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44th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution

1. Next Nicaragua Webinar: “Why Is Nicaragua Important in Today’s World?” Hear from visitors to Nicaragua for the 44th anniversary celebration of the Revolution who will offer firsthand observations of: the July 19 festivities; tours of hospitals and clinics; visits to renewable energy and agroecology projects; exchanges with Afro-descendant and indigenous communities; meetings with government officials.

2. Sanctions and Rubio-Kaine Sanctions Bill

Rick Kohn: New Sanctions Could Impoverish and Destabilize Nicaragua  A good summary of the sanctions bill S.1881 recently introduced by Senator Marco Rubio, co-sponsored by Senator Tim Kaine, currently in the Foreign Relations Committee. This round of sanctions would be devastating to US trade with Nicaragua. The new bill calls for suspension of Nicaragua’s participation in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. The CAFTA is important to building Nicaragua’s economy and makes it possible to provide healthcare and education and other infrastructure for development. The US government would be ordered to end imports of two more leading export commodities from Nicaragua: coffee and beef. The latest round of sanctions aims to further restrict loans for economic development by also including the Central America Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). The bill would block the property rights of US citizens and permanent residents by outlawing any investment in Nicaragua.

Erik Mar and John Perry: Inscrutable Sanctions The UK, US, and Canadian and European Union, have created a sanctions regime targeting around 40 countries across the globe. While economic sanctions against states are best-known, they also include thousands of individuals whose assets have been frozen or confiscated, their travel restricted and their ability to do business constrained. Typically, names are added to a government’s sanctions lists with no prior warning or “due process.” The individuals affected are in practice unable to challenge their inclusion. One example is Nicaragua, targeted during the first Sandinista government in the 1980s, and, more recently, following nationwide protests beginning in April 2018.

3. Becca Renk: The Best Health Care Money Can’t Buy: Nicaragua’s Free Universal System Nicaragua has a family and community-based model of health care with emphasis on prevention. It relies on a network of 60,647 lay health care workers and volunteers who go door-to-door doing health care, education, mosquito eradication, vaccinations and census taking. In Nicaragua so many people suffered so much during the neoliberal years that society became scarred. Sometimes it still seems too good to be true – clean, modern hospitals with trained medical professionals for free? Thanks to the Sandinista government’s political will to prioritize the poor and its Herculean efforts to modernize and expand its system, the best health care in the country is now free.

4. Take Action against Biden’s Appointment of Elliott Abrams

AFGJ Alert: Biden Administration’s nomination of Elliott Abrams to the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy must be stopped! Sign on to send a letter to Biden and your Senators.

Code Pink: Elliott Abrams – Tell your Senators to vote NO on his appointment! Send an email to your Senator.

5. Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net

Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com to inquire about membership.

Nicaragua listserve: nicanet@googlegroups.com join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet

Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup

Sign up for Britain’s Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign

Facebook: Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition,  Friends of the ATC Nicaragua

The Return of Elliot Abrams 

1. Biden Nominates Elliot Abrams

AFGJ Alert: Biden Administration’s nomination of Elliott Abrams to the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy must be stopped! Sign on to send a letter to Biden and your Senators.

Caitlin Johnstone: Presidents Keep Hiring Elliott Abrams Because The US Empire Is Just That Evil This would be the fourth presidential administration that Abrams has been a part of, despite being a confessed crook and despite pushing for bloodshed at every opportunity in some of the US empire’s most notorious criminal actions. Abrams is such a cold-hearted killer that he openly admitted during a 1985 conference that the purpose of aiding the Contras in Nicaragua was “to permit people who are fighting on our side to use more violence,” and has promoted US military violence against Iraq, Syria and Iran with remarkable forcefulness throughout his career.

Ben Norton: Biden joins Trump in appointing war criminal involved in genocide: Meet Elliott Abrams, coup expert President Biden appointed notorious neoconservative war criminal Elliott Abrams as an advisor for “public diplomacy”. Abrams previously served under Donald Trump, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, and he oversaw genocide in Guatemala, massacres in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and coup attempts in Venezuela.

