Why Black Revolutionaries Must Stand with the People of Nicaragua

FACT SHEET on Nicaragua

Brief History

Following the United States occupation of Nicaragua (1903-1933) during the Banana Wars, the Somoza family political dynasty came to power, and would rule Nicaragua from 1937 until their ouster in 1979 during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) ousted  the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and subsequently governed efficiently in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1981.  

The US right-wing Reagan Administration supported a strong anti-communist strategy for dealing with Latin America, and so it attempted to isolate the Sandinista revolution. It fomented a proxy war against the FSLN-led government of Nicaragua by backing right-wing rebel groups, known as the “contras,” from 1981-1990. 

The strategy of the Reagan administration against Nicaragua has special importance for the U.S. Black community for a number of reasons. The central one is that when the Reagan administration was restricted from using government resources to fund the counterrevolutionary war it initiated against Nicaragua, that administration organized a drug smuggling scheme that flooded our communities with cheap rock cocaine from Colombia. In orchestrating what became known as the Contra War against Nicaragua, the U.S. also facilitated the explosion of crack cocaine into Black communities across the U.S., rendering  those communities vulnerable to its domestic war on drugs and mass incarceration. 

Following the Contra War, Nicaragua suffered 16 years of neoliberal, right-wing rule under Violeta Chamorro,  Arnoldo Alemán, and then Enrique Bolaños.

In November 2006, the FSLN returned to power after 16 years. The story of Nicaragua’s remarkable social, political and economic progress under the Sandinista government’s more dramatic achievements include the reduction of poverty and extreme poverty, free basic healthcare and education, virtually zero illiteracy, and production of about 90% of its own food consumption (“food sovereignty”). 

Less well-known achievements include Nicaragua’s internationally recognized humane community policing system, and the country’s ranking of fifth in the world in gender equity. Despite recognition of these social and economic achievements, and many more, by international organizations including United Nations agencies, you wouldn’t know any of this if you follow only US corporate and government-sponsored media.

In 2018, the US attempted a coup under the online hashtag #SoSNicaragua. The elaborate, well-planned conspiracy behind the April-July 2018 US-orchestrated coup attempt against Nicaragua included most of the church hierarchy, many wealthy ex-Somocistas, many of the numerous NGOs including the European-funded CENIDH, the CIA-backed NED (National Endowment for Democracy) and USAID, and a couple thousand young Nicaraguans trained over 4 years in the use of social media to push an agenda-loaded propaganda campaign when the right opportunity arose. 

What’s Happening Now?

Washington will be expanding its brutal economic war on Nicaragua as the country’s general elections approach on November 7, 2021. Recently, A House Foreign Affairs Committee  hearing on September 21 set out plans for the next phase of the United States’ hybrid warfare on Nicaragua, which aims to destabilize and ultimately overthrow the Sandinista government. The State Department has emphasized that the Biden administration is working closely with the European Union, Canada, Costa Rica, and the Organization of American States (OAS) to destabilize the Sandinista government. 

US officials stated explicitly that Washington will refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the November elections. And social media corporations (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) - which follow the imperialist dictates of the US State Department - are playing their role in removing pages from thousands of Nicaraguans who support the Sandinista Revolution. It has also been suggested that the Joe Biden administration may even refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the Nicaraguan government, and will pressure other countries in Latin America to cut diplomatic ties as well. In September, The Biden administration moved forward with its aggressions in the form of more financial sanctions, through legislation called the RENACER Act. The RENACER Act just passed congress by a vote of 387-35 (see BAP’s press release.)

Why Is BAP Concerned?

The Pan-European colonial-capitalist white-supremacist patriarchy is not going to go away quietly. It must be decisively defeated if global humanity is to survive in a way that allows for the potential for real democracy and social justice. The West is responsible for the barbaric treatment and conditions colonized peoples have faced for centuries. The U.S. ruling class has shown nothing but contempt for the lives of workers inside its borders and for the millions worldwide who live in abject poverty as a result of the global U.S.-dominated capitalist-imperialist system.

Nicaragua is home to the largest population of African descent in Central America residing mainly in the Bluefields region. There are also 3,500 Garifuna in Nicaragua and they live mostly in RAAS, the Región Autónoma del Atlántica Sur.

Black and colonized peoples in the Americas have been consistent victims of the United States efforts to undermine socialist democracies, thwart off any progressive efforts from CARICOM and suppress the will of the masses of the people using military force and training from SOUTHCOM forces. This is true from Colombia to Haiti, Honduras to Brazil, Cuba to Venezuela, Guyana to Bolivia. Informed by the Black radical peace tradition, the Black Alliance for Peace is supporting the CELAC (The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) call for Latin America and the Caribbean to be a “Zone of Peace.”

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Banner Photo: Sandinista followers gather at the Juan Pablo II plaza, to celebrate the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution in Managua, Nicaragua, Thursday, July 19th, 2018. (AP Photos/Cristobal Venegas)