Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group
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NSCAG PUBLICATIONS

Our Briefings

PUBLISHED IN 2024

Nicaragua-Palestine: solidarity in action

This new NSCAG briefing illustrates the enduring solidarity between the two small nations covering almost 100 years.

It begins with Colombian born Palestinian Coronel Antonio Dahud joining Sandino’s guerrilla army against US occupation of Nicaragua in the late 1920s, and his subsequent journey to Palestine to join the 1936 Palestinian revolt. It continues to this day exemplified by Nicaragua’s case against Germany in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for “facilitating the commission of genocide” in Gaza.

A bond developed between Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the 1960s and 70s, based on mutual solidarity against colonial oppression. After the 1979 Sandinista revolution, Nicaragua became the first Central American country to establish diplomatic relations with Palestine in 1980

Simultaneously Israel cemented its reputation as a supplier of weaponry to repressive states, including the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. Israel later supplied arms and training to the US backed contra forces fighting to overthrow Nicaragua’s elected government.

The briefing also outlines two ways in which solidarity has continued over the past year through Nicaragua’s support for Palestine in the International Court of Justice, and people-to-people sharing of health care policies and medical knowledge.

This includes Palestinian doctors training their Nicaraguan counterparts in trauma surgery and Nicaraguan Ministry of Health sharing information about the country’s free community health care system with Palestinian medical personnel.

Further information on Nicaragua’s case against Germany in the ICJ

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PUBLISHED IN 2024

Nicaragua: No to sanctions! yes to social progress!

Independence, sovereignty and national self-determination are inalienable rights of the people and fundamental rights of the Nicaraguan nation – Article 1, Nicaraguan constitution

Since 1979 the US has used military, economic and political warfare to attempt to destroy the Sandinistas whose main priority has been the fight against poverty.

As of June 2024, yet another attempt to force regime change is a bill  before the US Senate that would further tighten sanctions, more accurately called Ilegal coercive measures as they violate the UN charter, international law and Nicaragua’s own constitution. 

This deceptively named legislation, the Restoring Sovereignty and Human Rights Act is yet another US attempt to strangle the Nicaraguan economy, destabilise the country and replace the Sandinista government with one more to the liking of the US.

It was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee  just one week after Nicaragua presented a case in the International Court of Justice to defend the Palestinian people from the genocide in Gaza.

This briefing examines Nicaragua’s commitment to a well-integrated approach to poverty reduction and the impact existing US sanctions have had on access to resources that the country could have used to expand social programmes to benefit those who are most impoverished.

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PUBLISHED IN 2023

Social and Economic Progress in Nicaragua

From 1990 – 2006 successive US-backed right wing neoliberal governments privatisied public services and stripped away trade union rights.

The election of President Daniel Ortega and the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) in 2006 marked the beginning of a radical transformation.

Nicaraguans now enjoy a society where the needs of the most impoverished and vulnerable are prioritised, with 58% of the budget spent on health and education.

This briefing details the social and economic progress that has taken place. 

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PUBLISHED IN 2023

Nicaragua, a country where trade unions are respected

In many countries, trade unions are severely repressed and too often, being a trade unionist means risking your life. This is not the case in Nicaragua, where trade unions are highly respected and valued for their contribution to society.

Nicaraguan trade unions play an important role in the social and economic life of the country and are consulted on key developments such as the National Poverty and Human Development Plan 2022-2026.

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PUblished in 2022

No to agribusiness, yes to agroecology, 2022

Our Nicaraguan partner organisation, the Rural Workers Association (ATC), is a member organisation of La Via Campesina (LVC), a global movement of millions of peasants (small scale farmers) and indigenous peoples.

Transnational agribusinesses have turned food production and consumption into one of the greatest hazards for people and the planet. A small number of companies control everything from seeds to supermarkets; they provide food for only 30% of the world’s population but use 75-90% of land, water and fossil  fuels related to agriculture.

LVC argues that the climate crisis has exposed the profound dangers that this globalised food system and unsustainable capitalism pose to life in all its forms.

But LVC is not just about denouncing agribusiness but also about building an alternative model, one that is based on growing  healthy local food, but also includes food sovereignty, climate justice, and social transformation.

This briefing looks at how this is implemented in Nicaragua through the work of the ATC in Nicaragua.

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PUblished in 2021

Nicaraguan Elections 2021

In November 2021, Nicaragua faced a critical situation as it approached elections for the Presidency and National Assembly.

With Daniel Ortega and the FSLN on course to be re-elected, the United States upped the ante, threatening Nicaragua with more sanctions and other illegal coercive measures and continuing to fund and support Nicaragua’s right-wing opposition.

The main objective was to sabotage the elections mandated by the constitution for November 2021. Yet the efforts of the United States floundered in light of the continuing popularity of Daniel Ortega and the FSLN government.

This briefing shows how the US has attempted to achieve its objectives and also highlights why the main achievements of the Sandinista government since 2007 were a major reason it won  the 2021 elections.

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PUBLISHED IN 2021

Sanctions are a weapon of economic war (part 2)

In every country, the most impoverished and vulnerable in society suffer the worst impact of sanctions. Like military interventions, they are a crime against humanity used to topple popular governments and movements.

Following the failed attempted coup in 2018, the United States redoubled efforts to destabilise Nicaragua and feed the rhetoric of the political opposition by creating a climate of violence and political chaos.

The main objective was to sabotage the elections mandated by the constitution for November 2021. Yet the efforts of the United States floundered in light of the continuing popularity of Daniel Ortega and the FSLN government.

This briefing shows how the US has attempted to achieve its objectives and also highlights why the main achievements of the Sandinista government since 2007 were a major reason it won the 2021 elections.

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PUBLISHED IN 2020

Sanctions as a weapon of war (part 1)

For decades now, the US obsession with Nicaragua and its push for regime change has continued through a raft of illegal coercive measures (sanctions) on what is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. The EU and the UK government have also imposed sanctions on the country.
This briefing provides an explanation of the sanctions that have been imposed and how they jeopardise the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
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PUBLISHED IN 2019

Nicaragua: Economic reactivation of the economy through the social economy, 2019

The social economy generates 65% of the wealth of Nicaragua and employs 70% of the workforce, the highest percentage of any Latin American country.

This sector is made up of small and medium businesses and farms, co-operatives, associations, and self-employed workers in agriculture, services, tourism, transport, savings and credit, fishing, and housing.

Those whose livelihoods depend on their daily earnings were very badly hit throughout the three months of violence during the failed 2018 coup. But it is also the social economy that played a key role in sustaining not only the economy, but the country’s social fabric and food supplies through the crisis.

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PUBLISHED IN 2019

Dismissing the Truth

In 2018 Amnesty International (AI) produced two reports on Nicaragua, accusing the government of ‘a strategy of indiscriminate repression’.

The context was violent protests which took place in 2018. AI accused the Nicaraguan government of using ‘arbitrary detention’ and ‘excessive, disproportionate and unnecessary force’ in dealing with the opposition’s violence.

NSCAG and the Alliance for Global Justice produced a report, Dismissing the Truth, which refuted AI’s claims and showed their evidence to be biased, incomplete and in several cases simply wrong.

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