Nicaragua

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Wed Oct 26, 2022 2:13 pm

Nicaragua in Latin America: The Invisible and Reality
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 23, 2022
Stephen Sefton

In Nicaragua, the population lives the reality of the country’s revolutionary development, of the democratization of the economy, of the modernization of health and education systems, of the transformation of infrastructure and a dynamic reaffirmation of culture, identity and national dignity. However, abroad and in the same region, these tremendous socio-economic victories are practically invisible in the media. It can be instructive to look at this reality in a careful way.

In a recent interview, comrade Minister Iván Acosta observed that Nicaragua “ is one of the countries that grew the most, we grew 8.3% combined in the pandemic years, which is the highest growth in Central America, one of the largest in all of Latin America and probably internationally. ” The data cited by the Minister are endorsed by international financial institutions. Similarly, Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration confirm that Nicaragua is among the best countries in terms of executing their respective loan portfolios. Now also, the Financial Action Task Force has valued Nicaragua as a money laundering free country.

A study in May 2021 by the World Health Organization and the University of Oxford included Nicaragua among the ten safest countries for travelers in relation to Covid-19. Nicaragua was the only Latin American country on the list. Nicaragua has the most extensive and best equipped public health system in Central America. Construction of six more major hospitals is expected to be completed in the coming months. Nicaragua has just inaugurated the first pmedicinal oxygen lanta in Central America. The National Reference Diagnostic Center is one of the pioneering laboratories of molecular biology in Latin America, second in the region. In Nicaragua, public health care is free.

Education in the public system from preschool and primary to secondary is also free, as is vocational education offered in the extensive national network of schools of the National Technological Institute. Public universities guarantee equitable access to higher education for all high school students. Every year, more than a million school packages are delivered to students across the country. Food is distributed to guarantee a daily school snack to more than 1.2 million students, in a country with a population of 6.5 million.

Nicaragua is among the first countries in the world to have gender equality. It is among the first countries with the highest citizen security in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has the best road network in Central America. About two million families are legally safer from receiving title to their property from the government. The country generates 70% of its electrical energy from renewable sources with an electrical system coverage greater than 99% nationwide. The government maintains subsidies for the price of oil and its derivatives, for land and water public transport, and for electricity.

Nicaragua has the most advanced and democratic Autonomy system of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America with more than 30% of the national territory entitled on behalf of 23 indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. It is a practically self-sufficient country in food production. Its food security initiatives include programs such as the Productive Bonus and the CRISSOL solidarity program for basic grains, which are carried out by more than 200,000 producers. With the women’s credit program, Usura Cero, more than 115,000 women a year improve the standard of living of their families.

One might think that this tremendous social and economic success of the President People of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua would be of great interest and general admiration at the regional and continental level. But it is not like that. Of course, within Nicaragua, all these socio-economic victories are known and lived day by day by the population. The victories of the President People in Nicaragua are also recognized, although generally with a low profile, by the respective corresponding international institutions, such as the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ), UNICEF and UNESCO among others.

The key is that, to achieve these victories, Nicaragua has overcome centuries of colonial oppression. Then, after the triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution in 1979, an endless campaign of harassment and aggression was unleashed by the United States and its allies. Hence comes the systematic communicational and institutional campaign to denigrate, belittle, undermine and ignore the unquestionable, outstanding success of the government policies of President Commander Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo.

It is a psychological warfare machinery not only for the regional and international media. It is also a propaganda offensive spread by the proliferation of NGOs, by the academic industry of social sciences, and by institutions such as the OAS or the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and various instances of the European Union. All these instances have abandoned the most basic rules of reporting in good faith.

Genuine reporting is based on first-hand good faith testimony, the use of reliable documentation and data, an adequate corroboration process, recognition of contrary narratives and a constant effort to allow readers to decide for themselves. In the case of Nicaragua, as with Cuba and Venezuela, these norms have been replaced by a ruthless campaign of lies, omissions, arbitrariness, permanent bias and open manipulation. Perhaps the most emblematic case of this abandonment of good faith on the part of almost all sources of information in Latin America, among many others, It was the beginning of the failed coup d’état in Nicaragua in April 2018.

In Nicaragua, we all remember that the initial pretext of violent protests was the reform of the Social Security Law, which was distorted and misrepresented in such a way that the vast majority of people ended up believing the absurdity that private companies wanted to defend the rights of pensioners and and the workers. In fact, the Higher Council for Private Enterprise ( COSEP ) wanted to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65, eliminate the minimum pension and the reduced pension, the Christmas bonus and the maintenance of the value of pensions. They wanted to double the number of quotas in order to receive a pension from 750 to 1500 and proposed the privatization of the clinics of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute ( INSS ).

Regional and international sources of information completely suppressed this reality and lied about government proposals, which were truly: a gradual increase in the employer’s contribution of 3.25% and of workers of 0.75%; that people with high wages pay a quota proportional to their income; increase the government contribution to the public sector by 1.25%; keep the number of weekly installments for a pension at 750; keep the pension reduced and the pension minimum; keep the Christmas bonus and the maintenance of the value; guarantee complete INSS medical care for retired people in exchange for a 5% pension fee; and not privatize INSS clinics.

However, if one reads virtually any newspaper or academic article or even the cynical false summaries from the OAS, the UN, or the European Union, all allege that it was the Nicaraguan government’s attack on taxpayer rights to the INSS that sparked protests in April 2018. This remains the dominant narrative that prevails in almost all of the material one finds about the failed 2018 coup in Nicaragua. In fact, what sparked the protests was a campaign for regime change promoted, financed, and led by the United States and its European allies. At that time in 2018, the only means that sought the truth was Telesur, thanks to the initiative of its director Patricia Villegas, who consulted with the Sandinista media to find out the truth.

Otherwise, almost all other media at the Latin American level, from the entire ideological spectrum, They swallowed the stupid lie that private companies and NGOs financed by the United States wanted to defend the INSS in Nicaragua in favor of the working class and pensioners. This is just one example among the clearest of the phenomenon of wholesale abandonment of basic reporting standards by the vast majority of information sources in Latin America in relationship to Nicaragua. The word “ pathetic ” does not come close to describing this collapse of moral and intellectual integrity at the continental level.

In the same way, the vast majority of information sources in the region and internationally speak of “ political prisoners ” to refer to people in Nicaragua who received direct money or indirectly from various foreign governments and committed, among other crimes, the crimes of: misappropriation and retention; money, property and asset laundering; abusive management and ideological falsehood. All are crimes punishable by the Penal Code that dates back to 2007 when it was approved by a legislation controlled by right-wing parties. Furthermore, almost all of these people managed abroad in favor of illegal coercive measures by foreign powers against their own country, a crime of criminal treason punishable in practically every country in the world.

Here in Nicaragua, we have true first-line genuine reporters in the Sandinista media. But they are excluded as sources of information at the Latin American and international levels under the pretext that they are means related to the government. As if the lazy, dishonest and incompetent journalism that prevails in the region is not bought by the respective corporate and government interests, like the NGO industrial complex or the academic industry of the social sciences, bought and accommodated in the disinformation network manipulated by corrupt companies and institutions that predominate in the region and that respond to the interests of their western masters.

The vast majority of information sources in the region do not investigate anything in good faith, but rather seek what they prefer to find. Indeed they are merely a few more despicable actors in the recycled Western psychological warfare through an infinite feedback loop which they also feed on their false reporting. These are the main sources of information production and distribution in Latin America and the Caribbean and, incidentally, in the West in general. In the case of Nicaragua, they occupy sources almost completely financed by the American and European governments and have the gall to call them independent.

So Nicaragua faces a system designed to make the victories of the Sandinista Popular Revolution invisible, and to the extent possible also belittle the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and the Cuban Revolution. However, even if it is late, reality prevails because the truth continues to exist behind the virtual phantasmagoria created by false sources of information. So, to the same extent that the radical democracy of the Cuban Revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela are defeating the economic blockade, psychological and political of the West and its local pawns, so will the revolution of the President People in Nicaragua.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/10/ ... d-reality/

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NicaNotes: Help Nicaragua Recover from Hurricane Julia!
October 20, 2022
Last week, on October 13th, we launched a campaign to raise emergency funds to support the Nicaraguan government’s efforts to rebuild damaged infrastructure and support the millions of people who have been severely affected by Hurricane Julia. You can donate to the Nicaragua Solidarity Fund “Padre Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, to help hurricane victims.

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Nearly four million of Nicaragua’s 6.6 million people were affected by Hurricane Julia. Photo: El 19 Digital

The hurricane made landfall in the early morning hours of October 9th, on Nicaragua’s Southern Caribbean Autonomous Region in the areas of Bluefields, Pearl Lagoon and Tasba Pauni. Torrential rains followed, devasting large parts of the rest of the country. Almost four million people in 123 municipalities were affected to some degree. Government preparedness in evacuating 20,000 persons and placing 12,858 in 33 shelters was key to saving lives. Dr. Guillermo González, Director of the National System for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Attention (SINAPRED) noted that “no deaths due to the hurricane were reported. Saving lives was priority number one.” Click here to donate!

Initial reports of damages and losses have been estimated at US$400 million, 2% of the GDP but that number is preliminary given that the basic infrastructure and services damages in areas like El Rama, Laguna de Perlas and Bluefields are still being calculated and losses in the agricultural, fishing and tourism sectors nationwide are also still under study, according to Ivan Acosta, Nicaragua’s Minister of Finance.

At present, teams of specialists are working around the clock to restore basic services of communications, electricity and water. Food packages and roofing materials are arriving for families in El Rama, Bluefields and Corn Island and other municipalities of Nicaragua’s Southern Caribbean Autonomous region.

Nicaragua needs support to help rebuild.

We can show our support by donating to the “Padre Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann” Nicaragua Solidarity Fund. Donations received will be sent to SINAPRED’s disaster emergency fund. We will also try to make an additional donation to the Municipality of Bluefields.

Please make a tax deductible contribution today at https://afgj.salsalabs.org/nicaragua-so ... index.html or send a check to Alliance for Global Justice, 225 E 26th St., Ste 1, Tucson, AZ 85713. Please put “Nicaraguan Hurricane Recovery” in the memo line.

And please share this post! Mil gracias!

Here are some links to photos and information about the hurricane’s impact:
Nicaragua presentará informe consolidado de daños ocasionados por el huracán Julia
Cuadrillas de ENATREL trabajan para restablecer energía en comunidad Orinoco

More Information about the Padre Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann Nicaragua Solidarity Fund

This is the second time that fundraising for the Fund has been activated for hurricane relief.

In 2020, we raised money for Hurricanes Eta and Iota relief and reconstruction efforts on the North Caribbean Coast. AfGJ/Nicaragua Network sent $27,500 to SINAPRED, the country´s award-winning disaster prevention and mitigation agency.

The Nicaragua Solidarity Fund, established in 2020 via the AFGJ, is an opportunity for US citizens to support the needs of the Nicaraguan people at a time when the United States continues to violate international law by placing sanctions against Nicaragua. These sanctions, over the past several years, have prevented Nicaragua from accessing concessional loans, grants or debt relief from multilateral sources such as the World Bank, the Interamerican Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

It should be noted that the United States still has the moral and legal responsibility to comply with the ruling of the International Court of Justice (World Court) of 1986. The Republic of Nicaragua vs. the United States of America was a case where the World Court held that the U.S. had violated international law by waging war against the Nicaraguan government utilizing the Contras to mine the harbors as well as kill Nicaraguans and destroy schools, health centers, electricity towers and more. The World Court ruled in favor of Nicaragua and against the United States awarding reparation to Nicaragua. The United States refused to participate in the proceedings after the Court rejected its argument that the World Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. The U.S. also blocked enforcement of the judgment by the United Nations Security Council and thereby prevented Nicaragua from obtaining any compensation. The US pressured the post-FSLN government of Violeta Chamorro to withdraw the complaint from the court in 1992.

In 1986 the damages to Nicaragua were calculated at approximately US$17 billion dollars. Thirty-six years of cumulated interest makes the amount due the country more like US$160 billion. Although the Nicaragua Solidarity Fund does not replace the debt owed by the US, it is an opportunity for US citizens to recognize their government´s
responsibility and to assist Nicaragua in responding to the needs of its people.

Please make your donation online using the secure form.

If you would like to donate by check instead, please make it payable to Alliance for Global Justice with Nicaragua Solidarity Fund in the memo line, and mail to 225 E. 26th Street, Suite 1, Tucson, AZ 85713

Your donation is tax deductible! Nicaragua Solidarity Fund “Padre Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann” is a Project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a 501c3 non profit.

Defending Worker Rights and Building Food Sovereignty, Brick by Brick
By Friends of the ATC


[Friends of the ATC is the solidarity network with the Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (Rural Workers’ Association) of Nicaragua]

Born in 1978 within the context of the Sandinista Popular Revolution, the Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC) is an organization of struggle that represents more than 50,000 workers in unions and cooperatives. Active in 13 of the country’s 15 departments (Nicaragua’s equivalent of states), the ATC organizes at the departmental level in federations. This structure allows for the ATC in each federation to respond to the similar but unique realities of rural people in the different agricultural regions of Nicaragua.

One such federation — ATC Estelí — advocates for workers and cooperative members in Nicaragua’s substantial tobacco and cigar-making industry. The department has over 60 world class cigar factories whose owners make large profits from US and European markets. Employing over 30,000 workers, the industry is rife with both abuse and resistance. For this reason, ATC Estelí organizes and trains about 2,500 workers to defend their rights and it negotiates with cigar companies to improve working conditions. A landmark achievement of ATC Estelí was the opening in 2014 of the School of Tobacco where youth can go to learn the trade of rolling cigars in free month-long courses. Graduates receive a certification of competency registered through the government, which has helped thousands of workers (many young, single mothers) obtain employment in Estelí.

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The cigar industry employs over 30,000 workers. The ATC organizes cigar workers to defend their rights and negotiates with cigar companies to improve conditions.

The ATC also works in rural areas, but with farmer cooperatives growing tobacco and small farmers growing corn, beans and other food crops for the local community.

The 2020 publication, “ATC Estelí: Three Times Heroic” features the testimonies of four ATC Estelí leaders who share their own stories of growing up in rural areas, working in tobacco, and the ATC’s organizing in the department. The testimonies speak to the ATC’s steadfast work in defending the rights of workers, and their defense of the Sandinista Revolution, including defeating the 2018 coup attempt.

After the time this publication was released, the ATC Estelí began to ramp up their initiatives with farmers in the area to promote a transition toward agroecology, a model of agriculture based on harmony with Mother Earth and breaking away from the logic of production promoted by the Green Revolution (monoculture, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, etc.). To that end, the federation began to implement different agroecological demonstration parcels located on the farms of ATC members, modeling different techniques for soil and water conservation, diversification of production by introducing different fruit and vegetable crops, and building infrastructure for ecological and compassionate raising of animals.

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ATC demonstration parcels promote water conservation, diversification of crops, and compassionate raising of animals.

These agroecological demonstration plots are considered to be like schools for federation members, allies and visitors. At the flagship demonstration plot in La Montañita, regular trainings, exchanges and meetings are held with ATC membership and ally organizations. It’s also been the host to a number of Friends of ATC brigades who have come to help plant dragon fruit, make garden beds and compost, and learn about this territorial work to promote agroecology.

There are currently four agroecological demonstration plots in the La Montañita, Tomabu and El Porvenir communities of Estelí. You can have a look at what these parcels have looked like in development by checking out these videos:
General explanation of the agroecological demonstration parcels project
Explaining the deep bed system for raising pigs
Visit to Tomabu (where there are two demonstration parcels in development)

Interested in learning more about and supporting this work? Here are two concrete ways to be involved:

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Brick by Brick Campaign: From now until the end of 2022, Friends of the ATC is fundraising so that the ATC Estelí can build an auditorium at their central office in town. This will make it possible for the organization to hold larger meetings, events and trainings in town for union members and farmers, rather than having to rent space in other locations. Fitting with Estelí’s nickname “city of murals” the auditorium backdrop with be a 13m x 3m (42.6ft x 9.8ft) mural, honoring ATC leaders who have passed away, symbols of ATC, and international solidarity. Donate before October 22nd and be entered into a raffle to win ATC prizes!

Brick by Brick Brigade to Nicaragua: Join the delegation to Nicaragua taking place March 18th – 27th, 2023 in Estelí. You’ll get to see all of the different facets of the ATC’s work in the department, put your touches on the new auditorium mural, and celebrate alongside the ATC its 45th anniversary. Find additional information and application link here.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Government Releases Reports on Losses from Hurricane Julia


Both the National Evaluation Commission of Nicaragua and the National System for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation, and Attention (SINAPRED) have been releasing reports in the last few days about the impact of Hurricane Julia on the country and the government’s response.

The Evaluation Commission reported on Oct. 18 that damages and losses from Hurricane Julia so far total US$402.6 million, 2.6 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Iván Acosta, Minister of Finance, stated that there is damage in 96 municipalities in the country’s 15 departments and two Autonomous Regions of the North and South Caribbean Coast. Those most affected are Corn Island, El Rama, Laguna de Perlas, Kukra Hill, Bluefields, El Tortuguero, La Desembocadura del Río Grande, La Cruz de Río Grande, Juigalpa, Teustepe, and also Managua in Districts V, VI and VII. In his Oct. 14 report, Acosta explained that “the impact is fundamentally in infrastructure, energy, transportation, road networks, communications.” He said that losses in the productive sector had not been quantified. “We need to visit the farms of the sector of the hurricane’s path and see the post-hurricane effects from floods, etc. to be able to make a thorough evaluation.” Losses are still being quantifying in the fishing and tourism sectors. “Evaluation is ongoing in all the municipalities in the path of the hurricane, and of those flooded by rivers. El Rama was completely flooded and is still in the process of normalization,” Acosta reported. “SINAPRED has provided a good response to the demands of the citizens of the Caribbean Coast,” he indicated. “Progress continues distributing food packages to our population and Plan Roof is working to gradually return to the basic conditions necessary for the tranquility of our families,” Acosta concluded.

