Daniel Ortega inaugurated on Jan. 10, 2012
It was almost 7:00pm on Tuesday, Jan. 10, when Rene Nuñez, president of the National Assembly, placed the presidential sash over the shoulder of Daniel Ortega who was reelected president of Nicaragua on Nov. 6 of last year. Before performing that action at the gathering of dignitaries at the historic Plaza of the Revolution in old Managua, Nuñez gave a summary of the achievements of the Ortega administration’s previous five year term.
Among those attending the inauguration were Prince Felipe of Spain, and the presidents of Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Suriname, and (most controversially) Iran. Also in attendance were the prime ministers of Aruba and Curacao and the vice presidents of Algeria, Cuba, Bolivia, Peru and the Dominican Republic. Otto Perez Molina, who was inaugurated president of Guatemala four days later, was in attendance along with former Panamanian President Omar Torrijos. Read more…
Bert Muhly — ¡Presente!
In Latin America, when someone who has fought for freedom and justice dies, the people say ¡Presente! after his or her name to mean that that person will be remembered for his or her struggle. So when we heard that Bert Muhly had died, the e-mail that went out from the Nicaragua Network said, of course, “Bert Muhly—¡Presente!” because Bert was a true fighter for justice.
Photo: Left to right: Bert Muhly, Nicanet Co-Coordinator Katherine Hoyt, Lois Muhly
The Nicaragua Network remembers Bert with great fondness. His solidarity with Nicaragua, its people and its revolution was unshakable and he made fast friends among Nicaraguans during his many visits to Nicaragua during the years of the revolution and among activists within the United States solidarity movement with Nicaragua. Bert and Lois were pillars of the Coalition for Nicaragua [later Three Americas], a sister city project with Jinotepe, Nicaragua. Read more…
Thousands of sugar cane workers die as wealthy nations stall on solutions
By Sasha Chavkin and Ronnie Greene, December 12, 2011
i-watch news from the Center for Public Integrity
LA ISLA, Nicaragua — Maudiel Martinez is 19 years old and has a shy smile, a tangle of curly black hair and a lean, muscular build shaped by years of work in the sugarcane fields. For most of his adolescence, he was healthy and strong and spent his days chopping tall stalks of cane with his machete.
Now Martinez is suffering from a deadly disease that is devastating his community along with scores of others in Central America, where it has decimated the ranks of sugarcane workers. The same illness killed his father and his grandfather and affects all three of his older brothers.
To read more, click here: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/12/7578/thousands-sugar-cane-workers-die-wealthy-nations-stall-solutions
Two Reports from Election Observers in Nicaragua
Here’s what I saw…
By Hector Perla, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California at Santa Cruz
We visited about 10 voting centers on election day: five in Managua, two in Ciudad Sandino, two in Nagarote, and one in Mateare. Overall the electoral process went very smoothly. One thing that stood out to me was that at all voting centers every single polling station [precinct] (junta receptora de votos) had three electoral monitors [poll watchers] (fiscales electorales) from different parties to oversee the fairness of the process. What party was represented varied by station, but there were always representatives from the Sandinistas and Fabio Gadea’s party. None reported any irregularities or problems with the process. Also there were lots of observers from the OAS, European Union, Central American Parliament, South American electoral officials, and others.
Read more…
Report now available: U.S. Delegation Finds Inappropriate U.S. Involvement in the Nov. 6, 2011, Nicaraguan Electoral Process!
To read the full report of the delegation’s findings, click here: june-2011-delegation-report.pdf
Photo: The delegation met with Felix Ulloa of the National Democratic Institute for International Relations.
Press Release
June 27, 2011
Contact — Prof. Brad Roth — brad.roth@wayne.edu
Katherine Hoyt — kathy@AFGJ.org
A top official of the U.S. Embassy in Managua dismissed Nicaragua as no longer important to the U.S. and told a Nicaragua Network delegation from the United States that he wanted nothing to do with the country’s political parties, all of which he characterized as “feckless, corrupt, nasty and worthless.”
Despite these comments by Matthew Roth, the political officer of the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. Agency for International Development is funding Nicaraguan groups to provide training in “democratization” and media skills.
