector of Mexican agriculture.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) estimated that, of the 1.8 million U.S. agricultural workers, 70% were born in Mexico and that 70% of foreign-born crop workers are undocumented. So at least half of U.S. crop workers are undocumented. U.S. agriculture employs a higher percentage of undocumented workers than any other industry in part because pay in this sector is lower than in other sectors. There is clearly a need for migrant labor, especially in agriculture.

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Mexican farmworkers in California. [Source: progressoweekly.us]

Biden’s latest immigration plans: brain drain and deportation
The new U.S. plan for Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti, known as CBP One Parole (by cell-phone application), is “brain drain,” and will benefit those who are better off, more educated and not currently in the U.S. under Title 8. On January 5, 2023, the Biden administration announced this new legal pathway to what is a “Parole Process” for people from those four nations. Up to 30,000 individuals could be accepted per month. They need a valid passport, ability to pay their own airfare, pass vetting and background checks and have a documented sponsor who can provide financial and other support. Upon acceptance they get two years and receive work authorization.

During January 2023 11,637 Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Cubans were paroled into the country by the Office of Field Operations through the parole processes established for Venezuelans in October and expanded to the other nationalities in January 2023. In February 22,755 people from these four countries received parole through the CBP One parole process.

On April 27, 2023, the Biden administration announced new immigration measures that include opening processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia which will allow migrants who they determine to be “qualifying,” to enter the U.S., Canada or Spain legally. The U.S. signed onto the Los Angeles Declaration in 2022 with Canada and Spain, under which the U.S. agreed to resettle 20,000 refugees over the next two fiscal years.

The U.S. administration also announced a new family unification program for citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia where the application is also through a phone app with background checks and case-by-case eligibility. Previously this process was available to Cubans and Haitians. The CBP One app process will also be available to migrants waiting in Mexico to apply for asylum—740 applications a day will be processed on the southern border.

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[Source: migrationusa.org]

But the April 27 Homeland Security statement as well as the January 5 White House statement emphasize that there will be “new consequences for individuals who attempt to enter unlawfully, increasing the use of expedited removal.” Individuals who irregularly cross the Panama, Mexico or U.S. border after January 5, 2023, will be subject to expulsion.

Why did Nicaraguan migration plummet more than 99% in February?
The January 5th news of the new CBP One parole pathway mainly benefitting more-educated middle-class Nicaraguans may have had an immediate effect on people who were considering migration. Those with possibilities are applying through the parole pathway. Few poorer Nicaraguans can use this pathway—they may not have a smart phone or a person to be their financial guarantor in the U.S. Most of the migrants over the last few years are from the dryer, poorer countryside where their earnings are low.

Hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans who previously worked part of the year in Costa Rica may be trying their luck again there with Covid-19 down and tourism up.

Some Nicaraguans considering undocumented migration may have been scared off by announcements that deportations will increase.

But what about all those unfilled jobs in the U.S., especially in the agricultural sector where Nicaraguans and others are picking up the slack? And what about the U.S. administration’s claims that people are leaving Nicaragua due to repression?

Nicaraguans who cannot take advantage of the cell-phone app may go to the new processing center soon to open in Guatemala. And it is quite possible that, despite the new measures, Nicaraguans will continue to be treated better at the border than their Northern Triangle neighbors and also allowed to stay longer in the U.S. until a final decision is made on their cases. However, eventually, it is probable that most will be deported.

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/0 ... ourage-it/
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon May 29, 2023 2:59 pm

NICANOTES, NICARAGUA
NicaNotes: The Experience of Nicaragua in Managing the Covid Pandemic
May 25, 2023
By Coleen Littlejohn

(Coleen Littlejohn is a development economist who has worked for Catholic Relief Services in Colombia, Chile and Nicaragua, for Save the Children-Canada in Nicaragua, and the World Bank in Nicaragua and Liberia, West Africa. She was the first in-country staff person of the Nicaragua Network office in Managua from early 1986 to mid-1988. She lives in Managua which has been her home since 1980.)

Nicaragua, the third poorest country in Latin America, has a population of approximately 6.7 million people but has the most extensive and well-equipped public health system in Central America. Since 2018, Nicaragua has had a pharmaceutical plant with the capacity to produce 12 million influenza vaccines per year and plans to produce antiviral drugs, such as Interferon Alfa/2B, and Covid vaccines. The National Reference Diagnostic Center is one of the pioneer laboratories of molecular biology in Latin America, second in the region. Recently, the government inaugurated the first medical oxygen plant in the region. Health care is free. A study in May of 2021 by the World Health Organization and Oxford University included Nicaragua among the ten safest countries for travelers in relation to Covid 19. So, it should be no surprise that Nicaragua has dealt successfully with the Covid 19 pandemic. Though that is not what you would have read in the international press during the pandemic.

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When Covid vaccines became available through the WHO, Nicaragua gave priority to people over 65 and those hospitalized or with chronic conditions. Here workers set out with vaccines. Photo: Carlos Cortez

I have lived in Nicaragua since early 1980, arriving only a few months after the July 19th, 1979, triumph of the Sandinista Revolution which overturned a US backed dictatorship installed in the mid 1930´s. Twenty days after the triumph, the new government declared that free health care and education were human rights for their people. The country had what I used to call a “honeymoon” for almost two years with the building of new schools and health clinics, a national literacy campaign that substantially reduced illiteracy and the introduction of a national community-based health system, starting with training community-based health volunteers, known as “brigadistas.” The honeymoon was short lived. At the opening of the Literacy Campaign Museum in Managua in late 1981, the very first images were the pictures on the wall of the more than 40 student literacy brigadistas who had been murdered by the counter revolutionary forces financed by the United States, known as contras. The end of the war was negotiated in 1989 and elections were held in 1990. The US backed opposition won because it was made very clear that, if they did not win, the war would continue. The neoliberals remained in power until 2007, when the FSLN returned to the presidency via elections, and today, 17 years later, many of the dreams of the Revolution have become a reality or are well on their way.

One of those dreams has been the development of a Family and Community Health Model. Since 2007 Nicaragua has increased the number of trained health professionals from 22,083 in 2006 to 36,649 in 2020. In 2006 there were 2,715 doctors, and in 2020 – 6,045. There are now 1,565 health facilities and, since 2007, the government has inaugurated 24 new hospitals with high technology equipment and the necessary medical specialists. Another 15 hospitals are under construction or are planned. Natural Medicine is now part of the system: 315 clinics throughout the country offer alternative and complementary therapies, guaranteeing a comprehensive healthcare system with cultural sensitivity. There are now 181 maternal wait homes (casas maternas), up from 50 in 2006 for women from rural areas to live and get medical attention for two weeks before their due date. They are located close to a hospital or health clinic where the women will give birth. There are now 15 centers for psychosocial needs and a National Center for Child Mental Health. Other special programs include Love for the Smallest, a national program for children at risk for malnutrition or who need early childhood stimulation, as well as Everyone has a Voice, a special program that attends over 189,000 people with physical disabilities.

Nicaragua began to prepare for the Covid pandemic even before Covid was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Importance on January 30, 2020. An inter-institutional commission was established to ensure a coordinated and comprehensive approach to fighting the pandemic and, on February 9th, the Ministry of Health (MINSA) issued a joint protocol with the Pan American Health Organization (the branch of the WHO in the Americas) for the preparation and response to the risk of Covid 19 to ensure adequate surveillance and early detection of suspected and confirmed cases. Nineteen hospitals were identified to specialize in Covid 19 cases, of which one in Managua would address severe respiratory diseases. Among other resources, at the start of the crisis, these hospitals were equipped with 562 intensive care beds and 449 ventilators. The protocol also included greater preparation of primary care health units for addressing respiratory symptoms at a national level, training of 36,000 public health workers and of private personnel, and the acquisition of protective equipment.

Special emphasis was placed on increasing contact tracing capacity. Before the first case was detected, MINSA intensified its vaccination program to reduce the level of other respiratory diseases such as influenza and pneumonia that would make the fight against Covid more difficult by using similar health resources. 158,000 volunteer community health brigadistas, together with personnel from MINSA, made over five million home visits (about four visits per household) all over the country to make an updated local census, taking note of people over 65, people with chronic illnesses, children, and to discuss with each household the basic measures of prevention. They also completed a national nutrition census, measuring the height and weight of children under six, approximately 1,386,32 boys and girls, to identify families that might need additional nutritional support for their children.

MINSA also organized 66 mobile clinics to attend to rural areas that were identified as more vulnerable. Another key part of the strategy was to train 9,000 people to monitor the 19 points of entry to the country used by visitors or Nicaraguans returning to their country. Unofficial but known crossings were also monitored. A free hotline with 150 operators was set up to attend both cell and landline telephones for people to request assistance and advice. There were 110,000 calls in its first month of operation. With respect to public transport, a daily disinfection program was carried out in 10,000 public buses and 23,000 taxis as well as in more than 10,000 schools and 130 open markets of high volume in Managua. Disinfections outside of the capital were twice weekly.

Before the first case was detected, President Daniel Ortega addressed the nation to update all on what the government was doing and to announce that the country would not close down despite the pressures to do so from neighboring countries. In a country where about 80% of jobs are in small businesses, small farming, or in the informal sector, the government faced a dilemma. Should it confine people to their homes, knowing that most would lose their incomes and their capacity to feed their families? How would the 40% of Nicaraguans who live in rural areas survive if not able to sow their crops, given that the peak of the pandemic coincided with one of the main planting seasons. The country had already suffered an almost total lock down less than two years earlier when, in April of 2018, well financed opposition groups, initially using student protesters in front of a Jesuit University, accused the government of not doing anything to put out a fire in a natural forest reserve. When that didn’t spark a response, the accusation changed to accuse the government of obeying IMF recommendations to implement cuts to social security benefits. That also did not work. Social media was then flooded by fake news of massacres which convinced some that this was true. A second round of well-organized attacks in major cities and towns started almost immediately. By mid-July, peace was restored but over 200 people were killed, including 22 police officers. Damages to the health sector included 18 buildings damaged, including four hospitals, two regional health offices and one maternal waiting home invaded and looted. One hundred seven MINSA vehicles were destroyed, 15 totally and 92 partially; these included new ambulances and mobile clinics. Medical equipment was destroyed as well as medicines robbed. Nicaragua’s economy, which had been growing on average at 5% per year (third highest growth rate in Latin America) was severely damaged by the events of April to July 2018. Growth dropped to minus 4% in 2018 and minus 3.9% in 2019.

It was clear that the challenge of designing a national Covid response in Nicaragua had to consider not only fighting against the virus but also preventing, to the extent possible, another blow to the economic recovery and development efforts of the government. Nor did the government close public schools or universities, although there were no sanctions or penalties if families chose not to send their children to school. Nicaraguan public schools also offer free lunch to all students, and during that pandemic, in poorer areas, that was increased to two meals a day. Private schools did close, but most of their students were technologically equipped for online classes. Today it is very clear that both Nicaragua’s decision to not close down the economy and the strategy to contain Covid were the best for the country. By refusing to lock down, the government saved the country from economic disaster. Nicaragua’s economy has recovered swiftly from the pandemic, with GDP growing by more than 10.3% in 2021 and 3.8% in 2022.

The most critical months of the pandemic were May to July of 2020 when it was more than clear that Nicaragua was into the phase of community transmission. Exact numbers of cases were always difficult to calculate, because, as a WHO report had indicated, 80% of infections were mild or asymptomatic, and therefore not counted if no test had been done. MINSA decided to only count cases that had been confirmed by positive PCR RT testing given that pneumonia and other illnesses also normally affected death rates. By August of 2020, numbers were gradually falling, although they peaked again in mid-2021. The weekly report of April 25, 2023, stated that 15,679 positive cases had been detected in Nicaragua so far. Of these cases, 15,443 individuals have recovered, 245 have died and 9 remained active and undergoing responsible medical treatment. WHO later reported that Nicaragua had one of the lowest rates of excess deaths during the pandemic. MINSA’s efforts were complemented by the great majority of people and businesses in the country who followed MINSA´s recommendations. In general, Nicaraguans were doing more to protect themselves by wearing masks and ensuring they kept physical distance and by applying systematic hygiene measures at home and in public and private establishments. While tourism came to a halt and hotels and restaurants closed, many other businesses and outdoor markets stayed open with precautions in place.

