Nicaragua Network

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For almost forty years UK-born musician/organizer Paul Baker and his Nicaraguan wife Fátima Hernández have worked pro bono with the Chilean, Salvadoran and Nicaraguan peoples, as Paul puts it, "Surviving by skin of teeth and seat of pants. Quite a ride, but it's exciting (if tough on 'trousers'!), sharing life with people who drop into bed not knowing if there'll be food for tomorrow, yet always greeting you next day smiling, their children washed, pressed and ready for school. Fátima herself is a barrio girl, a guerrillera at 13 who fought the Somoza dictatorship to bring Nicaragua justice.  She's worked on in barrio health and education ever since, and now primarily cares for severely burned children. It's wonderful to work with her/her compañer@s. Thanks to them/their FSLN government, after years of neo-liberal regimes killing land reform, destroying health and education, Nicaragua is the 'threat of a good example' once again."

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On Sept. 13, 2014, convicted Iran-Contra criminal Oliver North will be the key-note speaker at a Dallas, Texas, dinner organized by the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land to benefit persecuted Christians in the Middle East!

Any of us who worked to stop Reagan’s contra war have the right to ask, “What about all those Christians who died in Nicaragua in the 1980s victims of the weapons and supplies that Oliver North illegally sent to the contras fighting to overthrow the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua?” The only reason North did not serve time in jail after he was convicted of violating US law was because the extensive coverage of the Iran-Contra Hearings in Congress was ruled by an appeals court to have prejudiced the jury against him!

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Memorias Del Fuego is a feature-length documentary film about the disappearing stories of women who fought to win Nicaragua's Sandinista Revolution. The first portion, in which the filmmakers interviewed former Sandinista commanders, couriers, and journalists, was shot without any funding, but the project is raising funds to be able to return and capture the stories of female combatants from rural areas and FSLN party members.

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The Alliance for Global Justice (of which the Nicaragua Network is the founding project) is launching “Friends of the Palestine Red Crescent Society” a project intended to fundraise for medical and humanitarian aid to Palestine from the United States. Please visit the web site at: http://friendsprcs.org/

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The Nicaragua Network laments and condemns the brutal attacks by armed men on two busses carrying people home from the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Revolution in Managua. Five people were killed and 19 wounded in the two attacks which took place at Km. 75 on the highway from Managua to Matagalpa and on the road from San Ramon to El Jobo, both in the Department of Matagalpa.

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By Chuck Kaufman, National Co-Coordinator, Nicaragua Network/Alliance for Global Justice

July 19, 2014 marks the 35^th anniversary of the Triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. On that day, the Sandinista troops led by the nine commanders of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN), entered the capital city of Managua where they were greeted by hundreds of thousands of jubilant Nicaraguans. The triumphant guerrillas found a country in ruins. The last dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, had bombed the cities during the final offensive. When he fled the country two days earlier, he took not only the caskets containing his parents remains, but all the money in the national treasury as well. The Sandinistas were left with no money and a $1.9 billion international debt.

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By Katherine Hoyt (National Co-Coordinator, Nicaragua Network/Alliance for Global Justice)

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.

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London Review of Books
11 July 2014
By John Perry 

There’s nothing new about children travelling alone through Central America and Mexico to get to the United States. The journey and its dangers were portrayed five years ago in the film “Sin Nombre”. One character, Sayra, a teenage girl from Honduras, ends up crossing the Rio Grande alone. She is looking out for Casper, a friend she made weeks earlier on the Mexico-Guatemala border. He doesn’t make it: he’s shot on the river bank by a rival, 12-year-old gang member.

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Write letters to the editor of your local paper!

A supporter sent us a letter to the editor she had written to counter all the right-wing letters in her local paper commenting on the humanitarian crisis on the border caused by children fleeing Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.  Here’s her answer to the question in the headline:

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Travel to Nicaragua this summer! 

Deadline for applications --  July 3

This delegation to Nicaragua will explore Nicaragua’s efforts to confront climate change. Nicaragua is one of the most vulnerable countries to the threat of rising sea levels and unstable climate which will bring more hurricanes and floods as well as more droughts. It also has a progressive government that is doing more than most to prepare for climate change. Last year Nicaragua achieved the production of 52% of its electricity from renewable sources and is on track to exceed 90% by 2020.

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