By Katherine Hoyt Katherine Hoyt was National Co-Coordinator of the Nicaragua Network and the Alliance for Global Justice for many years before her retirement. She is now on the board of the Alliance for Global Justice. On the 200th anniversary of its announcement to the US Congress by President James Monroe, Representative Nydia Velasquez (D-NY)…
Nicaragua
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes: News Briefs
Food for School Meals Distributed; Housing Advances; Roads Repaired On Dec. 29, during her daily talk, Vice President Rosario Murillo reported that the “first distribution of food for the School Meal Program will begin on January 5” in advance of the start of the new school year on January 29th. Meals are served to 1.2…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
Nicanotes: Nicaragua Supports Palestinian Struggle
The ties between the Sandinistas of Nicaragua and the Palestinians go back decades. In the late 1960s, numerous Sandinistas trained with members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the Middle East. The Nicaraguan government has released several statements in support of the Palestinians since the start of the war in Gaza and, earlier this…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes – Nicaragua 2023: Social Advances
By Nan McCurdy and Katherine Hoyt Just in 2023 Nicaragua has made incredible social advances to improve the well-being of the population. We will only cover a few examples here. Once again, according to the annual World Economic Forum 2023 Gender Gap Index, Nicaragua has ranked in 7th place worldwide in gender equality, and first in all of…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes: The Monroe Doctrine Weakens as Latin America Moves Forward: An Interview with Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister
(This interview was originally published in Spanish by El 19 Digital on December 2, 2023.) The Monroe Doctrine, issued by US President James Monroe on Dec. 2, 1823, stated that any interference in the Americas by a European power would be viewed as a hostile act by the United States. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes: US sanctions hit Nicaragua’s social investment programs
By John Perry [This article was first published in The Morning Star on Nov. 7, 2023.] (John Perry is based in Masaya, Nicaragua, and writes for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, London Review of Books, FAIR and other outlets.) Which country spends nearly two-thirds of its budget on tackling poverty? When I met Nicaragua’s finance…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes: Good Infrastructure Makes People’s Lives Better
By Nan McCurdy and Katherine Hoyt According to the international financial institutions, Nicaragua stands out because it completes projects in an efficient and timely manner. On Dec. 7, 2022, the President of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), Dante Mossi, stated that “Nicaragua is the country [in Central America] with the best execution…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes: The Journey North
By John Perry John Perry is based in Masaya, Nicaragua, and writes for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, London Review of Books, FAIR and other outlets. In the photo his mother shows me, Alejandro is with a group of friends: seven Nicaraguan men and women, one with a 14-year-old daughter. There’s no apprehension in the…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes: Profound Advances in Education and Culture
By Nan McCurdy and Katherine Hoyt Since 2007, when the Sandinistas returned to power, until 2023, Nicaragua’s education budget has increased by a staggering 457%. Nicaragua places children and families at the center of all its educational policies. An inclusive multicultural model at all levels of education has been developed, from preschool through technical and/or…
NicaNotes, Nicaragua
NicaNotes: Nicaragua, the UCA, and the Society of Jesus
By Marvin Ortega (A longer version of this article was published in Spanish by Cuaderno Sandinista on September 27, 2023. English translation by Jill Clark-Gollub.) Marvin Ortega is a Nicaraguan sociologist and political analyst. The propaganda machine of the Society of Jesus has trained its guns on Nicaragua by throwing mud from thousands of schools…