The Nicaragua Network has been organizing in solidarity with the people of Nicaragua for over 30 years. In February of 1979, the Network was founded to support the popular struggle to overthrow the 45 year US-supported Somoza family dictatorship, and after the July 19 victory, to support the efforts of the Sandinista Revolution to provide a better life for the nation’s people. Thus, for over a quarter of a century, the Network has been a leading organization in the United States committed to social and economic justice for Nicaragua, Latin America and the world, based on respect for sovereignty and self-determination. The Network advocates for sound U.S. foreign policies that respect human rights and international law. The Nicaragua Network provides information and organizing tools to a network of 200 solidarity, sister city, and peace and justice committees across the U.S.

Publications include the Nicaragua Network Hotline, the Nicaragua News Service, the Nicaragua Monitor, and occasional monographs. The Network organizes speaking tours of Nicaraguans in the U.S. and study tours and brigades to Nicaragua. Some important current campaigns are: confronting water privatization, debt cancellation for Nicaragua and other poor countries, and radical change of IMF/World Bank measures. We also have campaigns in support of unemployed coffee workers, banana workers, labor organizing in the Free Trade Zones, indigenous rights, and the efforts of Nicaraguan environmental organizations.

To contact the Nicaragua Network  by email, write to nicanet@afgj.org.  We can also be contacted by phone at 202-544-9355 or by mail at 1247 E St. SE, Washington, DC 20003. 

To join the Nicaragua as a member committee, please download and send in this form: committee-membership.pdf

By Katherine Hoyt, National Co-Coordinator, Nicaragua Network

[Editor’s Note: Chuck Kaufman’s “Open Letter to Nicaragua Solidarity Activists” (see below) generated a lot of discussion, including mostly positive feedback about the Nicaragua Network position toward Nicaragua and the government of President Daniel Ortega. Much of that discussion took place on listserve made up mostly of expatriates from the US and Europe. Nicaragua Network Co-Coordinator Katherine Hoyt responded to postings that thought groups like ours should issue blanket condemnations of the Ortega government.]

My mind keeps going back to an article on Cuba by Orlando Núñez about five years ago. He criticized a number of actions of the Cuban government but he said that he continued to support the Cuban revolution because “We socialists are seduced by the fact that the children eat and go to school.” In other words, because of those simple facts, he couldn’t condemn the whole process.
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By Chuck Kaufman, National Co-Coordinator Nicaragua Network

The Nicaragua Network has received many notes and emails about our coverage of Nicaragua in recent months. Some think we’re too supportive of the government of President Daniel Ortega, while others think we are too critical. Still others have written to thank us for what they consider to be balanced information in a highly polarized situation. We welcome the dialogue and constructive criticism and are encouraged that so many people are still paying attention to Nicaragua and the US role in that small, poor country.
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