On Oct. 13, SINAPRED reported that four million people in 123 municipalities were affected to some degree by the hurricane: 20,000 people in areas of greater impact had to be evacuated and 12,858 were placed in 33 shelters. The hurricane destroyed 700 homes; 820 homes were flooded and 15,000 were partially damaged; 12 schools were partially damaged and the Arlen Siu Port in El Rama suffered partial structural damage due to the flooding of the Escondido River. Dr. Guillermo González, Director of SINAPRED, noted that “no deaths due to the hurricane were reported. Preserving lives is and will always be the priority.” The priority at this time is the attention for affected families, rebuilding houses through Plan Roof and rehabilitation of schools, he stated. (Nicaragua News, 14 Oct. 2022; Radio La Primerisima, 15 Oct. 2022; Radio La Primerisima, 18 Oct. 2022)

Another Shipment of Food and Supplies for El Rama
On Oct. 17 a new convoy with food and supplies left for El Rama, in the South Caribbean Autonomous Region, to be delivered to all the families in that area affected by the floods caused by hurricane Julia. Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, head of SINAPRED said that some 6,000 families have received humanitarian assistance to prevent diseases and also psychosocial care. “In El Rama we had an aggregate phenomenon, a flood that had almost 80% of the families under water,” said Gonzalez. Today’s shipment included 45 tons of food. (Radio La Primerisima, 17 Oct. 2022)

Restoring Potable Water after Hurricane Julia

On Oct. 12 the Water and Sewage Company (ENACAL) reported on progress in restoring potable water service to the 85,000 homes nationwide that had lost that service. Of these, 95.7% of affected homes have now recovered potable water service. ENACAL Director Ervin Barreda explained that “potable water service has been restored to most of the homes, because interruptions were mainly due to suspension of electricity service used to pump water and to operate the wastewater treatment plants. We have not yet been able to restore water service in 3,700 homes in Rama, La Esperanza and San Sebastián de Yalí municipalities affected by overflow of rivers that prevent staff from accessing the plants; however, we expect to restore service by Oct. 13,” Barreda said. (Nicaragua News, 13 Oct. 2022)

China: First Country to Donate after Hurricane Julia

On Oct. 17 the SINAPRED Emergency Fund received a donation from the Government of the People’s Republic of China, the first country to offer a donation for the families affected by the hurricane. The announcement of the donation said that the resources will be used directly for the benefit of Nicaraguan families. China’s ambassador in Managua, Chen Xi, said that the will of his government is to cooperate with friendly peoples and he highlighted the immediate response of the Nicaraguan government before, during and after the hurricane. (Radio La Primerisima, 17 Oct. 2022)

Progress in the Electoral Process

On Oct. 12 the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) presented a report on progress in the electoral process leading up to the November 6th municipal elections. The electoral ballots for the 153 municipalities have been printed and approved by the political parties and alliances in accordance with the Electoral Law. 515,924 identification cards were issued between January 03 and October 7 this year. Of these 107,901 were new enrollments; 181,111 renewals and 226,912 were replacements. CSE Vice President Cairo Amador stated that “in the elections there will be 3,106 Voting Centers, 7,931 Voting Stations and 18,000 electoral police [citizens] to ensure an agile and transparent process for the 3,722,884 citizens that make up the electoral registry and are eligible to exercise their right to vote.” (Nicaragua News, 13 Oct. 2022)

FAO Recognizes Successes in the Fight Against Poverty and Hunger

The Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu, recognized the successes achieved by Nicaragua in the implementation of strategies to combat poverty and hunger, wherein the authorities guarantee access to quality food for the population. He also recognized the investment potential and economic growth rates achieved by Nicaragua. Qu Dongyu thanked Foreign Minister Denis Moncada for the constant commitment of the Nicaraguan government to the implementation of programs and projects with the FAO. Among other topics discussed were the government’s priority areas of cooperation, which include promoting resilience to the impact of the climate crisis, agro-ecological transformation, and resource mobilization in support of small producers. The meeting was held on the occasion of the World Food Forum and the Investment Forum, organized by the FAO. (Radio La Primerisima, 18 Oct. 2022)

A Million Children to Be Dewormed Throughout Country

The Ministry of Health has launched the II National Day of Deworming and Vitamin A Application. Health authorities intend to give vitamin A to 100,000 children from 6 months to 5 years old and treat for parasites 1.2 million children from 1 year to 12 years old. They intend to reach all the neighborhoods of Nicaragua, “going house-to-house, at schools and at all medical posts, hospitals and health centers and, of course, it is all free,” said Dr. Mar Ekaterina Lanzas of the Francisco Buitrago Health Center. (La Primerisima, 17 Oct. 2022)

Agreement to Protect Nicaraguan Workers

The Governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica signed a “Binational Agreement to Regulate the Temporary Hiring of Nicaragua Agricultural Workers in Costa Rica.” The Agreement seeks to guarantee full compliance with the labor rights of Nicaraguans including social security, healthcare, and movement of Nicaragua agricultural workers in Costa Rica. Nicaragua Labor Minister Alba Luz Torres stated that “the Agreement will allow for collaboration between the two governments to advance the social and economic development objectives of our countries through specific actions that guarantee complete respect for the rights and well-being of Nicaragua workers.” (Nicaragua News, 14 Oct. 2022)

Nicaragua and Colombia to Strengthen Diplomatic Relations

On Oct. 14, Foreign Affairs Minister Denis Moncada accepted the credentials of the new Ambassador of Colombia to Nicaragua, Leon Freddy Muñoz, who thus began his duties in the country. Moncada welcomed the diplomat and reaffirmed the fraternal relationship between both nations.

Moncada highlighted the almost 100 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries and recalled that Nicaragua is a nation respectful of its international obligations which allows it to maintain good diplomatic relations with countries of the region. “Nicaragua and Colombia are two states with nearly a century of diplomatic relations. Our foreign policy is premised on strengthening relations in keeping with the Vienna Convention, the principles and foundations of international law, the United Nations Charter, the sacred respect of our countries for the principles of non-interference in the internal affairs, [of other states], and of the sovereign equality among states, which are fundamental principles for relations between our countries. That mutual respect also characterizes our countries, our peoples and our governments,” he said.

For his part, Ambassador Muñoz said he was very happy to be in Nicaragua, where he has been received with respect by the Government. “It is an honor to be here. I have been very well received. From the first moment I got off the plane, officials received me with open arms. And that is indicative of this new stance, of the new government we have today since August 7th. We have a new government in our beautiful country Colombia and the approach of our President Gustavo Petro is to rebuild relations, relations that never should have deteriorated. Our policy from this new perspective is to reestablish relations with all fraternal countries”, he said.

Muñoz emphasized that one of the new guidelines of his government is to strengthen diplomatic relations with sister countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, with whom they have already been working towards greater unity. “The border with Venezuela was reopened; it was beautiful to see all the trucks carrying merchandise, food supplies to the sister country of Venezuela, and today in Nicaragua, these relations must be rebuilt. We must embrace each other; we are sister countries. Here the only ones who are hurt when relations are broken are the people, it is the pueblo. For us, it is essential to rebuild relations …. And that is what we are going to do, build good relations. The message for President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario is we have come here to rebuild relations and it would be great to continue building on what we have already started,” he concluded. (Radio La Primerisima, 14 Oct. 2022)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-10-20-2022
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 07, 2022 2:41 pm

President of Nicaragua: voting for peace

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President Ortega affirmed that he was sure that the youth of the country are turning with all their hearts to cast their vote for peace. | Photo: CCC Jairo Cajina
Published November 6, 2022 (17 hours 4 minutes ago)

The president emphasized that they are voting for Nicaragua and by doing so they are also voting for peace.

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, went this Sunday to vote in the municipal elections held in that country and asserted that the vote cast by the population is for peace.

In statements to the media, together with Vice President Rosario Murillo, the president expressed that "the Nicaraguans, the Nicaraguans know that this vote is a vote for peace. Beyond the party to which the vote is cast, they are voting for Nicaragua and by voting for Nicaragua you are voting for peace."

"On this day in which we are electing the local authorities, mayors, deputy mayors, councilors, from all the Mayor's Offices, from all the municipalities of our country, both in the central zone, in the Pacific zone, in the North Caribbean zone, of the South Caribbean, in all parts of Nicaragua," he stressed.


In addition, the head of state noted that thanks to the new highways that have been built, reaching places that were previously difficult to access, "surely we will have many more Nicaraguans with the possibility, not only of facing day to day, at school, in health, at work, but also the possibility of defending peace with your vote".

"We salute all Nicaraguan families, all Nicaraguan youth, youth that we are sure is turning with all their hearts to cast their vote for peace in Nicaragua," the president concluded.

For her part, Vice President Murillo stated that these "sovereign elections that consolidate us, contribute to consolidate peace, from a culture that is one of peace, that is one of democracy, that is of prominence of families, of communities."


"Each vote, each election, in sovereignty, is a vote and an election that guarantees our national dignity and, above all, that unites us to strengthen the fight against poverty. And we go forward, always further, in work, security, study, health, peace and prosperity," he said.

On this day, 3,722,884 Nicaraguans were called to participate in the municipal elections, according to the list issued by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), to elect more than 6,000 public positions, including mayors, deputy mayors and councilors.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/nicaragu ... -0015.html

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New US Sanctions Are Designed to Hit Nicaragua’s Poorest Citizens
NOVEMBER 6, 2022

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Gold mining in Nicaragua. Photo: AFP.

By John Perry – Nov 3, 2022

The Biden administration has announced new sanctions which are intended to hit the poorest Nicaraguans—both in their pockets and in the public services on which they depend. This latest attack on a small Central American country is, as usual, dressed up as promoting democracy saying that the sanctions will “deny the Ortega-Murillo regime the resources they need to continue to undermine democratic institutions in Nicaragua.”

But everyone knows the real target is ordinary Nicaraguans who voted overwhelmingly to return a Sandinista government to power in last year’s elections.

Anyone hearing or seeing the NPR news item on the sanctions will have read that they are aimed at “Nicaragua’s gold industry,” with an implicit message that this hits President Daniel Ortega’s personal treasure chest. The reality is very different. Gold mining in Nicaragua—generally speaking carried out in less environmentally damaging ways than in most other countries—is a big export industry, employing thousands of people in one of the country’s poorest regions. It also generates significant tax income for the government, which helps fund its enormous social programs. The sanctions affect not just the gold mining business but all the individuals involved in its management. The obvious aim is to scare away the industry’s investors, administrators and technicians—put your money in Nicaragua and lose any assets you have in US banks, is the explicit message.

Was it a coincidence that the sanctions were announced on the same day that the Sandinista government presented its annual budget for 2023? The budget is 14% higher than this year’s with more than half of the expenditures devoted to social investment. Included in this are the construction of no fewer than nine new public hospitals, adding 4,300 homes to the stock of social [affordable] housing, bringing electricity to an additional 35,000 households and massive improvements in water and sanitary services. Much of the new investment is directed towards the country’s under-resourced Caribbean regions, now properly connected to the main population centers on the Pacific coast by recently completed highways and the huge new River Wawa bridge. These regions are a priority—in part—because they were heavily damaged by recent hurricanes. The government’s careful plans to protect people and rebuild affected settlements helped secure the highest levels of support for Daniel Ortega in any region during last year’s elections. Is it another coincidence that these are the areas where gold mining is a major source of employment, now to be the specific target of US sanctions?

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Gold exports provide tax revenue that funds Nicaragua’s massive social expenditures, including this hospital in Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, which will serve the towns of the Mining Triangle.

The NPR segment repeats the Trump-era argument that Nicaragua is “a threat to US national security.” This ridiculous claim, rolled out again to justify Biden’s latest actions, has no basis in reality. Nicaragua is one of Latin America’s smallest and poorest countries, with a population of under seven million, one of the lowest levels of defense spending in the world and a gross national product equivalent only to that of a mid-sized US city. The idea that it threatens the security even of its neighbors is absurd, much less that of the United States.

The State Department’s press release discloses another reason for the sanctions: Nicaragua’s alliance with Russia. Behind this is Washington’s fear that Latin American countries, and not only those with left-wing governments, are building closer ties both with Moscow and with Beijing. A second message is: make alliances with our enemies and you will be punished. Within this is a third implicit message: you may think you are a sovereign state, but, according to the “rules-based international order” where we decide the rules, you must do as we say.

As I write this, news comes in about another example of US interference in the affairs of another country, this time in neighboring Honduras. The US ambassador, Laura Dogu, is trying to protect the interests of US companies involved in unconstitutional projects known as “ZEDEs” or model cities, set up by the previous corrupt government, replaced in January by the progressive President Xiomara Castro. Castro’s foreign minister has formally requested Dogu’s attendance to explain why she is trying to undermine government attempts to reestablish the rule of law in the zones where the ZEDEs were set up, and why she opposes Castro’s other measures to clear up the previous government’s corruption. As a previous ambassador to Nicaragua, Dogu was involved in similar interference here.

In yet another recent example, The Intercept has just revealed that, in a report to the US Congress, the Biden administration continues to endorse claims of electoral fraud in Bolivia’s 2019 election, which at the time opened the door for a right-wing takeover of the government that lasted until near the end of 2020. As it happens, the left-wing governments in both Honduras and Bolivia are currently under threat from the right. In Bolivia, the opposition has mounted a general strike in the rich region of Santa Cruz. In Honduras, opposition politicians are calling for their supporters to have ready their ”white shirts,” a symbol of support for disgraced former president Hernandez and the corrupt clan that surrounded him. This is precisely the moment when Washington should be supporting elected governments, with whom they may have disagreements, not undermining them. Or is this what the State Department means when it “promotes democracy?”

These actions are part of a wider failure on Biden’s part to come to grips with the renewed emergence of progressive governments in Latin America. The most notable recent example of this was, of course, the embarrassing Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, which many of the continent’s governments boycotted. Since then, Colombians have elected the progressive Gustavo Petro as president and Brazilians have brought back to power their former progressive president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “Lula.”

In an article for Al Jazeera, Canadian academic John Kirk recently wrote that “it is time for the US to recognize that Latin America is being transformed, and the leftist activism of the 2020s represents a clear rejection of the policies of recent decades.” He argues that the region is open to dialogue with the US, but this has to be a respectful exchange of opinions, not “a top-down lecture.” He may be right: despite heavy sanctions, Venezuela has engaged in spasmodic dialogue with Washington as, to the limited extent possible, has Cuba.

Nicaragua, on the other hand, recently refused to accept new US ambassador Hugo Rodríguez after he promised the US Congress that he would “support using all economic and diplomatic tools to bring about a change in direction in Nicaragua.” Rodríguez went on to call Nicaragua a “pariah state,” displaying precisely the arrogance that Kirk described as the obstacle to any sensible dialogue between Washington and its southern neighbors. Meanwhile, Russia and China (and, indeed, other major states such as India, Japan and South Korea), offer development assistance free of the “top-down lectures” and “democracy promotion” which Washington believes it is entitled to employ. Until successive US governments learn to behave otherwise, they will continue to lose friends in Latin America rather than make new ones.



[Editor’s note: In the aftermath of President Biden’s recent signing of the Executive Order that bans US companies from doing business in Nicaragua’s gold industry, the Canadian transnational Calibre Mining Corp that it will continue its operations in Nicaragua. Another company, UK-based Condor Gold, said it does not expect the sanctions imposed by the US to have an impact on its operation in the country. Last year the US slapped the RENACER Act sanctions on Nicaragua just days before the presidential elections. Now more sanctions hit Nicaragua right before the November 6 municipal elections as a way to try to sway voters.]

(Alliance for Global Justice)

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:18 pm

Nicaragua: A People as President and Their Municipal Elections

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People celebrating the FSLN victory in the subnational elections, Nov. 7, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @FerminVallejos1

Published 9 November 2022

The high level of participation of young people and women highlights the profound democratization of Nicaraguan society that has taken place in the last fifteen years.


Above all, last Sunday's municipal elections on November 6th, were an optimal consolidation of the Nicaragua's now serene and stable electoral culture, ensuring extremely efficient, orderly elections, and increased confidence for voters.

The very high level of participation of Nicaragua's young people and women in every aspect of the electoral process highlighted the profound democratization of Nicaraguan society that has taken place in the last fifteen years.

Absent U.S. and EU country interference, with its poisonous culture of corruption and violence, fear and hatred, last year's national elections and these municipal elections of 2022 represent the triumph of Nicaragua's sovereignty and the commitment of its population to Peace.

At an institutional level, the year-on-year progress of the Supreme Electoral Council in its increasing technical and administrative skills and in its communications and organizational capacity, have made both the voting process and the process of counting of votes highly efficient and reliable, a true model for the region.

The collaboration of the country's entire society, from the national universities to the National Police and the Nicaraguan Army and the various political parties, guaranteed the elections' democratic integrity. The exceptional dedication, commitment and goodwill of the tens of thousands of people who provided their voluntary support to the electoral process ensured its undeniable sovereign legitimacy.


All day on that Sunday, tens of thousands of women and men voluntarily helped voters at the reception kiosks and at the polling stations or as electoral supervisory police. It is also important to note the essential role of the thousands of political party representatives who monitored the voting process for their respective political parties from the opening of the polls until their closure and then monitored the process of counting the votes.

These municipal elections of 2022 have been the culmination in Nicaragua's electoral history of the process of restitution of rights, of the People as President and the People as the protagonists of their local municipal authority.

After the controversial general elections of 1996, every municipal election exercise in Nicaragua has resulted in a progressive increase in support for the Sandinista National Liberation Front. In 2000, although it won in the municipality of the capital city, Managua, in the rest of the country the FSLN only won a total of 52 mayors nationwide.

However, in the successive municipal elections that followed, the party's popular support greatly increased. In 2004 the FSLN won 87 municpalities, in 2008, it won 109, in 2012 it won 127 and in 2017 it won 135.

The population of the municipality of Managua, with a third of the national population, has elected Sandinista mayors in every municipal election since 2000. Now in 2022, the FSLN has won all 153 municipalities in the country, even in the traditional strongholds of the national right wing parties, which , as usual, were hopelessly divided.

The level of participation was 57 percent with an average vote in favor of the FSLN of around 74 percent and for the combined opposition parties an average of around 26 percent.


Throughout the past series of municipal elections and even more so with this latest electoral triumph of the FSLN, the population has come to rely more and more on the ability of the mayors and councilors of the Sandinista Front to improve the quality of life and the social and economic conditions of their communities.

It is important to understand why the Nicaraguan people have demonstrated their confidence in the Sandinista Front in a progressively stronger way. The fundamental explanation is the revolutionary commitment of the FSLN to its historical program of 1969 and the development since January 2007 of a vision of the Common Good under a Government of Reconciliation and National Unity.

