Nicaragua: a dignified country that cares for its people, not the oppressive dictatorship portrayed in the press

Julian Seymour, now retired, spent his working life in South America. He and his wife Ruby Cox, former chair of NSCAG, received an invitation from President Daniel Ortega to attend the National Holidays of July 19, 2024 in Managua.

I lived my working life mainly in Colombia and Venezuela, being an employer, not an employee. I had a different outlook than Ruby.

I had heard about Nicaragua through the press and social media, having formed a vision of the country as highly controlled and poor, with an authoritarian system of government at an extreme, with no civil rights.

I found that the reality was the opposite. We arrived at the airport without a military presence, we entered the country with the same formalities as we find entering France, we checked into a hotel of a North American franchise without checks or scrutiny. We rented a car also from an American franchise, as normal.

I was amazed, this was not what I expected. We walked next to the lake without fear, we talked with the residents who talked with us normally, without supervision.

I was impressed by the very high level of participation of women in high government positions. It was clear that these women did indeed exercise power in their respective areas.

We travelled in the car to San Juan del Sur without finding a military checkpoint, we passed by an impeccable penitentiary, and on the beach we got to know the town. A delight.

In short, we found a people happy with their government, and that is due, in my humble opinion, to the other factor we found, namely: officers at all levels, from the doorman to the Minister, working from dawn to dusk for the benefit of their people, not with the sole purpose of enriching themselves.

It was evident that the infrastructure works are planned for the well-being of the people, they are started and concluded. We saw clean and equipped schools, we talked to motivated students. Money well spent.

Of course, my friends advised me not to go to Nicaragua because of the dangers and poverty.
I am very pleased to have been able to report to them on my return.

I see many more soldiers with machine guns in their arms in London, Birmingham and Madrid than in Managua or Masaya. I see homeless people in Hastings but not in San Juan del Sur. In the UK wherever you go you are under the eternal gaze of CCTV, but not in Nicaragua.

The President does not walk or dance in the square with seven security rings, he dances with his people who love him.

That Nicaragua is not as the press paints it, neither oppressed nor submissive, but a beautiful country with a happy and working people, and a government dedicated to its people. A Country Digno.