Tourism in Nicaragua: Breaking with the Defunct Idea of Development 132 Daniel Mccurdy
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Cover by Fredder Pineda Contents Contributors and Collaborators 3 Introduction 4 Magda Lanuza Economic and Social Progress Continues 10 Nan McCurdy y Katherine Hoyt The Amnesty 37 Nan McCurdy Peace and Reconciliation in Nicaragua 52 Susan Lagos Uniting a Country and its People: Thirty-Two Years of Autonomy on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast 60 Coleen Littlejohn Nicaragua's Natural Environment – Conservation, National Development and Climate Change 77 Stephen Sefton Nicaraguan Women Take their Rightful Place 90 Rita Jill Clark-Gollub Nicaragua’s Popular Economy: The Face of Five Centuries of People’s Resistance 100 Yorlis Luna Tourism in Nicaragua: Breaking with the Defunct Idea of Development 132 Daniel McCurdy Polls Show Sandinista Popularity Undiminished 137 Chuck Kaufman Nicaragua Persists Despite Continued US Efforts to Destroy It 143 Brian S. Willson The Complicit Role of Human Rights Organizations In The 2018 Attempted Coup In Nicaragua 158 Camilo Mejía Nicaragua And The Media In 2019: A Polarized Picture 171 John Perry The Nicaraguan Opposition 192 Bárbara Larcom Afterword: Nicaragua Puts People First In Pandemic Response 211 Nan McCurdy Resources 235 Contributors and Collaborators David Archuleta Rita Jill Clark-Gollub Jorge Capelán Francisco Dominguez Katherine Hoyt Chuck Kaufman Magda Lanuza Susan Lagos Barbara Larcom Coleen Littlejohn Yorlis Gabriela Luna Miguel Mairena Nan McCurdy Daniel Mitchell McCurdy Nora Mitchell McCurdy Camilo Mejía Becca Mohally Renk John Perry Fredder Pineda Louise Richards Leslie Salgado Stephen Sefton Erika Takeo Agustín Velloso Brian S. Willson Introduction Magda Lanuza ¨The truth is like a lion, you don't have to defend it. Let her get lost, she'll defend herself.” St. Augustine of Hippo, philosopher and doctor of the 4th century Catholic Church. Nicaragua in 2018 was blasted on the front pages of international news and presented as a country immersed in total chaos and violence. This happened even though prestigious magazines and world indicators showed this nation as a unique country, with better citizen safety indexes, with alternative tourism opportunities, a healthy growing economy, in addition to being one of the top countries in the world in terms of gender equality. The reality is that two years later, this country and her people have continued to advance, making structural changes that place it as an example for other countries that seek to develop with equity, sustainability and social justice. However, there is a before and after April 2018. This new book, The Revolution Won’t Be Stop: Nicaragua Advances Despite US Unconventional Warfare, offers a different perspective on recent history after the attempted coup. It also gives continuity to the book, Live from Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup? presented in July 2019 as a tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Sandinista Popular Revolution. The chapters of this new book describe and analyze the advances of the Sandinista government especially in 2019. The content describes concrete social investment in the sectors of education, health, infrastructure, environment, economy, tourism, gender equality, great advances in the Caribbean Coast, and the process of reconciliation. All this while the country faces an unconventional war financed by the United States that tries to paralyze the advances of the revolution and end Sandinismo in Nicaragua. The Afterword focuses on the strategy of the Nicaraguan authorities to confront the COVID- 19 pandemic in the first semester of 2020. The writers are researchers, historians, analysts and journalists who know the situation well and live the events that make history in this country every day. In 2019, the government of National Reconciliation and Unity took a bold step towards achieving peace and stability with the approval in June of an Amnesty Law which was preceded by the National Dialogue in March and April 2019. The government complied with many of the opposition's requests and more, but the opposition did not agree to ask the United States to end the sanctions that they themselves had requested since 2015. The law provided the legal guidelines to release from prison all persons directly involved in violent and criminal acts during the 2018 coup attempt. All investigations were also stopped and their criminal records were cleared. These people have continued to enjoy the freedoms, public safety and development of the country that grows stronger every day. 4 The word reconciliation has a very strong meaning for Nicaragua. In the memoirs written by the Jesuit and Martyr, Ignacio Ellacuría, he describes Nicaragua's role in the Esquipulas II process in January 1988, when Central America was at war. In those years, former President Arias of Costa Rica appeared as the leader of the efforts to bring peace to the region, but for Ellacuría, this was not as it was portrayed. According to Ellacuría, the country that made the most effort to advance in the search for peace was