During the decade from 2007 to 2017, the government of President Comandante Daniel Ortega promoted and developed a successful consensus among virtually all sectors of Nicaraguan society. Everyone, apart from a small but vociferous recalcitrant minority, seemed to be in favor of social and economic stability and progress towards the much longed for realization of the Common Good.

But, in 2017, the municipal elections of that year seem to have convinced the anti-patriotic opposition and their U.S. and European owners that it would be impossible in the short or medium term to achieve an electoral defeat of the Sandinista Front and its alliance with other national political forces.

So the United States and its European Union allies encouraged their ciphers and pawns inside Nicaragua to mount the violent failed coup attempt of 2018. Then, during the following two years, repeated national surveys indicated that the vast majority of Nicaraguans wanted to resume the socio-economic course of the country set out by President Daniel Ortega before 2018. The November 2021 national elections overwhelmingly confirmed that sentiment.

The People as President, the vast majority of Nicaraguans, ratified in those national elections the decisions and actions of the government, the National Assembly and the other institutions of the country to strengthen national sovereignty and defend Nicaraguan society actively against foreign interference, internal subversion and treason.


This is the political logic that Nicaraguan society has followed, overcoming in short order the very serious economic and social effects of the failed coup attempt. The country has also overcome the health and economic consequences of COVID-19 and the severe lockdown measures applied internationally, which caused so much damage to economic and social activity in general around the world.

So, on the one hand, it is indeed reasonable to evaluate the results of these 2022 municipal elections as a kind of referendum on Nicaragua's national policies in the regional and international context. The results have been a forceful vindication of the government of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo.

On the other hand, it is impossible to assess adequately these local election results in terrms of the People's control over their local municipal authorites without taking into account the central government policies that have reinforced and complemented the municipal authorities' capacity for implementing programs and projects promoting the economic, social and cultural development of their municipalities. National Assembly deputy Carlos Emilio Lopez highlighted this in a recent article:

“The Development Model promoted by the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity (GRUN) has as its center the human person, their rights, needs, desires, aspirations, dreams and demands... This Development Model, in which the Municipality is the territorial epicenter, has been promoted by the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity since 2007, by means of the National Human Development Plan, national and sectoral policies and socio-economic and cultural programs.”

As Carlos Emilio points out in his article, Nicaragua's Law 466 guarantees transfers from central government to the municipalities which now amount to 10 percent of the national budget, under rigorous control to ensure its efficient and transparent use. But it is also worth emphasizing the range of central government actions integrally linked to development at the local government level. There are many examples.

The installation, fitting out and equipping of 156 new fire stations in almost all municipalities of the country has greatly strengthened the capacity of local civil defense. Apart from allowing better control of fires and accidents, these emergency facilities strengthen the municipal structures of the National System for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (SINAPRED).

Similarly, the municipal authorities collaborate with the Ministry of Health in the maintenance of more than 180 maternity shelters. These shelters which accommodate and support rural women in the last weeks of their pregnancy and have been instrumental in achieving the dramatic reduction in the incidence of maternal mortality from more than 90 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006, to 31 in 2021.

Together with the National Institute of Technology (INATEC), the municipalities strengthen vocational training through their local vocational skills training programs. Endorsed by INATEC, these programs certify thousands of young and not-so-young people every year in new trades and skills. Local governments also coordinate closely in their respective municipalities with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

Every year they build new road and bridge infrastructure and carry out maintenance of existing infrastructure. With the Ministry of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy and the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism, the municipalities promote the popular and creative economy.


They provide support to micro and small businesses, promote local fairs selling local products and developing the activities and initiatives of the Creative Cities Network. With the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture, the local municipal authorities have created more than 130 municipal choirs and an equal number of dance schools.

The municipal authorities play a vital role, together with the Nicaraguan Sports Institute, in the development of the infrastructure and organization of recreational and sports activities across the whole country.

In all these areas of activity and various others, such as education, health or access to housing for low-income families, the municipal authorities work closely with the respective central government and State bodies to promote municipal development.

So, in the context of the last 15 years of Sandinista government and given the centrality of municipal interventions for the current National Plan to Combat Poverty and for Human Development, it is very difficult, practically impossible, to distinguish between the national relevance of these municipal elections and their local importance.

In the national sense, winning the 153 municipalities nationwide reflects a tremendous, unquestionable affirmation of the People as President's faith in the Ortega administration and in the great institutional advances the country has made, especially in this context in relation to the Supreme Electoral Council.

In the sense of the People as protagonists of their municipal authorities, these elections confirm popular satisfaction with the performance of the Sandinista municipal authorities and people's confidence in the ability of their newly elected local governments to ensure the integral development of their municipality and so help guarantee the Christian, Socialist, Solidarity-based common good of all Nicaragua's People.

Following these municipal elections, the Sandinista Popular Revolution in Nicaragua is moving more united than ever towards yet more impressive advances and victories.

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 15, 2022 3:39 pm

NicaNotes: Another Successful Round of Elections in Nicaragua!
November 10, 2022
By John Perry

[John Perry is based in Masaya, Nicaragua and writes for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, London Review of Books, FAIR and other outlets.]

Sunday, November 6, saw the latest municipal elections in Nicaragua, with mayors and councilors elected for every city hall in the country, from the smallest to the largest (the capital, Managua). In the last general election, a year ago, 66% of voters took part. This time, not surprisingly, the percentage was smaller (57%), but still very respectable in international terms. Neighboring Costa Rica’s last local elections brought only a 25% turnout. Across the U.S., only 15 to 27% of eligible voters cast a ballot in their last local election. In the UK, turnout is usually about 30%, and only in Scotland have a few small districts seen turnout exceed 57%.

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Two women vote in Nicaragua’s local elections. The Sandinista victories reflect the enormous program of social investment the government has been carrying out and the country’s successful emergence from the Covid pandemic with less damage to its economy than is the case in neighboring countries. (Photo: Radio La Primerisima)

Here are some provisional results. On the day, 2.03 million valid votes were cast (some 80,000, or 3.79%, were judged to be invalid or spoiled). Of the total, 1.49 million (73%) went to the Sandinista coalition, and the remainder to opposition parties. The vote of Daniel Ortega’s party was sufficient to win the mayoral vote in every case, although the makeup of each local city council will depend on the proportionate split of the vote between parties. In the national tally, the next largest share of the votes was that of the PLC (Partido Liberal Constitucionalista): their 256,000 votes represented almost 13% of the total; four small parties took the remainder. There were four small towns, Ciudad Antigua, El Tortuguero, San José de los Remates and Santo Domingo, where the total opposition vote exceeded that for the Sandinistas, but in each case the vote was divided between different parties and the Sandinistas won the mayoral election.

That the governing party nationally won all 153 mayoral elections was no surprise, since it had been making steady advances over the last two decades. As Stephen Sefton shows, in 2000 the party captured the Managua council for the first time, together with majorities in 51 other municipal councils. By 2004 the number increased to 87; by 2008 it was 109; in 2012 it reached 127 and, by the last election (2017), 135. Given that in the 2021 general election the Sandinista party won 75% of the vote on a higher turnout (66%), Sunday’s result was fully expected. It reflects the governing party’s success in stabilizing the country after the violent coup attempt in 2018, the enormous program of social investment it is carrying out (for example, building 24 new public hospitals in the last 15 years) and the country’s successful emergence from the Covid pandemic with less damage to its economy than is the case in neighboring countries.

Of course, this is not how the election was seen by Daniel Ortega’s international opponents. Brian A. Nichols, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said in advance that “Nicaraguans will once again be denied the right to freely & fairly choose their municipal leaders. As long as opposition leaders remain unjustly imprisoned or in exile, and their parties banned, there is no choice for the Nicaraguan people in yet another sham election.” Unsurprisingly, he ignored the crimes committed by so-called “opposition leaders”, for which they had been tried and convicted. None of those “leaders” had ever run in local elections, nor were they members of registered political parties.

As is usually the case, reports in the corporate media followed the same line. The Washington Post, using an Associated Press report from Mexico City, said that the vote followed “an electoral campaign without rallies, demonstrations or even real opposition.” This was a complete lie, since Sandinista rallies took place throughout the country in the weeks preceding the election, as did far smaller opposition ones. The party that gained the most opposition votes, the PLC, held power only two decades ago and has won seats in every recent municipal election. On the Caribbean coast, the YATAMA party also won large numbers of votes.

Once again, the obscure body called Urnas Abiertas (“Open Ballots”) was quoted in corporate media, despite no one knowing who the people in this group are or where their money comes from (their website gives no clue). Its main argument was that people only voted because they were forced to. This relied on various messages from public sector bodies urging their employees to vote – but, of course, it was a secret ballot so they were at liberty to vote for an opposition party or spoil their ballot paper. In any case, anyone visiting polling stations (as I did) could see that people were voting enthusiastically, not out of compulsion. Oddly, in a claim contradicting its main one, Urnas Abiertas also ludicrously asserts that 82% of people abstained from voting and that “the streets were empty”. In an article for COHA, I showed that similar claims were baseless in relation to last year’s election. In any case, social media offered plentiful evidence of large numbers of people going to voting stations.

Once again, Nicaragua’s democratic achievement proves to be the “threat of a good example” to Western countries where, in what are claimed to be superior democracies, a far smaller proportion of the electorate can be bothered to vote.

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

FSLN Alliance Wins Municipal Elections with 73.7% of Vote
The United Alliance Nicaragua Triumphs, led by the FSLN, won all of the contests for mayor in the local elections held this past Sunday, November 6, with 99.13% of the results released on Nov. 7th. Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) President Brenda Rocha reported that the total votes were 2,108,003 million, of which 2,028,035 were valid and 79,968 null and void. Mayors and members of local municipal councils were chosen in the election. Of the total votes, the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) obtained 256,429 votes and the FSLN-led alliance received 1,494,688 for 73.7% of the votes cast. The National Liberal Alliance (ALN) received 93,203 votes, the Alliance for the Republic (APRE) – 79,993, the Independent Liberal Party-led (PLI) Alliance – 84,345 and YATAMA, the Indigenous party – 19,367 votes. Municipal council seats will be awarded to these parties based on proportional representation. [Municipalities include a city or town and the surrounding countryside.] Rocha pointed out that out of the total number of registered voters of 3,692,733, the total participation was 57.09% [very high for a local election]. For details: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias ... nicipales/ (Radio La Primerisima, 7 Nov. 2022)

Thorough Preparation Was Made for Municipal Elections
According to the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), 3,722,884 citizens make up the national electoral registry and were eligible to exercise their right to vote. [Note: We don’t know the reason for the difference between these figures and the ones included above!] There were 3,106 Voting Centers; 7,931 Voting Stations; 18,000 electoral officers; 3,106 electoral attorneys and the accompaniment of 1,300 representatives of the National Council of Universities to ensure an agile and transparent electoral process, according to officials. The department of Managua has 492 Voting Centers (CV) and 1,853 Voting Stations (JRV). The capital city alone has 1,299 JRVs in 297 CVs. Everyone involved in the voting had received training. (Nicaragua News, 4 Nov. 2022; Radio La Primerisima, 5 Nov. 2022)

Conservation of Sea Turtles
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) reported that, as part of the Campaign “Together We Conserve Our Sea Turtles”, this week the Guardabarranco Environmental Movement and the Army ensured protection for 22,613 hawksbill sea turtles during their arrival and nesting at Playa La Flor Wildlife Refuge in San Juan del Sur municipality. Likewise, the Biological Station for Monitoring and Surveillance of Sea Turtles released 1,057 baby hawksbill turtles on the shores of Río Escalante-Chacocente Wildlife Refuge in Santa Teresa, Carazo department. The National Campaign “Together We Conserve Our Sea Turtles” seeks the conservation of sea turtles with special emphasis on the hawksbill turtle, classified by the World Conservation Union as a critically endangered species. (Nicaragua News, 3 Nov. 2022)

Cremation Is Free in Nicaragua
The Ministry of Health inaugurated a National Cremation Center located in the Carlos Lacayo Manzanares Healthcare Center in Mateare municipality, Managua department. Financed by the General Budget, the center, which cost US$609,587, includes a morgue, urn storage, urn delivery room and cremation area. The Director of the Center, Tania Tercero, stated that “construction of the center, the first of its kind in the public healthcare system, is in response to the demand that we have observed in the population. The National Cremation Center offers its services free of charge and with the desire to provide peace and comfort to families in the most difficult moments.” (Nicaragua News, 2 Nov. 2022)

Nicaragua: Highest Percentage of Vaccinated Population in Central America
On Nov. 6 the Pan American Health Organization reported that with 91% of the population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Nicaragua is the country in the Central American region with the highest percentage of fully vaccinated population followed by Costa Rica (82.1%); Panama (72.1%); El Salvador (66.4%); Honduras (56.7%); Guatemala (38.3%). (Nicaragua News, 7 Nov. 2022; https://ais.paho.org/imm/IM_DosisAdmin-Vacunacion.asp)

Inmates Receive Technical Training for Their Reintegration into Society
The National Technological Institute (INATEC) and the National Penitentiary System NSP “Jorge Navarro” of Tipitapa gave certificates on Nov. 3 to inmates who completed technical courses. The courses are offered so that prisoners can gain new knowledge and tools to face the challenges of life and reinsertion into society. “In 2022, 1,311 participants were prepared nationally, reaching a high level of knowledge in different courses,” explained Ronald José Moya Guevara, Deputy Director of the penitentiary system of Tipitapa. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias ... -sociedad/ (Radio La Primerisima, 3 Nov. 2022)

300 Families Receive Housing Lots in Villa Esperanza
The Managua Mayor’s Office delivered 300 lots to families as part of the emblematic Bismarck Martinez program. The lots were in the Villa Esperanza subdivision. “Three hundred families today receive this land so they can build their houses for the joy of their children and their families,” said Vice Mayor Enrique Armas. In the Bismarck Martinez program, 1,500 lots have been delivered in Managua and a total of 4,500 lots will be delivered in Villa Esperanza. In 2022, 2,000 lots will be turned over to families. “This Bismarck Martinez program has built and delivered 3,100 houses in Villa Jerusalem and Villa Flor de Pino.” Armas stated. (Canal 4, 3 Nov. 2022)

Substantial Progress in Comprehensive Care for People Living with HIV
The Ministry of Health reported that there have been advances in the care of people with HIV. In 2006 18,080 HIV tests were performed, and in 2022, 335,420 were performed. In 2006, 15,480 HIV tests were performed on pregnant women, and in 2022 as of September, MINSA has performed 178,547. The report also says that in 2006 mother-to-child transmission of HIV was 59 and in 2021 it was 4. In 2006, 348 people with HIV were receiving antiretroviral treatment, and in 2022 as of September, 6,697 people are receiving treatment free of charge. MINSA reports that in order to achieve these advances, the decentralization of care from hospitals to primary health care units has been developed, from seven comprehensive care clinics in 2006 to 107 clinics in 2022. Similarly, the decentralization of HIV diagnosis, from one national laboratory in 2006 to 17 in 2022. One hundred seven multidisciplinary teams of health workers have been formed and trained to provide care to HIV-positive persons in their municipalities. (Radio La Primerisima, 5 Nov. 2022)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-11-10-2022
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:51 pm

For Corporate Media, Sandinistas’ Electoral Success Proves Their Repressiveness
JOHN PERRY

Washington Post depiction of Nicaraguan municipal elections


The headline in the Washington Post ahead of Nicaragua’s local elections hinted at skepticism: “Nicaragua Ruling Party Seeks to Expand Hold in Local Votes” (11/6/22). The story itself, taken from an Associated Press report filed from Mexico City, was worse, framing the elections as a “farce” carried out “under the absolute control” of the governing Sandinista party.
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AP (Washington Post, 11/6/22) presented Nicaraguan local elections as a “consolidation of the totalitarian regime of Daniel Ortega.”
Why, one might ask, would the Post be interested in municipal elections in a small Latin American country, if not to support Washington’s attempts to discredit its government? The reality, that the elections again demonstrate that there is a thriving democracy in Nicaragua, has to be twisted into an argument that they represent a “consolidation of the totalitarian regime of Daniel Ortega.”

On Sunday, November 6, as a Nicaraguan resident for 20 years, I went to vote, and later toured various polling stations in Masaya, Nicaragua’s fourth-largest city. At the start of a new four-year electoral cycle, mayors and councilors were being chosen for every city hall in the country, from the smallest to the largest—the capital city of Managua.

Nicaragua has a well-organized system for supplying all those aged 16 or over with identity cards, which automatically put them on the electoral register. On polling day, 3,722,884 people were eligible to vote.

In the last general election, a year ago, 65% of registered voters took part. This time—not surprisingly, given that these elections were local—the percentage was smaller (57%). Yet it was still very respectable in international terms: Neighboring Costa Rica’s last local elections brought only a 36% turnout. Across the US, only 15% to 27% of eligible voters cast a ballot in their last local election. In Britain, turnout in local elections is usually about 30%, and only in Scotland have a few small districts seen turnout exceed 57%.

Reflection of success
Here is a summary of the provisional results. On the day, 2.03 million valid votes were cast. (Some 3.8%, or 80,000, were judged to be invalid or spoiled.) Of the total, 1.49 million (73%) went to the Sandinista coalition, and the remainder to opposition parties. The vote for President Daniel Ortega’s party was sufficient to win the mayoral vote in every district, although the makeup of each local council will depend on the proportionate split of the vote between parties.

In the national tally, the next largest share of the votes was that of the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC); its 256,000 votes represented almost 13% of the total. Four small parties took the remainder. There were four small towns where the total opposition vote exceeded that for the Sandinistas, but in each case, the vote was split between different parties, and the Sandinista candidate was elected as mayor.

That the governing party nationally won all 153 mayoral posts was no surprise, since it had been making steady advances over the last two decades. As commentator Stephen Sefton (Tortilla con Sal, 11/7/22) reports, in 2000 the party captured the Managua council for the first time, together with 51 other councils. By 2004, the number had increased to 87; by 2008 it was 105, in 2012 it reached 127, and by the last election in 2017, 135.
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The number of mayoralties won by the Sandinista party has been rising for years, even before the Sandinistas returned to power on the national level in 2006. (Chart: Bases Sandinistas.)
Given that in the 2021 general election, the Sandinistas won 75% of the vote, Sunday’s result was fully expected. It reflects both the governing party’s success in stabilizing the country after the violent coup attempt in 2018, the enormous program of social investment it is carrying out (for example, building 24 new public hospitals in the last 15 years) and the country’s successful emergence from the Covid pandemic with less damage to its economy than neighboring countries experienced. The municipalities, which administer 10% of the national budget, have made important contributions to these efforts.

