Seven months of Bukele with the FMLN and ARENA in crisis
2020 Febrero El Salvador
The New Year rang in with both of El Salvador’s two major parties, the leftwing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and rightwing National...
“We need a proposal that inspires hope”
2018 Febrero Nicaragua
The results of last November’s municipal elections showed us once again that, aside from independent voters, the majority of whom didn’t vote, Nicaragua’s...
The civic path is taking on tinges of rebellion
2016 Julio Nicaragua
We in the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) were expecting the blow Daniel Ortega delivered, which prevents us from running in the upcoming elections....
Minimum wage history, struggles, maneuvers and proposals
2016 Marzo El Salvador
When Karl Marx wrote 172 years ago that “Wages are determined through the antagonistic struggle between capitalist and worker,” it was one of the most...
The four horsemen of neoliberalismo in the vacuum left by waged work
2011 Junio Centroamérica
Remember the 1970s and 80s? The military in Honduras, the death squads in El Salvador, the bloody death rattles of the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua...
These Elections Were Won by Both Fraud and Theft
2008 Diciembre Nicaragua
We’re wondering whether we committed the sin of ingenuousness by agreeing to participate in elections so plagued with anomalies, because throughout this...
Rigoberta Menchú Bursts onto the Electoral Stage
2007 Marzo Guatemala
A strong jolt has rocked Guatemala’s electoral stage in the lead-up to the presidential, congressional and local elections, to be held on one of the...
Reform or Revolution? And the Left’s Ethical Challenge
2007 Marzo América Latina
In February I had the chance to share ideas on the present and future of the Latin American Left with a group of friends and colleagues from the region...
“The Mettle of Our Civil Society Is Going to Be Put to the Test”
2007 Febrero Nicaragua
The official publication of Decree 03-2007, the third one Daniel Ortega issued the day he was sworn into office on January 10, has triggered serious...
How Can Consensus Be Reached When the Conflict Is Denied?
2006 Septiembre Nicaragua
In her book On the Political (2005), Chantal Mouffe offers a lucid analysis of what she calls the “post-conflict” vision of politics, but which...
Has a Neoliberal Democracy Been Institutionalized in Nicaragua?
2006 Julio Nicaragua
One of the crucial questions we should ask ourselves in Nicaragua’s current political context is whether a neoliberal democracy has been institutionalized...
A Challenge to Leftist Parties: Return to Marxism but Look Beyond It
2006 Mayo Nicaragua
What role can Marxist theory play in the reconstruction of the Latin American Left, particularly our Left here in Nicaragua? Is the Left’s future irreparably...
Maquilas, Fast Food, Casinos, Cells: Serpents in Paradise
2006 Marzo Nicaragua
Over a century ago, in his novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens described the thoughts of the businessman Bounderby: “Now, you have heard a lot of...
Is National Sovereignty Possible In These Times of Globalization?
2006 Enero Nicaragua
Arenewed and democratic Sandinista movement has to assume the defense of Nicaragua’s national sovereignty as one of its main tasks. But what does that...
While the Left Is Modernizing, The Right Is Stagnating
2005 Diciembre Nicaragua
While it is true that “Left” as a political concept has lost programmatic clarity, this should not push us into tossing out its ethical-political meaning,...
The Left Nicaragua Needs
2005 Octubre Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s political parties have always been short on philosophical and doctrinal underpinnings. The pragmatic-resigned political thinking of Nicaraguan...
The Poisonous Recipe of Electoral Democracy Without Social Consensus
2005 Agosto Nicaragua
Nicaragua is suffering an unprecedented crisis of governance. Its post-revolutionary political transition has evolved into an electoral democracy that...
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...
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...
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...
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...
What Is Good Governance? And How Do We Measure It?
2002 Noviembre Internacional
The obsession with governance continues to grow throughout the world, as does the debate about and further elaboration of the concepts of local, national...
The Guatemalan Left: In a Delicate State
2002 Julio Guatemala
Is there still a reason to write about the Left in any country after the Communist parties in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe failed so spectacularly,...
New Ideas on Revolution and Socialism for Central America
2001 Noviembre Centroamérica
Well before the enthusiasm that the Sandinista Revolution sparked among the world’s Left had waned, Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez Mercado wrote an...
Democracy in El Salvador: A Difficult Birth
1996 Enero El Salvador
Until the March 1994 elections, El Salvador's political scene was monopolized by two of the fundamental political forces that made the Peace Accords...
The San Andrés Pact: Authoritarian or Democratizing?
1995 Agosto El Salvador
Armando Calderón Sol is entering his second year in government with a declining popularity rating. After his first 100 days, his government averaged...