Nicaragua, in spite of the Reagan administration's stubborn determination to reaffirm its warmongering spirit in the region, which caused the other presidents to contribute little to reconciliation. History has shown the Sandinistas' vocation for peace, even in such adverse circumstances as the war of aggression in the 1980s. With the Amnesty Law, another great historical event was achieved. For many Sandinistas it was difficult to accept that those who had been proven to have committed atrocious criminal acts such as murder, torture, the destruction of private and public property, extortion and even the burning of 55 ambulances that are so necessary today to guarantee the health of the people, would go free. But in spite of everything, once again, the people understood that true reconciliation and forgiveness were needed. These are revolutionary practices necessary to move forward as a people and a nation. It should be recognized that it has always been the Sandinistas who have paid the highest price for peace, sometimes with their own lives. Memories of coups d'états in the Latin American region are still fresh. However, for the new generations, what happened in Nicaragua for three months of 2018 (April 18 to July 17) was a rehearsal of a new edition of violent overthrow of elected authorities, in the style of the Arab spring. One of the methods used by the US in unconventional wars is psychological warfare through false news. In Nicaragua's recent history, the media and social networks have been at the service of a large media machine. The narrative, focused on the outside world, has the participation of the international media that present supposed facts without any qualms, decency or objectivity and without any basis of truth. First, the opposition media pass the rumors of the social networks and then, the corporate media repeat and multiply the same headlines with false stories, but using the same words: regime, repressors, human rights violations and peaceful protesters. As the saying goes, a lie told 100 times becomes the truth. However, in Nicaragua, there are very few people left who swallow the lies, the deceptions and media manipulation orchestrated for the outside. This unconventional war using lies has continued very strongly with the involvement of opposition leaders and activists, journalists, bloggers and NGO 'owners', almost all paid from abroad, mainly from the US. Lies continue to travel by copying and pasting, following pre-dictated sketches to always reach the same sources and repeat the same message. The false news has been denied again and again, both by the victims and by serious researchers and think tanks. This country still lives in those two realities, the one they show to the outside and the one that is lived internally since August 2018. The country has not forgotten, but the commitment of the Sandinistas to reconciliation and peace remains, and they work every day to recover from the economic crisis caused by the attempted coup d'état. 5 The dirty media campaign against Nicaragua hides the fact that over the past 14 years, the Sandinista government has developed many emblematic social programs to eliminate poverty and redistribute wealth. In most parts of the world the gap between the few rich and the large impoverished majority is further strengthened by neoliberalism. But in Nicaragua, since the arrival of the Sandinistas, the gap has been closing. Between 2007 and 2016 poverty was reduced from 48.3% to 24.9%. Extreme poverty fell by more than half from 17.2% in 2007 to 6.9% in 2016. In part, the Government has achieved this after strongly promoting a popular economy that involves the redistribution and sustainability of resources, self-management of wealth, solidarity work and the search for social justice. This has made possible further progress in the diversification of economic sectors and the restoration of basic rights. This legacy began with Sandino between 1927 and 1934 with the promotion of cooperatives. From there, the public policies promoted by the Sandinista Government were implemented with programs and direct investments to the small and medium economic sector. Part of the 5.2% economic growth that the country had been experiencing until April 2018 - one of the highest in the region - is based on the popular economy, which has meant the possibility of direct participation of micro, small and medium production. By the end of 2019 the country was able to cover more than 85% of its own food demand. This model becomes the shield that protects the vast majority of the population from political attacks, natural disasters and pandemics. It will not be possible to kill Nicaragua with hunger, were recent words of the President. International human rights organizations receive most of their funding from the US and large corporations. The agenda of these organizations can tend to be determined by their major funders. In the recent case of Nicaragua, it has been demonstrated that biased reports, with technical inaccuracies and without any objectivity, have served to accuse the country of human rights violations and thus justify economic sanctions imposed against the people.