Nevertheless, MINSA and the government’s efforts came under constant attack by a vast campaign of the opposition in Nicaragua and abroad to discredit the government’s efforts to address and control the pandemic. Opposition media spokespeople and never-heard-of-before private medical associations scorned the government’s efforts to control the pandemic and accused the government of negligence. They deliberately sowed fear and suspicion among the population so that, at first, some people were not only terrified about the virus but also of using free public health services that were available, resulting in more severe illness and, in some cases, death. International media continued to severely criticize Nicaragua’s response to the pandemic, parroting the local opposition media. Even as the pandemic subsided in Nicaragua, the Washington Post (8/8/20) was calling the government’s response “bizarre and dangerous.” The Financial Times (10/4/20) reported Nicaragua’s Covid statistics in October but gave the impression that the number of cases were part of a “worsening economic and social crisis.” And in February of 2021, the Guardian criticized Nicaragua’s “stumbling response to the coronavirus pandemic.” The government decided to combat the misinformation campaign and published a 75-page report describing its strategy to tackle COVID-19 and assuring the population that accusations of a health system in crisis, of hospitals collapsing etc. were just not true.

What was true, however, is that because of illegal coercive measures, aka sanctions, Nicaragua did not initially receive support from the usual sources of financing from two major multilateral funders, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank and, when support finally came, it was later and much less than given to other countries, despite Nicaragua being recognized as one of their top clients in terms of transparency and project results. When the WHO-supported vaccine sharing began, Nicaragua received a limited amount from a donation from India and other countries and began vaccinations, giving priority at first to people over 65 and those hospitalized or with chronic conditions, and then more widely as more vaccines came in via WHO or other country donations. At present, 99% of the population of Nicaragua has been vaccinated against Covid, the highest level in Latin America.

Nicaragua was not alone though. Just as when the Revolution triumphed in July of 1979 and Cuba immediately came to Nicaragua’s assistance, the Henry Reeve Brigade of Cuban doctors, virologists, epidemiologists, and intensive care specialists came to Nicaragua to share their Covid and other disease protocols and the catalogue of medicines that they were using in Cuba and other countries where they were helping. The Brigade also did a national diagnostic of the primary attention component of the health system in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua’s popular heath care strategy over the years enabled the successful experience in dealing with the Covid pandemic but it is also very important to summarize other long-term factors that have contributed to the continuing development of the country that enabled the health system to work very efficiently and effectively. These include the following:

Excellent macro-economic management of the economy starting in 2007 when the government began to formulate National Development Plans which have been updated every four years. The latest (4th) is for 2022 to 2026. Priority is given to health (22.2%) and education (23%) in the national budget. The InterAmerican Development Bank recently ranked Nicaragua as 2nd in Central America and fourth in all Latin America in health investments.
Achievements in development and health statistics from 2006 to 2021 include:


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Development of basic infrastructure throughout the country. The country is connected. Nicaragua has the best roads and road maintenance in Central America, including new highways to the Southern Caribbean Region (Bluefields and Pearl Lagoon) and, just recently, to the Northern Caribbean Region, to Bilwi. The existence of an extensive paved road system and continuing investments in increasing access to water and sanitation, electricity, and communication technology make it possible for medical teams, equipment and supplies to be mobilized quickly. National communication system (phone, cell and internet service) are available in 85% of the country, compared to 30% in 2007. Now 99.4% of the population has electricity compared to 43% in 2007; 75% of energy is renewable (wind, hydro, geo/thermal, and bio/mass. Ninety-three percent of urban households have piped water compared to 65% in 2007. In rural areas, 55% have piped water compared to 26.7% in 2007.
Development of a highly efficient national disaster prevention and mitigation system, SINAPRED: In the last two years, there have been three major hurricanes but, due to excellent preparation and the capacity to quickly reach the soon to be affected areas, very few people lost their lives, very different from the case in neighboring countries.
Nicaragua has achieved 92% food self-sufficiency via programs for small farmers and cooperatives.
These are the reasons why most Nicaraguans have faith in their government´s capacity to confront pandemics and to manage the economy in general. Long gone are the days when epidemics of polio, diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, etc. affected the population and especially children. There were areas of the country in 1980 that had never seen a doctor or nurse, especially in parts of the Caribbean Coast. I remember being contacted by a missionary nun in Waspam who told me that children were dying in a small Miskito community on the Rio Coco, and no one knew why. It was diphtheria.

Nine years ago, I was working in Liberia, West Africa and lived through the Ebola epidemic. What was ever present in my mind during that time was the conviction that if Liberia had also been supported over the years in developing a community based public health system with sufficient internal infrastructure and public services for her people, which is the case of Nicaragua, thousands of lives would have been saved in both Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ironically, the same thing could be said for the United States, where more than a million people died of Covid 19. It should only be a matter of time before Nicaragua’s effective response to the pandemic is internationally recognized, especially as it is in such contrast to most other countries.

Time will tell.

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Nicaragua with Lowest Homicide Rate in the Region
Latin America and the Caribbean are home to less than 20% of the world’s population but account for 35% of homicides. Homicide Monitor found Nicaragua with the lowest homicide rate in the region with 7.3 per 100,000 inhabitants; next is Costa Rica with 11.4, Panamá – 12.8, El Salvador – 16.7, Guatemala – 16.6, Mexico – 25.8 and Honduras – 41.2. Homicide Monitor, https://homicide.igarape.org.br/

Managua Reduces Critical Flood Areas
In 2009 Managua had more than 130 critical flood areas, but thanks to the investment plan implemented by the government in different neighborhoods these have been reduced to 54, reported Managua Mayor Reyna Rueda as the country’s rainy season is about to start. “Every year through our investment plan we allocate important resources to projects such as channeling run-off water to canals to avoid flooding in neighborhoods. The current engineering works in the Waspán neighborhood consist of the construction of a 100-meter-long canal, with hydraulic concrete, six meters wide by 2.6 meters high; this is to reduce the vulnerability of more than 2,000 inhabitants of this sector. The works are being executed with an investment of US$2.7 million in its first stage. “The concern we have every year is to allocate resources to drainage projects to reduce the vulnerability of families in different areas of the capital,” said the mayor. (Radio la Primerisima, 22 May 2022)

President Ortega Highly Rated by the Population
On May 17 M&R Consultants polling firm presented the results of its recent regional survey “Panopticon of Public Opinion in the Americas” corresponding to the first quarter of 2023. The survey states that with a 75.4% job approval, President Daniel Ortega ranks second in the American Continent among the best evaluated Presidents, surpassed only by Nayib Bukele of El Salvador with 87.7% job approval. (Nicaragua News, 18 May 2023)

NICAVIDA Project Benefits 35,838 Families
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) presented a report last week on the advances of the project for the Sustainable Development of Livelihoods of Rural Families along the Nicaragua Dry Corridor (NICAVIDA). CABEI President, Dante Mossi, stated, “We wish to highlight that 35,838 families in 37 municipalities along the dry corridor, 54% led by women, 3,800 of which are Indigenous women, have benefited from the NICAVIDA project through financial incentives, strengthening of productive capabilities, access to markets to establish agribusinesses and primary production initiatives adapted to climate change.” The US$48.4 million NICAVIDA project, financed by the General Budget with support from CABEI and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), is 97% completed and will benefit more than 100,000 people in seven departments along the dry corridor. (Nicaragua News, 19 May 2023)

Mobile Clinics Provide Health Care in Neighborhoods
Quality medical care is closer to families every day. For example, medical specialists provided consultations to the residents of the Francisco Meza neighborhood in District I of Managua. “We are in this health fair that is quite busy near the Eastern Market to provide different medical services with excellent attention to the population. We also provide medicines and we attend from 8am until 3pm,” said Dr. Eduardo Corea. During this very hot season the doctor provided a series of recommendations to avoid over heating incidents with people who have different types of chronic conditions. “During this very hot time there are people who can be affected by heat shock and we encourage them to stay hydrated, use fans, drink cold liquids. Those with hypertension should get their blood pressure measured regularly and not miss their medication,” he added. He also said that children are being affected since temperature changes cause allergies and sinusitis.

All of the medical attention is free of charge. The mobile clinics have transformed the lives of Nicaraguans. With this new initiative, people can get ultrasounds, dental care and their medical consultations. Resident Blanca Hernández said, “The clinics are very important. I no longer have to go to the health center because we get attention and medicines right here in the neighborhood. I feel very grateful to my government for all it does for us since these things are not seen in other countries and here everything is closer to our homes and without paying a córdoba.” In addition, health workers provide the Covid-19 vaccine and other vaccines to protect from diseases. (TN8TV, 22 May 2023)

Granada Hospital Rehabilitated and Expanded
The Ministry of Health last week inaugurated the rehabilitated and expanded Japan-Nicaragua Friendship Hospital in Granada. The US$513,889 project includes a new electrical system, internal medicine unit, operating room, and intensive care unit, benefiting 206,000 inhabitants in four municipalities. Financing for the project was provided by the General Budget. (Nicaragua News, 22 May 2023)

New Investment in Nicaragua’s Tabaco Sector
The Vandermarliere Family of Cigars (VFC) inaugurated the new Las Mesitas cigar processing center in Estelí creating 320 new jobs. Chief Executive Officer of the company Fred Vandermarliere said, “The new processing center, the second built in Nicaragua, represents a long-term investment and also a boost for the local community. These new manufacturing centers close the production circle from the seed to the cigar, guaranteeing that the entire cycle aims for the highest quality.” (Nicaragua News, 18 May 2023)

Nicaragua Meets with Green Climate Fund
Last week, in representation of Latin America and the Caribbean, Nicaragua participated in the Global Meeting of the Green Climate Fund of the United Nations Environment Program in Germany. During his speech, Presidential Secretary for Climate Javier Gutiérrez stated that “on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean Region, Nicaragua proposes an increase in financing for developing countries in compliance with the principle of equity based on common but differentiated responsibilities and capacities. Likewise, we propose to comprehensively address climate change through national strategies and plans that promote adaptation and mitigation of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, abnormal temperatures, deforestation, and natural phenomena.” Established in 2010, the Green Climate Fund is a financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that seeks to help developing countries to implement policies, projects, and programs for adaptation to climate change and mitigate its effects. (Nicaragua News, 17 May 2023)

Thousands Receive Credit through ADELANTE
The Ministry of Family Economy published a report on advances of the Program to Finance Production, Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses (ADELANTE). The report states that US$8.31 million was loaned to 4,755 small producers and entrepreneurs between January and April 2023, to strengthen the quality and competitiveness of products and services they offer in rural and urban areas. The ADELANTE program is part of the Creative Economy Model being implemented by the government to promote integral economic development. (Nicaragua News, 22 May 2023)

Bilwi Celebrates May Carnival 2023
Cultural groups, dance troupes and rhythmic bands from the Northern Caribbean Coast participated May 20 in the Great Carnival of May 2023, which toured the streets of the city of Bilwi. The carnival started at the fairground and went all the way to the Carlos González sports complex, where performers from each municipality of the region had ten minutes to show their skills and abilities with music and choreography. “Thus, we celebrate the month of fertility and African heritage with great joy in peace and tranquility, strengthening the identity of the people who live in the Caribbean coast,” said regional government coordinator Carlos Alemán. Festivities continue May 21 with a food fair and more musical groups. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/bilwi-ce ... o-ya-2023/ (Radio La Primerisima, 21 May 2023)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-05-25-2023
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 05, 2023 1:44 pm

The crimes of the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua

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Anastasio Somoza García ruled Nicaragua until 1956, when he died and his son Luis came to power. | Photo: The Press
Posted June 2, 2023 (4 hours 35 minutes ago)

The dictator Anastasio Somoza faced growing opposition from workers, peasants, students, and even some property-owning groups.

This May 2 marks the 87th anniversary that the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García obtained power and condemned the Central American country to more than 40 years of dictatorship, tyranny and repression.

The Somoza dynasty ruled Nicaragua from 1936 to July 1979, accused of promoting thousands of offenses and crimes against the Nicaraguan people.

Crimes of the Somocista dictatorship
One of the main crimes attributed to the dictator Somoza García was the assassination of the revolutionary leader Augusto César Sandino.


On February 21, 1934, after attending a dinner at La Loma (Presidential Palace), together with the writer Sofonías Salvatierra (Sacasa's Minister of Agriculture) and his lieutenants, Generals Francisco Estrada and Juan Pablo Umanzor, invited by Juan Bautista Sacasa Sandino is arrested by Major Lisandro Delgadillo, who takes him to the El Hormiguero prison.

The three generals Sandino, Estrada and Umanzor were assassinated at eleven o'clock at night by members of the battalion that was guarding them.