Of course, this is far from the image created by Ortega’s opponents. Brian A. Nichols, US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said before polling that

Nicaraguans will once again be denied the right to freely and fairly choose their municipal leaders. As long as opposition leaders remain unjustly imprisoned or in exile, and their parties banned, there is no choice for the Nicaraguan people in yet another sham election.

Unsurprisingly, he ignored the crimes committed by so-called “opposition leaders,” for which they had been tried and convicted. While a conditional amnesty in 2019 released from prison those convicted of crimes in the 2018 coup attempt, some who organized violence had begun to do so again in the run-up to the 2021 elections, or had been convicted of money laundering, or of actively seeking US intervention or sanctions. None of those “leaders” had ever run in local elections, nor were they members of registered political parties.

Ludicrous assertion

As is usually the case, reports in the corporate media followed the same line. According to the Washington Post, the vote followed “an electoral campaign without rallies, demonstrations or even real opposition.” Various other media used the same story—for example, ABC News (11/6/22) and the British Independent (11/6/22). Yet it was a complete lie: Scores of pro-Sandinista rallies and demonstrations had taken place across the country in the preceding weeks, as did far smaller opposition ones.

The party that gained most opposition votes, the PLC, was unquestionably the “real” opposition, as it had held power nationally only two decades ago, and has won seats in all recent municipal elections. On the Caribbean coast, the regional Yatama party also gained more than a third of the vote in several cities and it, too, has recently held power.
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Who is Urnas Abiertas? Where does it get its funding? Its website gives no clue.
As they did a year ago, the corporate media quoted the “evidence” supplied by an obscure body called Urnas Abiertas (“Open Ballots”)—cited in five of the AP piece’s 22 paragraphs. No one knows who this group is or where its money comes from. (Its website gives no clue.)

In a report quoted in corporate media, it claims that people queued at polling stations only because they were forced to vote. This relied on various messages allegedly from public sector officials urging their employees to vote—but of course if they voted, they did so in a secret ballot, and were at liberty to support one of five opposition parties, or to spoil their ballot paper. In any case, as I visited several polling stations, I could see that people were voting enthusiastically, not out of compulsion.

Oddly, in a claim that appears to contradict its main one, Urnas Abiertas also ludicrously asserts that a huge 82% of people abstained from voting and that “the streets were empty.” In an article for Council on Hemispheric Affairs (11/16/21), I showed that similar claims made after last year’s election were baseless. In any case, social media offered plentiful evidence of large numbers of people going to voting stations on November 6.

If the claim had been correct, it would imply that the government faked nearly 1.5 million votes. Urnas Abiertas fails to provide any evidence of how this was done, in an electoral process that is tightly administered, involves around 70,000 officials and where all the contesting parties have representatives scrutinizing each stage. Nor, apparently, did AP think to question Urnas‘ claims.

Washington talking points
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COHA (6/29/22): “The empirical evidence indicates that migration to Costa Rica has almost certainly fallen sharply.”
Other elements of the AP report simply repeat Washington talking points. Apparently, “Nicaragua has been in political and social upheaval” since 2018, something invisible to people who actually live in the country. The government has “shuttered some 2,000 nongovernmental groups and more than 50 media outlets as it cracked down on voices of dissent,” a misrepresentation previously analyzed by FAIR (6/16/22). And “more than 200,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country since [2018], most to neighboring Costa Rica,” an assertion I debunked in an article for COHA (6/29/22).

Corporate media are so in thrall to the State Department’s propaganda about Nicaragua that they can’t ask simple questions: Could this election and the previous one mean that Nicaraguans really do endorse their government’s record? Why is Washington so exercised about a small country’s local elections? Is it that, once again, Nicaragua’s democratic achievements pose the “threat of a good example”? After all, in countries which claim to be superior democracies, a far smaller proportion of their electorates actually manages to vote. Instead of subjecting Nicaragua to ever-tougher sanctions, Western countries should ask whether they might perhaps learn something from a government that manages to win and sustain such a high level of popular support.

https://fair.org/home/for-corporate-med ... ssiveness/

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Chicago ALBA Solidarity

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Daniel Ortega: What we are faced with is a gang of assassins who control the global economy, who control atomic weapons and who commit crimes every day

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conclusion of speech from Comandante Daniel during the closure of the National Congress of the July 19th Sandinista Youth in tribute to Comandante Carlos Fonseca Amador, founder of the FSLN

November 8th 2022 entire speech here https://www.tortillaconsal.com/bitacora/node/813

I want to conclude by referring to a meeting currently taking place there in Egypt, they call it the COP. This is COP number I don’t know what exactly, because since 1995 when they started doing these meetings there in Germany, because they were worried about global warming, about poisoning the planet, about the destruction of the planet. And they reach agreements, but they don’t fulfill any of them, and then they get back together and they make more agreements, and they don’t fulfill any of those either. Who does not comply? The countries that pollute the planet the most, the very ones that should comply with what the agreements mandate.

Because countries like ours here in Central America and the Caribbean, which do not have high levels of pollution but are rather the victims of global warming, hence the hurricanes, the droughts, everything that we already know of, which are always hitting this area and that is recognized by the international community, by scientists; among other areas, in Asia, in Africa, it is recognized here in the Americas, that Central America and the Caribbean is an area highly vulnerable to global warming.

Well, yet another meeting, and of course we sent a delegation, to listen and also at least to be listened to, but in these meetings the same thing happens as happens with the United Nations. It is the same, that is, in case of the United Nations, what is said? That it must defend and respect the Principles of the United Nations founding charter, but that is not fulfilled! And who does not comply? Those who have the power to say, I won’t comply. Who has that power? The imperialists of the earth, who remain the same as ever.

If we have to point out here the culprits of the destruction of the planet, of global warming, of the destruction and enslavement of humanity, it is the countries, the nations that were then already developed, wealthy nations, the one that were killing each other to see who could dominate the world. And I mean Europe. Indeed, the Europeans were killing each other, and that was when there were kings all over Europe, and they all went to the Pope so that the Pope would crown them. Yes, that’s how it was.

Then they went on to invade Africa, invade Asia, invade these lands, murdering, stealing wealth, destroying, polluting, and yes, enslaving millions of human beings they set out to enslave. Yes, it was a crime against humanity, enslaving human beings, especially from Africa, entire enslaved families were imprisoned, fettered and shackled, fathers, mothers, boys and girls, young people, children… Everyone!

Whole families were enslaved and then transported by the big European companies that managed the slave transport business, shipping them from those areas of Africa, where the slave buyers went, selecting slaves, paying for them, and so they bought human beings as merchandise. Total brutality! And then shipping them to other places, including the United States where slavery was installed.

So, every year and every day we hear there at the United Nations the protests and demands over the agreements not being fulfilled and so the world will be destroyed and humanity will disappear.

Yesterday, or the day before, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, spoke at the meeting in Egypt, and look at this man’s variety of wisdom. What did he say? That with what has happened and with the destruction of the planet, and because what should be done is not really being done, all this is leading us all to suicide.

No, Mr. Guterres, we do not want to commit suicide, none of us want to commit suicide, nor do Africans want to commit suicide, nor do Asians want to commit suicide. What you need to say is, and have the courage to say it, is that what has been happening is a crime committed since colonial times, against peoples in developing countries, against the African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean Peoples, they have been destroyed, they have been murdered, they have been exploited, and along with that, those doing so have been destroying the Environment.

Such that they, with their big companies and their big industries have been quietly poisoning the environment, and that poison falls on us, the poison that they emit. So who are the killers of the environment? It is the wealthy countries, the capitalist countries that are killing the environment. So say it, Mister Secretary of the United Nations, have the courage to say so and not come out with the story that we are all committing suicide.

No one here wants to commit suicide, here what we are faced with is a gang of assassins who control the global economy, who control atomic weapons and who commit crimes every day. They commit crimes even in their own countries, they live killing themselves there, killing children, killing students. It happens every day, hardly a day passes where such news is not there in the United States. Since there is a free market with weapons there, a child can go out with a gun and set about killing, or an adult, the same, anyone; they kill as they please, there is no security there.

On the other hand, they speak out against drug trafficking and organized crime. But why is there drug trafficking and organized crime? This is the same case as with global warming, why? Because it turns out that the inhabitants of those rich countries love marijuana, they love cocaine, drugs, they love it, they go crazy for it. They are the biggest consumers and they pay very well, and those who produce drugs in these parts are quite simply not the ones who consume it.

The key to ending drug trafficking, organized crime, money laundering, and the largest amounts of money are laundered in US banks, from drug traffickers. Who has the key to end it? The United States has it. Who else has the key? The Europeans have it.

Why don’t they exercise control? Why don’t they apply control? Because, like it or not, while there is a lot of talk about narco-States here in Latin America, in fact the narco-States are the Developed Countries, and that is why they never put an end to the consumption of drugs, nor truly try to control it. On the contrary, it has become a huge business where police officials, intelligence officials, officials of the US Congress are engaged in this kind of criminal activity.

The truth is that we have to continue striving against these conditions; that is, we cannot give up in the face of that Goliath who continues to destroy and commit barbarities even against their own people.

And at the United Nations, one sometimes asks, really what are we doing at the United Nations? But after all, we have to continue in the United Nations, so that at least we can be heard and to demonstrate and make clear that there is no democracy at the United Nations, there is one power imposing itself, which is the power of the powerful capitalist countries, that is what gets imposed.

Precisely in the last few days, a vote was held at the United Nations on the issue of the blockade of Cuba. Yet one more vote. Year after year, the United Nations votes to see who is in favor of the blockade of Cuba and who is against the blockade in Cuba. And there are already around 190 Countries, 188 Countries, that is, the overwhelming majority; while there are just two, three or four countries that vote to maintain the blockade of Cuba, the first, of course, being the United States.

The rest of the countries of the world, even those that are pro-American, despite the fact that the Yankees pressure them to vote in favor of the blockade, do not dare. Because they realize that they become accomplices of a crime against humanity that has been committed every day for 60 years against a people, the people of Cuba, the people of Fidel, Martí, Raúl, Miguel Díaz-Canel, that Heroic People who have resisted and are resisting a blockade for more than 60 years.

It is the people who suffer with these blockades, and what does the Secretary-General say in the face of a vote like that? Mr. Guterres, you should declare in favor of that if in the United Nations General Assembly, where the representatives of all the world’s countries are, and they vote for the blockade of Cuba to be lifted, and there are 180 votes against 4 votes, then what more do you need to have the courage to insist that what the peoples mandate should be fulfilled?

Let the vote of the nations, of the peoples, be fulfilled if we want to have some respect for the United Nations; otherwise, I tell you, beloved brothers and sisters, we should not get our hopes up about the United Nations, it is a disaster, which has served for nothing except to allow the commission of horrendous crimes, and always in developing countries.

Our solidarity on this day with the people of Cuba, with Cuba’s families and with the Cuba’s youth who have been a brave, heroic, combative youth.

And for you, beloved young men, beloved young women, who have held this Congress, one more Congress for you all, a Congress not just for talk, not just to be talking in a vacuum, but a Congress of deeds, of action, working alongside the people and next to the people. That is the Sandinista Youth!

Long live the Sandinista Youth!

Long live Blessed Nicaragua, Forever Free!

Sandino Lives, The Struggle Continues!

A Free Nation or Death!

https://chicagoalbasolidarity.org/2022/ ... 5qJSow48ak

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NicaNotes: Nicaragua in Latin America – the Invisible and the Reality
November 17, 2022
By Stephen Sefton

[Stephen Sefton has served as a community worker in Nicaragua for 28 years. Since 2008, he has coordinated the web site Tortilla con Sal which follows events in Nicaragua and the region.]

(This article was first published by Tortilla con Sal on October 23, 2022.)

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Nicaragua’s public health system now has two linear accelerators to treat
cancer patients, who receive their treatment free of charge.

In Nicaragua, the population lives the daily reality of the country’s revolutionary development, the democratization of the economy, the modernization of the health and education systems, the transformation of infrastructure and a dynamic reaffirmation of culture, identity and national dignity. However, overseas and in the region itself, these tremendous socio-economic victories are practically invisible. It is instructive to look at this reality more carefully.

In a recent interview, Treasury Minister Iván Acosta observed that Nicaragua is one of the countries that grew the most: “We grew in the years of the pandemic a combined 8.3%, which is the highest growth in Central America, one of the highest in all of Latin America and probably internationally.” The data cited by Minister Acosta are endorsed by international financial institutions. Likewise, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration confirm that Nicaragua is among the best countries in terms of the execution of their respective loan portfolios. Now too, the Financial Action Task Force has certified Nicaragua as a country free of money laundering.

A study in May 2021 by the World Health Organization and the University of Oxford included Nicaragua among the ten safest countries for travelers in relation to Covid-19. Nicaragua was the only Latin American country on the list. Nicaragua has the most extensive and well-equipped public health system in Central America. Six more major hospitals are expected to be completed in the coming months. Nicaragua has just inaugurated the first medical oxygen plant in Central America. The National Reference Diagnostic Center is one of the pioneer laboratories of molecular biology in Latin America, second in the region. In Nicaragua, health care is free.

Education in the public school system from preschool and primary to secondary is also free, as is vocational technical education offered in the extensive national network of colleges of the National Technological Institute. Public universities guarantee equal access to higher education for all high school students. More than one million packages of scholastic supplies are delivered to students all over the country every year. Food is distributed to schools to guarantee a daily school meal to more than 1.2 million students, in a country with a population of 6.5 million.

Nicaragua is among the first countries in the world in gender equality. It is among the first countries in terms of citizen security in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has the best road network in Central America. About two million families are legally more secure because they have received title to their properties from the government. The country generates 70% of its electricity from renewable sources, with electricity distribution covering more than 99% of the population. The government maintains subsidies for the price of petrol and its derivatives, for public transport on both land and water and for electricity for low-income families.

Nicaragua has the most advanced and democratic system of autonomy for Indigenous peoples in Latin America with over 30% of the national territory titled in the name of 23 Indigenous and Afro-descendant territories. It is a country practically self-sufficient in food production. Its food security initiatives include programs such as the Production Packages and the CRISSOL solidarity program for basic grains, involving more than 200,000 producers. The women’s credit program, Zero Usury, enables more than 115,000 women a year to improve the standard of living of their families.

One might think that this tremendous social and economic success of the People as President in the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua would be of great interest and general admiration at the regional and continental level. But in fact, that is not the case; to the contrary. Of course, within Nicaragua, all these socio-economic victories are known and experienced day by day by the population. The victories of the People as President in Nicaragua are also recognized, although generally in a low-profile way, by the respective international institutions concerned, such as the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF and UNESCO among others.

The key thing to grasp is that Nicaragua has overcome centuries of colonial oppression and neocolonial exploitation in order to achieve these victories. Then, after the triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution in 1979, an endless campaign of harassment and aggression was unleashed by the United States and its allies. That is the origin of the systematic media, NGO, academic and institutional campaign to denigrate, belittle, undermine and ignore the unquestionable, outstanding success of the policies of the government of President Comandante Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo.

One is dealing not only with the routine psychological warfare waged by regional and international media, but also with a determined propaganda offensive disseminated by the proliferation of NGOs, by the academic social sciences industry, and by institutions such as, for example, the OAS or the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and several instances of the European Union. All these instances have abandoned the most basic rules of good faith reporting.

Genuine reporting is based on collecting good faith first-hand testimony, on the use of reliable documentation and data, on a process of adequate corroboration, on the recognition of contrary narratives and a constant effort to allow readers to decide for themselves. In the case of Nicaragua, as with Cuba and Venezuela, these norms have been replaced by a ruthless campaign of lies, omissions, arbitrary opinion, permanent bias and blatant manipulation. Perhaps the most emblematic case of this abandonment of good faith on the part of almost all sources of information in Latin America and internationally, was the beginning of the failed coup d’état in Nicaragua in April 2018.

In Nicaragua, we all remember that the initial pretext for the violent protests was the reform of the Social Security Law, which was distorted and misrepresented in such a way that the vast majority of people ended up believing the absurdity that big business wanted to defend the rights of pensioners and workers. In fact, the bosses’ organization, the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), wanted to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65, eliminate the minimum pension and the small pension [for those who had not paid into the system for long enough to receive the full pension], the Christmas bonus and the maintenance of the value of pensions. They wanted to double the number of contributions to qualify for a pension from 750 weeks (14.4 years) to 1500 weeks (28.8 years) and proposed the privatization of the workers’ health clinics of the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS).

Regional and international information sources completely suppressed this reality and lied about the government’s proposals, which in truth were: a gradual increase in the employer’s contribution of 3.25% and of the workers of 0.75%; that people with high salaries pay a quota proportional to their income; increase the government contribution for the public sector by 1.25%; keep the number of weekly instalments to qualify for a pension at 750; keep the small pension and the minimum pension; keep the Christmas bonus and the index-linking of pensions to maintain their value; guarantee complete medical care in the INSS clinics for retired people in exchange for a fee of 5% of their pension; and not privatize the workers’ INSS clinics.

However, if one reads practically any journalistic or academic article or the cynical, false summaries of the OAS, the UN or the European Union, they all allege that it was the Nicaraguan government’s attack on the Social Security system that provoked the protests in April 2018. This remains the dominant narrative that prevails in almost all the material one encounters about the 2018 failed coup d’état in Nicaragua. In fact, what provoked the protests was a campaign for regime change promoted, financed and directed by the United States and its European allies. At that time in 2018, the only media that sought out the truth was Telesur, at the initiative of its director Patricia Villegas who consulted with Sandinista media to find out what was really happening.

For the rest, almost all the other Latin American media, across the entire ideological spectrum, swallowed the stupid lie that big business and US and EU funded NGOs were defending the INSS in Nicaragua in favor of the working class and pensioners. This is just one of the clearer examples of the wholesale abandonment of basic reporting standards by the vast majority of information sources in Latin America in relation to Nicaragua. The word “pathetic” doesn’t even come close to describing this collapse of moral and intellectual integrity at a continental level.

In the same way, the vast majority of information sources in the region and internationally speak of ”political prisoners” to refer to people in Nicaragua who received money directly or indirectly from various foreign governments and committed, among other offenses, the crimes of misappropriation and improper withholding; laundering of money, property and assets; dishonest management and falsification by misrepresentation. All are crimes punishable under Nicaragua’s Criminal Code of 2007, approved by a legislature controlled by Nicaragua’s right-wing parties. Moreover, almost all of these people openly lobbied in favor of illegal coercive measures by foreign powers, who were also paying them directly or indirectly, against their own country, an offense of criminal treason punishable in practically all countries of the world.

