Why We Should Defend Nicaragua Against US Disinformation and Sanctions
Reverend Fred Morris: An Open Letter to President Lula of Brazil I have been living in Nicaragua for a total of eight years now, and during all this time I haven’t heard of a single person who has disappeared or who has been tortured. I live in a middle-class neighborhood, where many of my neighbors are not Sandinistas. Anyone who does not like the government freely expresses their opinion; no one is afraid to speak. My neighbor across from my house works for a TV channel that broadcasts scandalous criticism against the Sandinistas every day—and nothing happens to them. The Nicaraguan government is not a dictatorship, it is a government of the people, for the people.
AFGJ Alert: Contact your Senators! Oppose new and old sanctions on Nicaragua! The new sanctions seek to restrict loans for economic development from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) which funds roads, water and energy projects, and housing in the country. The old sanctions stopped most loans from the IMF, World Bank and the IDB. Now the U.S. wants to stop the CABEI loans as well! All these restrictions should be lifted!
Roger McKenzie: Now is not the time to abandon the Sandinistas Roger McKenzie asks why many progressives in the West feel qualified to denounce the Nicaraguan movement that is in a daily struggle against US imperialism. When the FSLN returned to power in 2006, they decided to be more pragmatic, with part of that decision based on a desire not to poke the US bear. Perhaps some former supporters believed that this meant the FSLN had finally sold out to capitalism. Even when the defeat of the US-backed coup attempt in 2018 led the FSLN to readopt a more aggressively left-wing, anti-imperialist line, some still pointed to what they regarded as deficiencies in particular policy positions.
Natalia Burdyńska-Schuurman: Report-back: Alliance for Global Justice joins Nicaraguans and solidarity movements in celebration of the 44th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution A strategic center of geopolitical interests and threat to U.S. hegemony in Latin America and the Caribbean, Nicaragua is constantly demonized by Democrats and Republicans alike, mainstream media and those who accept its mischaracterizations at face value. I invite those of you curious to get to know the true reality of Nicaragua and understand the foundations of popular support for the Sandinista government to see the country with your own eyes by joining one of our upcoming delegations. What you’ll find, I’m convinced, is a level of political participation, community empowerment and life satisfaction at all sectors of society that far transcends anything I have ever witnessed in the United States or elsewhere.
Jacqueline Luqman: The Sandinista Revolution Reveals Our Connections To Nicaragua On July 19, 1979, the Sandinistas took control in Nicaragua during their successful overthrow of the brutal US-backed Anastasio Somoza regime. It should also be a moment to understand that marginalized people in the US are connected to the socialist revolution in that country, and to all people in the Americas, because we were the victims of a war the US government waged upon us all as it sought to undermine Nicaraguan self-determination, as well as our own. US government policy responses to the crack epidemic – which it started with the CIA-cocaine-contra pipeline – and its victims, and the War on Drugs itself also cast a net of suffering so wide that it blanketed not just working class and poor communities in the US with the misery of addiction, but ensnared Nicaraguans in that same net.
Roger Harris: Nicaragua Celebrates its Revolution While the US Plans New Sanctions Against It “We are fighting against the Yankee enemy of humanity,” explained Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, setting the tone of the 44th anniversary celebration of their revolution. Meanwhile, a bi-partisan bill, co-sponsored by Republican Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine, calls for a new salvo of economic sanctions and psychological warfare to achieve regime-change in Nicaragua. Biden has already banned importing Nicaraguan gold and sugar, their two largest export commodities. The new legislation would further stifle trade by Nicaragua with the US, cutting off beef and coffee exports. Restrictions on access to international financing for development projects, which were already severely limited by the 2021 RENACER Act, would be tightened to try to asphyxiate the economy. The bill also calls for Nicaragua to repeal its own 2020 foreign agents law, which was patterned after similar US legislation and is designed to protect this small nation from outside interference into its internal affairs.
Upcoming Event by Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition ally
September 5: Nicaragua: Truth Versus Lies Organized by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group. John Perry; Abigail Espinoza Muñoz, active FSLN member, former councillor in Masaya; Roger McKenzie, International Editor, Morning Star.
Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net Our monthly zoom meetings: second Monday of the month (August 14), 2:30 PM ET email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com to join the meeting or inquire about membership.
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