Barbara Larcom: Elliot Abrams and Nicaragua radio interview on his human rights criminality.

2. More on Failed 2018 Coup and Historic International Court of Justice Ruling

John Perry: Nicaragua 5 years on, revisiting Amnesty International’s falsehoods On the fifth anniversary of the 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua, conflicting accounts of the violence and killings still persist. The mainstream media has characterized the opposition protests as generally peaceful and cases of opposition violence as counter violence against brutal repression of dissent by the government.  John Perry has written a series of articles that call into question this one-sided narrative, and his appeal to empirical evidence and lived experience have broadened the parameters of debate. In this article, Perry revisits the case of  the murder of police officer Faber López Vivas, a case that highlights the need for impartial investigation of the events of 2018.

Non-Aligned Movement and Sao Paulo Forum support Nicaragua on Compliance with International Court of Justice Ruling Nicaragua Vice-President Rosario Murillo stated,”This morning the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned countries was concluded in Azerbaijan. During the final session this morning, we once again received support for Nicaragua, in our right to claim compensation from the United States, in keeping with the historic judgment of the International Court of Justice, which ordered them to indemnify Nicaragua for all the damages caused throughout history, particularly during the 80’s, and the damages that still continue, the damages that they continue to cause us with all their aggressions.”

3. Events and Webinars:

July 15: Another way is possible: Nicaragua’s social economy and co-operatives 70% of Nicaragua’s population is employed in the social economy: small & medium businesses & farms, co-operatives, associations, and as self-employed workers. What difference has 16 years of Sandinista government made to the lives of those working in this sector? With 58% of the national budget devoted to health and education, and with priority given to supporting the social economy, low-cost housing and improved infrastructure, Nicaragua is an example of a holistic well integrated approach to addressing poverty reduction, gender equality and the climate crisis. 

July 16 outside the White House: Celebrate and Defend the Sovereignty of Latin American countries! Oppose US interference in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Peru, Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico

July 23: Why is Nicaragua’s Important in Today’s World? Hear from visitors to Nicaragua for the 44th anniversary celebration of the Revolution who will offer firsthand observations of: the July 19 festivities; tours of hospitals & clinics; visits to renewable energy & agroecology projects; exchanges with Afro-descendant and indigenous communities; meetings with government officials. Learn why they believe Nicaragua is important in today’s world.

4. Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net

Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com to inquire about membership.

Nicaragua listserve: nicanet@googlegroups.com join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet

Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup

Sign up for Britain’s Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign

Facebook: Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition,  Friends of the ATC Nicaragua

Why Support for the 2018 US-Backed Coup Collapsed

President Daniel Ortega: Assange won the Peace Prize of the Peoples of the World “Assange has already won, from the very moment he made those courageous denunciations knowing that the intelligence and security organizations of the United States, combined with the Europeans, could assassinate him, Assange won the recognition of the peoples and therefore won the peace prize of the peoples of the world. Not the Nobel Prize that is given to those who then destroy, invade, murder, bomb. Assange is recognized and we recognize him as having won the peace prize for his courage, for his dignity, for his firmness and we stand in solidarity in this day with this man who has acted with enormous conscience and with great courage and now, well, he is on the brink of going to the gallows there in the United States of America.”

John Perry, Dan Kovalik: The attempted 2018 coup in Nicaragua: why its support collapsed In the third of four articles, we see how the initial support for the insurrection peaked and then faded under a wave of kidnapping, torture, and deadly violence. By late June and early July 2018, patience with the insurrection had evaporated and most Nicaraguans simply wanted a return to the peace and stability that existed beforehand. Even those who were not government supporters, including many who initially joined the protests, could see where they were leading. They had experienced the benefits of a Sandinista government and (if they were old enough) the previous attempt to overthrow it violently, in the 1980s.

Video (June 1979) The Final Offensive Associated Press short documentary on the struggle against US backed Somoza regime, 44 years ago.