Here in Nicaragua, we have in the Sandinista media first rate genuine reporters. But they are generally excluded as sources of information in Latin America and internationally on the pretext that they are media associated with the government. As if the lazy, dishonest and incompetent journalism that prevails in the region is not bought off by their countries’ various respective corporate and government interests, just like the NGO industrial complex or the academic social sciences industry, bought off and operating comfortably in disinformation networks manipulated by the corrupt corporations and institutions that predominate in the region, answering to the interests of their Western masters.

The vast majority of information sources in the region research nothing in good faith, but look for what they want to find. In effect, they are just another despicable actor in the West’s psychological warfare offensive, recycled through an infinite feedback loop, into which they too feed their false reports. These are the main sources of the production and distribution of information in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the West in general. In the case of Nicaragua, they use sources almost entirely financed by the US and European governments but still have the audacity to describe those tainted sources as independent.

So Nicaragua is facing a system designed to make the victories of the Sandinista Popular Revolution invisible, and to the extent possible also to belittle the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and the Cuban Revolution. However, sooner or later, reality does prevail because the truth goes on existing behind and beyond the virtual phantasmagoria of disinformation. So, to the same extent that the radical democracy of the Cuban Revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela are steadily defeating the economic, psychological and political blockades of the West and its local proxies, so too will the Sandinista Revolution of the People as President in Nicaragua.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

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Biden: Nicaragua an Unusual and Extraordinary Threat to National Security
On Nov. 10 President Biden released a notice saying, “the situation in Nicaragua … continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States [a country of 6.5 million and one of the ten lowest in military equipment and spending]. For this reason, the national emergency declared on November 27, 2018, must continue in effect beyond November 27, 2022. In accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for one year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13851 with respect to the situation in Nicaragua. [With this laughable declaration, the United States can continue to impose economic sanctions on Nicaragua.] (The White House, 10 Nov. 2022)

CABEI to Finance Deep-Water Port in Bluefields
The Government of Nicaragua and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate the construction of a deep-water port in Bluefields, in the South Caribbean Coast. CABEI Vice President, Jaime Díaz, said that this project will strengthen the local and national economies and will improve conditions for Central American integration. Finance Minister Iván Acosta pointed out that this was an historic moment for the country. He indicated that the deep-water port is an old dream of the people of the Caribbean coast and of the Nicaraguan people as a whole, who have initiated efforts at different times to have a maritime terminal on the Atlantic Coast. He said that this port will, together with the new highways, stimulate the entire Southern Region with an aquatic corridor to Bilwi and will bring important investments to maximize Nicaragua’s potential. (Radio La Primerisima, 15 Nov. 2022)

CSE Makes Official FSLN Triumph in Municipal Elections
The Supreme Electoral Council made official in La Gaceta the provisional results of the elections held on November 6 in the 153 municipalities of the country. The total votes were 2,108,003, of which 2,028,035 were valid and 79,968 were invalid. Elected were 77 women mayors and 77 men vice mayors along with 76 men mayors and 76 women vice mayors. There are 153 Municipal Councils with 1,456 councilwomen and 1,429 councilmen. For details: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias ... nicipales/ (Radio La Primerisima, 14 Nov. 2022)

Venezuela Congratulates Nicaragua on Elections
The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela sent a congratulatory message to the people and government of Nicaragua for the municipal elections of Nov. 6. In his message, President Nicolas Maduro stated “on behalf of the people of Venezuela, we warmly congratulate the people of Nicaragua for holding elections that were defined by tranquility, citizen participation and ratification of the vote as the indisputable instrument in the defense of sovereignty, self-determination, and state institutions. Venezuela ratifies its commitment of solidarity with the Nicaragua government in the building of a new multicentric and multipolar world that is taking shape in an accelerated manner, for the good of humanity.” (Nicaragua News, 9 Nov. 2022)

Strengthening Health Care Service
The Ministry of Health announced that as part of the “My Hospital for my Community” Health Campaign, medical brigades and mobile clinics from departmental hospitals will carry out 2,450 medical consultations and schedule surgeries in 1,200 communities the week of Nov. 14, benefiting 195,200 people. The campaign is part of the Family and Community Healthcare Model. (Nicaragua News, 11 Nov. 2022)

Law Creating the National Zoo Approved
On Nov. 10, the National Assembly passed a Law for the Creation of a National Zoo assigned to MARENA (Ministry of the Environment). The law also establishes an animal conservation program. National Assembly Deputy Benita Arbizú Medina, president of the Environment Committee, said that the law will guarantee the conservation and protection of the more than 600 species that the Zoo currently has. The initiative creates the National Zoo and establishes its operation and administration to contribute to the protection of biological diversity and wild fauna in its natural environment. It will also promote education and scientific research on biological diversity, wildlife and endangered species to protect them and their natural environment. (Radio La Primerisima, 10 Nov. 2022)

Strengthening Cooperation on Security
The National Assembly approved a Presidential Decree authorizing the entry of ships, aircraft, and foreign military personnel to exchange experiences, strengthen the fight against drug trafficking and carry out humanitarian missions. The decree authorizes the entry of troops from Mexico, the Russian Federation, the United States, Venezuela, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Central American countries for a six-month period starting January 1st, 2023. (Nicaragua News, 14 Nov. 2022)

Nicaragua Advocates at COP27 to Strengthen Climate Justice
Nicaragua supports strengthening climate justice with a reparation policy based on the principle of common responsibilities. In a message to the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Egypt, Nicaragua called on developed countries to reduce their emissions by 50 percent by 2030. The communiqué noted that these nations generate emissions of around 50 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which cause concentrations of 420 parts per million and temperature anomalies of 1.1 degrees Celsius. “Nicaragua is the country with the highest frequency of hydrometeorological phenomena [hurricanes, droughts, etc.], which bring economic consequences that exceed our financial capacity to repair the damage and restore the economy,” the text stressed. The most recent hurricane that crossed Nicaragua in the first days of October caused economic losses valued at US$367 million. (Radio La Primerisima, 16 Nov. 2022)

Evo Denounces Boric’s Attacks Against Nicaragua
Former president of Bolivia Evo Morales denounced through his Twitter account Chile’s President Gabriel Boric’s recent joining with CIA attacks against Nicaragua. “Allende was overthrown by a bloody coup executed by the US Central Intelligence Agency. We regret that president Gabriel Boric … joins the CIA attacks against Nicaragua,” tweeted former president Evo Morales. (Radio La Primerisima, 11 Nov. 2022)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-11-17-2022
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 29, 2022 3:26 pm

US Sanctions and Economic Conditions Drive Nicaraguan Migration
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 28, 2022
John Perry

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Blaming migration on “repressive dictatorships” allows Washington to pretend that its policies are helping Nicaraguans, when in fact they are impoverishing them.

Why are more Nicaraguans heading north to the United States looking for jobs? Until July 2020, numbers were tiny. But in the last 1½ years numbers have increased sharply. Suddenly this has become a story, and government detractors argue, with little evidence, that people are fleeing political repression. “They’d rather die than return to Nicaragua,” is a typical headline.

Manuel Orozco, a Nicaraguan based in Washington who strongly opposes the Sandinista government, told The Hill, “Nicaragua’s dictatorship is criminalizing democracy and fueling migration to the U.S.” Then, on September 20, this became the official explanation when White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Nicaraguans are “fleeing political persecution and communism.”

But is this true? Or is the issue being politicized as part of the heated debate about migration? The reality is more mundane: the biggest drivers of migration are economic, not political. Blaming migration on “repressive dictatorships” allows Washington to pretend that its policies are helping Nicaraguans, when in fact they are impoverishing them.

Migrants’ stories in Nicaragua give a more rounded picture

Migrants’ stories collected at the U.S. border are inevitably conditioned by migrants’ vulnerability and needs when confronted by law enforcement or looking for help from border communities. Talking to the families of migrants here in Nicaragua, as those collaborating in this article have done, gives a more rounded picture.

In Ciudad Sandino, a city just north of the capital, or in Ciudad Dario, in northern Nicaragua, anecdotally it appears there is hardly anyone who hasn’t had a family member leave for the US. The message is that they are motivated by the success stories of people getting jobs and being able to send back $500 or more each month: enough to maintain a family here. The few foreign media who speak to Nicaraguans here confirm the impression that economic opportunities are the main driver.

This is also evidenced by the rapid growth in amounts sent back to family members. Nicaragua’s Central Bank reports remittances to the country totaled US.$862.2 million dollars during the third quarter of this year, 63.6% growth over the same period in 2021. They have become one of the biggest sources of national income and most are going directly into the pockets of poorer families.
Migrant success stories

Karla from Esteli told the story of a brother and sister who migrated. “Luis Enrique had a friend in Houston and heard it was all easy and the pay was good. So he paid the coyotes $2,500 and they got him to Cancun first. He was stuck in a house for a month and couldn’t leave and used up the money he had with him. He finally made it to Houston and after about three months has work. For years, my brother migrated to work every year either to Costa Rica or to El Salvador. But there hasn’t been work in the last few years.” Her brother is a Sandinista government supporter.

Karla said that Flor, also a Sandinista, did the same thing. “When she got to the US, she turned herself in to border officials and told them she had a place to stay in Minneapolis and they flew her there. She didn’t have work lined up, didn’t have appropriate clothes, not even a coat. She then needed about $250 for false papers in order to apply for jobs. She eventually got the further help and clothes she needed through church contacts, and later found work. She says if she had known how hard it would all be she wouldn’t have gone.” Flor apparently wants to pay off all her debts and return to Nicaragua.

A Managuan hairdresser tells the story of her brother, Sergio: “He left with his whole family 14 months ago. He lost his job just before the COVID crisis and was looking for work here as a driver. His wife had relatives in the US. They sold everything, took a flight to Guatemala and with help got into and through Mexico up to the U.S. border. They informed border authorities that they had relatives willing to take them in. Sergio is now working in Las Vegas and his two children are attending school.”

A professor at Managua’s UNAN university with connections in the United States recounts the story of three nephews from prominent Nicaraguan families: “They were all graduates of the Lincoln School here in Managua, and all got partial scholarships to study at the Wharton School of Economics, Boston College and the University of Richmond. Two of them, who studied a couple years behind the first, easily obtained work permits to stay in the US. One, who is an industrial engineer, has been working there for four years now.”
Not surprisingly, the people leaving are often well-educated and, in many cases, have jobs in Nicaragua. Far from fleeing repression, they are running toward the “American Dream.”

But what has changed in the last 18 months to make chasing the dream more attractive? Here are the main reasons.

US attitudes towards Nicaraguan migrants have changed

Before July 2020, Nicaraguans hardly registered in “encounters” at the U.S. border. Now there are more than 13,000 registered in a typical month, although they still make up just 6% of the total. But for Washington, focusing on Nicaraguan migrants is a win-win. The U.S. has a need for low-wage workers, with “Now Hiring!” signs outside many businesses. But simply opening borders to allow in migrants to work would be hugely unpopular.

However, allowing in Cubans, Nicaraguans and, until recently, Venezuelans who are “fleeing communism” is more politically acceptable, and Nicaraguans are well aware of this. In September, President Biden defended his management of the southwest border by reference to migrants from these countries, saying that sending them back “is not rational,” even though two-thirds of undocumented migrants are from other countries.

Most undocumented Nicaraguans are being allowed in whether or not they claim asylum (see below). However, the fact that some make asylum claims feeds the stories of waves of refugees fleeing repression and reinforces the U.S. narrative about Nicaragua as a “threat” to the United States. Claims of repression also make it easier to persuade border communities to help and to show solidarity, as is clear from an interview with the head of one migrant aid group who explains how people respond more generously to the needs of those arriving from “broken regimes.”

As one of the stories retold above demonstrates, young people from Nicaragua’s elite, who often speak good English, are also finding the door open to migration. Those on student visas are now allowed to stay once their studies end and migrants who can afford to fly to the U.S. (e.g. on tourist visas) seem able to regularize their stays readily, for example by claiming asylum.

Border control practices differ for Nicaraguans

Unsurprisingly, politics determines the practices followed in dealing with undocumented migrants at the southwest border. In 2020, migrants from Mexico and the “Northern Triangle” countries (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala) accounted for two-thirds of all border encounters and these countries still account for half the total in 2022. But their success rate in crossing the border is heavily limited by current U.S. laws and border practices.

So far, this fiscal year about 299,000 people from those nations have been expelled at the border under what is known as Title 42 which, as Tom Ricker explains, is deliberately discriminatory. But Nicaraguans (like Cubans, and until recently, Venezuelans) are treated differently, under Title 8, with only about 9,000 returns of people from those countries. Those allowed to enter the country are sent by bus or plane to wherever they have family or friends, with the government footing the bill, while their migration cases or asylum claims are being processed.

However, there is a sense that favorable border policies could change at any time, as they have recently for Venezuelans. Washington is pressing Mexico to take Nicaraguans returned at the border, as it does other migrant groups, but so far Mexico has resisted this. Nicaraguans know things might suddenly change and this gives them more incentive to try their luck now.

Migration made to look more attractive to Nicaraguans

A very important “pull” factor is the way that migration has been made to appear so attractive within Nicaragua, encouraging the idea that “everyone’s going.” Articles give advice or provide “migration kits,” young people receive frequent adverts on their smart phones, some appearing to be from official U.S. sources, saying they have been “selected” for a work visa or showing how to apply for work visas in specific trades. The US embassy promotes its new “visa wizard”. Facebook posts show people receiving swimming classes “to cross the Rio Grande.” A news item says, “They keep leaving. Only us old people are left;” another interviews people from “deserted” communities in Chinandega. Rightly or wrongly, there is a climate of opinion that the U.S. is “open” to Nicaraguans and you should leave soon while it lasts.

Until recently, there were also few ways for Nicaraguans to get help to make the journey and cross the border. This began to change as people from all over Latin America began to pass through Nicaragua on their way north, and it is now big business. There are Nicaraguan coyotes who will arrange the journey, there are buses taking groups of migrants to Guatemala, and there are loan sharks (including, recently, Colombians) arranging finance to pay the massive costs. As the BBC said recently, “smuggling migrants to the U.S. is big business.”

Nicaragua’s economic recovery is threatened by US sanctions

Nicaragua and Honduras are the poorest countries in mainland Latin America. Nicaraguans’ living costs are low – most food is locally produced, electricity (and currently other fuels) are subsidized and transport is relatively cheap. Partly as a result, wages are low too. Higher pay in other countries – traditionally Costa Rica (and to some extent El Salvador and Panama) – have always attracted Nicaraguans looking for better-paid jobs. Of course, the pay differential with the US is greater still.

Nicaragua had only partly recovered from the US-financed violent coup attempt it suffered in 2018 when its economy (like everywhere else) was hit by the pandemic. While economic growth was 10.3% last year and is forecast to be 4% in 2022, tourism has not yet fully recovered.

In part, this is because State Department travel advisory erroneously says that Nicaragua is dangerous, when it is Central America’s safest country. On top of this, Washington is steadily tightening its economic sanctions, affecting both farming (the sugar industry) and gold mining (Nicaragua’s biggest export). It has also restricted loans from the World Bank aimed at poverty reduction. Sanctions have wider effects in discouraging investment. People are well aware of what Washington is doing and fear the worst: they know how the much tougher sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela have produced economic disasters in those countries (and migrants passing through reinforce that message).

Such fears are entirely realistic. The US imposed a complete trade embargo on Nicaragua in the 1980s. Biden’s new nominee as ambassador to the country, Hugo Rodriguez, promised the US Congress that he would “support using all economic and diplomatic tools to bring about a change in direction in Nicaragua.” Articles have appeared suggesting that following the US midterm elections, sanctions will be tightened. A prominent think tank has called for a complete embargo on Nicaraguan imports. Self-serving condemnations of Nicaragua’s government by Nicaraguans living in the United States do not help. (Orozco told one news channel: “Persecution in Nicaragua is so beastly that people prefer to risk leaving than staying and exposing themselves to more repression.”)

Costa Rica offers fewer opportunities to Nicaraguans

The close ties between Nicaragua and Costa Rica have in the past seen huge migratory movements between these neighboring countries, as Nicaraguans went there to work for periods and then returned. Nicaraguans form more than 11% of Costa Rica’s population and can cross the border easily. Before the pandemic in 2020, when jobs were plentiful, especially seasonal farm work, typically 35,000 Nicaraguans crossed the border in each direction, every month. Numbers fell sharply in 2020 and 2021 and, although they have recovered somewhat, are still well below previous levels (this year they average about 20,000 monthly in each direction). Nicaraguans send less money back from Costa Rica: the country accounts for 7.7% of total remittances now, compared with 18% in 2019.

Costa Rica has a lengthy backlog of refugee applications from Nicaraguans, dating back five years (discussed at length in a previous COHA article), although it has repeatedly maintained that most of these are not genuinely fleeing repression but are economic migrants (most recently on November 18). It is seeking outside aid to enable it to speed up the process and regularize the status of up to 200,000 asylum claimants (mostly Nicaraguans), who would get access to jobs and health care if they can prove their claims are valid. However, reports are appearing of Nicaraguans giving up their asylum claims in Costa Rica, preferring to try their luck in the United States because salaries in Costa Rica have not kept up with inflation.

Costa Rica has also tried to encourage Nicaraguans genuinely working in the country to stay. In October, the two governments signed an agreement on the labor rights of Nicaraguan workers in the neighboring country. However, with continuing evidence of the poor state of the Costa Rican economy, its attraction as a work destination for Nicaraguans is unlikely to recover quickly.
Unable to find work in Costa Rica

Juan, currently in Managua, was one of many who worked in Costa Rica before for stretches but who can’t find work there since the pandemic. He’s a talented man with a brother in Costa Rica but he’s been learning English and plans to try to reach the U.S. with his family. It would mean giving up everything… his home… a little land, but he’s decided to go because “the chances are good.” He is a Sandinista, and has no issues with the government.

Frances, a young woman hairdresser from Managua, first went to Costa Rica and had a very hard time. She eventually returned to Nicaragua. Less than a year ago, she managed to get to the United States and both she and her husband have since found employment. She is working in a hair salon.
But what about the “repression” driving Nicaraguans north?

