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“90% of Nicaraguans feel spied upon” – True, or fake news?
The “spied upon” headline from El Pais is unequivocal. The story, in the newspaper’s English-language edition, says that Nicaraguans live in “a climate of permanent surveillance” in which they distrust even their neighbors. Further, apparently harmless community meetings are really “a mechanism of social control” where they “feel watched.” El Pais sources a survey carried…
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A quartet of Nicaragua critics sings from Washington’s songbook
In recent weeks, a motley crew of writers has found common cause in attacking Nicaragua’s Sandinista government: Jaden Hong, a high-school student from Sammamish, Washington, who has never visited the country; Jared O. Bell, a former USAID Foreign Service Officer; Barb Arland-Fye, editor of a Catholic newspaper in Iowa; and Gioconda Belli, a 76-year-old Nicaraguan…
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Trump’s Latin American Policies Go South
With the Trump imperium passing the half-year mark, the posture of the US empire is ever clearer. Whether animated by “America First” or globalism, the objective remains “full spectrum dominance.” And now with the neocon capture of the Democrats, there are no guardrails from the so-called opposition party. Call it the “new cold war,” the…
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50,000 died in Nicaragua’s struggle against dictatorship: Sócrates was one of the last
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
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The Politics of Accusation: Violence in Costa Rica and the Rush to Blame Nicaragua
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. Costa Rica just detained a former security minister and ex-judge for drug trafficking following a US extradition request. Even the US State Department warns of the danger of “armed robbery, homicide, and sexual assault” in Costa Rica.
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Punishing Progress: Washington Targets Social Achievements of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela
“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 Venezuelan governments. The larger…
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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…