GeoPolitical Economy: US owes Nicaragua reparations, must implement 1986 International Court of Justice ruling 37 years after the ruling, the US still refuses to pay Nicaragua the reparations it legally owes, and today Nicaragua is demanding the UN take action. A contra leader in 1986 said their war on Nicaragua  “was premeditated policy to terrorize civilian noncombatants to prevent them from cooperating with the Government. Hundreds of civilian murders, mutilations, tortures and rapes were committed in pursuit of this policy.” Admitting the contras were “CIA puppets”, Chamorro wrote that “the ‘contras’ burn down schools, homes and health centers as fast as the Sandinistas build them”. President Daniel Ortega’s letter to the UN regarding the judgment of the International Court of Justice in favor of Nicaragua and against US aggression,  June 27th 1986

Upcoming Events:

July 16 in front of the White House: Celebrate and Defend the Sovereignty of Latin American countries! Oppose US interference in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Peru, Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico

July 23 webinar: Why is Nicaragua’s Important in Today’s World? Hear from visitors to Nicaragua for the 44th anniversary celebration of the Revolution.

Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net

Our monthly zoom meetings: Second Monday of the month, 2:30 PM ET email Barbara@nicasolidarity.net to join

Nicaragua listserve: nicanet@googlegroups.com join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet

Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup

Facebook: Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition

Anniversary of Nicaragua’s Historic International Court of Justice Ruling;

World Economic Forum Ranks Nicaragua 7th of 146 Countries in Women’s Rights

Stephen Sefton: The judgment of The Hague of 1986 and a true culture of Peace Thirty-seven years ago, on June 27, 1986, the International Court of Justice condemned the United States for President Ronald Reagan’s bloody terrorist war against the people of Nicaragua. Speaking of the sentence in 2019, our Comandante Daniel observed: “The Court ruled in favor of the People of Nicaragua, and we cannot forget that, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, we must always keep this in mind, that Justice has been on our side and Justice continues to be on the side of the Nicaraguan People, on the side of Nicaragua’s Families.”

World Economic Forum says Nicaragua leads in gender equality in Latin America The WEF report highlights that, in a ranking prepared with data from 146 countries, Nicaragua ranked number 7. (Cuba and Venezuela were not included). The report states Nicaragua is first in: Women professional & technical workers, Women’s Educational Attainment, Women’s literacy, Women’s enrollment in third-level education, Women in Parliament, Women in Ministerial Positions.

John Perry on Myths about Nicaraguan Migration Is it true that Nicaragua is in 4th place globally in forcing people into asylum, producing headlines like this in Nicaragua’s right wing media? – in this thread we check the facts.

Video:The ALBA-TCP:  First Fair Trade Agreement in the World & How the US Tried to Destroy It Webinar with Cuba Ambassador Hector Igarza, Venezuela Deputy Minister Carlos Ron, and Nicaragua Minister of Commerce Jesus Bermudez Short webinar clips of the Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela officials on relations with China and Iran  

Upcoming Webinar and Delegation:

Webinar: July 23: Why is Nicaragua Important in Today’s World? Hear from visitors to Nicaragua for the 44th anniversary celebration of the Revolution,

Delegations to Nicaragua: The 44th anniversary of the revolution seefull itinerary.

Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net

Our monthly zoom meetings: Second Monday of the month, 2:30 PM ET email Barbara@nicasolidarity.net to join

Nicaragua listserve: nicanet@googlegroups.com, join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet

Sign up to receive Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Newsletter: nicaraguasolidaritycoalition@gmail.com

Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup

Facebook: Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition

Iran President Visits Nicaragua; UN Group of “Experts” on Nicaragua refuses contact with the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition

Iran President in Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega “We pay tribute… to all the Heroes and Martyrs of Iran, and in particular to General Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by Yankee imperialism when he was fighting terrorism” “They [US] made the Panama Canal, but already now the Panama Canal, even taking into account its expansion, is really lacking, and another transit route is needed. That is why, when we have discussed the matter here in Nicaragua and we have worked to develop the Canal, immediately comes the campaign of the forces opposed to the Revolution, the US government and others, who start up their offensive to try and prevent that project from getting under way….Nicaragua has really been a country attacked like no other in Latin America and the Caribbean, by invasions of US troops, the United States Army, always seeking to dominate Nicaragua so as to have control of that Canal route. They see, they know that this Canal is necessary but they do not want the Nicaraguan people to own the Canal.”