Media reports about ordinary Nicaraguans suffering “repression” are very misleading. The violent coup attempt in 2018 led to over 400 arrests, for serious crimes like kidnapping and murder. An amnesty in 2019 led to all of these prisoners being released, and the country has since been peaceful. But in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, some of the opposition groups were planning more attacks, and the leaders were arrested and imprisoned for their alleged involvement in this and for continuing to seek foreign intervention. However, most people who supported the 2018 violence can now live freely as long as they cease their involvement in such violent activities. Both last year’s election and recent local elections passed peacefully, with turnouts of 66% and 57%, suggesting that most Nicaraguans want to resolve political differences through the ballot box.

For Nicaraguans, many of the “push” factors that drive migration from the Northern Triangle simply do not apply. For example, few if any Nicaraguans suffer from the crime of extortion by violent gangs, whereas in Honduras it is a huge problem which forces people to leave the country, both to escape threats and to attempt to pay debts. Also, many Hondurans are still homeless after recent hurricanes, whereas in Nicaragua preventive measures saved lives and enabled people to relocate safely. Despite the violence in 2018, Nicaragua has returned to being one of the safest Latin American countries, whereas all three Northern Triangle countries are among the most dangerous.

The route to the US border is a hard one

Of course, traveling to the U.S. without a visa is a huge risk. There are terrible stories of people who never made it or who got entangled in U.S. bureaucracy. Everyone is aware of this but many are undeterred. The fact that prospects seem better for Nicaraguans than for those from the Northern Triangle countries means that many are willing to face the risks.

Nevertheless, the cost of an arranged journey is huge, now up to around $5,000 per person. People are putting up their homes and farms as collateral to loan sharks to get the money to go. Many leave with their entire family, including babies. More recently we have heard of people going without paying coyotes, taking only a few hundred dollars in their pockets and hoping for the best.

Anecdotal reports of the dangers are rife. Nicaraguans have been kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico. Nicaraguan coyotes have been killed for stepping on the toes of Mexican cartels. Migrants are now traveling in tour buses, but this is dangerous and there are risks of robbery and worse. Recently, a bus carrying Nicaraguans was machine-gunned by Guatemalan gangs.

The earlier stories also illustrate some of the hazards facing Nicaraguans once they reach the U.S. For example, those who speak little or no English are likely to find only low-paid work: cleaning, washing dishes, caring for children or seniors, farm work, and so on. Nicaraguans assume they will be helped by friends or family but do not realize that the person who offered a place to stay will not do that indefinitely but will charge them rent. In Nicaragua, many people will recount that migrants’ home situation frequently falls apart: the wife leaves, children get rebellious or grow up with no work ethic since they were supported from a distance, and the money the migrant thought their family was saving to build a house when they returned gets spent elsewhere.

Yet even with all these terrible stories, it is hard to fight the fever, particularly in young people who are seeing their friends and family post enticing pictures from the U.S.

What is the answer?

There is no quick “solution” to migration. Claims that Nicaragua will be emptied of people are absurd but, for a family, cutting ties and emigrating to the US is far more disruptive than temporary migration to Costa Rica. Many families of unsuccessful migrants are left with crippling debts and potential homelessness. If young, educated people leave, this deprives Nicaragua of their skills. So while there are some short-term economic advantages to both countries from people heading north, in the longer term migration damages both Nicaragua’s economy and its society.

One thing is clear: Washington’s rhetoric about “communism” in Nicaragua, its attempts to starve it of development funding and its imposition of sanctions are making conditions worse, not better. If the US really wants to see fewer people trying to cross its borders, it should make genuine attempts to encourage the sustainable development of neighboring countries like Nicaragua, not try to strangle their economies.

John Perry is a writer based in Masaya, Nicaragua whose work has appeared in the Nation, the London Review of Books, and many other publications.

Author note: Assistance in compiling this article came from Becca Renk, Susan Lagos and others in Nicaragua, Nan McCurdy in Mexico and Tom Ricker in the United States.

This article was originally published on November 23, 2022 by COHA.


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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 05, 2022 3:51 pm

NicaNotes: The Graduates
December 1, 2022
By Becca Renk

[Becca Renk is originally from the U.S. but has lived and worked in Nicaragua since 2001 with the Jubilee House Community and its project the Center for Development in Central America. She and her husband Paul have two daughters who have studied in Nicaraguan public schools for 15 years.]

The day I crossed the gymnasium stage in to receive my high school diploma, I was surrounded by the ghosts of my childhood friends who didn’t graduate with me. My public school in North Idaho was big – there were nearly 300 of us graduating – but a lot of my friends had dropped out. Many were already parents, others were working full time jobs, some had quit school after repeated run-ins with the principal and police. In some cases, they didn’t have the support of their families, but in all cases they didn’t have the support of the American public school system.

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The graduation bonus check for high school graduates is “just one program of the plethora that have been supporting youth since the Sandinista party came back into power in 2007.”

Today I am proud to know that my daughters and their generation of Nicaraguan young people have the full support of the public school system and the Nicaraguan government.

This week our 17-year-old daughter Eibhlín was one of two graduating honor roll students to speak at the Graduation Bonus ceremony at her high school, where the Ministry of Education gave each student a check for C$1,000 córdobas, nearly US $30. For more than a decade, the Sandinista government has distributed this special bonus to high school graduates. The checks are made out to the students – they must have their identification card (issued at 16 in Nicaragua) to sign for the check. It is a day of “adulting” – for many, this is the first time they will sign a document that has to match the signature on their ID card. For most, it is the first time they will cash a check in their own name.

“Everyone, please practice your signatures!” calls out the Ministry of Education official who is overseeing the process at Eibhlin’s school. “You have to sign inside the box, so please sign carefully.” All the adults are kind, helping the kids practice, explaining the process to them.

“There’s no rush, take a deep breath and don’t be nervous.”

“If you have trouble endorsing the check at the bank, please come into the office, and we will issue you another check.”

Listening to everyone chiming in, crowding around to take photos, hugging…I get a clear picture of Nicaragua collectively supporting its youth and lovingly lifting them up.

The Graduation Bonus may sound like a small program, but it is decidedly not: this year some 63,000 young people are graduating from secondary school. Just the logistics of issuing and delivering that many checks to all corners of the country boggles the mind – but this Bonus also represents an investment in Nicaragua’s youth of US$1.75 million, and it’s just one program of the plethora that have been supporting youth since the Sandinista party came back into power in 2007. In fact, these programs have been so effective that there is now a noticeable lack of gang activity and delinquency in the streets.

Image
The author (rear) and her daughter (center) with two classmates celebrating their graduation.

The difference in Ciudad Sandino and Managua’s urban barrios now from just five years ago is noticeable enough that it has become a regular topic of conversation among Nicaraguans living in neighborhoods that used to see frequent gang fights. According to the United Nations, Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America and has not had problems with international gangs and drug cartels like its neighboring countries. Even prior to 2007, Nicaragua’s gangs were small neighborhood gangs and it was common for gang members to “age out;” if they weren’t killed or imprisoned, eventually they would leave the gang to settle down and have families. The difference now seems to be that there is no longer a new generation of neighborhood delinquents to take the place of the aging gang members; as a result, the gangs themselves are fizzling out of existence. In the barrios, the consensus is that this change is due to the Sandinista government’s programs directed at youth for the past 15 years:

-Free public education starting in preschool
-Free lunch for 1.2 million school children daily
-Secondary schools on Saturday, allowing rural and non-traditional students to attend classes only one day a week and graduate in the same amount of time as students who attend school every weekday
-Accelerated weekend high school programs for non-traditional students who dropped out of regular classes
-Thousands of free vocational training programs available around the country
-Free university – the percentage of Nicaraguans with university degrees has risen from 9% to 19% in just 15 years
-Public parks – 772 parks built since 2006
-Internet access – 207 free Wifi zones in parks plus fiber optic cable installed everywhere there is electrical grid access (now 99% of the country)
-1,340 sports facilities built
-153 cultural centers with free art, dance, music and sports classes in every municipality
-Community policing prevention and intervention programs for at-risk youth including family counseling, addiction counseling, violence prevention, high school classes, sports and business training which includes police direct investment in businesses started by youth
-Free family planning through Nicaragua’s universal free health care system

Simply put, there are so many opportunities afforded to youth now that being in a gang is neither necessary nor an attractive option for Nicaragua’s young men.

Similarly, early motherhood is no longer the best option for most Nicaraguan girls, as it was for generations. Until recently, Nicaragua had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the region. Now most Nicaraguan women are having their first child at 27 years old, and Nicaragua ranks number one in the world for educational attainment for women and girls. Those young women who do get pregnant now have many options for continuing their education while also raising their child.

Young people in Nicaragua still face plenty of challenges – just like in my high school, not all of Eibhlín’s friends have the support of their families – some live on their own and have to work, some have parents with addiction problems or care for family members with serious illness. For these students, the range of options open to them helps make it possible to continue studying despite difficulties, and the Graduation Bonus helps encourage them to get their diploma. Some students will use the money to help with their graduation costs – at Eibhlin’s school they are renting gowns, sharing the cost of decorating the auditorium and buying cake and soda to celebrate. Some students will use the money to pay for transportation, copies, and extra classes to help pass university entrance exams and get accepted into university.

When Eibhlín and her classmates walk across the stage to receive their diplomas next week, they won’t be surrounded by the ghosts of dropped out classmates like I was. It is gratifying for me to know that whichever path they choose to take, they will be supported not just by their loved ones, but also by their country’s institutions and public policies.

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

2023 Budget: Poverty Reduction a Priority
The National Assembly approved the 2023 General Budget of the Republic which, for the first time in history, will be fully financed with government revenues. The chair of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly, Deputy Wálmaro Gutiérrez said; “For the first time, far from lamenting that our expenses are greater than our income, today we are talking about a fully financed Budget without deficit. Tell me a single government administration other than the FSLN government that can say that.” Deputy José Figueroa, vice-chair of the Economic Committee explained that the 2023 Budget is 20% larger than 2022. “Tax revenues are projected to be 19.9% more; income tax revenue is expected to be 23% more.” Deputy Carlos Emilio López emphasized that the 2023 Budget guarantees the restauration of rights to children, adolescents and young people and ensures access to free, quality and specialized justice. Social spending will be very strong with 56.4% with the education sector at 21.7%, health 21%, social protection 3.5%, housing and community services 9%. Defense spending is at 3.3% of budget, transportation and communication 11.1%, public order and security 9.8%, general public services 13.1% and other spending is 6.4%. This budget guarantees many social and productive programs, such as the school lunch, school backpack, high school graduation bonus, teachers’ bonuses, construction of hospitals, health centers, new schools and maintenance, transportation fare subsidies, the subsidy to consumers of less than 150 kilowatts of electricity per month, construction of 201 new kilometers of roads and road and bridge maintenance, agricultural programs, drinking water and sanitation projects. Renewable energy generation projects will continue with increasing electricity coverage expected to exceed the current 99.2%. Likewise, this budget law allocates resources to strengthen citizen security and the fight against organized crime, as well as construction of new housing by INVUR in coordination with local governments. (Radio La Primerisima, 22 Nov. 2022)

Lowest Femicide Rate in Central America
On Nov. 25 the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) and the Latin America and Caribbean Gender Equality Observatory presented the conclusions of the Regional Report on Femicides in the continent, “Bringing an end to violence against women and girls: A key challenge for building a care society.” The report states that with 0.4, Nicaragua registered the lowest rate of femicides per 100,000 inhabitants in the Region in 2021, followed by Costa Rica (0.7); Panama (1.0); Guatemala (1.6); El Salvador (2.4); Dominican Republic (2.7); and Honduras (4.6). (Nicaragua News, 28 Nov. 2022)

List Published of Those Elected in Municipal Elections
On Nov. 25 the Supreme Electoral Council published in La Gaceta, the definitive list of those elected as mayors, vice mayors, councilpersons and their respective alternates in the municipal elections held last November 6 “so that they may exercise their functions in accordance with the provisions of the Political Constitution of the Republic and the Electoral Law,” the publication states. For the list: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias ... nicipales/ (Radio La Primerisima, 25 Nov. 2022)

Nicaragua with Highest Percentage of Fully Vaccinated
The Pan American Health Organization reported on Nov. 22 that with 91.2% of the population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Nicaragua is the country in the region with the highest percentage of fully vaccinated people, followed by Costa Rica (82.5%); Panama (72.1%); El Salvador (67.2%); Honduras (56.8%); Guatemala (38.4%). (Nicaragua News, 23 Nov. 2022)

Nicaragua with the Highest Electricity Coverage in the Region
Nicaragua occupies, together with Costa Rica, first place in the Central American region with the highest electricity coverage in their nations, highlighted in last week’s Forbes Magazine. Costa Rica has 99.4% and Nicaragua 99.2% of electrification index. Costa Rica has taken 60 years to achieve this and Nicaragua in only 15 years went from 54% of families with electricity to 99.2%. Between 2007 and 2022, the Nicaraguan Government, through ENATREL, executed 9,720 projects and electrified 685,757 homes, benefiting 3,607,820 Nicaraguans. By the end of 2022, 7,273 more homes will have electricity, with an investment of US$20.6 million financed by CABEI and the national government. (Radio La Primerisima, 28 Nov. 2022)

Military Hospital with New Chemotherapy Unit
The authorities of the Military Hospital in Managua [one of the largest in Central America that attends the general population], inaugurated a chemotherapy delivery unit that will improve attention to cancer patients. Currently, the Military Hospital attends some 7,500 cancer patients, 14.5% of them with breast cancer, 13.3% with prostate cancer, and 9% with cervical-uterine cancer. “We saw that as we grew, despite multiple prevention campaigns, we have a significant number of patients who need to receive chemotherapy. In this unit approximately 60 chemotherapy treatments are delivered in a day. (Radio La Primerisima, 28 Nov. 2022)

More than 282,000 Trees Planted in Areas Affected by Hurricane Julia
From October 31 to November 25th, 282,457 trees of different forest and fruit species have been planted in the municipalities of Central Zelaya, Costa Caribe Sur, Boaco and Chontales, through the “Verde, que te quiero Verde” (Green, I love you Green) national reforestation campaign in areas affected by hurricane Julia. During this period 135 community nurseries have been installed in 24 municipalities in these Departments. 2,963 farm families have been trained in the management of forest tree production systems in association with fruit plants and other crops. 2,564 people participated in the reforestation activities that took place in 240 communities in the municipalities. From November 28 to December 4th, 150,000 more trees will be planted, and 200 more community nurseries will be installed in those same regions. Also, 1,500 families in the communities where the nurseries will be installed will be trained in planting, irrigation and plant management. In addition, producers will be encouraged to establish 250 manzanas [1 manzana equals 1.7 acres] of plantations with forest trees, fruit trees and various crops. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias ... por-julia/ (Radio La Primerisima, 26 Nov. 2022)

Liquid Nitrogen Plant Inaugurated
A liquid nitrogen processing plant was inaugurated on Nov. 28 in the Concepción Palacios Health Complex of MINSA, with an investment of US$400,000. Dr. Carlos Saenz, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, explained that liquid nitrogen has the quality of maintaining ultra-low temperatures, which allows lab technicians to conserve and preserve cells, tissues, viruses, bacteria and parasites for storage in the biobank, for later studies and epidemiological research. The center performs the diagnostics for epidemiology laboratories nationally, as well as studies of dengue, leptospirosis, Chikungunya and different types of viruses that can be diagnosed. (Radio La Primerisima, 28 Nov. 2022)

Thousands of Children to Receive Toys
The Presidential Advisor on Educational Issues, Salvador Vanegas announced this Tuesday that coordination is being carried out in all departments to begin the distribution of hundreds of thousands of toys for children. “With much affection, with much love, for months we have been working on the purchase and importation of toys, which today a team of the Ministry of Education is classifying by different ages, different types of toys, packing them for the entire territory,” he said. Starting on December 9, the first toy caravans will be leaving for the most remote areas of the country, so that on December 13 the delivery to children at elementary schools and kindergartens will begin. (Radio La Primerisima, 29 Nov. 2022)

Evangelicals Now Main Faith Group
According to the most recent survey by the M&R polling firm, Evangelicals are the main faith group in Nicaragua. According to the opinion poll presented Nov. 22, 36.9% of Nicaraguans declare themselves Protestant, the majority, 35.7% of the total surveyed, are Evangelicals, while only 33.1% say they are Catholic. The opinion poll was conducted throughout Central America and, at the regional level, Protestants are the main faith group with 37%. Honduras has the highest percentage with 43.7% Protestants; 42.6% are Evangelicals, while Catholics represent only 27.8%. (TN8.tv, 22 Nov. 2022)

Strengthening Cooperation in Cyber Security
The Governments of Nicaragua and the Russian Federation signed the “2022-2026 Russia-Nicaragua Collaboration in International Information Security Guarantees.” The agreement seeks to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the development of initiatives that provide cyber security guarantees for both countries. Nicaraguan Minister of Foreign Affairs Denis Moncada stated that “the Agreement will strengthen cooperation between Nicaragua and Russia and provides a formal framework for joint work on cyber security issues that prioritizes the defense of peace and tranquility for our citizens.” (Nicaragua News, 23 Nov. 2022)

Prosecutor Requests Preventive Detention for Oscar René Vargas
The Public Prosecutor’s Office requested before a judge preventive detention for Óscar René Vargas Escobar for conspiracy and undermining national integrity. The request for a special hearing to ask for the extension of the period of investigation and judicial detention was submitted to the Tenth Criminal District Court of Managua under Judge Gloria Corrales. Vargas was arrested on Nov. 23 in a house located in Bolonia, a neighborhood of Managua, after entering the country irregularly from Costa Rica. [In 2018 on 100% Noticias television station, Vargas said “the second option that can happen, is that the people, in one of these marches in which we participate, say ‘let’s go to El Carmen (the president’s house),’ and even if there are 200, 300, 400 deaths, it resolves the situation.… [T]hey grab him [Ortega] and hang him, like what happened with Mussolini.” In the early 90’s Vargas allegedly abused his wife, poet Daisy Zamora, and she had to leave the country surreptitiously with her two sons. One of those sons works at Canal 8 with Juan Carlos Ortega.] (Radio La Primerisima, 24 Nov. 2022)

https://afgj.org/nicanotes-12-01-2022.
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Sun Dec 18, 2022 4:23 pm

I Witnessed the Truth about Nicaragua
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on DECEMBER 16, 2022
Wawen Ewimbi

Image
A woman in Nicaragua in corn field, holding an ear of corn.

