On the morning of 17 December, schoolchildren in Coralito assembled under the Cuban flag to sing the anthem before starting lessons. Early sunshine picked out five palm trees on the roadside opposite the school. They were planted in support of the ‘Cuban Five’, agents sent to Miami to disrupt anti-Castro plots by Cuban exiles in…
What happened to the thousands who came to Nicaragua from North America and Europe in the 1980s, inspired by the Sandinista revolution? A very few stayed, of course, and a number went back to their home countries and began serious solidarity work. Others, soon branded Sandalistas, enjoyed their exotic experience but swiftly moved on to…
The untimely death of Felicita Zeledón, a member of the National Assembly, recalls the tragedy that hit the rural area of Posoltega on the morning of 30 October 1998. Zeledón, then mayor of the small town on the Leon-Chinandega highway, became the central figure in dealing with the biggest humanitarian crisis in Nicaragua since the…
Fernando González, the second of the Cuban Five to be released from prison, has been in Masaya as part of the campaign on behalf of the other three, who have been incarcerated since 1998. On Saturday afternoon a small room packed with about 300 people saw him receive the freedom of the city from the…
Today, September 15, marks 193 years since the end of Spanish colonial rule in Central America. Traditionally celebrated as Independence Day across the five countries that share it, Central America’s autonomy has in reality been in question for much of the time since 1821. To begin with, the five countries remained attached to distant Mexico,…
Last week a fracking company was refused permission to drill in the South Downs National Park. Celtique Energie is considering an appeal to Eric Pickles to overrule the decision. He might be reluctant to cause a furore in West Sussex, but would he feel the same if aggrieved companies could sue the government for lost…
Do you want to read a romantic romp set in a social housing estate? Mind Games and Ministers might be just the book to pack into your holiday luggage next time around. Not many novels set in social housing are written by people who have actually worked as housing managers. There are plenty of books…
Network Rail rejoins the public sector today, but for statistical purposes only. Wouldn’t it make sense to follow the example of other countries and take it back properly into public control? Today Britain’s rail infrastructure passes back into public ownership: not through any political intent but solely because the Office for National Statistics decided it…
We’re behaving as if we had 1.5 earths available to us, and our behaviour is getting worse. Every year the Global Footprint Network calculates the date on which people use up one year’s worth of the planet’s biocapacity. In 2013 we achieved this on 20 August. This year we’ve done it a day earlier. In…
The US State Department is in a fix. It confronts an intransigent foreign government. The long-standing policy aim is regime change. Past attempts at assassination, sponsoring an armed invasion, allowing dissident groups to blow up an airliner, hotels and discotheques, have all failed. Economic sanctions seemed to have strengthened not weakened the regime. US agents are…