Author: Stan

Daniel Ortega’s speech at Group of 77+China: The imperialists, the colonialists of the Earth, have not been able to kill the fighting spirit, the dignity of the Peoples of the World      “The enemy [Global North] wants to control our land and impose its hegemony on the entire world, and behold it confronting China violently because it stands against hegemony.” Ortega stressed that Beijing’s rapprochement seeks the development and welfare of the people. In this sense, he said that China “approaches the peoples in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, not to impose sanctions, but to contribute to the progress and welfare of our peoples.” He also referred to the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, rejecting “the imposition of laws and regulations with extraterritorial effects.” The prolongation of the U.S. blockade against Cuba for another year is an action against all the peoples of the global South.

President Xiomara Castro’s speech at G77 + China Third, that the member countries of the G77+China commit to rejecting and not complying with coercive measures, such as sanctions or blockades against our member countries, we strongly denounce the unjust blockade against Venezuela and Nicaragua… want here to recognize President Díaz-Canel for continuing the historical legacy of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, Army General Raúl Castro, Commander Hugo Chávez Frías, Lula Da Silva, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, Cristina, Rafael, Evo, Daniel, Nicolás Maduro and other founders of CELAC, for having resisted the systematic neoliberal and lawfare attack and to maintain the will to grow our integration.

Cuba President Diaz-Canel speech at Group of 77+China: It is necessary to dismantle, now, the international barriers that have obstructed access by the developing countries “We are also faced, of course, with the immense challenges generated by the prevailing unjust international order; but we are not alone. Today we’re 134, equating to over two-thirds of the UN member states and accounting for 80% of the world population. This summit is taking place at a time when mankind has achieved a level of scientific/technical progress unimaginable a couple of decades ago, conferring an incredible capacity for generating wealth and well-being which, in times of greater equality, equity and justice, could ensure decent, comfortable and sustainable living standards for practically every inhabitant of this planet. In the midst of the most tremendous scientific/technical advance of all time, the world has regressed three decades as regards reducing extreme poverty, with levels of hunger not witnessed since 2005. In the so-called Third World, over 84 million children are without schooling and over 660 million have no electricity; why only 36% of the population use the internet in the least advanced countries and the landlocked developing nations, compared with 92% in the industrialized world…

Declaration of the G77+China Summit in Havana A 47 point declaration of the Group’s Summit on Current Development Challenges: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation. Highlighting the current challenges faced by countries in the Global South, particularly the unjust international economic system, the statement underscored the pressing need for a comprehensive reform of the multilateral financial framework and the adoption of a more inclusive and coordinated approach. The draft statement firmly opposed the imposition of unilateral coercive measures and sanctions, emphasizing that they are in violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law. Representatives of about 100 countries are participating in the Havana Summit.

Kawsachun News (Rick Kohn): Sanctions Impacts on Nicaragua The US already imposed sanctions on Nicaragua, but they haven’t yet brought about the kind of hunger and poverty and suffering that some US policymakers think is necessary to overthrow the popular government. There is a new sanctions bill co-sponsored by Marco Rubio and Tim Kaine that will try to further depress the Nicaraguan economy, increase unemployment, decrease revenue for the government’s popular programs so the government will be less popular. The stated goal is the overthrow of the Nicaraguan government and a “free and fair election” to replace Daniel Ortega. 

Les Deux Rives: In Nicaragua, the police the most feminist in the world At a ceremony to mark the 44th anniversary of the Nicaraguan National Police, President Daniel Ortega stressed the importance of sexual parity in Nicaraguan institutions, and in particular in the police, where there are all-female police stations to combat sexual and gender-based violence. Ortega recalled the attitude of the Nicaraguan opposition to this struggle for gender equality. “Today, on this 44th anniversary, the cowards, the sellouts, the machistas are crying out because we respect a principle that is not new to Nicaragua, namely parity in governing bodies, in institutions, in the National Assembly, in the municipalities, we said 50% men, 50% women.” [Also see the notice further below about Sunday’s (Sept. 24) webinar on the Nicaraguan police.]

Black Agenda Report interview with Camila Escalante on NPR’s anti-Nicaragua Propaganda Camila joins us from Managua, Nicaragua, to discuss a recent segment of the National Public Radio podcast The Sunday Story, which featured an interview with Eyder Peralta, an NPR correspondent who reported on a recent visit to Nicaragua in which he made many untrue statements. We will talk about how corporate media serve state propaganda.