FMLN's Convention Resolutions
1995 Febrero El Salvador
In December, the People's Renovating Expression (ERP) and the National Resistance (RN) announced their definitive withdrawal from the FMLN. Despite...
Worker-Owned Coffee Farms: The Bitter and the Sweet
1994 Mayo Nicaragua
The transformations the Sandinista revolution made in Nicaragua's property ownership structure have suffered major roll backs in the past four years....
Welcome to the Free Trade Zone
1994 Enero Nicaragua
Leaving the Managua airport, visitors are immediately greeted by a huge sign in English declaring "Las Mercedes Industrial Free Zone Welcomes You to...
The Growth of Protestantism: From Religion to Politics?
1992 Diciembre Nicaragua
In Nicaragua, Protestantism, particularly in its Pentecostal forms, is a growing phenomenon. Its growth rate in the last decade means that it now encompasses...
Peasant and Worker Struggles at a Crossroads: 1. Omens of a Rural Blow-Up
1992 Julio Nicaragua
For the umpteenth time in the past two years, the country's stability and the government's capacity to exercise control over society without using repression...
Peasant and Worker Struggles at a Crossroads: 2. Talking with a Recompa
1992 Julio Nicaragua
Leonel Martínez (nom de guerre "William") shares the typical timidity and simplicity of Nicaragua's peasants. These qualities, combined with his young...
How Sugar Workers Think
1992 Mayo Nicaragua
Numbering some 13,000 full-time and seasonal laborers, sugar workers are the single most important industrial work force in Nicaragua. In the last two...
Solidarismo: Anti-Unionism in Sheep's Clothing
1991 Junio Centroamérica
"Solidarismo seeks to co-opt, neutralize and dominate the working class, but in a persuasive and consensual manner, not through open coercion. And...
National Dialogue: Stalemate or Truce?
1990 Diciembre Nicaragua
After dominating the headlines for over a month, the national dialogue between workers, producers and the government known as concertation dropped out...
Waslala: Anatomy of a Conflict
1990 Noviembre Nicaragua
For three days at the beginning of October, the town of Waslala on the agricultural frontier 95 miles northeast of Managua teetered on the brink of anarchy....
Workers Redefine Privatization
1990 Noviembre Nicaragua
The National Workers' Front (FNT), the recently-formed umbrella organization of six pro-FSLN union federations, decided to initiate a period of escalating...
On Concertation: From Left to Right
1990 Octubre Nicaragua
Unless otherwise noted, the following statements are selected excerpts from a debate on concertation sponsored by the National Autonomous University...
UNO Politics: Thunder on the Right
1990 Agosto Nicaragua
“Dr. Godoy, are you in the government?” a Time reporter asked Vice President Virgilio Godoy in an August 1 Managua press conference. It was a...
Just the Facts: COSEP & CO. and CORDENIC
1990 Julio Nicaragua
SUPREME COUNCIIL OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE (COSEP):
Founded in 1978 as a coordinating body for diverse business associations, replacing COSIP,...
Ideologies in Conflict: Platforms of Four Nicaraguan Parties
1989 Diciembre Nicaragua
Nicaraguan voters face a daunting array of parties and presidential candidates in the coming elections; three far left parties, four center parties,...
Idologies in Conflict: Platforms of Four Nicaraguan Political Parties
1989 Diciembre Nicaragua
Platform Areas
CONSOLIDATION: SANDINISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (FSLN)
Party History and General Politics
1979 triumph...
Just the Facts: Political Parties in Nicaragua
1989 Julio Nicaragua
Here, for use in making sense of the upcoming electoral campaigning in Nicaragua, is a scorecard of the 21 legally recognized parties as of June 1989,...
Opposition: Alphabet Soup
1989 Julio Nicaragua
Nine new parties joined the existing twelve when the National Council of Political Parties and the Supreme Electoral Council ruled on requests for legal...
Nicaragua’s Political Parties and Movements (Part I)
1984 Agosto Nicaragua
Seven political parties are competing in the elections to be held in Nicaragua this November 4: the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), Independent...
The Case Regarding COSEP and caus members
1981 Noviembre Nicaragua
INTRODUCTION:Four high level officials of the Superior Council on Private Enterprise, COSEP, and four organizers of the Action and Unity Syndicate,...
The Inmunity Of Five Council Members Revoked
1981 Noviembre Nicaragua
On October 21, the Nicaraguan Council of State revoked the immunity of five of its members: Jaime Bengochea and Reynaldo Hernandez of COSEP, Allan Zambrana...