Later, two years later, Anastasio Somoza took the reins of Nicaragua, overthrowing President Juan B. Sacasa, who was his uncle by marriage. Somoza claimed that he had received orders from US Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane to kill Sandino.


He held power for more than 20 years. During his tenure, Somoza García was accused of converting the National Guard into a body at his personal service and, later, at his family service.

From his Government, he faced the growing opposition of workers, peasants, students and even some of the owner groups. To avoid this, he carried out a strong repression, through an impressive increase in the number of members of the police and military forces, the creation of numerous jails, persecution, kidnappings and the application of torture by the National Guard.

He was then succeeded by his sons, Luis Somoza (who would die a few years after a heart attack) and Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who would extend the period of tyranny until the end of the 1970s in the country and would be responsible for acts of torture. , repression and deaths of illustrious figures such as the Nicaraguan journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro.

However, many voices point out that many of the crimes committed remain unpunished. In March 1990, a total amnesty law was approved that protected all "Nicaraguan military and civilians who had committed crimes in the prosecution and investigation of criminal acts" against "the internal and external security of the State and common areas related to them."

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), with 39 deputies out of a total of 92, voted against the law, because in their opinion this initiative would erase "the crimes committed by the Somocista dictatorship."

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/crimenes ... -0037.html

Google Translator

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NicaNotes: Defending Nicaragua During the 2018 Coup Attempt
June 1, 2023
Edited and translated by Nan McCurdy

[This is primarily a translation of accounts by Edwin Mendoza. Mendoza is a member of the July 19 Sandinista Youth Association. He has begun writing his own story and that of other young people about what happened during the 2018 US-backed coup attempt. I found the following accounts on his Facebook page and I also heard them read on Sin Fronteras, a tri-weekly analysis program on Radio La Primerisima with William Grigsby, journalist/analyst/historian.]

May 10, 2018
A group of about forty-five JS19J (Juventud Sandinista 19 de Julio / July 19 Sandinista Youth) went to the District 6 delegation office of the Managua Mayor’s Office, our only mission – to defend these facilities where, at that time, a large part of the heavy machinery used in the capital for the cleaning of drainage canals, restoration of streets and roads, public cleaning, etc., was kept. [Note: This was the machinery that in the future could be used to bring down the roadblocks still existing in that area.]

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Lentt Perez Rivera and his mother Lilliam Rivera defended their country during the coup attempt of 2018 and Lentt saved Edwin Mendoza’s life.

That night, the installations were attacked by about 50 armed delinquents on motorcycles. The JS19J, that only had its conviction, its wits, and about 20 homemade mortars, managed to repel their aggression.

They bombarded us all night long, and we were unable to leave for two reasons:
1. Our instructions were simple: safeguard the facility, don’t attack the aggressors.
2. In addition to those besieging the delegation, a large number of common criminals were also waiting for us when we left; they had taken over the UPOLI (Polytechnic University) installations a few blocks away just two weeks before and, from there, they were waiting for us to leave.
JS19J resisted all night.
At sunrise, the aggressors left.

May 11, 2018
In the morning there were reports that as they left, the aggressors murdered an inhabitant of the neighborhood. The population was alarmed and angry.

From neighbors, by word of mouth, we got a message….
“Kids, get out of here…. At night they are going to come to kill you. They want to burn you alive.”

Since April 20 [near the beginning of the coup attempt], Josué Sandino had been with us to defend the homeland. This kid had already been days without going home and without talking to his family. That morning, Josué woke up next to me, smoking a cigarette and screwing around, proud of what he’d done – “We accomplished the mission.” (Josué is from the Martha Quezada neighborhood, he joined the JS19J from the time he was little. He grew up with us and up to that point I didn’t remember ever seeing Josué angry. The kid was always happy.)

May 11, 2018, 6pm
On the main street of the Mayor’s Offices, a motorcycle with two riders passed by, noisily, accelerating rapidly, one of them with a gun in his hand starts yelling….
“Today we burn them alive, sons of bitches.”
“The dogs of the Juventud are there.”
“Tonight they are ours.”
My brothers and sisters – when the sun went down, our hopes for life went down too…
How unbelievable was the number of shots fired at the delegation!
How incredible the number of armed people!
More than 100 motorcycles!

That day we met the “Viper” [leader of the opposition gang that had taken over the university and was being provided with money, arms, drugs and alcohol to engage in violence and cause chaos] and his people from “Monimbo” who in reality were not inhabitants of that neighborhood of Masaya, but criminals coming from all over the country.

They threw contact bombs at us, high caliber firearm blasts, and screams…. Screams that psychologically defeated you.

A cameraman from Channel 4 [a Sandinista channel] managed to get to District 6 (my respect to this compañero) and he let the whole country know the situation, he started broadcasting live.

In those times when some people felt they had to hide their love for the Front [FSLN], I remember Ximena, Gaudy and Prado, going out live in that Channel 4 transmission and giving our version of what was happening…. One of these people said goodbye to her family “just in case” and made a call to the National Police: “Please act.”

I remember the calls parents made to their children….
“Son, what is that I hear, is that an AK47 I’m hearing, tell me and I’ll get over there, I’d rather they kill me.”
“Love, what are you doing there; you have a daughter, come home, don’t leave her without her mother.”
“Don’t be scared, you have to keep a cool head, I know you have a lot to lose, but if you are smart you can win; I know you will come back.”
“You have to stay down, there will come a time when they will have to leave, if that happens… move forward crouching down.”
“Come home now, your mom is crying….”

We endured hours.
In absolute fear.
They managed to surround us.
I want to emphasize something…
None of us had any military experience whatsoever; we were not up to combat level. We were outnumbered and outgunned. We only had two shotguns from the security guards and a comrade who carried his 9mm pistol.

The coordinator of the JS19J of Managua, who I am sure never imagined himself in a situation like this, behaved as the leader that he is, approved the majority consensus: that the best defense was to attack.

It was decided that 20 colleagues would go out. No one was forced; you had to put yourself forward. The plan was to make them believe that the JS19J was ready for the confrontation and to put fear into them. The idea was that these brigades would go out every so often to prevent their advance, until daybreak….

One of the women made the selection; I begged her to let me and some other kids who want to accompany me go instead. Of those 20 who went out, eight were from my district 2. Ten of us were carrying mortar tubes, and the ten others had backpacks of ammunition for those tubes.

The first brigade included Josué Sandino and Carlos Miranda.
At the moment when we went out, a team of the national police was present – about ten police with motorcycles and shotguns. Firing shots in the air, they began to repel the attackers and create the conditions for the JS19J to leave….

I came out pressed against the right boundary wall, my pants were torn on the wall, I was almost naked. I went from north to south, watching for them. Josué carried the backpack with mortars and cigarettes. Juan was behind me with more mortars, that was enough for me and I didn’t pay attention to the rest…. A police officer was moving along with us; close to the left wall, throwing tear gas so that the smoke made it difficult for them to see that we were advancing. I went ahead. I went to the front, I was ready! I managed to advance. I threw the first mortar. I managed to get it in the corner where they were. I hid behind a tree and asked for another mortar; I wanted to hit them with the second one….

When I asked for the second one, I saw that I was alone. Josué and Juan couldn’t advance; they got stuck. The rain of bullets started again; I lay down. I heard screams. I scream too, “Advance sons of bitches! Advance!”

I was scared. I went back and told Juan, “Get up, we are not going to die here.” Lisandro, who was close by and had mortars, moved forward with me; we took position. After 15 minutes, from behind, they told us to go back. Something happened!

Everyone retreated. I couldn’t…. the shots were directed only at me. I was the most visible; I lay down next to the tree and I could see that the officer with the tear gas and I were the only ones left… [He yells,] “That’s as far as I can go! If I get up, I’m a dead man!” Hearing an AK47 shot grazing your head for the first time is an experience that I don’t wish for anyone….

I couldn’t go back; a couple of them were advancing….

All of a sudden, a toothless kid fought his way through the bullets,
He got on top of me.
The detonations blasted my ear,
I got up; he shot and they shot at us. This brother, he covered me with his life and managed to get me out, me and the officer…. And, oh my God, I love this son of a bitch. This was Lentt Perez Rivera.

When I was back in district 6, I was really angry with this Josué, how could he have stayed behind? He was carrying the mortars for me. How dare he leave me to die? They left me alone!

I grabbed a kid and I asked him….
What about Josué? Where is that son of a bitch Josué?
“Dog… An AK bullet went through Josué’s arm and into his chest. I think the guy is dead.
“But not only him, the kid from district 6 was hit. They blew out the bro’s chest.”
I asked, “With an AK47 as well?”
“Yes, he’s dead. And also, the policemen, they shot him in the throat….”

That’s why they didn’t advance. “I went as far as I could; can’t you see how I’m covered with blood.” From the adrenaline, I never paid attention to the guys behind me, I only looked ahead.

It was a massacre! Josué’s arm was left disabled. The police officer who was hit by a bullet in his throat—to be honest, I don’t know if he survived.

And Carlos Miranda, also in our group, he gave his life for the sovereignty of Nicaragua. He gave his life for me and for you. We could not even go to his funeral. (That very morning, Carlos Alberto Miranda had awakened and played soccer. Carlos was 19 years old, a proud JS19J member. He lived a few blocks from the District 6 Mayor’s Office. Carlos Miranda, like many FSLN members, understood from the beginning, that revolutionary theory does not work without revolutionary practice.)

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Carlos Miranda died on May 11, 2018, defending the District 6 Mayor’s Office

That same day, to save our lives, we left the District 6 Mayor’s Office and they indeed set it on fire.

I did not survive by miracle, nor by luck. I am alive and I returned to the arms of my daughter and mother because Lennt Perez Rivera did not want me to die. Because even without teeth he had plenty of balls. And later I was able to return the favor.

I understood something that day,
The fight for the homeland was going to be to the death.
And the mortars were no longer enough… we had to dust off the iron….
Honor and glory to Carlos Miranda!
He left loving the Sandinista Youth,
Loving his country,
Loving the FSLN.
(I am not ashamed to tell you that I cried while writing this).
CARLOS ALBERTO MIRANDA…
PRESENT!
PRESENT!
PRESENT!

Sometimes, we stop telling the story of comrades like Carlos Alberto.
The population is then persuaded to believe the opposition story….
They put Carlos Miranda’s picture on a poster and marched “for him” after he was murdered. [It was common for them to kill Sandinistas then say that they were “their” dead, killed by the Sandinistas.] They also said that the JS19J had burned down the District 6 Mayor’s delegation….
And that it was us who stole buses and left them at the UPOLI, etc.
Our history has to be told, the people have to know that there are kids like Carlos Miranda,
Like Maudiel,
Like Kevin…
Honor and glory comrades.

[Here we go back to very early in the 2018 coup attempt and we see the historical connections: Sandino, Clara Rosa Huerta, Jacoba Huerta, her children who participated in the insurrection against Somoza and in the defense against Reagan’s Contras. These included Lilliam Patricia Rivera and her son, Lennt Perez Rivera, who defended his country during the 2018 coup attempt.]

When his wife Blanca Segovia died in childbirth, General Sandino entrusted the care of his daughter Blanca Sandino to a peasant woman named Clara Rosa Huerta. Clara Rosa Huerta had just given birth to her daughter Jacoba and, in addition to taking care of her daughter, she became the wet nurse of the General’s daughter until Blanca was transferred to Cuba.

When she grew up, Jacoba (Clara Rosa Huerta’s daughter) had children, among them Roberto Rivera Herrera and Roger Rivera Herrera – both heroes of our revolution.
Also, Lilliam Rivera was born to Jacoba and, from a very young age, joined the struggle for our sovereignty. Lilliam Rivera gave birth to Lennt Perez Rivera, who in 2018 gave continuity to the defense of sovereignty that throughout its lineage this family has been able to defend, even with their lives….

This is where I, Edwin Mendoza, get to be part of their story…

April 20, 2018
After the liberation of the National Engineering University (UNI) [from the violent opposition aka “peaceful” protesters] and protecting the Central Delegation Offices of the ALMA [Alcaldía de Managua – the main Managua Mayor’s Offices] we moved to different sectors of the capital as groups of Sandinista youth, ready to protect our FSLN party offices.

Relevant fact for history: we had been incommunicado all day.
In my case, I was with the Managua coordinator’s brigade which was in charge of the actions in this district. Within my brigade is Lennt and many comrades whom I esteem and who are part of the structures of District 2 (the district where we grew up).

One block away from the Giant store, there by the Guanacaste (a tree and landmark in this district for giving directions), we observed a considerable number of people trying to burn down our party office. They were launching mortars, burning tires, throwing rocks and firing guns….