Morning Star: Sandinista tells Marx Memorial Library meeting ‘we will continue fighting for our revolution’ Even with the gains made in Nicaragua such as free education and healthcare and major house and road building programs, the country is constantly demonized by mainstream media and by some on the left. Abigail Espinoza Munoz, a FSLN activist in Masaya, said: “We voted for Comandante Ortega because he is the best president we ever had in the history of our country. We have built 26 new hospitals in the last 17 years. In the years of neoliberal government all you got was a slip of paper that said you had to go and buy whatever you needed to make you well. Health is now free in our country and I am so proud of our government. We are Sandinistas and we are still here and we will continue fighting for our revolution regardless of any sanctions against us.”

Events

September 23 – November 18: virtual course, Ben Linder Solidarity School,  9 week class (two hours a week) Topics include: Nicaragua and the Sandinista Revolution; History and current context of Latin America and US imperialism; ATC and peasant organizations / social movements; Food Sovereignty and Agroecology; Solidarity and Internationalism.

Webinar September 24: The Nicaraguan Community Policing Model How do the Nicaraguan police sustain one of the lowest crime rates, and highest levels of citizen trust, in all of Latin America?  A key answer is their much-heralded community-based model. Join us to hear two prominent speakers from the Nicaragua National Police:  Commissioner General Jaime Vanegas Vega, Inspector General, and Commissioner General Vilma Rosa Gonzalez, Head of Public Relations.  Spanish – English interpretation provided.  Register here or at bit.ly/NicaSep24

October 21-22: (Madrid) Encuentro Sandinista de Solidaridad con Nicaragua Organizations from different parts of the Spanish state in the Sandinista Meeting of Solidarity with Nicaragua.

January 27, 2024: Latin America conference in London 18th annual conference in solidarity with Latin American progressive movements.

Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua

Casa Ben Linder delegations January 6-14, January 20-February 1, and February 10-19; Advances & Autonomy Brigade: Rights of Indigenous & Afrodescendant Peoples on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast

Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net Our monthly zoom meetings: second Monday of the month (October 9), 2:30 PM ET

Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com in advance to request Zoom access for the meeting, or to make other inquiries.

Organizations:  Apply for coalition membership here This is an important way to increase the influence of our coalition work, as our membership list grows.

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

Twitter: @SolidarityNica

Instagram: @NicaSolidarity

Other Valuable Resources from Our Members & Partners: 

Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign 

Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group 

Friends of the ATC Nicaragua

Donate to Help Build the work of the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Any donation helps, but monthly contributions can expand our work to combat the constant disinformation against Nicaragua. Make sure to write “Nica Coalition” in the online donation space, or on the memo line of a check mailed to our fiscal sponsor, Casa Baltimore/Limay, PO Box 66053, Baltimore, MD 21239

Nica Notes (James Phillips): Elliott Abrams and the People of Central America: Never Forget! Abrams’ entire career in public office has been guided by his apparent belief that the killing, torture, and misery of any number of Latin Americans (and others) are justified in the name of protecting the ‘security’ of the US. This is the essence of the so-called National Security Doctrine that was employed by all of the violent military dictatorships of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. It was and remains very much a central part of the thinking of many in the US government, such as Abrams.

The Nicaraguan government’s measured response to the uprising of April 2018 was denounced in Washington and the mainstream media as an extreme repression of an uprising that was painted as “peaceful.” despite ample evidence that it was anything but peaceful. An alternative narrative from eyewitnesses in Nicaragua paints a very different picture of events, a narrative that the U.S. has tried very hard to suppress and keep out of the media. Elliott Abrams’ special talents would lend themselves perfectly to this ongoing effort to undermine and remove Ortega and the Sandinistas from power, again as in the 1980s, to thwart the will of a people and substitute the will of the U.S. government in its place—regime change and forms of intervention by any means at any cost. Code Pink: Elliot Abrams – Tell your Senators to vote NO on his appointment! Send an email to your Senator.

NicaNotes (Susan Lagos): “We are building the Caribbean Coast of our dreams” Recently I returned from a two-week delegation trip to the Southern Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua with Friends of the ATC with 25 multi-cultural young first-time visitors from the US and England. At the Instituto Agroecológico Latinoamericano we learned with the young students from cooperatives around Nicaragua, Central America, and the Dominican Republic, who are earning two-year degrees in agroecology to improve production and entrepreneurship back home in their communities. In 1987 with the FSLN Autonomy Law, the historical rights of the pluricultural Caribbean coastal peoples were recognized. Now, besides Spanish, six other languages are official: creole English, Miskito, Mayangna, Ulwa, Garifuna, Rama, with a six-star autonomy flag. Please come see with your own eyes, and don’t believe the lies in the US media by people who try to destroy the advances of Nicaragua, “the threat of a good example.”

