50,000 died in Nicaragua’s struggle against dictatorship: Sócrates was one of the last
John Perry and Dan Kovalik Nicaraguans will fill the streets later this month to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. On July 19, 1979, the Somoza dictatorship finally fell, ending 18 years of guerilla fighting and urban insurrections. The regime had been supported for 43 years by successive US administrations (the history is…
The Politics of Accusation: Violence in Costa Rica and the Rush to Blame Nicaragua
Roger D. Harris and Kelly Nelson Traditionally regarded as safe for visitors, Costa Rica has recently become Central America’s second most dangerous country, with 400 homicides recorded so far this year. The violence is attributed to an epidemic of drug-related crime, as the country has become a major staging post for narcotics smuggled to Europe….
Punishing Progress: Washington Targets Social Achievements of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela
With Roger D. Harris “We look for the poorest patients,” the Cuban doctor in charge of the eye clinic said. “Often we travel to remote rural areas and bring them to the clinic in a bus.” The clinic, in Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua, was part of Misión Milagro (Miracle Mission), run jointly by the Cuban and…
When Media Tell Us Who ‘Won’ a Latin American Election, Start to Ask Questions
Elections in Latin America are often controversial. While many countries in the Global North regularly shuffle between parties offering alternating versions of neoliberalism, voting in Central and South America often offers starker contrasts: An anti-imperialist candidate in the mold of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez might be up against a neoliberal such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. It…
Collective action against genocide in Gaza
Alfred de Zayas, the former UN independent adviser who has taken part in a Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition webinar and contributed to petitions and articles about the so-called Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, last year submitted a petition to the Internationa Criminal Court, calling for an investigation of the complicity of the President of…
Under Trump, NED to continue weaponizing “democracy” in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba
The National Endowment for Democracy gets its project funding reinstated by the Trump administration Roger D. Harris and John Perry The brief freeze and rapid partial reinstatement of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding in early 2025 helped expose it as a US regime-change tool. Created to rebrand CIA covert operations as “democracy promotion,” the…
Unilateral Coercive Measures and Humanitarian Action
The UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures (or sanctions) made a global request for evidence on their effects on humanitarian action. Given that sanctions against Nicaragua are having a considerable effect on the government’s humanitarian work, the Coalition made this submission to the inquiry.
Latin America three months into the Trumpocalypse
Roger D. Harris and John Perry Nobody is complaining anymore about Latin America and the Caribbean being neglected by the hegemon to the north. The Trump administration is contending with it on multiple fronts: prioritizing “massive deportations,” halting the “flood of drugs,” combatting “threats to US security,” and stopping other countries from “ripping us off”…