We immediately joined the confrontation and we were able to defend the district and make the whole country see that District 2 would never be burned. This is the district where the President lives, no kidding!

We did not know that it was the mothers of many of our friends and companions that had been defending our party office for hours, alone, and with more bravery than many others showed. They stood with their own incredible courage and confronted the aggressors for hours. And while their children were in another trench, they decided they would never back down.

Among those mothers was LILLIAM PATRICIA RIVERA. And yes… I write it in capital letters.

When Lentt found Lilliam there that day, she did not know that Lennt had escaped from work and joined the defense. When she saw him, she urged him to continue the fight, in memory of his uncles who were heroes of the revolution, for her, for him, for her daughters and for the sovereignty of Nicaragua….

That was the day that Lennt lost his teeth trying to save the lives of six compañeros and of the FSLN political secretary of District 4. The aggressors threw a rock at his face.
He left the hospital two days later and rejoined the brigades. Lilliam started to support our brigade in many ways, to the point that her house was shot at one night….

But Doña Lilliam also knew how to defend herself!
Friends, in District 2 of Managua we did not allow the building of one single roadblock!
The latter thanks to many colleagues of whom we will speak in due course.

But without a doubt, it is because of people like Lilliam that there are young people like Lennt….
Blessed is the womb that gave birth to a Sandinista son.
Happy birthday my mother.
With much, much love, respect and appreciation.

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Government Built 2,000 Houses in the First Quarter of 2023
The government, through the Institute for Housing (INVUR), in the first quarter of 2023 built 2,000 houses out of the 9,000 projected for 2023, said Gabriela Lorena Palacios, co-director of INVUR. Currently there are 22 affordable housing projects. Families have access to a subsidy applicable to credit so that they can have access to a house. The government is executing projects through developers and other programs throughout the country, including in Managua, Ciudad Sandino, Granada, Mateare, León, Tipitapa, and Jinotepe. “In the rest of the municipalities the government provides a contribution that is channeled through INVUR, so families can build a house.” Nine thousand houses are planned for 2023 between the private sector, INVUR, and the municipalities. The co-director of INVUR said that another government program in 63 municipalities is in charge of the construction of housing for families in extreme poverty. (Radio La Primerisima, 24 May 2023)

New Buses for Transportation Sector
President Daniel Ortega announced that initiatives are being taken with Mexico, Brazil, China and Russia to acquire more buses and renew the entire fleet of urban and interurban transport. During the ceremony for the delivery of 150 buses sent by the Russian Federation, Ortega emphasized that transportation and housing are fundamental for families. He added that, in 2007, 50 buses arrived from Japan; in 2009, 380 Russian buses arrived; in 2012, 170 Russian buses and 350 Mexican Dina buses arrived; in 2021, 250 Russian KAVZ buses arrived and this year 350 new Russian buses are being incorporated for a total of 1,550 buses.

He pointed out that transportation is a fundamental complement to the continuing development of the culture, education and health of the people. “We must have more transportation available for school transportation… to transport people to health centers, for workers in the city and the countryside.” He recalled that, in the 90’s, the neoliberal governments wanted to take away the cooperatives from the transportation worker/owners, “but the transport workers stood up with the strength of El Danto [Comandante Germán Pomares who died in the early days of the 1979 Final Offensive of the Revolution] and fought so that they would not be robbed of their cooperatives. I do not forget those feats, those heroic battles that we fought together with the cooperatives, when we went to the streets to defend the right of the carriers to be owners of the cooperatives.”

“We know that there is still a shortage of transportation; we are not going to say that with this we have solved the problem, because it is not true. We have been making great strides, with the initiatives we are taking with Russia, with the People’s Republic of China, we will also be taking initiatives with Mexico and Brazil.” The President stressed that the government is purchasing the buses with credit. “In other words, we are not asking for a gift, we are not asking for alms. We are not a beggar people; we are a dignified people,” Ortega stressed. [The cooperatives own their buses; buses brought in by the government are sold to them under very favorable terms. The government also provides tires and parts under favorable terms – all this so that the cost of riding a bus can continue to be equivalent to about US$5 cents.] (Radio La Primerisima, 25 May 2023)

Nicaragua Recognized by OECD for Tax Revenue Collection
On May 23 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) presented its “2023 Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean” report which states that with 27.1% fiscal revenue of the gross domestic product in 2021, Nicaragua has the highest tax revenue collection as a percentage of GDP in the region, followed by Costa Rica (24.2%); El Salvador (23.3%); Honduras (21.2%); Dominican Republic (14.5%); Guatemala (14.2%); Panama (12.7%). (Nicaragua News, 24 May 2023)

Dignified Diversity Booklet Released
Residents of the municipalities of Chichigalpa and Posoltega participated in the presentation of the booklet: “Dignified Diversity, The Right to Choose and the Duty to Respect,” published by the National Commission for Harmonious Life. Chichigalpa Mayor Fanny Zambrana said, “We are proud of how diverse we are, because each one chooses their option…We are people who respect and love under the Christian principle of loving our fellow man.” Minister of the Family Johana Flores said that the person, the family and the community are the center of its activity and this is the most important space to promote love and respect, without discrimination. Participants learned that they have rights and also duties, in equal conditions, as Nicaraguan citizens. At the same time, they highlighted the importance of family values, such as love for each other, respect, solidarity and communication to live together in peace. Nahomi Canales, from the transgender community, emphasized that the fundamental value in the family is love. “It is important that fathers and mothers accept their children and respect them, she said. Juan Linarte said, “The booklet encourages us to continue developing love, peace and justice; it is framed in the respect we should have for our fellow men and women.” See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/divulgan ... occidente/ (Radio La Primerisima, 30 May 2023)

New Epidemiology Lab in Rivas
The Ministry of Health inaugurated the new epidemiology laboratory in Rivas benefiting 590,201 inhabitants of Rivas, Granada, and Carazo departments. The US$360,882 lab was financed by the General Budget and will increase capacity to diagnose diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, Zika, leptospirosis, tuberculosis, COVID-19, influenza and HIV, as well as provide conservation of medical samples for investigation of highly infectious organisms capable of causing public health problems. (Nicaragua News, 24 May 2024)

Matagalpa to Open Technical Training Center
The government is inaugurating the Women’s Technical Training Center of El Cuá, in the Department of Matagalpa on May 29, announced Vice President Rosario Murillo. Murillo said that this center will attend to more than 2,000 young people in special courses, taught and certified by the National Technological Institute (INTA). Classrooms and research labs, along with training and technology development areas will be installed for students and producers: “everything to contribute to production and obtain better results for production with the energy of Matagalpan women,” she added. Work will be done on the production of seeds, composting vegetable matter for coffee crops, non-traditional crops, and courses for agrotourism. “We will be able to develop agrotourism programs around the high-altitude vegetation, birds, orchids, flowers, and the beautiful landscapes we have around there,” said Murillo. (Radio La Primerisima, 23 May 2023)

Nicaragua Advances in Animal Health
During the 90th General Session of the World Assembly of Delegates to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) held last week in Paris, WOAH Deputy Director-General of International Standards and Science Dr. Monserrat Arroyo highlighted the progress that Nicaragua has made in strengthening public veterinary services. “These substantial advances guarantee the sanitary status of Nicaragua as a country free of foot-and-mouth disease and only negligible risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE),” Dr. Arroyo said. Founded in 1924, the WOAH is an intergovernmental organization that develops international standards on health, animal welfare, and veterinary public health, promotes their integration into the national policies and programs of member states. (Nicaragua News, 23 May 2023)

New Women’s Police Stations in Las Minas and Bocana de Paiwás
Vice President Rosario Murillo reported that, on May 31, the second women’s police station will be inaugurated in Rosita, part of the Mining Triangle. And, on June 1, a women’s police station opens in Bocana de Paiwás. This brings the total to 221. Murillo said that the most important thing is the thousands of visits that have been made to women in their homes to ensure that they understand the concepts, the model, the practices of citizen security, security in the family, security in the face of disasters, and, above all, how to advance in the prevention of crimes against women. (Radio La Primerisima, 30 May 2023)

Carnaval de Mayo Ya Celebrated in Bluefields
Fourteen blocks of the main streets of the city of Bluefields, on the South Caribbean Coast, served as stages for the traditional Carnaval de Mayo Ya, which was enlivened by 18 groups that danced to the rhythm of drums. This year, the carnival was dedicated to Ricardo Carson, director of the Bluefields Municipal School of Dance, who was recognized for his contribution to the rescue of Caribbean culture and tradition. As every year, locals, Nicaraguan, and international tourists were present to see the colorful costumes, dances and expressions of culture. The Carnival went through the Punta Fría, Central, Beholden, and Pointeen neighborhoods, ending in the Central Park of Bluefields, where there was a contest to award the best troupes and live musical presentations. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/celebran ... luefields/ (Radio La Primerisima, 28 May 2023)

Over 1,000 Inmates Regain their Freedom
Twelve hundred inmates are leaving prison to make new lives for themselves and their families. About 1,000 inmates are freed every year for Mother’s Day and also before Christmas. A ceremony took place at the Tipitapa Penitentiary System where the head of the Ministry of the Interior, Amelia Coronel, stated that this is an opportunity that should not be wasted. “I want to take this opportunity to thank President Daniel Ortega and our Vice President Rosario Murillo for always being concerned about what is happening in the penitentiary system, like programs in favor of the entire prison population to achieve their reincorporation into society with the necessary tools to work and prosper,” said Coronel. She added, “I know you will have good days and bad days but don’t forget that this opportunity only comes once.” Paola Gaitán is one of the women who received this opportunity to change her life and move forward. She said, “I thank God and what I am going to do is to find a way to work. Here they taught me how to make piñatas, how to make bread, and with all that I am going to find a way to get ahead with my children.” See Photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/mas-de-m ... -libertad/ (Radio La Primerisima, 28 May 2023)

Police Investigating Several Nicaraguan Dioceses
On May 27 the National Police reported that it had started investigations of several Catholic dioceses suspected of illegal activities. Police were informed on May 19 of illicit handling of funds, and use of bank accounts that had belonged to persons convicted of treason. Investigations discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in bags in buildings belonging to the dioceses.

The Police reported the findings to the pertinent authorities who started their own investigations. These investigations revealed that money had been illegally taken from bank accounts that had been ordered to be frozen, as well as other illicit acts. They appear to be part of a money laundering network in different dioceses.

The Attorney General’s Office, the Superintendence of Banks, and the Financial Analysis Unit have confirmed criminal movements with funds for the dioceses entering the country irregularly. Proceedings have been opened for all these apparent crimes.

The Superintendence of Banks has requested that the Bishops Conference of Nicaragua and the head of the Church in Nicaragua, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, present documents showing bank account movements. The authorities are trying to clarify and document everything pertinent to this anomalous situation which is contrary to Nicaraguan law. Investigations continue to achieve transparency in the operation and management of the finances of these institutions. (Radio La Primerisima, 27 May 2023)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-06-01-2023
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 12, 2023 2:23 pm

NicaNotes: Money under the Cassock
June 8, 2023
By Fabrizio Casari

[Fabrizio Casari is an Italian journalist who writes frequently about Nicaragua. This article was first published in Spanish on the webpage of Radio La Primerisima, June 4, 2023. Translation by Nan McCurdy]

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It is difficult to believe that the $500,000 found in sacks in a Church property as part of a money laundering operation was intended for the purchase of candles for the faithful.

This Nicaraguan story that can be read in European or Latin American newspapers speaks of sacks full of money found in several dioceses. It is, however, partial information, which tends to present the detail in order to hide the background, which is much more serious and disturbing. The sacks, which contained the not inconsiderable sum of US$500,000, were found by the Nicaraguan National Police in an operation carried out as part of a vast money laundering investigation. But these are only a small part of the evidentiary findings, disturbing as they are in themselves. The investigation by the Nicaraguan Public Ministry is much broader and deeper; it investigates the transit of several million dollars through diocesan accounts in the name of several priests and bishops.

Millions of dollars entered the country illegally, and it is still unclear what responsibility the banks or individual bank functionaries have in the operation; the investigation will find out. In the meantime, however, the discovery has resulted in the competent authorities blocking the operation of the mentioned accounts because there is clear evidence of money laundering for the financing of terrorist activities and personal gain.

There is also another related line of investigation – no less important – about land and other real estate in the name of bishops, priests and front men that were first acquired and then illegally transferred. It involves tens of thousands of hectares located in rural, urban and semi-urban areas throughout the country.