Workers World: Report of Solidarity delegation joins Nicaragua’s celebration of 1979 revolution  A few things stood out from the trip: (1) the incredible scope and efficacy of their socialist project; (2) the impact of U.S. imperialism on Nicaragua; and (3) the intoxicating air of international solidarity in the country…In 2007, only 54% of the population had access to electricity. Now, there is 99.3% access. In 2007, Nicaragua had 1,270 miles of paved roads, with only 31% in satisfactory condition, and provided road access to only 68 of the 153 municipalities. Since then, 3,728 miles of roads have been paved and 90% are in good condition. A recent wave of U.S. sanctions in 2022 targeted and blocked Nicaragua’s gold sector, affecting about $900 million of exports, as well as the sugar sector, removing Nicaragua from the list of countries that can trade sugar with the U.S. with reduced import tariffs.

Amor de Nicaragua School Marches Beautiful photos of students’ school marches.

Educational Activities of Amor de Nicaragua Photos of Nicaraguan student celebrations at the beginning of the new school year.

 

Events

September 15-16: Friends of the ATC Speaking Events in Washington-Baltimore Erika Takeo and Marlen Sanchez from Nicaragua’s Association of Rural Workers (ATC) will be speaking at free events open to the public.

September 23 – November 18: virtual course, Ben Linder Solidarity School,  9 week class (two hours a week) Topics include: Nicaragua and the Sandinista Revolution; History and current context of Latin America and US imperialism; ATC and peasant organizations / social movements; Food Sovereignty and Agroecology; Solidarity and Internationalism.

September 24: The Nicaraguan Community Policing Model How do the Nicaraguan police sustain one of the lowest crime rates, and highest levels of citizen trust, in all of Latin America?  A key answer is their much-heralded community-based model. Join us to hear two prominent speakers from the Nicaragua National Police:  Commissioner General Jaime Vanegas Vega, Inspector General, and Commissioner General Vilma Rosa Gonzalez, Head of Public Relations.  Spanish – English interpretation provided.  Register here or at bit.ly/NicaSep24

October 21-22: (Madrid) Encuentro Sandinista de Solidaridad con Nicaragua Organizations from different parts of the Spanish state in the Sandinista Meeting of Solidarity with Nicaragua.

Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua

Casa Ben Linder delegations in October 21-30, January 6-14, and February 10-19

Donate to Help Build the work of the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Any donation helps, but monthly contributions can expand our work to combat the constant disinformation against Nicaragua. Make sure to write “Nica Coalition” in the online donation space, or on the memo line of a check mailed to our fiscal sponsor, Casa Baltimore/Limay, PO Box 66053, Baltimore, MD 21239.

Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net Our monthly zoom meetings: second Monday of the month (October 9), 2:30 PM ET

Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com in advance to request Zoom access for the meeting, or to make other inquiries.

Organizations:  Apply for coalition membership here This is an important way to increase

the influence of our coalition work, as our membership list grows.

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

Twitter: @SolidarityNica

Instagram: @NicaSolidarity

Other Valuable Resources from Our Members & Partners: 

Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign 

Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group 

Friends of the ATC Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega: the BRICS Group is a Big Blow to Imperialism “China, the Russian Federation, India, Brazil, South Africa, five countries are paving the way there and the imperialists of the earth logically trying to avoid this integration between nationals who want to cooperate, who integrate, join, not to invade another country, not to bomb another country, but to unite to strengthen relations in the economic, social, commercial field, in the productive field, a fight for peace; that is the first big break, the first big blow that the tyranny of imperialism to which the world has been subjected.”

Dee Knight: Revolution Then and Now: How Sandinista Nicaragua Has Survived and Thrived. A review of “Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention and Resistance,” by Daniel Kovalik This thorough review of the book and Nicaragua’s history goes over what happened in the FSLN after the 1990 election defeat, why and how it split, and how the MRS became more US based. Concerning the 2018 coup attempt, Kovalik documents how the US State Department, National Endowment for Democracy and USAID poured $200 million into its allies to oust the Sandinista government. Two major groups involved in the attempted coup were Nicaragua’s chamber of commerce (COSEP) and far-right leaders in the Catholic church hierarchy (many of them members of the fascist Opus Dei group), who were demanding that Ortega resign. If you haven’t read the book, you should review this review.

2023 Ben Linder Solidarity School, September 23 – November 18 Class topics include: Nicaragua and the Sandinista Revolution; History and current context of Latin America and US imperialism; ATC and peasant organizations / social movements; Food Sovereignty and Agroecology; Solidarity and Internationalism.