Contextual History of Struggle in Nicaragua

1909 – 1933: The US is cementing itself as the world’s police in the 20th century; the marines invaded Nicaragua in 1909 “to help stabilize the country”. The US occupied the land until 1933.
In 1927, revolutionary political leader Augusto Nicolas Sandino began leading a tiny, fervent guerrilla army, the Army for the Defense of Nicaraguan National Sovereignty (EDSN), to successfully eject US imperialism from Nicaragua in 1933.
1934-1979: A civilian entrenched by the glittery wickedness of the United States, Antonio Somoza assassinated Sandino in 1934 and in 1937 became the President. As a son of Empire and one of the US’ favorite puppets, Somoza and his political family dynasty tyrannized and exploited Nicaragua under a brutally violent dictatorship that killed and tortured thousands, wontedly ignored social issues and fed the national bourgeoisie. He warmly ushered U.S. companies such as Citigroup, Bank of America, Sears, Westinghouse, and Coca Cola to exploit Nicaragua.
1961-1979: Imperial barbarity is never taken lying down, though. In 1961, 19 year old marxist Carlos Fonseca formed the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). The FSLN took time to build popular support and militant organization of the majority peasant farmer population. Somoza’s management of Nicaragua after the tragic 1972 earthquake was so inadequate that even the national bourgeoisie eventually too began to oppose his rule, and some liberal coalitions supported Sandinistas. After years of intensifying struggle, the FSLN successfully overthrew the Somoza dynasty in July 1979.
1979-1981: The Sandinista government almost immediately implemented an aggressive series of social programs that transferred ownership of millions of acres of land to small farmers for free, exponentially improved the literacy rate of the population, and began establishing the renowned agrarian model to drastically reduce hunger, cement the agricultural economy and create a political defense, and lay the roadblocks for food sovereignty on the land. At the time of the revolution, Nicaragua was a relatively successful Central American sugar, coffee, cotton, and meat producing agricultural economy. This wealth was concentrated in the hands of Capital. In 1981, the agro-export businesses owned 50% of the rural labor force while holding only 10% of the land. The private bourgeoisie 1.2% of the population owned 47.1% of the land, while 30% of the rural farming population either had no land or worked for meager wages as tenant farmers. The 1981 Agrarian Reform Law passed with popular support from workers and people’s unions like the Asociación Trabajadores del Campo (Rural Workers Union).
1980-1990: The Sandinista government led by revolutionary Daniel Ortega barely got 2 years to build the country in “peace” before the devil himself Ronald Reagan waged a duplicitous war against Nicaragua.
The war was not only an attempt to crush Nicaragua, but a slick method to destabilize revolutionary forces in the US and further imperialism in the Middle East. As the leader of US hegemony now threatened by socialism building in a former puppet country of the US, Regan funded millions to the Contras counterrevolutionary army to terrorize Nicaragua through the 80s. These millions came from weapon sales to Iran. Some of the Contra forces were from the Afro Miskitu, Garifuna, and Kriol population of the Carribbean coast, who experienced generations of military abuse, alienation and discrimination from mainland Nicaragua. Reagan used the Contra forces to smuggle cocaine from Colombia through Nicaragua and into Black neighborhoods in the US. This state-manufactured drug epidemic provided a face for the mass re-enslavement of Black people via mass incarceration through the War on Drugs campaign. Such finalized the vicious repression of revolutionary forces like the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, permanently stifling the mass political awakening of the superexploited Afro population and further destroying Black communities. Let the Iran-Contra scheme serve as a reminder that the US acts scarcely for true democracy, but in the interests of furthering fascism, expanding imperialism, maintaining neocolonialism, or otherwise generally extinguishing a peoples fighting for freedom.
Nicaragua ached under war for nearly a decade. 50,000 were martyred, and the country suffered heavily as the new government fought impossibly against Somozismo and Yankees while trying to maintain and develop the gains of the revolution. In 1990, the Sandinistas conceded the war, and Violeta Chamorro of the neo-liberal bourgeois National Opposition Union (UNO) was elected President.
1990-2006: Neo-liberal governments ruled the country and undid all the progress of the 1st stage (1980-1990) of the revolution. For 17 years, people who bled for their progress watched capitalists burn it all down. They shut down the free education programs, privatized public services, ceased electricity development, and stuffed their pockets while extreme poverty in the country skyrocketed. Mind you, they elected a woman of an old money family to be the first neo-liberal president of the country. Chamorro’s election is a prime example of neoliberalism’s insidiousness – symbolic progressive concessions on social issues like gender or race are granted, while true power remains in the hands of the bourgeois, imperialists, and fascists.
2007-2018: After losing elections in 1996 and 2001, the former President during the first stage of the revolution returned to power by popular vote in 2006. Daniel Ortega “llego al comandante y mando a parar.” The Sandinista government began rebuilding the country with 3 main goals: anti-imperialism, anti-Somozismo, and anti-local oligarchies.
Introduction

Entering adulthood alongside the dwindling of 2020 uprisings for Black liberation (that I had naively seen as the beginning of the end), I felt very stuck. Understanding I am a poor queer Black woman, I saw myself facing a world where the options presented for survival were dehumanizing at best, and the innate dream of living as a free person essentially destroyed. I wanted to fight the liberal tendency of American youth to begin with strong spirits of resistance, before colleging, working and/or drugging, and ultimately, laying down into the nuzzle of the state we once claimed to relentlessly hate. I myself knew that I was seriously struggling, on so many fronts, save the one struggle that might bring peace. I knew a spoonful about Nicaragua and their struggle, but became personally interested after hearing report-backs of comrades who traveled to Nicaragua to observe the November 2021 election and January inauguration of President Daniel Ortega. I decided in February that I wanted to see for myself the realities of international socialist struggle and what Nicaragua was really about.

With the help of the Claudia Jones School for Political Education, I went on a 10 day journey, witnessing the reality of modern agriculture in Nicaragua and commemorating the 43rd anniversary of their revolution. From July 12-22nd, I participated in the Friends of ATC Food Sovereignty, Agroecology, & Victorious July delegation with 22 others, students, journalists, and activists from across the world. An account of my experience is as follows.

Delegation

I arrived in Nicaragua around 8:30 AM on July 12th. The first day was very low-key. We rested, ate, toured the neighborhood surrounding the Francisco Morazan School where we stayed, and got to know each other.

The core delegation program began the next day with an essential teach-in from Nicaraguan leaders. We received lessons from Fausto Torrez, ex-Sandinista guerrilla and current Secretary of International Relations of the ATC, on the colonial and modern political history of Nicaragua, the formation of the revolutionary leading party Frente Sandinista por Liberación Nacional (FSLN), and the recent achievements of the Sandinistas since returning to power in 2006, despite US backed opposition attempting to violently overthrow the government in 2018.

The Sandinista government has accomplished extraordinary feats since 2007:

more than 1.2 million children have received free school meals in rural, urban, and dry corridor schools
Nationwide electric coverage went from 54% to 99%
Renewable Energy went from 25% to 75.9% from 2006-2020.
427,434 property titles and 124, 898 property credits distributed
Construction of more than 71,376 homes and improvements, 21,568 subsidies for new housing.
More than 1.7 million students with free education every year.
Drinking water in urban zones went from 65% to 91% and in rural areas from 26.7% to 55.4%.
Construction of 19 new hospitals, 192 clinics, construction and improvement of more than 1,333 medical posts, and 66 mobile clinics, 178 maternity homes, along other gains in the health sector.
Road coverage doubled from 2,429 kilometers in 2006 to 4,868 kilometers in 2020.
2018 Coup vs. Reality

The right-wing opposition and Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) orchestrated a coup (golpe) attempt in summer 2018. They appealed to democratic values in students, rallying around “violent repression of the Ortega government” after the government issued an IMF-coerced pension decrease for seniors. Violence and chaos erupted on April 18th. For 3 months, hundreds were tortured or killed, and many roads were barricaded at gunpoint with cement blocks. Hospitals, public offices, banks, and homes burned. Nicaraguan teenagers I met from Masaya and Managua recounted the fear and uncertainty they felt because of the violence and political instability. Veteran Sandinistas worried that progress would be washed away in blood all over again.

US backed oligarchies and NGO’s (in Nicaragua these include FUNIDES, Hagamos Democracia, and Violeta Chamorro Foundation) dominate the narratives with lies of the social and political situation in Central America. The goals of the gople were to halt economic progress and instill enough fear in the population for a seamless coup. In Western media, Nicaragua is described as a poor country suffering at the hands of socialism under crazed, abusive dictator Ortega. In this mirage, any dissent is ruthlessly silenced.

For a sense of reality, I witnessed opposition party campaign posters from last year’s elections on dozens of street poles and vendor carts across the country. I spoke with citizens neutral and candidly opposed to the government about their critiques. If this repressive regime exists, it certainly is doing a terrible job at silencing its citizens.

While the pretty faced National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funds America’s commitment to devastating Nicaragua, to this day, the US Department of State owes $18 billion to Nicaragua for terrorism of Contra period per a 1986 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling.

Agroecology, ATC & La Via Campesina

I also learned about the Asociación Trabajadores del Campo (Rural Workers Association) and La Via Campesina global peasant workers movement from Marlen Sanchez, a leader in both organizations, and Edgardgo Garcia, Secretary General of the ATC. The ATC formed out of the revolutionary struggle and works to improve the life, working conditions, and political integration of over 50,000 rural farm workers in Nicaragua. The union is independent but works with the state, private enterprises, and workers to negotiate for better salaries and work conditions, administer political education programs, ensure social security for rural workers, ensure public safety for vendors and unions, and increase accessibility to basic services. The ATC is active all across the country, but especially in 12 of Nicaragua’s 15 departments and 2 autonomous regions. They’ve built many technical schools for agroecology and political education on the mainland and in the autonomous regions.

The Banners of Struggle that inform the ATC’s work in La Via Campesina include:

Comprehensive and popular agrarian reform
Food sovereignty based on agroecology
Defense of human rights in territories and implementation of the Declaration of Peasant Rights
Protagonism of peasant women and peasant and popular feminism.
Building alliances with organizations from other sectors
Militant and internationalist solidarity
Youth development from intergenerational frame
Political, ideological and technical training
African and Indigenous Nicaragua

I was especially curious about the process of building this national organization in the Caribbean coast autonomous zones – the Indigenous and African-descendant population of Nicaragua. The pervasive malevolence of anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity across the world, no exception granted to Hispanic nations, leaves mainland with a historically strained relationship with African-descendant Nicaragua. Nicaragua is home to a large African-descendant population. The Afro Miskitu, Garifuna, Rama Cay, Zambu, and Kriol populations of the Carribbean coastal region that spans the major area of Nicaragua used guerrilla and cultural techniques to repudiate British slavery and colonial forces in the 17-20th centuries. A common calamity of colonialism, mestizo and indigenous people of Spanish Nicaragua clashed with the African and Indigenous people of English Nicaragua. Experiencing racist alienation and exploitation from mainland Nicaragua, English Nicaragua had no schools, no electricity, no potable tap water, poor infrastructure, and no roads until the revolution of the 1980s. Divisions imposed on us by colonists should not underpin and dictate the societies we are creating in the aftermath. The Sandinista government understood the simultaneous need for nationality unity, multi-ethnic diversity, and autonomy for oppressed peoples on Nicaraguan land. Sandinistas passed the autonomy law in 1987, officially recognizing the African populations in the North and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions (RAAN and RAAS).

The ATC’s relationship with the Caribbean coast is still strengthening in comparison to the mainland. They are cognizant of the racialized aspects of social and economic treatment towards Indigenous and African peoples in Nicaragua, and are working to better relationships and partnerships with the populations while maintaining their sovereignty and dual power. The ATC has a stronger presence in the RAAN (northern autonomous zone) and invites participation from both regions to participate in intercultural exchange and benefits of a pluricultural nationhood. ATC strongly upholds the autonomy of these zones and their unique cultures, epistemologies, processes, and governing structures.

Agroecology School in Matagalpa, Nicaragua

On day three, we were welcomed to the Rodolfo Sánchez Bustos Agricultural and Livestock Technical School, one of the agro-ecology schools (Instituto Agricultura Latin America or IALA’s) in the Santa Emilia department of Matagalpa. The dormitory campus was beautiful, with expansive farmland for hands-on learning high in the lush cloud forests region.

The Sandinistas are characterized by a revolutionary agrarian model, affected largely by the significant role of agricultural labor unions and women in the ATC struggle. Two women from one of 26 women’s cooperatives in Matagalpa gave us a thorough tour of the IALA campus. They shared with us losses of sisters, neighbors, and children to domestic violence, brutal work conditions, machismo, poverty, and misogyny that ultimately forced them into revolutionary action when people’s power called. One of the women was a lawyer in addition to farmer, mother, and organizer, and spoke of the hardships to follow after the revolution was won – gaining political respect and organizational independence/funding as women leading unions.

Marlen Sanchez, who is also the Director of IALA Nicaragua, taught us about the formation of agro-ecology schools as a pillar of the revolutionary youth movement, Sandinista juventud. Adorably, she and her husband met as teens at the first IALA campus in Venezuela, and continued to lead in the agro-ecology movement in Latin America since. Alongside technical agriculture education, IALAs are training militant, socialist leaders under 35 from all over Latin + Central America & the Caribbean who will be equipped to organize their communities. There are IALAs in Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, and over 700 students at the Ixim Ulew school in Nicaragua (Ixem Ulew refers to Latin America, what Mayan peoples described the “Land of Corn”). Some of the technical instruction includes courses in agropecuaria, computación, eco construction, agroindustry, agrobiodiversidad, and more concepts that went over my city-girl head. Marlen stressed that in these schools they are building permanent, time-resistant formations to continue through generations, so social consciousness is developed with technology, Indigenous knowledge, and a thorough historical and political analysis. Students at IALAs learn about internationalism, praxis, gender, sexuality, La Pachamama, and transformative family structures, communism, work skills, organizing strategies, místicos or spiritual/artistic expressions, cultural and social movement history, and more.

I was extremely nervous to do so, but it was a very special thing to meet teens and young adults from the rest of Abya Yala (America) who were enriching themselves at the Santa Emilia School. With a little help from translators, we bonded over consignas (fight songs) and hip hop music, punta dancing and shared struggles. All the students were from peasant farmer families, similar to my own grandparents, aunts, and uncles back home in Cameroon. I fellowshipped with young people who were actively resisting hegemonic imperialism in their lands, while building sustenance, alternative systems of reality through communal living, and a scientific, Earth centered rooted approach to the creation of food. Que tuani.

After dinner and rest, we convened in the auditorium for another great lesson from Fausto Torrez on the transition from a unipolar to multipolar world. We learned about the hybrid warfare tactics of the NATO dominating powers, the rise of the Five Eyes against socialism in the 20th century, and possibilities to come from the rising economic and political collaboration between progressive states of the East and Global South, like BRICS. For centuries, particularly from 2009-now, the US, Canada, Britain, and other colonial powers have used ideological, physical, psychological, and social warfare to orchestrate a number of coups and destabilization efforts in Nicaragua, Honduras, Paraguay, Brazil, Haiti, Bolivia, and other American countries. Tactics of such control include spreading ideological disinformation through social media campaigns and cultural agitations, mercenaries, blockades, sanctions, and occupations to address “human rights violations”.

Women’s Struggle, Free Maternity Houses, and Sustainability in San Ramon

The fourth day, we were honored to be welcomed by the Mayor of San Ramon, Matagalpa for an informational presentation and gift giving ceremony. Consuela Morán is the first woman to ever hold the position and was candid about the challenges of being a single mother while becoming a woman in power. She shared how the city cultivates and defends food sovereignty in their municipality – protecting native seeds, minimizing use of chemicals in agricultural processes, and specializing production + empowering campesinas to grow, buy, and sell local crops. The Mayor also showed us a newly formed trash processing plant in the region, where 43% of waste is able to be repurposed into compost or other reusable material.

We stopped for a hearty lunch at a local restaurant, then visited one of the 170+ free maternity houses implemented by the Sandinista government. For at least 3 weeks and until needed, women are able to rest and receive free specialized pre-natal or postpartum care through the birthing process from trained physicians and doulas. Transportation, lodging, food, and family support is all provided to expecting mothers. As an African woman from the US who can give birth, but is terrified of the process due to medical racism and high maternal & infant mortality rates for African women, this level of equitable maternal health support was shocking.

How to Support the ATC

On our last day at the Santa Emilia School, a local women’s cooperative and ATC collaborator hosted a feria (farmers market) and celebration. All goods were produced in entirety by the cooperative – I left with rich insight into their experiences, and even richer coffee, honey, wine, and herbal medicines. We also visited downtown Matagalpa for sightseeing.

Erika Takeo, the National Coordinator of the ATC’s solidarity network, Friends ATC, gave a more in-depth presentation on the ATC’s global functions in the evening. The main initiatives of Friends ATC include: fundraising, education, reviving the once strong 1980s international solidarity movement in young people, communications, and building solidarity through international delegations & exchanges.

Internationally, one can best support workers in the ATC by disseminating truthful news and counter-stories to the destructive narratives propagated by US-NATO dominating powers. Nicaragua is expecting 100% food sovereignty by 2026! Organize against transnational agribusiness corporations, visit the country, organize in your city against US sanctions, and send remittance or directly fundraise for farming tools and other local initiatives of the ATC (not large NGOs).

Donate to the construction of an ATC office in Esteli.

Be sure to purchase Cafe Revolution, coffee produced by the May 1st cooperative in Jinotega, Nicaragua.

Gloria Quintanillia Women’s Cooperative

One week in, the delegation visited men and women’s farming cooperatives that work with the ATC. I was honored to visit the Gloria Quintanilla Women’s Cooperative in Santa Julia, Chinandega, Nicaragua. The cooperative of 49 women (22 youth) supports 79 families, around 600 people. The women here have built and sustained intergenerational radical restructuring of their community. They are no longer slaves to men or random chance, they have realized and taken their power – and are supported by the Sandinista government in doing so. The lovely Doña Lola who welcomed us to her home grows 19 different crops herself – each woman is able to do the same on their own plot of land. They receive from government organizations cows, seeds, and loans with 1% interest as needed. They create organic compost with land specific plants, water, and decomposing bugs. Protecting and nurturing La Pachamama (Mother Earth) is paramount. We live in by, with, and for the Earth, so the co-op takes special care to protect the land and monitor/clean the river that quenches thirst for the community. The community is very waste conscious; excess harvest is used to make jams, vinegars, chillies, deserts, medicines, and other goods for sale. Since 2010, they’ve built a primary school, a community-controlled justice model that has drastically reduced femicides and domestic violence, and a potable water well system for their people. Educational opportunities are eagerly sought, and literacy in the community is very high. This is a remarkable achievement after the destruction of neo-liberal period. Major literacy, gender, sexuality, and family planning education has completely changed the personhood and future possibilities of young campesinas in the area.

