Snapshot of Nicaragua, after 35 years away

I am visiting Nicaragua, the Central American country where I lived 35 years ago.

I wanted to revisit this country to partake in the forty-fifth anniversary of this country’s revolution as a participant in a political delegation and to visit farmers and areas where I used to work.

The Somoza dictatorship that was deposed by the Sandinista Revolution in 1979 was a brutal one. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s famously said of the first dictator in the dynasty that he was: “a son of a bitch but our son of a bitch.” The U.S. supported the dictatorship’s family until the latest one was deposed in 1979.

Before the revolution, the Somozas owned 75 per cent of cultivated land and many industries in Nicaragua. If they wanted more land or businesses, they demanded it and assassinated anyone opposing them.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was formed in 1961. The FSLN embarked on a clandestine fight to get the country back from the dictatorship. The Sandinista Revolution, as it was called, triumphed in 1979, putting an end to more than 40 years of dictatorship.

At the Casa Benjamin Linder, the hotel where I am staying, I talked to a fellow named Omar who is employed there.

Omar has a young family. He told me about life in his parents’ time during the Somoza dictatorship. It was obvious that there was a lot of corruption, with projects started but not finished: money would disappear, highways were built for only a few kilometres, hospitals and schools were never finished or were badly maintained. Citizens felt very unsafe; people didn’t venture out in the evening for fear of Somoza’s infamous Guardia Nacional. They terrorized neighbourhoods by gunning down people at random.

After the revolution, in 1979, there was a general sense of relief and freedom, but it didn’t last long.

In 1990, the FSLN lost the elections because the population of Nicaragua was tired of losing so many young people in the fight against the U.S.-funded Contras.

The FSLN defeat led to a series of neoliberal governments that were in power from 1990 until 2007. Many services in health, education, water, and so on were privatized and became unaffordable for low-income families.

With the Sandinistas back in power since 2007, health care is free, offering very advanced procedures, and education is free, including university.

The hotel employee, Omar, is very happy with the opportunities this all gives his family, and others like him.

Nicaragua is also much ahead in developing a non-fossil fuel-based electricity supply. According to the government, 77 per cent is from renewable resources, 23 per cent from fossil fuels. However, the country is very vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis because of the increased frequency of hurricanes, flooding and droughts.

There is less migration from Nicaragua to the U.S. in the present, although I have seen advertisements for migration with promises of many high-paying jobs.

The Nicaraguans I’ve spoken with seem generally quite satisfied with life here. The U.S. is trying to entice people to leave so they can blame migration on “repressive regimes.” Some migration occurs through Nicaragua, of course; a few days ago, a West Asian group stayed here in my hotel on their way to the US.

From Nicaragua to Palestine

Nicaragua made headlines earlier this year when it took Germany to the International Court of Justice for violating the Genocide Convention by continuing to supply arms to Israel during its current war on Gaza.

The FSLN first made contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1966, two years after the PLO was formed. The Sandinista government of Nicaragua officially recognized Palestine as a nation in 1988.

The relationship between Nicaraguan and Palestinian liberation movements goes back long before that.

The man who inspired the FSLN, Augusto Sandino, was the leader of an army that forced the U.S. Marines to leave Nicaragua in 1933. A Colombian-born Palestinian named Ghadeer Abu Sneineh joined Sandino but had to flee Nicaragua after Sandino was assassinated in 1934. Two years later, in 1936, Ghadeer joined a major uprising in Palestine.

Another important figure was Patricio Arguello Ryan. Arguello Ryan was born in the U.S. to a Nicaraguan father and an American mother. They moved in and out of Nicaragua depending on the threat the Somoza dictatorship fell under.

Arguello Ryan returned to Nicaragua in 1968 and was much involved with the FSLN and educational work for them. In 1970, he went to Jordan for militant training with Palestinians and he met Laila Khaled. Arguello Ryan and Khaled famously attempted to hijack El Al flight 219. The attempt failed and he was killed by Israeli forces on the plane.

Khaled is currently in Nicaragua to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution.

On July 19, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled the Israeli presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is unlawful and directed states to not provide aid or assistance towards maintaining this unlawful situation. True to Sandinista ideals of fighting for the liberation of the oppressed, Nicaragua did not need an international court ruling to treat Israel’s war on Gaza as unlawful and side with Palestine.

Dirk Groenenberg is a chemical-free farmer from Rusagonis and a member of solidarity groups such as the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network and Fredericton Palestine Solidarity.