The FSLN Will Surely Win the Presidency But Also Wants a Qualified Majority in Parliament
2011 Marzo Nicaragua
During the Sandinista National Liberation Front’s four years in power, it has primarily concerned itself with reconstructing the country’s economic and...
With Major New Structural Reforms, The Ball’s Now in Our Court
2009 Agosto Nicaragua
To assess what Daniel Ortega’s government has done after 30 months in office, the halfway mark, it seems to me that the first starting point should be...
Nicaragua’s Justice System: A Portrait in Grays
2007 Octubre Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s judicial branch is always on the spot. The country has never had an authentic judicial system where that old principle of “give each one...
You Can’t Organize People and Raise Consciousness by Decree
2007 Septiembre Nicaragua
The first question we need to clear up if we’re going to analyze this Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government is whether or not we’re...
Needed Reflections on the New Government’s Communication Policy
2007 Marzo Nicaragua
The government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has a golden opportunity in the communications field, as it does in so many other areas, to lay the...
The New National Police Chief Faces Colossal Challenges
2006 Agosto Nicaragua
The suspense ended on July 18. Aminta Granera was named general director of the National Police for the next five years, the second woman to hold that...
Do We Have the Police We Deserve?
2006 Mayo Nicaragua
Two bloody events have again called Nicaragua’s National Police into question. The inadequate training of police agents and officers, which has focused...
The 2006 Elections: A Contradictory Outcome
2006 Abril El Salvador
The results of the March 12 legislative and municipal elections can be interpreted in many ways. None of the six contending political parties was able...
Will the Elections in the Coast Be Anything to Celebrate?
2006 Enero Nicaragua
Six national and two regional groupings are running in the fifth election of autonomous governments in Nicaragua’s two Caribbean regions. The national...
The Death of Schafik Handal: Challenges Facing the FMLN
2006 Enero El Salvador
Beyond the pain it has brought so many poor Salvadorans, Schafik Handal’s death could represent an extraordinary opportunity for the Farabundo Martí...
Elections in the Caribbean Coast: Drugs, Abandonment and Apathy
2005 Diciembre Nicaragua
Seldom has Nicaragua’s Caribbean region been so important to the country’s political class. It has nothing to do with the coast’s endemic hunger or...
Why So Little Social Mobilization?
2005 Julio Nicaragua
The Sandinista Revolution provided one of the greatest examples of grassroots participation, organization and decision making in the history of Latin...
Hawks, Missiles, Pressure, Reasons and Resistance
2005 Abril Nicaragua
In March, the US government stepped up its pressure on the Nicaraguan Army to destroy all of its shoulderheld surface-to-air missiles, which are the...
Breaking Free of Fear To Defend Ideas and Rights
2005 Marzo Nicaragua
Herty Lewites’ rebellion has put Daniel Ortega in check, leading him to display the worst side of his personality. In just one week, Ortega’s measures...
Daniel Ortega's Fear Of the Winds He Sowed
2005 Febrero Nicaragua
Used to giving orders and having them carried out, FSLN general secretary Daniel Ortega is facing the biggest challenge to his absolute power in the...
2004: Municipal Elections: Connecting Dots for the Bigger Picture
2004 Noviembre Nicaragua
It’s still too soon to draw definitive conclusions about the causes and consequences of the electoral results. Nonetheless, some common elements have...
2004 Municipal elections: FSLN-Convergence Victory in Numbers
2004 Noviembre Nicaragua
The polls predicted a Sandinista victory, but not such a huge one. Before the day was over on Sunday, November 7, the FSLN-Convergence had run away...
The 2004 Municipal Elections: Final Forecasts
2004 Octubre Nicaragua
Less than a month away from the November 7 municipal elections, there appears to be little enthusiasm among potential voters. The positions of the different...
The Northwest, North and Center North: Electoral Analysis and Forecasts
2004 Septiembre Centroamérica
The elections to decide who will run Nicaragua’s 152 municipalities will be held on November 7. And while the politically important Managua municipal...
New Grassroots Movements Starting to Emerge
2004 Agosto Centroamérica
Twenty-five years ago, Central America was a political hotbed, and not just because of the budding Sandinista revolution—the result of a long guerrilla...
Passionate Memories From Times of Solidarity
2004 Julio Nicaragua
Much has been written about the heroic feats of the young Nicaraguans who brought down the Somoza dictatorship, but relatively little has been said...
Martín Torrijos in the General’s Shadow
2004 Junio Panamá
Martín Torrijos was exultant the night of Sunday, May 2, when the president of Panama’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal phoned to inform him he had won the...
Does Torrijos Bring More of the Same?
2004 Junio Panamá
Juan Jované is a strong defender of grassroots unity built on horizontal relations and devoid of people seeking to hog the limelight. A passionate follower...
The FMLN and the FSLN Are Brothers, Not Twins
2004 Mayo El Salvador
New hope begins to blossom every five years in El Salvador and Nicaragua. The public squares in different Salvadoran towns and cities fill with the...
Did the FMLN Lose, Or Did Fear Win the Day?
2004 Abril El Salvador
The March 2004 general elections will be remembered in El Salvador for many reasons, including the setting of three new records: the highest voter turnout...
The Killing of Carlos Guadamuz: Who Stands to Benefit?
2004 Marzo Nicaragua
It has been many years since Nicaraguan society experienced political terror. But those years are a relatively short amount of time in the national...
The 2004 Municipal Elections: Is the Die Almost Cast?
2004 Enero Nicaragua
It was no sudden attack of “democratitis” that made Arnoldo Alemán, Daniel Ortega and Enrique Bolaños back down from their attempts to strip the 2004...
Why Two Petty Peddlers Wanted to Buy Electoral Time
2003 Diciembre Nicaragua
The recent attempt by Daniel Ortega and Arnoldo Alemán to reactivate the pact they originally hammered out to manipulate the 2001 elections demonstrated...
Sorry, Uncle Powell, The Sams Are Ours
2003 Noviembre Nicaragua
According to Carlos Gardel’s song, “20 years are nothing.” But despite the considerable efforts the Nicaraguan Army has made to win at least the empathy,...
The Caribbean Coast’s Traditional Leaders: An Endangered Species?
2003 Octubre Nicaragua
In contemporary times, with the market replacing society and its laws supplanting values, the traditional populations of Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast...
Caribbean Coast: Multiethnic, Multilingual ...and Finally Autonomous?
2003 Septiembre Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s Caribbean populations are not so different from other Latin American indigenous peoples. But they are exceptional in that after eleven wars...
The National Police under Attack: The Clues Behind the Crisis
2003 Agosto Nicaragua
The National Police, née Sandinista Police, a once in corruptible and proud institution born of the guerrilla force that took power 24 years ago,...
The Bankruptcy of Municipal Governments and the Swindle of Municipal Autonomy
2003 Julio Nicaragua
The municipal elections are still 16 months away, and already the pre-electoral winds are whipping through the country’s main political forces, sometimes...
William Grigsby: "Refounding" the Sandinista movement
2000 Abril Nicaragua
In Nicaragua, Sandinismo is a formidable universe that we can be proud of and that must be taken into account. Six hundred thousand Nicaraguans think...