Events

September 7: More Sanctions on Nicaragua? Not if we can stop them! Click here to register

September 24: The Nicaraguan Community Policing Model Commissioner General Jaime Vanegas Vega, Inspector General of the National Police, Commissioner General Vilma Rosa Gonzalez, Head of Public Relations of the National Police. How do the Nicaraguan police sustain one of the lowest crime rates, and highest levels of citizen trust, in all of Latin America?  A key answer is their much-heralded community-based model.

Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua

Casa Ben Linder delegations in October 21-30, January 6-14, and February 10-19

Donate to help build the work of the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Any donation helps, but monthly contributions can expand our work to combat the constant disinformation against Nicaragua. Make sure to write “Nica Coalition” in the online donation space, or on the memo line of a check mailed to our fiscal sponsor, Casa Baltimore/Limay, PO Box 66053, Baltimore, MD 21239.

Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net Our monthly zoom meetings: second Monday of the month (Sept. 11), 2:30 PM ET

Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com in advance to request Zoom access for the meeting, or to make other inquiries.

Organizations:  Apply for coalition membership here 

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

Twitter: @SolidarityNica

Instagram: @NicaSolidarity

Other Valuable Resources from Our Members & Partners: 

Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign 

Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group 

Friends of the ATC Nicaragua

Brian Nichols, State Department’s senior Latin America official claims: “The confiscation of the Central American University, a symbol of academic excellence and hope for the future of Nicaragua, represents a major erosion of democratic norms and the closing of civic space.” The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also condemned the seizure of the university. Below we present more background on the now renamed Universidad Nacional Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro.

Religion in Nicaragua and the role of the Catholic Church Stephen Sefton answers Michael Fox’s questions about the role of the Catholic Church and Christianity in Nicaragua and how it has changed over the years. Sefton goes into the relatively unique and generally progressive nature of Evangelicals in Nicaragua. He addresses what has led up to the government taking over the Jesuit Central American University (UCA), now making it a public university.

The Central American University was the CIA’s Main Tool in Nicaragua In this piece from Radio Primerisima, Margine Gutierrez offers additional comments. After being co-opted by the gringos, whose funding removed any professors who questioned the system only to replace them with agents of the US, the UCA began to align itself with and serve the US plans of aggression against Nicaragua. In 2018 it openly became their main center of operations in the country. Once La Prensa newspaper was dismantled, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference was prevented from serving US interests, and the NGOs that acted as agents of imperialism were closed, the UCA was the CIA’s main tool for continuing and expanding its aggression against Nicaragua.

The now defunct UCA [Central American University] in Nicaragua German Van de Velde provides further historical detail.Starting in 2007, UCA begin to operate as the ideological center of the counterrevolution. It promoted the creation of digital battle fronts, used as platforms to spread fake news throughout the country and establish opinion narratives against the Sandinista government. These facilities were used to prepare “leadership” courses and certificate programs funded by USAID and the NED, which trained the misnamed “student leaders” who were key players during the attempted coup. The attempted coup of 2018 was incubated on the UCA campus, which served as the barracks and command post of the coup plotters. Moreover, as of 2020, it ceased filing the financial reports required by the government of all nonprofit institutions, and its Board of Directors expired in March 2022. On August 16, 2023 UCA was taken over and declared a free public university, now called Casimiro Sotelo Public University in honor of the student leader who took the message of revolution to young people at the Central American University in the 1960s.

Becca Renk: The Catholic Church and Nicaragua This article not only explains the right wing role of the Catholic Church hierarchy in attempting to undermine the Sandinista movement, but highlights the flourishing role of the popular church in the country.

Events

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.

September 24:  Next Nicaragua Webinar on the Nicaraguan community policing model.  3 PM Eastern time.  Mark your calendars!  More information coming soon.

Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua

Casa Ben Linder delegations in October, January, and February

Donate to Help Build the work of the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Any donation helps, but if you can make a monthly contribution it will help us in planning our broader activities to combat the constant disinformation against Nicaragua. (Make sure to write “Nica Coalition” in the space for “Add a Dedication.”) Or mail a check to our fiscal sponsor, Casa Baltimore/Limay, at PO Box 66053, Baltimore, MD, 21239, with “Nica Coalition” in the memo line.

Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net Our monthly zoom meetings: second Monday of the month (Sept. 11), 2:30 PM ET

Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com in advance to request Zoom access for the meeting, or to make other inquiries.

Organizations:  Apply for coalition membership here: 

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

Twitter: @SolidarityNica

Instagram: @NicaSolidarity

Valuable Resources from Our Members & Partners: Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group, Friends of the ATC Nicaragua