“Our health system responds to political orders, not to the public”
2020 Junio Nicaragua
After 44 years working in this profession, I am now, for the first time in my life, seeing Nicaraguans asking—crying out for—us to guide them about what...

The world after coronavirus
2020 Abril Internacional
Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments make in the next few weeks...

Authoritarian rule in times of coronavirus
2020 Abril El Salvador
On February 9, Salvadorans watched in shock at what appeared to be a coup by the executive branch against the legislative branch, a sequence of events...

“The public health system is incapable of responding to our mental health crisis”
2020 Febrero Nicaragua
The crisis in Nicaragua these past two years has affected the life and mental health of many people. It began brewing as the public institutions, including...

The public health system needs to opt for prevention, education and quality
2014 Marzo Nicaragua
Compared with the three governments that preceded it, we can see that the current government has definitely increased the public health coverage, upped...

Another public health is posible
2013 Enero Internacional
Threateningly and ferociously, capitalism tells us that my freedom ends where yours begins. In contrast, Martin Luther King, Jr. told us that “until...

The health system’s many pending issues
2011 Octubre Nicaragua
I have been participating in Nicaragua’s public health system since 1981 as a student, an intern, a doctor in social service, a resident doctor, a...

Medicines: A Struggle between Rich and Poor
2011 Marzo El Salvador
When any older Salvadoran is asked “How are you?” the most common response is “Fine, because I’m well.” This answer shows that one of the most fundamental...

On Social Security the IMF Has Little to Tell Us and a Lot to Be Told
2010 Septiembre Nicaragua
Everything that has to do with the subject of social security is highly sensitive for any society because it’s about life; it’s of interest to all human...

The Health System Nicaragua Needs Is Preventive Not Curative
2009 Diciembre Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s health system is made up of various sub-systems: the armed forces—army and police—sub-system; the public health sub-system under the Ministry...

Fear in the Time of the Virus
2009 Agosto México
In 2009, the world became aware of a new and worrying strain of influenza first dubbed “swine flu” then changed to human influenza A (H1N1). It was...

We Have to Learn to Stop Taking Water for Granted
2008 Abril Nicaragua
When we were children in the eighties, we experienced something extraordinary: the generation before ours, young men and women only slightly older than...

The “New” Chureca: From Garbage to Human Dignity
2008 Abril Nicaragua
La Chureca has existed since 1973. Over 30 years later, in December 2007, it was named one of the “20 Horrors of the Modern World” in a contest organized...

Notes on a Scandal Of Historic Proportions
2007 Octubre Nicaragua
2006, October: A number of Sandinista women with the ear of FSLN National Assembly representatives tell them they have committed a gross human...

On the Decriminalization of Abortion
2007 Mayo México
I’m a Mexican woman who’s not an activist in any political party. I have an education that’s largely humanistic: an undergraduate degree in law, a master’s...

AIDS and Migrants: A Perverse Association
2006 Octubre América Latina
The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has earned a prominent place among the cruelest scourges to afflict humanity. The bottom line of its global...

A Fifth of Our People Lives Hungry
2006 Octubre Centroamérica
Every year, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) celebrates October 16 as World Food Day, commemorating the date of its founding...

Drugs and AIDS: Surely Now It’s Time for a National Alert
2006 Julio Nicaragua
In one of his writings, Leonardo Boff recalls the Greek myth of the rebirth of the eagle, similar to the phoenix of Egyptian culture. To achieve its...

The Neoliberal Model in Times of AIDS
2005 Agosto Internacional
The most recent United Nations figures show the true magnitude of the tragedy: approximately forty million people are currently living with the Human...

What Was Signed Away in CAFTA Threatens Millions of Lives
2004 Agosto Centroamérica
When it comes to public health, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is effectively backtracking on previous advances. This can be illustrated...

“We Urgently Need a Secular State For the Sake of Women’s Health”
2003 Septiembre Nicaragua
What has happened to Nicaragua’s public policy related to quality of life, health and education, particularly for women, in recent years? To answer...

Brazil: A Model Response to AIDS
2002 Septiembre Internacional
Since 1849, when a cholera epidemic decimated London’s population and Dr. John Snow discovered that most victims had drunk water from a source on Broad...

We Were Sold (and Bought) A Health System That Doesn’t Work
2002 Agosto Nicaragua
Although reflecting on health is a political and not just a technical activity in any country in the world, this is particularly true of today’s Nicaragua....

AIDS: A Sign of our Times
2002 Marzo Centroamérica
"Once upon a time there was a body that was protected by a warrior…." As the narrator tells the tale, a priest and two young people act it out. "Diarrhea...

Badly Fed and Malnourished
1996 Agosto Nicaragua
The united nations food and agriculture organization (fao) defines food se?curity as guaranteeing that a country's population has stable access to its...

Two Just Laws: 85 and 86
1995 Diciembre Nicaragua
Over the past five years, a small but powerful group of Nicaraguans has dedicated a considerable amount of energy to delegitimizing Laws 85 and 86, passed...

Inside the Property Debate
1991 Agosto Nicaragua
In a concerted effort to reverse the revolution's agrarian reform, rightwing sectors have managed to thoroughly confuse the real issues around Nicaragua's...

AIDS in Nicaragua
1991 Julio Nicaragua
Ten years ago, on June 5, 1981, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta published a short report on an unusual outbreak of a strain of pneumonia among...

Harvest of Misery
1990 Octubre Nicaragua
When Nicaraguans went to the polls on February 25, many voted their pocketbooks and stomachs, hoping that a government friendly to the US would translate...

Health Minister Under Fire
1990 Octubre Nicaragua
The far Right within UNO has begun a campaign to remove the President’s health minister, Dr. Ernesto Salmerón. Since the transfer of government, Salmerón...