UN Group of “Experts” on Nicaragua refuses contact with the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition A UN “group of human rights experts on Nicaragua” (GHREN) published a report in March accusing the Nicaraguan government of “crimes against humanity”. The report was based entirely on evidence from the opposition, as Stephen Sefton described in The Grayzone. The Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition prepared a detailed critique and organized a massive petition against the report.

Since March, the GHREN has completely ignored our submissions, despite the fact that we have sent more evidence of human rights abuses by the opposition, such as this one. The head of the GHREN continues making accusations (in Spanish, in El Pais). This month we emailed again, asking them to explain their procedure and to respond to our petition, but so far we have had no reply. In the meantime, opposition NGOs seem to have open access to the “experts.” This is yet another example of what Alfred de Zayas (who signed the petition) calls the “human rights industry” and how it serves US interests.

John Perry: Nicaragua rebuilds – five years after US-funded terror was defeated Five years after the violent coup attempt in Nicaragua, the country is celebrating its recovery – peace has returned, the economy is growing, the Sandinista government re-elected in 2021 is investing strongly in public services. This article describes in detail one of the many incidents of extreme violence. It occurred in Masaya, one of Nicaragua’s most important cities, the scene of many grisly crimes when it was controlled by opposition thugs for several weeks in 2018.

Heads of NED and other bodies bragged to Congress in June 2018 about the Nica coup attempt Five years ago on June 14 2018, the heads of the National Endowment for Democracy and other agencies bragged to the US Congress that they had trained 8,000 young Nicaraguans who were attempting a coup against the Sandinista government. https://counterpunch.org/2018/07/06/ned

Map of 2018 Nicaragua Coup Attempt Roadblocks On June 9, 2018, Nicaraguan opponents published a map of the roadblocks they installed during the coup attempt. Extortions, kidnappings and torture took place at these roadblocks. They were finally cleared and the Sandinista government restored peace, in mid-July.

Upcoming Delegation to Nicaragua

Delegation for  the 44th anniversary of the revolution seefull itinerary.

Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net

Our monthly zoom meetings: Second Monday of the month, 2:30 PM ET email Barbara@nicasolidarity.net to join

Nicaragua listserve:nicanet@googlegroups.com join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet

Sign up to receive Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Newsletter: nicaraguasolidaritycoalition@gmail.com

Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup

Facebook: Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition

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Nicaragua’s Mutually Beneficial Relations with China, Russia and Iran

June 18 Webinar The ALBA-TCP:  First Fair Trade Agreement in the World & How the US Tried to Destroy It 

1. June 18 Webinar: The ALBA-TCP:  First Fair Trade Agreement in the World & How the US Tried to Destroy It  With: Héctor Igarza Cabrera, Cuban Ambassador to Canada. Carlos Ron, Venezuela’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America and President of the Simon Bolivar Institute for Peace and Solidarity Among People, and Jesús Bermudez, Nicaragua Minister of Commerce

2. Nicaragua’s New Mutually Beneficial Relations with China Interview with Laureano Ortega, Advisor to the Presidency for Investment Issues, International Trade and Cooperation on China’s new economic programs with Nicaragua.

Foreign Minister Denis Moncada: Russia Has Right To Fight Security Threats Against It In a meeting with Russian chancellor Sergei Lavrov, Nicaraguan Foreign Affairs Minister Denis Moncada ratified that his country recognizes the security threats that forced Russia to start the special military operation in Ukraine. “The active and dynamic contribution of Russia, China, and Iran to international relations is creating a more equitable world order,” “Our countries will fight, resist, and win.” 