One could, keeping within the story, relate this matter to any police operation aimed at stopping crimes; but what is certain is that when it is about the Church and when the crime scene is Nicaragua, the chronicle becomes the visible tip of the political iceberg.

The questions that arise are several: how is it that Nicaraguan bishops and priests happen to be the owners of such wealth? It is hard to imagine that it is a modern version of the vow of poverty. It is wealth that has never been reported and that can only have two origins: either it was sent from abroad through unofficial channels, or it was the property of the Nicaraguan oligarchy transferred to friendly priests to then be exported to the foreign accounts of stateless persons. An attempt to keep the booty safe on the part of those who, ceasing to have Nicaraguan nationality and citizenship, seek to put their wealth in friendly hands to recover what they consider their possessions.

As for the US$500,000 found in the sacks: what is the use of a sum of that magnitude, considering the scant pastoral activity and the minimal costs of its operation? It is difficult to be convinced that it was intended for the purchase of candles for the faithful; implausible to imagine such a sum for the purchase of hosts and bad wine; ridiculous, finally, to pretend that it was intended for charity. And so, one cannot fail to notice the incompatibility between the total amount and the publicly claimable needs related to the exercise of pastoral activity.

In 2018 [during the coup attempt] dioceses were used as logistical centers of coup terrorism, warehouses where horror found shelter, where the deception of the humanitarian and pacifying mission concealed the political direction of the coup. Now we find the underworld of the dioceses as money warehouses, counters of financial liquidity ready to be used. For illegal political use, certainly, not for charity.

The dust under the carpet

The first results show how the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office uncovers heavy and disturbing truths, bringing to public light a traffic of money and goods attributable to illegal activities. It weaves alliances and intersections between coup activity, ecclesiastical hierarchies, and criminal activities that cannot be reduced to the phenomena of creative and circumscribed finances. It reminds us of the repurposing of the Church for a subversive role, different from that of serving God.

It is credible to hypothesize that the choice of priests and dioceses was based on the presumed greater agility of priests and bishops, considered somehow safeguarded by diplomacy and political expediency. The clergy were considered the only navigable channel for illegal operations. It is likely that an illegal operation was put in place to recover confiscated or forfeitable goods, and ditto for cash, probably useful to cover the immediate organizational needs, both domestic and foreign, of the coup families.

As in 2018, it is conceivable that funds would have been channeled partly to the oligarchy and partly to the enlisted criminal organizations. But to have mounted these operations and expect to succeed in them is yet another demonstration of how little is known about the Nicaraguan Police, its investigative units, and its intelligence organs. Sandinista Nicaragua, unwilling to back down in the face of crime, knows how to defend itself.

Nicaragua has accustomed us to the unusual, to that kind of scenario where you have to go deep into the substratum to see the important layer, where what happens always has a reason and often an unmentionable reason. If one does not want to believe the fable of the persecution of the Church or the innocence of the priests, it is enough to go deep into the substratum to discover how everything has a common thread. The criminal activity is both the cause and consequence of a political action aimed at the permanent destabilization of Nicaragua.

To understand it all, it is worth looking at how the post-2018 period marked a turning point in the activity of the ecclesiastical hierarchies. They are undergoing a process of transformation to become key political actors, resituating themselves within civil society in the role of catalyzing agent of the coup opposition.

Changes of attire

The defeat of the coup attempt brought with it the total disarticulation of the political and media structure on which the coup was based, while the religious structure remained to sustain its function and also took on the media-political one.

The Catholic Church is today the catalyst of the opposition. In part, this is an internal option due to the fact that the Church is trying to fill the space left vacant by the end of the coup parties, whose last remnants flew out of Managua months ago. To this end, some priests developed an intense political activity: abandoning their apparent hypocritical neutrality, they incited destabilization against the government from every pulpit, transforming their mission of recovering souls into enlisting bodies.

But its definitive transformation into a political subject was decided by the White House, which wanted to confirm and reinforce what had already been established during the attempted coup: the church must exercise the leadership of anti-Sandinismo. Because only the church has a minimal social base and only the church still enjoys a benevolent name at the international level, given the total discredit of the coup plotters even by western governments that also detest Sandinismo.

After all, this attitude of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church has always been there, given the historical imprint of the CEN (Nicaraguan Bishops Conference), which was always the blanket that covered Somocismo, trying to whitewash its horror. Until 1979 there was a communion of intentions between the clergy and the Somoza family; equally evident was the support for the Contra in the 80s and the Church backing of the 17 years of neo-liberal horror [three pro-US governments], with which it expressed a genuine sentimental connection. Then came the role of leading terrorism in 2018. In short, never, not even for a short period of history, has the CEN been neutral, consistent with the fascist fervor of the Bishops Conferences throughout Latin America.

Today, the Church does not hide its new disguise. However, the shameless and unbridled use of the ecclesiastical pulpit in a political function cannot fail to find a political response, just as every criminal action in violation of the law cannot fail to find a response from law enforcement structures. Cassocks are not enough to protect against [paying for] crimes: this is true everywhere in the world and even more so in Nicaragua, given the toll of blood and suffering it has paid to achieve peace and coexistence.

The questions, each and every one of them, digress in the examination of facts and circumstances, of characters and places; but where and by how much they digress, like tributaries of a river they only find an answer at the mouth: the construction of the conditions for a new coup attempt is the political program of the Church. Coup subversivism is the only way in which the right wing feels it can relate to the country, and the money needed for the operations must come in any way it can.

They know it well in the President’s office, where patience has ended and officials respond blow by blow to the supposed untouchability of a sect that has traded faith for hate, prayers for terror, pastoral mission for subversion.

The political leadership of the country knows that the defeat of the subversive attempt does not mean the end of the coup project, so there will be no underestimation. The fact that it enjoys a powerful international support changes little, the accounts are drawn up in Nicaragua and not elsewhere.

It is well known that peace is not a lasting good; if you don’t defend it, you lose it. So, on the part of Sandinismo there will be no uncertainty or hesitation, no indulgence or timidity in acting. There will be no mistakes in the defense of peace. Because whoever lets his guard down, sooner or later lets his head down.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Opportunity, Inclusion at the University in the Countryside
The programs offered by UNICAM (University in the Countryside) in three locations, Juigalpa, Estelí and Masaya, provide opportunity with inclusion for hundreds of people from rural areas. Currently 729 people, from more than 80 municipalities, are enrolled in the areas of Advanced Technician in Agroindustry, and in Irrigation, to prepare young people in their regions. The University in the Countryside program allows adolescents, young people, and adults from the most remote areas to continue their higher education, completely free, in coordination with the municipalities. It guarantees transportation, breakfast, lunch and snacks, digital and physical material, in addition to an economic bonus for academic excellence.

Jackson Ismael Pichardo Rojas, 28 years old, blind, originally from Santo Domingo, Chontales, is in the third year of the Advanced Technician in Agroindustry course. His disability has not been an impediment for him to aspire to a university degree. “It is a great opportunity for all the people who live in the countryside, I am very grateful for this. I acquired this disability at the age of 16 and this opportunity is a light in the midst of all my darkness, I have learned many things like how to give added value to a product, with various processes,” he said. Going to this university has been aided by his good friend Emiliano Zamora Torres, who has a motor disability and is also studying a career. “We have been friends for 10 years, we both support each other to learn our subject matter and when I finish, I want to work and be able to start my own company, to be my own boss,” said Zamora. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/inclusio ... -el-campo/ (Radio La Primerisima, 1 June 2023)

Children’s Nutrition has Improved Dramatically since 2022
The Ministry of Health presented its report on the 2023 Nutritional Census, which studied the nutritional conditions of children ages of 0 to 14 in rural and urban areas. The report states that the study of “1,425,806 boys and girls surveyed in the census between January and May 2023 found that between 2022 and 2023, acute malnutrition of children between the ages of 0 to 6 years was reduced 9.3% compared to 2022 and chronic malnutrition fell 8.2%. Acute malnutrition between the ages of 6 and 14 fell 13% and chronic malnutrition was reduced by 4.3%.” MINSA Health Services Director General, Carlos Cruz stated that “We take note of the good results obtained during this twelve-month period; however, we must continue working towards the total eradication of malnutrition. With the data collected, programs like Zero Hunger, Family Gardens, School Lunches, Food Production Packages, and the Family Support Plan will be strengthened, enhancing the efforts to achieve these nutritional goals through adequate nutrition guidelines, vaccination and periodic weight and height monitoring of children.” (Nicaragua News, 6 June 2023)

National Assembly Creates the White Cross
On June 2 the National Assembly approved a law creating the White Cross, a humanitarian assistance institution attached to the Ministry of Health. In the explanatory memorandum, it says that in view of the needs of the population, it is important to have a decentralized institution for humanitarian assistance and relief that attends to the emergencies of individuals, families and communities. The Ministry of Health is the institution with the regulatory competencies and technical capacities to incorporate the White Cross as part of the model promoted by the government to guarantee the health of the population. The fundamental principles of The White Cross are universality, solidarity, comprehensiveness, social participation, efficiency, quality, equity, sustainability and responsibility of the citizens. Among its attributions is to respond to natural disasters and emergencies by providing relief and assistance. It can also serve to provide solidarity support and humanitarian assistance when requested by friendly governments. One of the articles of the law establishes that the patrimony of the White Cross will include the financial resources and property, registered or not, that have belonged to the Nicaraguan Red Cross. Likewise, it will have use of goods and resources acquired by contributions and donations made by public, private, national or foreign entities. (Radio La Primerisima, 2 June 2023)

Nicaragua’s Economy Evaluated as Positive
Fitch Ratings announced that the Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating for Nicaragua is reaffirmed at B- and the economic outlook of Nicaragua has been revised upward from stable to positive. The Fitch press release said “the revision of Nicaragua’s outlook to positive from stable reflects a broadly resilient economy based on a prudent policy mix that has strengthened fiscal and external buffers, better positioning the authorities to manage macroeconomic challenges related to international/geopolitical tensions; inflation that has been moderate at 9.5% since April 2023; reduction of the public debt and private consumption that fuels growth, supported by rising remittances, as well as greater access to credit from the private banking system.” (Nicaragua News, 6 June 2023)

Nicaragua’s International Loans Change from Libor to Sofr Rate
The financial agreements that Nicaragua has signed with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, 44 in total, are in transition from Libor to Sofr. The Libor rate is determined by banks participating in the London market, and in 2008 about 16 international entities were involved in a major scandal, causing a worldwide scam of millions of users. On June 2, a decree was passed in the National Assembly that modifies the loans to the public sector. “The measure to migrate from this [discredited] rate (Libor), is correct and must be supported, we must always be on the lookout; because the banks do not rest in satisfying their voracious appetite, subjecting our Latin American, Caribbean and African people. Here it has been demonstrated that the main banks worldwide are a den of criminals, that is why our international loans are going to be regulated by the Sofr rate,” said Deputy Wálmaro Gutiérrez. The country’s move towards this measure protects it against future irregularities. Nicaragua joins the countries that have condemned those responsible for systematically causing great damage to humanity. “The transition process to replace the [Libor] interest rate is being implemented; it is based on the banks’ estimates of their borrowing costs,” said Gutiérrez. Nations are opting for mechanisms that are less vulnerable to manipulations. “A transparent and responsible government, which has complied with the reduction of poverty and extreme poverty, is carrying this out with all security and gallantry,” Gutiérrez concluded. (TN8TV, 2 June 2023)

New Medical Supply Storage Facility in Esteli
The Ministry of Health inaugurated the regional medical supply storage facility and epidemiological lab at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Estelí on June 3. The new US$5.4 million project was financed by the General Budget with support from the Inter-American Development Bank. (Nicaragua News, 5 June 2023)

Adelante Program Loaning $US15 Million in 2023
The Adelante program expects to place US$15 million in loans this year and expand to US$100 million in 2026, reported Finance Minister Iván Acosta on the program En Vivo of Channel 4. He pointed out that this amount seems small compared to a bank, but it is the first time that a program is announced with a sustained interest rate of around 15% while in most microfinance companies the interest is around 36%. Acosta indicated that this means that the government is making an effort to finance sectors that were for a long time excluded from accessible credit. He said that this program has evolved well in its first seven months. It is fundamentally directed to the agricultural and livestock sector. He added that if US$200 million could be mobilized by 2026 to the rural sector, production would multiply, productivity and yield would be more visible and export stocks in this segment of the economy would increase. (Radio La Primerisima, 5 June 2023)

Nicaragua Reports on Damages Caused by US Aggression
Nicaraguan activists and government representatives participated on June 3 in a hearing of the International Peoples’ Tribunal on Nicaragua, with the presentation of nine testimonies of victims of aggression by the United States. Testimony covered US support for the dictator Anastasio Somoza, Ronald Reagan’s Contra War in the 1980s, and the 2018 attempted coup. The testimony of eight of the nine persons took place from the Foreign Ministry of Nicaragua in Managua while the testimony of Camilo Mejía was from the United States. Nicaraguan activist Mejía spoke about the efforts financed by the United States to foment the 2018 coup attempt, in which they also financed false news on social networks and written media that were at the service of the coup plotters and the US empire.

