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Nicanews, February 1995

Nicanews, February 1995
Date:1995
Organisation: Irish Nicaragua Support Group
Publication: Nicanews
Issue:February 1995
Type:Publication Issue
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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution

14th April 2025

This is a another important addition to the Archive, and many thanks to the person who forwarded this document. Produced as the newsletter of the Irish Nicaragua Support Group this ten page document has a broad range of articles relating both to the situation inside Nicaragua at that point and the solidarity activities of the INSG.

For example the front page story is a report on the visit of Nicaraguan women who had visited Ireland. It notes that on a previous visit by Irish women to Nicaragua contacts were almost exclusively with the male leaders of co-ops and there ‘the result that the perspective of the campesinos’ lives and struggled tended to be disproportionately through men’s eyes’. It notes that subsequently a woman’s brigade was organised which worked on a farm in Nicaragua where ‘women were active in the structure of the co-op and were organised collectively’. After this a reciprocal visit was organised. Five Nicaraguan women travelled to Ireland. The piece notes the help of many organisations in assisting the trip.

There’s a report on the general activities of the group in 1993-1994 that includes a range of fund-raising efforts and educational projects in Ireland.

There’s also an interesting snippet about a poll that suggested 59% of Nicaraguans didn’t identify with any political party in that country. This, being of some importance in the run-up to the 1996 General Election there.

There are pieces on the IMF and challenging its hegemony as well as an update on the El Salvador Peace Accords. A very useful insight into a campaigning organisation at a very specific point in its life.

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  • By: James Monaghan Mon, 14 Apr 2025 17:25:33

    Irish people travelled to Nicaragua in solidarity in the 1980s – now it needs our help again

    The Nicaraguan people continue to struggle for democracy and justice – only this time against a surprising enemy writes Molly O’Duffy.

    7.01am, 18 Feb 2019

    14.6k

    BACK IN THE 1980s thousands of Irish people backed the Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua – when they overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza.

    I took part in fundraising and awareness-raising activities here in Ireland and in 1988, I was one of more than 150 Irish people who travelled to Nicaragua to support the Sandinistas, as part of the Solidarity Brigades, sometimes known as the coffee brigades. 

    We went to lend a hand to local farmers by picking coffee as well as to offer friendship and support to the local people.

    At that time the gains of the revolution, chiefly universal literacy, land reform and wide access to education and healthcare, had vastly improved the lives of the poor people in Nicaragua. 

    But a US-backed war against the Sandinista government had led to compulsory military service, which was increasingly unpopular.  I witnessed many reluctant men being driven to the front, many of whom came back maimed or in coffins. 

    The US economic embargo caused shortages and hardship and had led to cuts in essential services.  The people were tired.

    Daniel Ortega was a leader of that revolution and the president – he still heads the Sandinista National Liberation Front to this day. But that organisation has changed beyond anything we could have imagined in the 1980s. 

    The rot started in 1990 when leading party figures plundered state resources for personal gain before handing over power after losing an election.

    Then during the nineties, Ortega moved to eradicate democracy within the party and entered into political pacts with right-wing parties aimed at carving up power. 

    As a result, many members left his party, including the majority of the commanders who had helped to bring about the defeat of Somoza. Along with the former Sandinista Vice-President, they established an alternative – the Movement for Sandinista Renewal (MRS). https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/opinion-irish-people-supported-the-people-of-nicaragua-in-the-1980s-and-1990s-now-they-need-our-help-again-4489935-Feb2019/

    Reply on the CLR