All the main parties in the 2019 election are putting forward energy efficiency measures in some form. CIH’s John Perry and Orbit’s Christoph Sinn look at how the sector responds and whether it can frame an ambitious yet realistic programme and do its part in tackling the climate emergency.
Some of the local ‘human rights’ organisations in Nicaragua, which received foreign funding and operated as propaganda vehicles against the government, lost their legal status earlier this year. One of the these was CENIDH, run by Vilma Nuñez. Several of the staff, including a director, Gonzalo Carrión, left in February to set up a new body in Costa Rica, the Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Nicaragua Nunca Más, allegedly using money that belongs to CENIDH (The Grayzone has reported more widely on The Rise and Fall of Nicaragua’s ‘Human Rights’ Organisations and the recent conflicts within them).
Nicaragua Nunca Más is clearly well-resourced, as it now has an office in San Jose, publishes elaborately produced reports, and is able to present its arguments and hold meetings with the United Nations, the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), and other international bodies. Although there is nothing on its website to indicate where this money comes from, as was also the case with CENIDH, its Facebook page suggests it gets support from the UK embassy in Costa Rica and other sources. Nicaragua Nunca Más enjoys the collaboration of the Costa Rican government, which regularly condemns Nicaragua despite having its own considerable human rights issues.
Continue reading “‘Human rights’ propaganda against Nicaragua comes from Costa Rica”
Court sketch of witnesses in the trial of Tony Hernández (The Limited Times)
Donald Trump said last year that migrant caravans, mainly of Hondurans, were coming to the US from ‘shithole countries’. But now he says that the president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, is doing a ‘fantastic job’. Trump and JOH recently reached an agreement declaring Honduras to be a ‘safe place’ for asylum seekers trying to reach the US.
JOH also promised to help the US tackle transnational criminal organisations. He’s well placed to do this. Last November, his brother Tony was arrested in Miami and accused of drug trafficking and possessing illegal weapons. At his trial in New York, which concluded last week, the jury found Tony Hernández guilty. He faces at least 30 years in prison for bringing 200,000 kilos of cocaine into the US between 2004 and 2018, in packets often stamped with his own initials.
It was only in June that then Home Secretary Sajid Javid apologised for the impact that his department’s “hostile environment” policies had on the Windrush generation, many of whom lost their homes and jobs or were even deported from the UK. His promised review of the policy is incomplete, however, and is one of the tasks facing new minister Priti Patel. She supported the tough immigration measures that were brought in originally by Theresa May, but can she now learn the lessons from the Windrush scandal and make the department’s policies less hostile?
Continue reading “The “right to rent” is discriminatory – enough is enough”
Photo: Getty
Last week’s report suggesting supply is not the answer to the housing crisis is just the latest in a series to make this claim, but it remains misleading.
In their hunger for US funding, Nicaraguan “human rights” NGO’s inflated the death toll during last year’s coup. Today, these groups are in a state of complete disarray.
This week is the launch of the Spanish edition of the ebook about last year’s events in Nicaragua. The launch coincides with the 40th anniversary of the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship on 19 July 1979. Here is a review of the book by Roger Stoll. The English version of Live from Nicaragua is offered free by Alliance for Global Justice (afgj.org) as an ebook and a PDF.
A deadly arson attack during last year’s regime change attempt was blamed on Nicaragua’s government by everyone from the US State Department to The New York Times and The Guardian. New information has raised serious doubts about the official story, highlighting the wider campaign of misinformation waged by US and UK media.
Ten European cities are demanding action from the European Union to help them control the growth of short-term lets in their local housing markets. The fear is that providers like Airbnb could become exempt from local regulations that enable authorities to control lettings in the private rental sector, because they will be under no legal obligation to declare the existence of lettings or how much rent is being charged, even though they have this information.
Continue reading “Could Airbnb devastate the housing markets in key cities?”
Bismarck Martinez’s family demand justice for his murder
In February the Sandinista government resumed a “national dialogue” with the opposition, re-establishing a forum to resolve political conflict in the country after the previous dialogue fell apart during last year’s violence. In the new negotiations, the opposition Civic Alliance’s key demand has been the release of those who were imprisoned for crimes committed during the failed coup. In late March, the government agreed to release all detained prisoners by 18 June, a process completed several days before the deadline, in co-operation with the International Red Cross.
John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on