The International Peoples’ Tribunal on US Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades and Economic Coercive Measures (its full name) is holding a series of hearings on the impact of US sanctions on 16 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Finance Minister Ivan Acosta described the great damage that US imperialism has caused to the people of Nicaragua. Denunciation of United States policies and actions is one of many ways to defeat the illegal and unethical policy of sanctions and coercive economic measures implemented principally by the United States and the European Union, Acosta said. He urged the building an international consensus on the illegality of these unilateral, bilateral and multilateral measures, as well as the taking of urgent legal action against this violation of international law and human dignity. “We close by insisting that the best attitude of the world’s peoples is to condemn, as in fact we are requesting before this tribunal, to condemn firmly and without any appeal, imperialism and its cronies for the damage caused by the policies, sanctions and coercive economic measures that they have implemented, demanding a just reparation for the damage caused,” he said.

Those who gave their testimonies were: unionist Amada Pineda, Supreme Electoral Council President Brenda Rocha, Supreme Electoral Council Magistrate Alma Nubia Baltodano, Supreme Court President Alba Luz Ramos, lawyer Orlando Tardencilla, National Assembly Deputy Wilfredo Navarro, Minister of Finance Iván Acosta, Presidential Advisor for Health Affairs Dr. Sonia Castro, and activist Camilo Mejia. To watch the tribunal in English: https://youtu.be/SVWrF0L1RsA (Radio La Primerisima, 4 June, 2023)

Nearly 500,000 Healthy Gardens Established
From 2012 to date, the Ministry of Family, Community and Cooperative Economy (MEFCCA) has supported the establishment of 479,000 Healthy Gardens with an equal number of families, of which 19,000 have been established so far in 2023. The Healthy Gardens program was started in May 2012 and consists of the establishment of small productive areas of fruit trees, vegetables, aromatic herbs, medicinal plants, roots, tubers, Musaceae [bananas and plantains], trellis crops, among others, to contribute to the nutritional security of families. Families are trained and provided with plants to establish their gardens. The plants that are delivered are produced in MEFCCA nurseries or obtained through partnerships with municipal governments or producers interested in contributing to the program. As part of the expansion of the program, Healthy Gardens have been established in maternity wait homes, homes for the elderly, child development centers, schools, and currently in fire stations. In these cases, each institution provides the space to establish the garden and the staff to maintain it, MEFCCA delivers the plants and ensures training with the methodology of “learning by doing,” so that the staff of the institution is involved from the beginning to ensure the care of the productive area. (Radio La Primerisima, 3 June 2023)

Nicaragua to Acquire 500 Buses from China
The government of Nicaragua and the company Yutong signed an agreement that will allow the acquisition of 500 new buses from the People’s Republic of China to meet the needs of the people. Finance Minister Iván Acosta recalled that President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, a little more than a week ago in a public appearance, made a commitment to continue equipping, improving and transforming the country’s public transport model. Acosta stated that this is part of the improvement of public transportation for all municipalities. (Radio La Primerisima, 5 June 2023)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-06-08-2023
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Wed Jun 28, 2023 2:33 pm

Nicaragua commemorates anniversary of historic ICJ ruling

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The president also assured that on this anniversary they pay tribute to the people, since it is "one more victory for the people of Nicaragua." | Photo: CCC Jairo Cajina / @Canal4Ni
Posted June 27, 2023 (11 hours 3 minutes ago)

The head of state indicated that they challenge the US to comply with what international law mandates.

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, led this Tuesday the act in commemoration of the 37th anniversary of the historic sentence of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that condemned the United States (USA) for the damages caused by the activities military and paramilitaries against the Central American nation.

At the event, the president was accompanied by Vice President Rosario Murillo and other Nicaraguan authorities.

"Today we commemorate this anniversary of the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a ruling that shook the foundations of the imperialists, shook them, exposed them as terrorists, as criminals, because the Court's ruling clearly says so, to suspend the terrorist actions against the Nicaraguan people," he stressed.

In addition, he affirmed that "a terrorist State is the Yankee State" when recalling the attacks carried out against other territories.


"A terrorist State is the Yankee State, which has launched attacks on all sides, invasions, has sown death throughout the world. The Yankee State is the most developed expression of imperialism, of the imperialisms of the Earth," he said.

The head of state stated that the aforementioned ICJ ruling is about a stage in Nicaragua's history, "in which we were victims of imperialist aggression," a ruling that the US has not complied with.

"The debt is long, it is great. The debt that the United States has with Nicaragua and with the peoples of the world is a debt that means thousands and millions of deaths, of torture. There has been no power throughout history more criminal than the North American power. And we know that it is not the North American people, it is the interests that prevail there," he emphasized.

Likewise, President Ortega indicated that they are challenging the US to comply with what international law mandates.

"We challenge the United States to comply with what international law mandates, to begin by complying with this sentence of the International Court of Justice in The Hague that orders them to indemnify Nicaragua. Comply and you can begin to to believe that the US is going to rectify and begin to respect international organizations, because up to now they have occupied international organizations to attack the peoples, to defame the peoples, to invade the peoples, to block the peoples," he declared.

The president also assured that on this anniversary they pay tribute to the people, since it is "one more victory for the people of Nicaragua."

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/nicaragu ... -0038.html

Google Translator

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Nicaraguan FM Denis Moncada Says US Must Pay “Historical Debt”

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Denis Moncada handing the letter to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Jun. 28, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@Nicaragua905

Published 28 June 2023

"...Moncada handed a letter to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres..."


On Tuesday, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said that the United States (US) has the legal obligation to pay a historical debt to Nicaragua due to an international court ruling over 30 years ago

On Tuesday, Moncada handed a letter, signed by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, requesting that the UN chief circulate a document about Nicaragua's position on the US obligation to the UN General Assembly. "There is a historical debt to the Nicaraguan people that 37 years later has not been settled by the United States," reads the letter.

According to the document, the International Court of Justice issued a judgment on June 27, 1986, ordering the United States to indemnify Nicaragua for all the damages caused by the US military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua.

"The United States has a legal obligation under this sentence to indemnify, pay the damages that they committed against the peoples, the state and the government of Nicaragua," Moncada said in an official statement at the UN headquarters, adding that "the sentence is still in place," he said. "It's binding, and it's mandatory, and should be complied."


Letter sent by our President, Commander Daniel Ortega Saavedra. Returning to the Hague Judgment in favor of Nicaragua. Which has been delivered by our Foreign Minister, Compañero Denis Moncada, to the Secretary General of the United Nations.

According to official reports, the court judgment found that the US had violated obligations under international law of not to intervene in the affairs of another state, not to use force against another state, not to infringe the sovereignty of another state, and not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce.

Reports also show that, the US refused to participate in the proceedings at that time and rejected the UN Security Council resolution and voted against the General Assembly resolution urgently calling for full and immediate compliance with the judgment.

According to Moncada, the US and some of its allies want to impose their own rules without compliance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations;

Moncada also said that the US has double standards on human rights and lacks respect for other states' sovereignty.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Nic ... -0003.html

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NicaNotes: Honduran Children Along the Coco River Are Educated in Nicaraguan Schools
June 22, 2023
By Marcel Osorto

[This article was published on the web page of the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo on June 1, 2023. It was translated by Katherine Hoyt.]

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In Honduras there is limited educational and health coverage for the people living along the Coco River. So, it is common for Nicaragua to provide those services. Photo: Emilio Flores

-Good morning, children!

-Good morning, Mr. Director.

-This day we have a special visitor from our sister country of Honduras, so I ask you to give him a round of applause.

-Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!

-He has a question for you, answer him truthfully.

-Good morning, children, which of you are Hondurans?

The classroom fell silent, the little ones began to look at each other with knowing smiles, while others ducked their faces between the desks a little embarrassed.

In the background a small hand was raised.

-One hand is up,” said the school director [principal].

Then another hand in the front, two more on the sides, one who was reported by his classmates until there were eight or nine Honduran children in the second-grade classroom with their hands raised.

The Investigative Unit of El Heraldo Plus had toured the basin of the Coco River – the largest in Central America – on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua, where it became evident that dozens of Honduran children who live along the river are being educated by the neighboring country in the absence of attention from the Honduran government.

Surprise visit

The journalists found the second-grade students of the San Andrés de Wiwilí de Jinotega school in the Coco River basin, on the Nicaraguan side, practicing a song for Mother’s Day.

The voices of the children sounded in harmony; they had to have everything ready for May 30, when Mother’s Day is celebrated in Nicaragua, unlike in Honduras, when it is the second Sunday of May.

Before arriving at the classroom where the songs were being sung, we were able to tour the school that has a student population of 644 and was remodeled in 2018. The remodeling was done under the mandate of Daniel Ortega’s government according to the information on a huge sign explaining that 37.7 million Nicaraguan córdobas (25.3 million Honduran lempiras at the current exchange rate) [US$1.03 million] were spent.

For a school located on the banks of a river in the middle of nowhere, it could easily compete with any private school in Tegucigalpa and stand out from most public schools in Honduras. The school has tiled floors in the classrooms, blackboards, desks and furniture, soccer and basketball courts, beautiful gardens, surrounded by hurricane fences, a kitchen for school meals, and offices for teachers.

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The San Andres School was remodeled in 2018 by the Sandinista Government at a cost of US$1.3 million. Photo: JinoTV

Not only that, it offers both primary and secondary school and special programs for children who can only attend on weekends, making the school a true jewel of education in a border area.

There are five teachers for preschool alone, nine more for elementary school and the same number for high school, in contrast to what is seen in schools in difficult-to-reach areas of Honduras, where one teacher teaches all grades.

On the tour of the school, the Investigative Unit of El Heraldo Plus was accompanied by the school’s director Luis Gomez, who explained that most of the other schools along the Coco River (that runs 750 kilometers) have the same conditions as their school.

In the case of Honduras for the Departments of Choluteca, El Paraíso, Olancho and Gracias a Dios and all along the Honduran side of the river, there is no accredited school for the thousands of Honduran nationals.

This young educator, who is not only responsible for this educational center, but also for six others, was asked about the presence of Honduran children studying in Nicaraguan schools and he was quick to point out that this is a reality that is experienced daily throughout the length and breadth of the Coco River.

The problem is simple: in Honduras there is no educational and health coverage for the people living along the river. So, it is common for Nicaragua to provide this care.

For that matter, there are two San Andres communities, one on the Honduran side and the other on the Nicaraguan side of the river, but only on the Nicaraguan side are there schools; the same happens in the community of Pueblo Nuevo, Plis and Yapankanani, to mention a few.

“So, these children don’t know anything about Honduras?” asked the journalist.

The director explained that Francisco Morazán, the most transcendent and important hero for Honduras, means nothing to them. Nor do they study Honduran rivers or lakes, songs and customs. Nothing, because the curriculum is Nicaraguan.

“They are our heroes, our territorial extension, departments, municipalities, rivers, the same as in Honduras, but from Nicaragua. For example, today they practice for Mother’s Day, which is May 30 in Nicaragua; I do not know when they celebrate it in Honduras, but that is how education is,” he said.

Before we met with the first class, the director told us that the enrollment of Honduran children has decreased considerably, but that this is not due to the construction of a school on the Honduran side, but to the distance the children have to travel. He explained that in previous years between 15 and 20 percent of the students came from across the river in Honduras, but he has learned that one teacher there now teaches all grades in her home.

The Investigative Unit met this teacher in a boat on one of our trips on the Coco and she explained that she teaches 20 children from first to fourth grade in a single classroom, so she divides the students into groups in each corner. Unfortunately, the school dropout rate has been great and many times students only attend classes twice a week due to the work they do and the long distances they have to travel to get to her, one of the few teachers in this area of Honduras.

Another important thing is that many of these Honduran children are seen as Nicaraguan, because their mothers gave birth in Nicaragua. They have a Nicaraguan birth certificate and, with the idea of protecting them with health and education coverage, they are registered as Nicaraguan in Jinotega, a municipality bordering Honduras. The problem is, when these children finish high school on the Nicaraguan side of the border and migrate to the cities of Honduras, their high school diplomas are not recognized.

