Nicaragua: The 17th year of Sandinista Government On January 10, 2007 Daniel Ortega became President of Nicaragua again. 17 years have now passed, during which time the greatest process of modernization in Nicaragua has occurred. M&R Consultores just published its latest survey on the satisfaction of Nicaraguans with the government and its leader. The figures are overwhelming and they are understandable everywhere, North and South. After 17 years popular credit towards the government and its president is so high because the people see a government handing over land and houses, returning Nicaragua to the Nicaraguans, they understand that since January 2007 has come to change everything that needed to be changed. The Nicaragua of today is different and distant from that of 17 years ago.
The power of Nicaraguan capitalism has disappeared: now 70% of the country’s wealth is produced thanks to public intervention and a family-type economy, with a small and medium-sized business model. Private companies contribute to 30% of the GDP.
Kathy Hoyt: Race, Class and Sandino’s Politics A short review of the life of Sandino, his political thinking and objectives. In 1933, after his army had driven out the US military, he wrote, “When foreign intervention in Nicaragua has ceased, albeit in appearance alone, the people’s spirit has cooled down. Political and economic intervention is suffered by the people, but they cannot see it — even worse, they do not believe in its existence. This situation placed us in a very difficult position, and in the meantime the government was negotiating a multi-million dollar loan and preparing to blast us to hell and consolidate the political, economic and military intervention in our country… our financial and military resources were exhausted, and our troops could not have sought refuge….
Sandino realized that the US would not stop “its intrigue and manipulation substituting for armed intervention another type of intervention that is too subtle to be fought with weapons.” He decided that the only good course of action was to negotiate the best concessions he could get.
Sandino was a great admirer of Simon Bolivar, telling a Spanish journalist that reading Bolivar’s life always moved him and “had made him cry.”
Sandino had a revolutionary social agenda which he hoped to put in practice in Nicaragua in which the land would belong to the state and would be farmed in cooperatives by mestizo and Indian peasants. Meanwhile, as he waited for the correlation of forces to be right, he organized cooperatives in the area allotted to him in the peace treaty. While Sandino emphasized that the first part of his struggle was “national and racial,” the class nature of the cause, was visible in the social class of Sandino’s supporters, and in the social class of those he condemned repeatedly for having sold out their country to the invaders.
When Nicaragua won against the United States at the International Court of Justice The ICJ ruled in 1986 that the US government had violated international law in its attacks on Nicaragua and owed reparations. The ruling is here. The International Court of Justice is the judicial arm of the United Nations. (Not to be confused with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is independent of the UN. The ICJ was founded in 1945 to settle disputes between states; whereas the ICC was formed in 2002 to prosecute individuals.)
In 1986, the ICJ determined that the US repeatedly violated international law by: training, arming, equipping, financing, and supplying the Contra paramilitaries in Nicaragua; attacking Nicaraguan infrastructure; putting mines in Nicaragua’s ports; imposing an embargo on Nicaragua; and encouraging the Contras to commit atrocities that violate international humanitarian law.
Nicaragua’s government has called on the US to meet its obligations under international law, which the US has so far ignored. Last June 26, President Daniel Ortega sent a letter to UN Secretary General Guterres demanding that Washington pay reparations. “There exists a historical debt with the Nicaraguan people that 37 years later has not been settled by the United States…It is an obligation clearly established in a final judgment of the highest international judicial authority, the International Court of Justice”.
Events
January 21: 3:00pm ET: Webinar “Nicaragua: Working to Make Earth Green Again.” features Valdrack Jaentschke, leader of the Nicaragua delegation to COP 28, the 2023 UN Climate Change conference. Learn how Nicaragua is combating climate change, both in Nicaragua through its renewable energy and other programs, and in the international arena through its leadership. Since 2019, Ambassador Jaentschke has served as Minister Advisor for International Relations to Nicaragua’s President, with a focus on the Caribbean Community. He is the accredited non-resident Ambassador to CARICOM countries. REGISTER: bit.ly/NicaJan21
January 27, 2024: Latin America conference in London 18th annual conference in solidarity with Latin American progressive movements. Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group (NSCAG) will be holding a seminar during the Conference – ‘Nicaragua: The Threat of a Good Example’. Speakers: Roger McKenzie, International Editor, Morning Star; Julie Lamin, Chair, NSCAG Executive Committee and Luis Erick Rodriguez, Nicaraguan Ambassador to the UK. Chair: Tony Burke, Member of NSCAG Executive Committee and Member, London Print Branch UNITE
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Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua Casa Ben Linder 2024 delegations:
March 2-10: Sindicatos & Solidaridad: Labor Movements in Nicaragua (Meet with unions and labor activists in all sectors from teachers to motorcycle taxis; Tour new hospitals & maternal wait homes with health care workers unions; Visit unionized street vendors at work; a free trade zone factory & meet with unionized workers; low-income housing projects; a women’s coffee co-op; a women’s police station)
June 8-16: Global Health Intensive
July 9-21: Solidarity in Action: Celebrating 45 Years of Revolution in Nicaragua
November 8-17: Salud & Solidaridad: Hands-On Healthcare in Nicaragua
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Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net
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