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran arrives in Nicaragua June 13 The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, will be arriving in Nicaragua, together with a large delegation, including the Ministers of Health, Economic Cooperation, the Joint Commission, as well as deputies of the Islamic Consultative Assembly,” Vice President Murillo said. She added that “the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, the head of the office of the President of the Republic, the Vice-President for Scientific and Technological Affairs and the Knowledge Economy, the Minister of Defense and Logistics of the Armed Forces” will also arrive in the country. The delegation, which is very large, will also include delegates from [the ministries of Agriculture, Economic Relations, Diplomacy, Communication, Foreign Affairs. 

3. Senators Marco Rubio and Tim Kaine new bill to Increase Economic Warfare against Nicaragua It would extend and expand sanctions, prohibit new US investment in Nicaragua, and restrict international funding to Nicaragua from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. The bill calls for funding pro-US government organizations in Nicaragua, and seeks to use the United Nations as a tool to attack Nicaragua.

4. Webinars & Events

(video) June 3 Nicaragua Hearing: International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism 

(video) Friends of the ATC webinar June 3: Introduction to Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast

June 15:  La Casa de la Soberanía Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, tiene el agrado de invitarlos al Lanzamiento de la Revista Soberanía  Conversatorio “Reflexiones sobre el Pensamiento del Padre Miguel d’Escoto Brockman”

5. Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua

Delegation for  the 44th anniversary of the revolution seefull itinerary.

Internship with Friends of the ATC, July 3 – July 29 “Agroecology & Revolution” 

6. Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net

Nicaragua listserve: nicanet@googlegroups.com join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet

Sign up to receive Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Newsletter: nicaraguasolidaritycoalition@gmail.com

Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup

Facebook: Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition

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Self-Determination of Nicaraguan Afro-Descendant People: Report by Nicaragua’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights

Celebration of the World Day for African and Afro-Descendant Culture (January 24) in Managua 

1. Self-Determination of the Afro-Descendant People: Report by Nicaragua’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights Since 2008, in the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, the Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendants are the leaders of their self-determination and self-development. This has contributed to their regaining their human rights and in reducing poverty and unemployment. Their advances stand out in educational progress, improved health care, safer water and better sanitation, more opportunities in construction, telecommunications, transportation, electricity, agribusiness projects, fishing, etc

NicaNotes: Defending Nicaragua During the 2018 Coup Attempt Accounts by Edwin Mendoza,a member of the July 19 Sandinista Youth Association. He began writing his own story and that of other young people about what happened during the 2018 US-backed coup attempt.

2. Webinars

Sunday June 18: The ALBA-TCP:  First Fair Trade Agreement in the World & How the US Tried to Destroy It – with government representatives of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. Héctor Igarza Cabrera, Cuban Ambassador to Canada; Carlos Ron, Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America and President of the Simon Bolivar Institute for Peace and Solidarity Among People; Jesús Bermudez, Nicaragua Minister of Commerce, the top Nicaragua official managing the ALBA-TCP portfolio. To register: bit.ly/NicaJune18

Video of Nicaragua Hearing: International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism  First four speakers were Nicaraguans who were direct victims of US Imperialism during the insurrection against Somoza, Reagan’s Contra war or the US-directed coup of 2018, giving short, moving testimonies. Then National Assembly Deputy, Wilfredo Narvaez; head of the Supreme Court, Alba Luz Ramos; Minister of Finance Ivan Acosta; and former Minister of Health, Sonia Castro gave historical testimony on US aggression since William Walker, destruction in the 1980’s and the International Court Case which Nicaragua won, effects of the coup and sanctions on the economy and on the health of the population. Camilo Mejia focused on the different kinds of US aggression in recent years like the coup attempt, sanctions, RAIN, etc

4. Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua

Delegation for  the 44th anniversary of the revolution seefull itinerary.

Internship with Friends of the ATC, July 3 – July 29 “Agroecology & Revolution” 

5. Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net

Our next Monthly Meeting is June 12, 2:30 pm ET on zoom.Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com to inquire about participating.

Nicaragua listserve: nicanet@googlegroups.com join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet

Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup

Facebook: Friends of Sandini