Read more…
Nicaragua: Surviving the Legacy of U.S. Policy
Just released!
Order the book now!
In the 1980s, popular movements in Central America attempted to democratize their societies and to direct a larger portion of each country’s resources, in the form of food, housing, health care, and education, toward the well-being of the poor majority; at the same time the U.S. government, under the banner of peace, freedom, and democracy, sponsored wars that blocked local efforts for change. Two decades later, the poor of Central America continue to experience the effects of these wars and to struggle for basic subsistence with little hope that their children will have schools, health care, or even adequate nutrition. Many U.S. citizens still do not recognize the role the U.S. government played in stopping these movements towards democracy.
Read more…
Rochester Activists Honored
One couple’s lifetime commitment to a better world
Written by Mark Hare
From the Rochester, NY, Democrat and Chronicle of July 23, 2011
[Henrietta and Max Levine were founders of the Rochester-El Sauce, Nicaragua, Sister City Project and are long-time supporters of the Nicaragua Network.]
When the 22nd annual Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Cuba Caravan arrived in Pittsford last week, volunteers from the Rochester Committee on Latin America, as they do every year, packed a truck with medical supplies bound for Cuba in violation of the 50-year-old U.S. boycott of the island nation and its communist government.
It’s not that hard to send materials to Cuba anymore, says Henrietta Levine, one of the organizers, perhaps because the government isn’t all that interested in enforcing a boycott that Levine and her colleagues see as pointless and heartless.
For Henrietta and Max Levine, the caravan is an expression of the commitment to justice they made as teenagers.
Their friends at ROCLA honored them for a combined 150 years of peace and justice work. That may be a slight overstatement, but Henrietta, 90, and Max, 92, have been at it a long, long time.
Read more…
Archives of the Nicaragua Monitor and the Global Justice Monitor
To see the Monitor archives, go here.
Interesting English Language Articles on Nicaragua
In this space the Nicaragua Network will post links to recent important and/or interesting English language articles on Nicaragua or by Nicaraguans in the publications of other organizations.
From IPSNews.net
Nicaragua’s Antidote to Violent Crime
By Danilo Valladares*
GUATEMALA CITY, Sept 7 (IPS) - The so-called “Northern Triangle” of Central America, plagued by poverty, violence and the legacy of civil war, is considered one of the most violent areas in the world. But neighbouring Nicaragua has largely escaped the spiralling violence, and many wonder how it has managed to do so. There are undoubtedly a number of reasons that crime rates are so much lower in Nicaragua than in its three neighbours to the north – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – but analysts and experts point to two fundamental aspects: community policing and greater social cohesion.
From the web page tortillaconsal.com:
Nicaragua in 2010 compared to Nicaragua in 2006: the concrete achievements of Daniel Ortega’s government
Published by Nicaragua Triunfa, May 8th 2011, translation by Karla Jacobs
The economic and social policies put into place by President Daniel Ortega’s government have achieved substantial increases in exports, investment and production resulting in significant job creation and poverty reduction. This has been possible as a result of the climate of peace and economic and social stability in the country and of the trust and confidence felt by investors, producers, private enterprise and workers as part of the tripartite Government-Workers-Producers alliance. The new model being implemented by the FSLN government has brought about significant improvements in the living conditions of the Nicaraguan population in general.
From the Revista Envio March 2011
The FSLN Will Surely Win the Presidency But Also Wants a Qualified Majority in Parliament
By William Grigsby
During the Sandinista National Liberation Front’s four years in power, it has primarily concerned itself with reconstructing the country’s economic and social priorities. And it has been quite successful in redirecting the economic policies in the new circumstances.
Memories of the 1979 Final Offensive
Photo shows the Sandinistas headquartered at Hoyt’s house.
On the Occasion of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution
By Katherine Hoyt
[Hoyt is National Co-Coordinator of the Nicaragua Network]
Right after Bayardo [Dr. Bayardo Gonzalez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua] and I were married in 1967, my father had told us, “When ‘comes the revolution,’ you send us the kids!” At that time, the Somoza family looked well-entrenched in power with no revolution in sight and we certainly had no kids. But, of course, the revolution did come and we did send the kids.