When we entered the first of the three classrooms visited, the children were asked to raise their hands and little by little they did so with a little embarrassment, as it was perceived that they prefer to be considered with the nationality of the Nicaraguan birth certificate and not by the nationality of their parents.

The director explained that there is no distinction of any kind between the students and many times the minors have family on both sides of the river. However, education and health care have been the responsibility of the Nicaraguan authorities.

We left behind the second-grade classrooms and visited the kindergarten and high school classrooms, but no questions were asked of the kindergartners about nationality because the children were very young, although the teachers told us that there were children with dual nationality.

It was time to leave the school just as the afternoon children were entering. Many were wearing clothes of different colors since it is not obligatory for parents to spend money on uniforms. One by one they entered; there was no distinction and no way of knowing which were the Nicaraguans and which the Hondurans. They all came in together to learn about Nicaragua–in terms of their formal education they will not learn anything about Honduras.

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

More than 5,000 Women Receive Attention in Mega Health Fair in Bilwi
The Ministry of Health, in coordination with the Regional Government and the Mayor’s Office of Puerto Cabezas, celebrated the maternal and fetal mega fair with attention in health to more than 5,000 mostly Indigenous women from the North Caribbean (Miskito, Mayangana, Afro-descendant, and Mestizo-Indigenous from Tawira, Tasba Pri, Prinzu Auhya Un, Twi Yahbra, Twi Waupasa, Kárata, Wangki Maya, Wangki Twi, Tasba Raya, Awas Tingni and distant communities of the Río Coco and San Carlos). Sixty maternal and fetal specialists provided attention to the women thanks to the government program that continues to restore health care rights to the Caribbean population. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/mas-de-5 ... -en-bilwi/ (Radio La Primerisima, 17 June 2023)

Senior Citizens’ Health Center to Be Inaugurated June 23
The first geriatrician in the public health system will be providing care at the Porfirio Garcia National Center for the Elderly located in the Hilario Sanchez neighborhood in Managua’s District IV. Dr. Carolina Dávila, presidential advisor for health care in Managua, emphasized that geriatrics is the specialty for the care of the elderly. In the national center for the elderly, about 400 people will be attended daily, with specialties like internal medicine, ophthalmology, urology, gynecology, physiotherapy, natural medicine, as well as endoscopies, ultrasounds and other specialized studies. The center will be inaugurated June 23 and will begin providing medical attention on June 26. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/casi-con ... io-garcia/ (Radio La Primerisima, 20 June 2023)

Nearly Ten Million Loaned to Producers and Entrepreneurs So Far in 2023
The Ministry of Family Economy reported on June 16 that the Program to Finance Production, Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses (ADELANTE) has provided US$9.65 million to 5,358 small farmers and entrepreneurs between January and May this year to strengthen the quality and competitiveness of products and services they offer in rural and urban areas. The ADELANTE program is part of the Creative Economy Model implemented to promote integral economic development. (Nicaragua News, 19 June 2023)

Tourism Revenue in 2022 Doubles that of 2021
Nicaragua’s earnings from tourism in 2022 were US$596 million, 2.2 times more than in 2021 (US$184 million) due to higher daily per capita spending by non-resident visitors, which rose from US$35.8 in 2021 to US$41.1 in 2022, an increase of 14.7%. Arriving by air were 52.2% of the visitors, while land travel accounted for 47.3%, and water travel for 0.5%. (Informe Pastran, 19 June 2023)

Arts Schools Established in 159 Communities
The government, through the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture, the Rubén Darío National Theater, and the mayors’ offices, has succeeded in taking the arts to 159 new communities, where courses in areas such as dance, singing, choir, recorder, guitar, drawing and painting are taught. To date more than 2,000 students have enrolled, 1,286 females and 868 males. The mayors’ offices continue to contribute to the restoration of the right to culture of children, young people and adults, guaranteeing art for all in urban and rural areas. (Radio La Primerisima, 19 June 2023)

Nearly 95% of Nicaraguans Are Fully Vaccinated Against Covid-19
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported last week that with 94.7% of the population fully vaccinated [with two shots] against Covid-19, Nicaragua is the country in Central American with the highest percentage of fully vaccinated population, followed by Costa Rica (84.8%); Panama (72.9%); El Salvador (68.8%); Honduras (58.1%); Guatemala (41.5%). (Nicaragua News, 16 June 2023)

Regional Epidemiology Lab Rehabilitated
The rehabilitation of the regional epidemiology laboratory in Managua is complete. This lab will carry out bacteriological studies on the quality of water and food and is scheduled to open on June 20. It will also serve to improve epidemiological surveillance, making faster diagnoses of diseases such as influenza, dengue, chinkungunya, leptospirosis, Covid-19, HIV, and tuberculosis, among others. It has equipment such as biosafety cabinets, centrifuges, microscopes, a biological safety cabinet, and an ultra-low-temperature freezer. (Radio La Primerisima, 20 June 2023)

Central Bank Reports Solid Economic Growth
On June 20, the Central Bank reported that economic activity showed positive performance, registering an inter-annual GDP growth of 3.5% (2.4% in the previous quarter). With this result, the annual average growth stood at 3.4% (10.3% in 2021), according to the preliminary estimate. According to the report, the positive inter-annual evolution of the GDP was due to the growth in activities of hotels and restaurants (27.5%), mining and quarrying (13.3%), transportation and communications (6.8%), commerce (5.6%), other services (5.2%), financial intermediation and related services (4.4%), and the manufacturing industry (3.3%), among others. The report points out that from the expenditure perspective, the growth of the GDP was determined by the increase in the net external demand for goods and services, due to the growth of exports (7.1%) and the decrease in imports (-4.0%). Domestic demand decreased as a consequence of a lower expenditure in gross capital formation, which was partially offset by the increase in consumption expenditure.

This past quarter, agriculture grew 1.7% as a result of the greater generation of added value in coffee, corn, beans, sorghum, rice, soybeans, peanuts, sesame and tobacco, among others. Livestock activity registered a decrease of 0.3%. Mining and quarrying grew 13.3%. The manufacturing industry grew 3.3%, as a result of higher production of dairy products, tobacco, textiles, petroleum derivatives, and vehicle harnesses, among others. This performance was partially offset by decreases in the production of meat products, sugar, beverages, and non-metallic products, among others. Construction activity decreased 1.2%, due to decreases in private construction and increases in public construction. In private construction, there was a decrease in construction for residential, services and industrial buildings, and an increase in commercial construction. In public construction, there was growth in the components of non-residential buildings and civil engineering works. Transportation and communications activities grew 6.8%. Financial intermediation services grew 4.4%, due to an increase in the loan portfolio and higher deposits in foreign and domestic currency. Homeownership activity grew 1.5%. Public administration and defense activity grew 0.3% as a result of increased services offered by the government to the population.

Health services grew 2.3%. Consumption showed a year-over-year growth of 2.9%. Exports of goods and services grew 7.1%. In the goods sector, exports of mining products, sugar, dairy products, tobacco, textiles, harnesses, among others, increased. In services exports, growth was recorded in air and maritime transportation services, communications, insurance services, among others. (Radio La Primerisima, 20 June 2023)

New Loan from CABEI for more than US$800 million
Nicaragua and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) signed a new Technical Cooperation Contract for US$810 million to build the conduction channel of the Carlos Fonseca Hydroelectric Plant of Nicaragua. This is to finance the preparation of the diagnosis, analysis of alternatives, feasibility studies and final detailed design of the works, which will be executed by the Nicaraguan Electricity Company (ENEL). (Informe Pastran, 19 June 2023)

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 10, 2023 2:33 pm

NICANOTES, NICARAGUA
NicaNotes: Education for the Good of Humanity
June 29, 2023
By Roger McKenzie

[This article was first published in The Morning Star of the United Kingdom. In this article, Roger McKenzie reports on an interview about Nicaragua’s education policies with Salvador Vanegas, adviser for education to President Daniel Ortega.]

Salvador Vanegas, as the adviser for education to President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega, plays a central role in Nicaragua as education is one of the top priorities of the revolutionary government.

It is unarguable that Nicaragua has made massive strides in education. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Nicaragua is now illiteracy free.

Image
Since 2006 Nicaragua’s education budget has been increased by a staggering 457 per cent and the number of teachers has doubled. Center photo is of the Rubén Darío School in Matagalpa and photos on the left and right show children in the Guardabarranco School in Acoyapa. Photo: GPE/flickr/CC

Also, the World Economic Forum 2022 Gender Gap Index ranks Nicaragua as seventh in the world of countries closing the gender gap on education.

Vanegas has been at the heart of this amazing progress. But he is also a true child of the Nicaraguan revolution.

He told me: “I was 14 years old when the struggle against the Somoza dictatorship began and I joined in the fight against the dictatorship.

“I saw injustice. I saw people being exploited and an unjust concentration of wealth in the hands of the few so I got involved in the struggle to overthrow the dictatorship.”

“During the first revolutionary period I was studying sciences, economics and education but I also remained an activist.

“However, during the neoliberal period in the 1990s, after the Sandinistas lost the elections, there was no possibility of social and economic development,” Vanegas said.

“During those years I was a teacher at a university and I stayed involved in the revolutionary struggle to help build a country where there was more justice and where wealth wasn’t concentrated in the hands of the few.

“In what we call the second period of the revolution in 2006 when Ortega was reelected he invited me to be part of his team.

“I first worked on global policy before he asked me to take on the education role,” he said.

Vanegas told me that the aim set out by President Ortega was to bring about an evolutionary transformation of education in the country.

Nicaragua has backed up their commitment with funding. The budget for education has increased year on year as part of the government policy for social investment and education as key to reducing poverty and improving wellbeing, and developing the economy.

Since 2006 the Education budget has been increased by a staggering 457 per cent.

The country has also doubled the number of teachers and maintained continuous training, including school teachers in rural areas, to ensure high quality education.

Nicaragua places girls, boys and whole families at the centre of all the educational policies that are developed.

They promote and support an inclusive multicultural model at all levels of education, from initial or preschool, through technological education until higher education, to build sustainable and resilient communities.

Ortega’s government has particularly concentrated on education in the rural and Indigenous as well as the Afro-descendant communities. It has prioritised the preservation of languages and Indigenous cultures, has expanded the installation of internet and technological support, and provided support for English as a second language.

The education curriculum and teaching in the autonomous Caribbean regions of Nicaragua are also supported by the government.

In Nicaragua education from primary to university education has been free since Ortega was elected in 2006.

Vanegas said: “For us it’s not just about free education. We also integrate social programmes into our education system to help those in most need.

“There are many from very low-income families who can’t even afford to get to school so we step in as a government to provide them with grants.

“At the start of the school year each child gets a backpack with supplies such as pens and pencils and they also get free school meals to ensure they get at least one hot meal in the day.

“The teachers also get backpacks and are provided with textbooks free of charge,” Vanegas added.

To monitor the quality of education being taught, the Nicaraguans have established a Higher Education Institute. There is also a National Commission for Education which has teams that conduct regular reviews of schools and report back on any possible changes that might be needed to education policy.

Unlike in Britain the education system in Nicaragua is not manically results driven. The government believes there is far more to education than that.

“Our concept of education is not just about process and exams. It’s about human development, social justice, values and respect for the environment.”

He added: “It’s about belonging to the country. The whole community is involved in education.”

Vanegas told me that “one of the most important things for us is that children go to school every day. So we involve parents, teachers and the whole community to make sure children attend every day and don’t leave the education system.

“Education is not a commodity for us so that somebody can be sold into the market,” he said.

“The indicators we prioritise are around social justice, respect for women and the environment.

“We also pay a lot of attention to cultural aspects such as the arts.

“We want to educate people to contribute towards the common good so we are transforming education into focusing on making good human beings.

“For us the right to education is the pathway for human development,” he added.

Resources are always a challenge but particularly in a country under such pressure from the US and their allies.

Vanegas said: “Although resources are sometimes a challenge that hasn’t stopped us from continuing the process of transforming education in our country.”

He told me that Nicaragua has moved way beyond the neoliberal days when only a handful of teachers had any formal training.

“Now around 98 per cent of teachers are formally qualified,” Vanegas told me. And the training for teachers is free.

“This year we have also upgraded teacher training to university level.”

But teachers are also given space to meet together every month “to review their pedagogy.” “This gives the teachers the chance to share their own learning with each other.”

I asked Vanegas what the key indicators for success were in the Nicaraguan education system.

