Reflections on the Death of Tomas Borge
Photo: Nicaraguans pay their respects to Tomas Borge.
Here we present several articles reflecting on the death of Tomas Borge, one of the founders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front along with the Nicaragua Network’s letter of condolences to the people of Nicaragua. The first article is by labor lawyer and Nicaragua activist, Dan Kovalik of Pittsburgh. The second is by Toni Solo, an Irish activist-journalist living in Esteli, Nicaragua. The final one, for our Spanish readers, is by Rene Nuñez, president of Nicaragua’s National Assembly.
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SOA Watch & Nicanet Delegation to Nicaragua – Aug. 27-Sept. 5, 2012
Photo: Left to right: Lisa Sullivan, Daniel Ortega, Roy Bourgeois in 2008.
SOA Watch and the Nicaragua Network are teaming up their unique expertise and experience to create an exciting dual-purpose delegation to Nicaragua August 27-September 5, 2012. We’d like to invite you to join Roy Bourgeois, Lisa Sullivan, and Chuck Kaufman in Nicaragua!
The delegation is a mission of citizen diplomacy to close the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, GA, which has trained so many Latin American torturers and dictators. It is also organized to learn for ourselves if Nicaragua has again become “the threat of a good example” that Oxfam-UK dubbed it in the 1980s.
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On the 25th Anniversary of the Death of Ben Linder
By Bryan Moore, Senior Spanish Instructor, University of Oregon
April 28, 2012, marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Ben Linder, a mechanical engineer from Portland, Oregon. In 1983 Ben went to Nicaragua to develop hydroelectric projects that today provide energy to communities, schools, clinics, and farms of campesinos. While working on a small dam in the remote northern region of San José de Bocay, performing the miracle of transforming “water into light”, Ben and two other Nicaraguan co-workers, Pablo Rosales and Sergio Hernandez, were killed by Contra forces armed and paid for by the US government. In the midst of the Iran-Contra scandal, the murder of a US citizen made headline news and deepened opposition to US intervention in Nicaragua and other Central American countries.
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Three opportunities to learn about Nicaragua!
In this announcement we include three opportunities to learn about Nicaragua!
First, from May 31 to June 13, 2012, the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign of Great Britain offers an environmental study tour to Nicaragua. Then, from Aug. 27 to Sept. 25, 2012, the Nicaragua Network and School of the Americas Watch offer a delegation with Roy Bourgeois to follow up on President Daniel Ortega’s promise to consider withdrawing from the SOA and examine if Nicaragua is again “the threat of a good example.” Finally, from Sept. 1 to Oct. 15, Compas de Nicaragua is sponsoring a speaking tour of two Nicaraguan farmers to New England to discuss organic farming and the challenges of global climate change.
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NICARAGUA : towards the common good - ALBA - democracy and solidarity
This video explores how ALBA has helped Nicaragua’s Sandinista government balance the imperative of promoting trade and employment with the need to protect and help the most vulnerable sectors of the population. The solid economic and social coherence of the Bolivarian Alliance of the peoples of the Americas can be seen here in a concrete way along with its deep moral integrity. With ALBA, the democratization of the country’s economy has brought new dynamism to its trade and increased employment. At the same time, the solidarity driven commitment to guarantee fundamental rights to the most vulnerable has restored those rights to hundreds of thousands of people who had been abandoned during 16 years of neoliberal governments.
Analysis of why Sandinistas won election–Interview with Felipe Stuart
Nicaraguan Voters Deepen 21st Century Socialism on all Fronts
John Riddell interviews Felipe Stuart Cournoyer
Wednesday, Feb 1, 2012
In a fit of petulant anger, the U.S. government has lashed out on January 25 against the outcome of Nicaragua’s recent presidential election. To understand the context of the U.S. threats, I talked to Felipe Stuart Cournoyer, a Nicaraguan citizen and member of Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
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
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 BBC News–Latin America and the Caribbean
March 2, 2012
Nicaragua bids to stem deforestation with eco-soldiers
By Tim Rogers
Mosquito Coast, Nicaragua
Deep inside the verdant and sweltering vegetation of Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast, a specially trained army unit is waging a new kind of war against a new type of enemy. Operation Green Gold is the inaugural mission of Nicaragua’s newly formed Ecological Battalion. It is Central America’s first concerted effort to seek a military-backed solution to the threats of climate change. The green guard, a unit of 580 environmental soldiers, recently won its first “battlefield victory” by netting 111,800 cubic feet (3,165 cubic metres) of illegal lumber felled by loggers.
From IPSNews.net
Nicaragua’s Antidote to Violent Crime
By Danilo Valladares*
GUATEMALA CITY, Sept 7, 2011 (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.
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.