The Spirit of Revolution and end to Hegemony

Once returned from Chinandega, we got ready to attend a joyous (and delicious) dinner hosted by the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry in Managua on July 18th. Journalists, organizers, politicians, and freedom fighters from all over the world convened to celebrate the revolution anniversary. Viva la revolución Sandinista! Vigil celebrations, beautiful fireworks, and festivities emblematic of the people’s love continued through the late night.

19 de Julio finally arrived. On this day 43 years ago, Sandinistas emerged victorious after years of armed struggle. The delegation attended the official government 43/19 celebrations in Granada. Representatives from the multipolar world, including Russia, China, Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Angola, and more, were present. Presidential couple Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosarillo Murrillo gave powerful addresses renouncing US imperialism and bourgeois liberal democracy. With Biden issuing sanctions under the RENACER Act in November 2021, and a new set targeting Nicaragua’s gold and mining industry in October 2022, Ortega maintained the justifiably antagonistic status of US-Nicaragua diplomatic relations: “Dialogue is impossible, it’s impossible. Dialogue is just for putting the noose around your own neck.”

And What About It?

The majority of Nicaraguans are engaged in the political realm at a level that makes modern U.S. political discourse laughable. The sense of education and political efficacy was a loud culture shock. Outside the American bubble of red and blue, revolution is not a theoretical concern for essays and the ether but a tangible, hard won necessity to leading a dignified existence on Earth in the face of colonialism’s catastrophic effects. Young and old, they are dedicated to building something better of a world for all of us together with Mother Earth. This means revolutionary militancy starts young and continues from generation to generation. The land is a priority to the people here. Balancing the climate disaster with best practices for ecology and development is an especially difficult task for Global South countries starved of resources and facing the brunt of eco-decline. Despite this, the national government puts major effort towards preservation, flora y fauna maintenance, and disaster mitigation.

The Sandinista government of once colonized peoples are unrelentingly committed to anti-imperialism. Clear in the dignified fervor of the Nicaraguan people, who proudly tout the slogan “somos pueblo presidente”, the people are the power here. Sandinistas have an acute understanding that struggle turns you toward death or victory. If you remain alive, you may as well choose victory. After 2 stages of revolution, 10 years of war, and 17 years of decay under neoliberalism, it’s not over till it’s over. The struggle is not separate from life, and neither is hope.

In 2018, the Trump administration issued emergency Executive Order 13851 and the NICA Act: policies to escalate political aggression against Nicaragua and a set of unilateral coercive measures barring significant trade and international aid. In 2021, Biden ordered more sanctions against Nicaragua under the evilly ironic RENACER Act. On October 18, 2022, Biden issued additional sanctions targeting the gold/mining industry (gold was Nicaragua’s biggest export last year) and specific Nicaraguan political and military leaders. Three weeks ago on November 10th, the Biden administration renewed Trump’s executive order for the second year in a row. Whether wearing blue or red costumes, US bourgeois imperialists attack Nicaragua to punish them for struggling towards an equitable society under socialism. Countries like Nicaragua and Cuba have shown what is possible. Major media coverage gravely misrepresents Nicaragua’s social/political affairs. Stories are usually pejorative and sensationalized to keep the American public confused, indifferent, or antagonistic regarding the Nicaraguan struggle. It is only right that those of us in the imperial core condemn our government’s ceaseless warmongering and assaults on the sovereignty of the Nicaraguan people.

Additional Resources

youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wUDr0tQxqs

Sources

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/994257.shtml
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/nicaragua
https://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3099
https://www-jstor-org.montgomerycollege ... b_contents
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-impose ... 022-10-24/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... nicaragua/
https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... -nicaragua
https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understa ... nistas.php
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/n ... contra.htm
https://blackallianceforpeace.com/nicaragua
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/n ... contra.htm

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/12/ ... nicaragua/
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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 26, 2022 2:27 pm

Nicaragua's message in the 3rd Teheran Dialogue Forum
Enviado por tortilla el Lun, 19/12/2022 - 18:59
Gobierno de Reconciliación y Unidad Nacional
Unida Nicaragua Triunfa



MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF RECONCILIATION AND NATIONAL UNITY
AT THE III ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TEHRAN DIALOGUE FORUM

Denis Moncada Colindres, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Tehran, Iran, Monday, 19th December, 2022.

Brother Hossein Amir- Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Chairman of the Third Tehran Dialogue Forum;

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Institute of Political and International Studies of Iran;

Ladies and Gentlemen Representatives, Directors and Outstanding Experts of Political Thought Centers of Participating Brotherly Countries, Special Guests;


1. We thank and congratulate the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Brother Hossein Amir- Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs for organizing and holding this third annual meeting of the "Tehran Dialogue Forum" organized by the Institute of Political and International Studies of the Foreign Ministry of Iran and we convey the fraternal greetings of solidarity of the President of the Republic of Nicaragua, Comandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra and Vice President Rosario Murillo, the Government and People of Nicaragua to all the participants.

2. The world is undergoing a process of change and profound transformation aimed at strengthening multilateralism, multipolarity, defending the existence of Sovereign States and Free Peoples.

3. In this changing reality, this year's motto "The Neighbor Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran: An approach towards friendship and trust", constitutes a key element for the construction of a new world order, a world of Peace, based on respect of sovereignty, independence of countries, international law at a level of relations of equality, recognition and respect for the internal policies of different countries with their own cultures, identities and forms of government.

4. This is a Forum of friendship, good neighborliness and mutual trust, since we uphold just and dignified causes, inalienable rights and a vision and action aimed at building a multipolar World that benefits humanity.

5. The transversal crises that affect the peoples of the hemispheres and continents, their global and regional implications, have their epicenter in the decadent North American hegemonic empire and its Western European and NATO allies. The US elite government, using countries of the European Union, NATO and Ukraine as a catapult for aggression against Russia, continue to expand towards the East, transgressing international law, threatening the security and integrity of the Russian Federation, endangering International Peace and Security, and the stability of many countries.

6. Negotiations and diplomatic efforts are essential to guarantee Security and Peace and to prevent the US Government, NATO and the European Union from using Ukraine to justify a third world catastrophe, as envisioned by the US Strategic Thinking Group of Santa Fe, in its Santa Fe document number four (IV), affirming that the United States is engaged in the third world war and that it must take the initiative since its own survival is at stake.

7. 5 days ago on 14TH December, the 22ND Summit of Presidents of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) was held in Havana, Cuba to celebrate, commemorate, 18 years of unity and commitment to Latin American and Caribbean integration, initiated by the Presidents of Cuba, Fidel Castro and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez.

8. In this meeting, the President of Nicaragua Comandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra reflected, "Since the last century, since the year 1856, the first battle took place in Nicaragua, where the Yankee expansionist aggressors, who had imposed an American President in our country, William Walker, recognized by the Yankee government. They came to seize Nicaragua, which was to seize the passage of the Interoceanic Canal through Nicaragua. They were defeated.” They had already designed their Monroe Doctrine to take over all of the countries of Our America and they have now expanded that doctrine, to take over the world and make their hegemonic empire prevail at all costs.

9. Since that time, US imperialism attacks Nicaragua, which our people have resisted with patriotic dignity, defending themselves and achieving the triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution in 1979, the same year as the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

10. Nicaragua and Iran, Iran and Nicaragua are united by historical events of National Liberation, of anti-imperialist struggle, with dignity and national identity, against those who seek to destroy and subdue our peoples. They will not achieve that, we fight, we resist, we win. Our neighborhood transcends geographical borders and distances, our friendship is fraternal, we have confidence in a better multipolar, fair, inclusive world, respectful of States and nations.

11. The desires and the struggle of the States and peoples of the world for Peace, security, progress and integral development, collide with the meddling attitude and imperial hegemonism of the United States, the Western powers and NATO also subordinated to the Government of the United States.

12. Faced with this international reality, the President of Nicaragua, Comandante Daniel Ortega, at the recent ALBA-TCP meeting in Havana, Cuba also expressed:

13. “We have to continue opening spaces, widening spaces, because unquestionably, the battle is gigantic, we are facing what is a “Gordian knot” that Imperialism nailed, that the colonialist Nations nailed when the United Nations was created after World War II. Who created the United Nations? Who dictated these Principles so as not to comply with them? The colonialists! Make no mistake, let's not get lost.”

14. “And the great challenge that we have now in the world is the refounding of the United Nations, under the Principle of Multipolarity. It is time to create a New World, where the Principles that can be fulfilled are really established, or to enforce the Principles that are there in the United Nations and are not currently not being fulfilled.”

15. “ That is the field that we have in front of us, the conditions are taking place, they have been taking place, so that, from what is the imperialist imposition, that wants to continue maintaining its hegemony; it is necessary to break that knot, it is necessary to decapitate Imperialism, for what? So that Peace, Democracy and Stability can really reign in the World, and that then, the Principles of the United Nations are fulfilled.”

16. The Santa Fe Group affirms that the decline of the United States has hastened, its fall is foreseeable due to its cultural destruction, emptying of military capacity and the erosion of its military ethical culture, which has been a gradual process of reduction and progressive withering.

17. The United States and its hegemonic imperial power slides down a slippery slope that points to the ash pile of history. It is an inexorable process, a process in which the Western European and NATO caboose, also derails to the very precipice of history.

18. The Government of Nicaragua supports the Russian Federation in its efforts to promote peace, understanding, the peaceful resolution of conflicts, comprehensive security, as well as regional and global stability. Russia has the right to its active defense, given the eastward expansion of NATO toward the border of the Russian Federation, in joint aggressive actions of the Government of the United States, the European Union and NATO.

19. The Government and People of Syria continue to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity and in the fight against foreign aggression and international terrorism. All aggression against the Brotherly People and Government of Syria and the looting of its natural resources, visibly carried out by North American units, must cease.

20. Nicaragua is a free, independent, sovereign State, but there are still interfering imperial forces that threaten our People, Government and programs aimed at fight poverty and ensuring sustainable development. We continue to fight, with the Sandinista Front, the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, and our People resisting and winning.

21. This Tehran Dialogue Forum gives us the opportunity to exchange points of view on transcendental geopolitics issues, in order to build a better world for the benefit of all, a Forum and a Path of Convergence with principles and with the values of Peace, Security, Stability and Dignity of nations that must be respected and continue to face great Social, Economic, Climatic, Cultural and Security Challenges.

22. Our People and Government support the end of all sanctions against the Sister Republic of Iran. We condemn all aggressions and acts of international terrorism and destabilization, against the Islamic Revolution of Iran.

23. The incipient post-pandemic recovery, after two years, has been threatened by the global, energy, inflationary, climate and food crises, aggravated by the coercive and illegal unilateral measures imposed by the North American Government and Western powers against the Russia Federation, China, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, North Korea and other brotherly nations. We reject and condemn those imperial sanctions.

24. Nicaragua will continue to promote a culture of peace, of peaceful coexistence among sister countries, and we will continue to be in Central America and the region, a factor of regional stability, peace and security. Our brotherly and close friendship with the Islamic Republic of Iran is strengthened, we are good neighbors, regardless of geographical distance.

25. We convey our best wishes for success, health and prosperity for the Noble Brotherly People and Government of Iran, as well as the affection of all the Nicaraguan families. Our fraternal greetings to the Friends and Brothers who participate in this Forum, an appropriate meeting point for the exchange of ideas, experiences and constructive points of view, aimed at the Common Good of our peoples.

Thank you very much.

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Re: Nicaragua

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 02, 2023 2:04 pm

Washington Blames Record Migration on ‘Communism’ When the Causes Are Closer to Home
DECEMBER 30, 2022

Image
Children play by the fence on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border in the desert scrub. File photo.

By John Perry – Dec 24, 2022

John Perry examines the real reasons for growing numbers of migrants crossing the border into Texas

After two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, four times as many undocumented migrants are trying to cross the border into the United States, and he’s getting desperate to explain away the increase.

In September, the administration discovered a new narrative: that migrants are fleeing “communism.”

The White House ignores that fact that in the fiscal year just ended, migrants coming from the three countries he labels “communist” formed less than a third of the total: of the 2.7 million people “encountered” at the border, only a fifth came from Cuba, Nicaragua or Venezuela.

Half of all migrants still come from the four countries closest to Texas: Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

If Biden blames migration on “repression” he has an excuse for renewed attacks on governments his administration demonises.

But the real reasons for the growth in numbers are closer to home. Take the case of Nicaraguans heading north: their numbers have grown from a handful in 2020 to 165,000 in the last 12 months. What’s driving them?

In one word, it’s jobs. The US has an acute labour shortage: “There aren’t enough people to fill the jobs being advertised,” said one economist this month.

Biden Traffics in the Lives and Safety of Migrants


With a shortage of people to do low-paid work, getting them from countries with much lower wages is the obvious solution.

Stories of people moving north and sending $500 each month to their families back home are plentiful in Nicaragua, where I live.

Remittances make up a big proportion of Nicaragua’s national income and the share of them coming from the United States grew by nearly two-thirds in the first nine months of this year.

Of course, people won’t head north unless they think they have a good chance of getting there.

Nicaragua is on the transit route for migrants heading to the US from all over the world, so in the past two years “coyotes” have appeared to arrange passage and loan sharks to arrange the finance.

Buses take people as far north as the Mexican border. It is still highly dangerous, as a friend of mine imprisoned in Mexico has discovered.

But once Nicaraguans reach Texas, they can expect better treatment than migrants from neighbouring countries like Honduras.

In many cases, they are allowed in and even given bus or plane tickets to cities where they have family or friends. Unlike Hondurans, very few are deported.

But as well as undocumented migrants there are also formal routes attracting educated Nicaraguans.

Young people from wealthier families, who often speak good English, also find an open door.

Those on student visas are now allowed to stay once their studies end and migrants who can afford to fly to the US, perhaps on tourist visas, seem able to regularise their stays more easily.

Nicaraguans with now ubiquitous smartphones see adverts offering guaranteed jobs or “kits” for those who want to take their chance.

The message “everyone is heading north” is all about the supposed opportunities, not about fleeing from “repression.”

Nicaragua is the third-poorest country in Latin America and its economy was hit not only by the pandemic but by the US-supported coup attempt in 2018.

For three months the country was paralysed and was just recovering when Covid-19 struck. It handled the pandemic well, but unlike its neighbours had virtually no help from Washington.

Nicaragua is subject to US sanctions, which are less severe than those on Cuba and Venezuela but have disrupted flows of development finance and even of vital imports like medical supplies.

Washington recently began to tighten the screw, targeting the gold mining industry which is Nicaragua’s biggest export earner.

Biden’s nominee for ambassador to Nicaragua, Hugo Rodriguez, promised the US Congress that he would “support using all economic and diplomatic tools to bring about a change in direction in Nicaragua.”

A prominent think tank has called for a complete embargo on Nicaraguan imports.

It’s clear that in 2023, Nicaragua will continue to be treated as a pariah while Biden is forced into limited negotiations with Venezuela and may even shift his position on Cuba.

In November, he repeated Donald Trump’s ridiculous assertion that Nicaragua is an “extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States” and in December put it on a list of countries guilty of religious suppression, bizarrely choosing a period in which streets in every Nicaraguan city are filled with religious processions.

Nicaragua’s real threat to the United States is a very different one. Despite the double blow of the US-inspired coup attempt in 2018 and the pandemic in 2020, the country is recovering.

It was more successful than adjoining countries in tackling Covid-19, and now has one of Latin America’s highest vaccination rates.

The list of government achievements in the 15 years that the Sandinistas have been in power is impressive: 24 new public hospitals completed, maternal mortality cut by two-thirds, electricity coverage up from 50 per cent to 99 per cent of households, with three-quarters generated from renewables, and public investment creating the best roads in Central America.

Perhaps its singular achievement is in women’s rights, with Nicaragua ranked seventh in the world for gender equality.

At the moment, people’s biggest concern is the state of the economy and the cost-of-living crisis.

Nicaragua has advantages here, too: it has a dynamic small business sector with limited dependence on multinational companies; it’s agriculture is dominated by small farmers and offers 80 per cent self-sufficiency in basic foods.

Prices have been controlled because the government is capping the cost of fuel (both for vehicles and for cooking).

Nicaragua’s economy grew by more than 10 per cent in 2021, returning to 2019, pre-pandemic economic levels, and by almost 4 per cent in 2022.

Government debt (46 per cent of GDP) is lower than its neighbours, especially that of Costa Rica (70 per cent), where poverty now extends to 30 per cent of the population.

However, Nicaragua and Costa Rica are economically interdependent, and the latter’s economic problems mean fewer jobs, feeding the growth in migration by Nicaraguans to the United States.

Maduro Urges Biden to Stop Manipulating Migration Issue to Attack Other Countries


If Washington were serious about curbing migration, it would treat Nicaraguans crossing the border in the same way as it treats other Central Americans.

But although the Biden administration can’t say so, let’s suppose it sees a win-win situation here: Nicaraguans help boost the US economy while depleting their home country of talent, and their favourable treatment at the border can be disguised as help for those freeing repression.

Demonising Nicaragua’s government, sanctioning dozens of key officials, blocking loans from the World Bank and elsewhere, providing much less medical and other aid than that which goes to neighbouring countries and, finally, threatening to cut Nicaragua’s access to its biggest market, the United States — are all weapons in a hybrid war.

In the 1980s, after the Sandinista revolution, when the US imposed a blockade on Nicaragua and even mined its ports, Oxfam said this was because the small Central American country offered “the threat of a good example.”

It’s difficult to reach any conclusion about Washington’s approach other than that it still feels the same threat: it’s determined to punish a country which defies it politically yet is surviving — and prospering — with an economic model that is completely contrary to the one followed by successive US administrations.

While at the moment this only benefits six million Nicaraguans, if others see it, they may like it, and Washington can’t take that chance.

Save the date: On Saturday January 28 2023 the Latin America Conference takes place in central London, where Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela will be on the agenda along with all the recent progressive developments in Latin America.



(Morning Star)

https://orinocotribune.com/washington-b ... r-to-home/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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