Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition Newsletter. July 19, 2023
44th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution
Poster from the 1st anniversary 1980
1. Next Nicaragua Webinar: “Why Is Nicaragua Important in Today’s World?” Hear from visitors to Nicaragua for the 44th anniversary celebration of the Revolution who will offer firsthand observations of: the July 19 festivities; tours of hospitals and clinics; visits to renewable energy and agroecology projects; exchanges with Afro-descendant and indigenous communities; meetings with government officials.
2. Sanctions and Rubio-Kaine Sanctions Bill
Rick Kohn: New Sanctions Could Impoverish and Destabilize Nicaragua A good summary of the sanctions bill S.1881 recently introduced by Senator Marco Rubio, co-sponsored by Senator Tim Kaine, currently in the Foreign Relations Committee. This round of sanctions would be devastating to US trade with Nicaragua. The new bill calls for suspension of Nicaragua’s participation in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. The CAFTA is important to building Nicaragua’s economy and makes it possible to provide healthcare and education and other infrastructure for development. The US government would be ordered to end imports of two more leading export commodities from Nicaragua: coffee and beef. The latest round of sanctions aims to further restrict loans for economic development by also including the Central America Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). The bill would block the property rights of US citizens and permanent residents by outlawing any investment in Nicaragua.
Erik Mar and John Perry: Inscrutable Sanctions The UK, US, and Canadian and European Union, have created a sanctions regime targeting around 40 countries across the globe. While economic sanctions against states are best-known, they also include thousands of individuals whose assets have been frozen or confiscated, their travel restricted and their ability to do business constrained. Typically, names are added to a government’s sanctions lists with no prior warning or “due process.” The individuals affected are in practice unable to challenge their inclusion. One example is Nicaragua, targeted during the first Sandinista government in the 1980s, and, more recently, following nationwide protests beginning in April 2018.
3. Becca Renk: The Best Health Care Money Can’t Buy: Nicaragua’s Free Universal System Nicaragua has a family and community-based model of health care with emphasis on prevention. It relies on a network of 60,647 lay health care workers and volunteers who go door-to-door doing health care, education, mosquito eradication, vaccinations and census taking. In Nicaragua so many people suffered so much during the neoliberal years that society became scarred. Sometimes it still seems too good to be true – clean, modern hospitals with trained medical professionals for free? Thanks to the Sandinista government’s political will to prioritize the poor and its Herculean efforts to modernize and expand its system, the best health care in the country is now free.
4. Take Action against Biden’s Appointment of Elliott Abrams
AFGJ Alert: Biden Administration’s nomination of Elliott Abrams to the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy must be stopped! Sign on to send a letter to Biden and your Senators.
Code Pink: Elliott Abrams – Tell your Senators to vote NO on his appointment! Send an email to your Senator.
5. Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition: nicasolidarity.net
Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com to inquire about membership.
Nicaragua listserve: nicanet@googlegroups.com join at groups.google.com/g/nicanet
Sign up to receive the weekly Nica Notes: https://afgj.org/signup
Sign up for Britain’s Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign
Facebook: Friends of Sandinista Nicaragua, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition, Friends of the ATC Nicaragua