“We want to see students leave the education system as better human beings and be able to recognise injustice and to fight against it,” he said.

“We also want to see improvements in the sciences and technology.

“And of course we want people to be able to attract investment into the country but without exploiting anyone.”

He added: “But we also want people to sing and dance. A human being is not just knowledge, it’s about caring for each other, their country and the planet and also about enjoying life.”

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Commemorating Historic Milestone in International Law
On June 27, President Daniel Ortega sent a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, with relation to the ruling handed down by the International Court of Justice (World Court) on June 27, 1986, in which the United States was condemned for its war of aggression against Nicaragua and ordered to compensate the country. The President stated, “At a time when there are discussions in the United Nations and other forums about the much-deserved compensations that should be established to compensate for the damages caused by slavery and climate change, among others, Nicaragua takes this opportunity to recall that there is a historical debt with the Nicaraguan people that 37 years later has not been settled by the United States.”

Ortega went on to say, “It is not an obligation pending to be established or subject to an advisory opinion of a judicial body. It is an obligation clearly established in a final judgment of the highest international judicial authority, the International Court of Justice.” He remembered that, “On June 27, 1986, the International Court of Justice issued a judgment condemning the United States of America to compensate Nicaragua for all damages caused as a consequence of military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua. Although the Court recognized that, in a situation of armed aggression such as that carried out by the United States, no amount of reparation – neither economic nor moral – could compensate for the devastation of the country, the loss of human lives and the physical and psychological wounds of the Nicaraguan people, the Court decided that the United States had a legal obligation to make economic reparations to Nicaragua for all the damages caused.”

The President continued, “The compensation due to Nicaragua remains unpaid. Nicaragua discontinued the proceeding before the Court for the determination of the amount due, but at no time did it waive payment of the debt, i.e., the right to receive its compensation.” He noted that, “Instead of receiving compensation as is morally and legally due, Nicaragua continues to be the object of a new form of aggression.” He stated that that new form consists of sanctions and an attempted coup d’état and that it is “in this context that the people of Nicaragua recall the historic sentence of the International Court of Justice.” In finishing, Ortega said that, “Nicaragua takes this opportunity to recall that the judgments of the International Court of Justice are final and of obligatory compliance, and therefore the United States has the obligation to comply with the reparations ordered by the ruling of June 27, 1986.”

Dr. Carlos Argüello, Nicaragua’s representative to the World Court at The Hague, stated that “the ruling has had pre-eminent importance in international law. In any university in the world where international law is taught or discussed, this case is cited as one of the main examples with greatest worldwide impact. It is a historic milestone not only from a legal perspective but also for the peace and sovereignty of States.” For his part, Dan Kovalik, lawyer and professor specializing in International Law noted that “The ICJ decision is considered one of the most important in international law because it enunciated customary principles that jurists still apply today: War of aggression is illegal; the right of a nation to self-defense is only triggered by an actual armed attack; there is no right to ideological or humanitarian intervention; and a State cannot legally support armed insurrection against another sovereign State.” Although rulings are binding for United Nations member states, the United States has never complied with the verdict and refuses to pay the billions of dollars in reparations ordered by the Court, estimated at US$17 billion then, equivalent to US$78 billion today. (Informe Pastran, 27 June 2023; Nicaragua News, 27 June 2023)

Nicaragua Leader in Gender Equality Worldwide and First in the Americas
Once again, according to the annual World Economic Forum 2023 Gender Gap Index, Nicaragua has ranked in 7th place worldwide in gender equality, and first in all of the Americas. Nicaragua has the strongest parliamentary representation in the world with 51.65% of seats in its National Assembly being held by women. Nicaragua is also number one in women professional & technical workers, women’s educational attainment, women’s literacy, women’s enrollment in third-level education and women in ministerial position.

Nicaragua, only surpassed by five Western European countries and New Zealand, repeats the same position as last year. In Latin America, after Nicaragua, Costa Rica is 14th, Chile is 27th and Mexico is 33rd. The worst positions in the region, although not all countries are reflected in the indicator, are held by Uruguay (67th), El Salvador (68th), Paraguay (91st) and Guatemala (118th). Latin America, as a whole, ranks as the third region in the world with the greatest equality between men and women, as it is considered to have closed its gender gap to 74.3 %, only behind Europe (76.3%) and North America (75%). (Nicaragua Sandino and EFE, 21 June 2023)

Nicaragua Promotes Responsible Parenthood
“On the Nicaraguan Father’s Day every June 23, it should be recognized that the State has created a set of laws to promote responsible fatherhood,” said National Assembly deputy Carlos Emilio López. He stated that the Family Code establishes that parents must be responsible and assume the upbringing, maintenance and education of their children, while the Constitution states that family relations must be based on shared responsibilities. “In the Code of Childhood and Adolescence, it states that children have the right to a family and that they should not receive abuse, mistreatment, violence or discrimination from their parents. So the laws of Nicaragua summon us to exercise responsible, present and loving parenthood.” He added that “parenthood is for life, and there is no divorce with children; on the contrary, they must strengthen the bonds to form men and women with values and the humanism that society requires. The government is promoting values in schools with the purpose of eradicating violent, aggressive and authoritarian parenting, with which many generations were raised,” said Lopez, member of the Women, Children, and Family Committee of the National Assembly. (Radio La Primerisima, 23 June 2023)

45 Cases of Violence Seen in House-to-House Visits
The officers of the Women’s Police Stations received 45 complaints in the house-to-house visits carried out during the week of June 15 to 21. General Commissioner Johana Plata, head of the police stations, said that ten complaints by women were for criminal offenses and six of the aggressors have already been captured. The Police Chief said that 2,510 talks were given to mothers and their families to prevent violence against women and other family members. (Radio La Primerisima, 22 June 2023)

Influenza Vaccination Campaign Underway
To date 316,335 people have been vaccinated against influenza in the national vaccination campaign that extends from June 19 to 30. The Director of the Expanded Immunization Program, Jazmina Umaña, stated that “600,000 doses of the influenza vaccine will be administered to persons 50 years and older during the campaign, as well as those with chronic diseases, pregnant women and healthcare personnel.” See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/mas-300- ... influenza/ (Radio La Primerisima, 26 June 2023)

Ophthalmology Center in Matagalpa and Health Post in Chinandega Ready
The rehabilitation of the Carlos Fonseca Amador Ophthalmology Center, to better serve more than 35,000 patients from Estelí, Jinotega, León, Chinandega, Masaya, Boaco, Matagalpa, and the North and South Caribbean Coast, is ready. The Ministry of Health also said that improvements were finished to the Dr. Agustín Santamaría Romero Health Post in the community of Belén, Department of Chinandega, where 1,187 inhabitants will be attended in good conditions. Dr. Agustín Santamaría collaborated with logistics and served as an FSLN courier between a guerrilla camp and the city. He was murdered on June 1979 by the Somoza’s genocidal National Guard; his remains were never found. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/listo-ce ... hinandega/ (Radio La Primerisima, 22 June 2022)

Ensuring Access to Health Care for Senior Citizens
The Porfirio García Care Center for Seniors in the Hilario Sánchez Vásquez neighborhood of Managua was inaugurated on June 23. Along with the building itself this project includes diagnostic equipment, specialized care, and clinical management for patients with chronic diseases and/or disabilities, and for the early detection and care of cancer, benefiting 55,000 seniors. Attention will be provided in neurology, cardiology, internal medicine, orthopedics, urology, rehabilitation medicine, and dentistry, among others. It has equipment for ultrasounds, electrocardiograms, electromyography, endoscopy, audiometry, laboratory exams, and more. In addition, it will be the Training Center for Health Personnel for the Care of Seniors. Nicaragua invested US$1.53 million in this center. (Nicaragua Sandino, 23 June 2023)

English as a Second Language for All Children
Soon sixth grade children will graduate from primary school with two years of English, a milestone in the history of English teaching in the country, said the Minister of Education Liliam Herrera on June 26. As part of the work to achieve this, the authorities of the Ministry of Education, INATEC and teachers at the National Autonomous University (UNAN) began a workshop called “First Dynamic On” to reinforce the knowledge of the facilitators, who will prepare about 1,800 teachers across the country to teach English in the classroom. It is “a strategy that has been a dream, but today crystallizes, the dream that all our children will speak English as a second language. “We are preparing special workshops with teachers who are going to replicate this strategy to teach English,” commented Jaime López Lowery, technical secretary of the National Council of Universities. (Radio La Primerisima, 26 June 2023)

Higher Economic Growth Reported
The Central Bank published its 2023 First Quarter Gross Domestic Product Report which states that the Gross Domestic Product registered 3.5% growth during the first quarter of the year. The economic sectors with the greatest contribution to GDP growth during this period were hotel and restaurants (27.5%); mining (13.3%); transportation and communication (6.8%); commerce (5.6%); services (5.2%). (Nicaragua News, 22 June 2023)

Sandinistas Commemorate the Repliegue
Beginning in the early morning of June 24, thousands of Sandinistas gathered in San Judas, Managua, to participate in the 44th anniversary commemoration of the Retreat from Managua to the Hacienda El Vapor in Masaya in homage to Sandinista heroes and martyrs. In 1979 the Retreat to El Vapor was a life-saving strategy that consisted of a gathering of the Sandinista forces in the sector of San Judas and surrounding neighborhoods and all-night walk to Masaya. The revolutionaries had run out of ammunition and the Somocista National Guard at that moment was carrying out a “cleanup” operation in Managua neighborhoods. This remembrance of the strategic retreat was dedicated to the heroes and martyrs Bertha Calderón and Oscar Lino Paz. See photos here: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/miles-de ... -al-vapor/ (Radio La Primerisima, 25 June 2023)

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 15, 2023 1:22 pm

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Poll: President Daniel Ortega’s government sees 79% approval
July 12, 2023

78.9% of Nicaraguans approve of the government of President Daniel Ortega according to the findings of the most recent survey carried out by M&R Consultores.

78.9% of those surveyed consider the government of President Daniel Ortega to be that of a democratic ruler, attached to the laws of the country.

“President Daniel Ortega seeks unity and reconciliation, among Nicaraguans, 78.2% of those surveyed consider that this is it, that no one is discriminated against for any reason,” said Raúl Obregón, executive president of M&R Consultores.

82.8% of respondents said that the government of President Ortega works for the interests of the general population. 78.6% said that the country is heading in the right direction. The survey, for the second quarter of 2023, was carried out nationally in all 15 departments and in the two regions of the Caribbean, between June 24 and July 4.

The Interoceanic Canal project

83.3% of respondents believe that a project like the Interoceanic Canal would represent benefits for Nicaragua.

82% of those surveyed are optimistic about the possibility of carrying out this project; meanwhile, 83.7% support any measure, action and management carried out by the government, in search of making the Interoceanic Canal project work.

The issue of democracy

Regarding the issue of democracy, in Nicaragua, 56% of those interviewed said that democracy as a system should contribute to living in peace.

94.5% of respondents agree that in a democracy, the constitutional order must be respected. Meanwhile, 94.3% said that all citizens have the right to demonstrate publicly, as long as they do not incite violence or chaos. 93.8% said that it is the citizen making use of his vote, who decides, who governs and when a country governs; 93.8% consider that it is a right and a duty to choose and be elected. 93.7% consider that freedom of expression must be guaranteed, as long as the dignity of people is respected.

The M&R Consultores survey indicates that 93.5% of the population believes that coups and the violence generated are not acceptable. 93% of those interviewed responded that no one can, without assuming responsibilities and consequences, violate the rights of others. 89% of respondents said that the right of citizens to property is respected in Nicaragua and 88.7% said that the right of citizens to move within the national territory and abroad is respected.

88.6% of those surveyed said that freedom of religion is respected, while 87.7% assured that the duty and rights of citizens to elect the authorities of the country by vote are respected.

87.5% said that business freedom is respected; 87.1% maintain that the human rights of the population in this country are respected; 86% consider that the right of citizens to express themselves freely is respected; 85.3% expressed that the freedom of expression of the media is respected.

Work of the National Police

Raúl Obregón stated that 80.7% of those surveyed rate the work carried out by the National Police against organized crime and drug trafficking as good or very good.

78.3% of people interviewed affirm that the National Police does a good job in regulating and ordering traffic; 76% said that the police respect for human rights. “In general, 76.2% rate the work carried out by the institution in charge of Security as positive,” Obregón highlighted.

84.9% of those interviewed said that the future in general for the country in the next five years is encouraging.

By Kawsachun News with information from El 19 Digital

https://kawsachunnews.com/poll-presiden ... 9-approval
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