Roots of Crisis

I have been spending several weeks in Nicaragua every year in the last 23 years, accompanying students on a field trip for 15 years, and, since my retirement in 2011, managing development projects. Since I have close Nicaraguan friends on both sides in the massive popular revolt that occurred in April 2018, among those protesting against the Ortega government and among those defending this government, this crisis, which has left more than 322 dead and 2,000 wounded, has been a very painful experience for me. I have written this book as an act of solidarity with the people of Nicaragua. To help readers understand what is really happening so that they can make appropriate decisions as to how to help Nicaraguans. My friends who side with the Ortega government - these include numerous peasants, present and former mayors, municipal government employees, a former director of an important Nicaraguan NGO - tend to adopt the narrative set forth by the Ortega-Murillo couple. A minority of Nicaraguans, mainly financed by the United States, is attempting to carry out a coup d'état against the revolutionary Daniel Ortega, who has rendered the country peaceful and secure, allowed it to develop very rapidly in the last decade, and implemented policies that considerably reduced poverty, fostered renewable energy - presently 75% of the electricity grid is powered by renewable energy - and significantly increased investments, in particular in transport infrastructure and tourism, a sector that has been flourishing. And my friends who are protesting against the Ortega government - these include Nicaraguans working in NGOs, peasants in an agricultural cooperative founded during the Sandinista Revolution, the director of Confidential, Carlos Chamorro, who also directs the popular TV news programs on channel 12 Esta Semana and Esta Noche - adopt a totally different narrative. The Ortega couple virtually high jacked the Sandinista Party, developed a complete and very undemocratic control of Nicaragua, and is governing the country using the same methods as the Somoza dictatorship. The Sandinista members of the national parliament, who hold the majority, are subordinated to the Ortega couple, which has become very wealthy and powerful, controls the Supreme Court and the Supreme Electoral Council, owns most of the TV and radio stations of Nicaragua -- increasingly used as state propaganda tools, with a strong fundamentalist religious colouring -- and subordinates both army and police to its partisan interests. What I propose to do in this book:1. Provide the reader with key events of the present crisis from its eruption in April 2018 to August 2018.2. Present, in a detailed and objective manner, the two narratives: that of those defending the Ortega government and that of those opposing it. 3. Point out the key points in both narratives, pro-Ortega government and anti-Ortega government.4. Reproduce extracts of my Nicaraguan diary from January 2007 to January 2017, extracts that should help the reader see what in my diary supports the pro-Ortega narrative and what supports the anti-Ortega narrative.5. Make critical comments based on the knowledge I have gained in the last four months reading about the Nicaraguan crisis, but, also most importantly, from the knowledge that I have gained in the last 23 years by teaching a course on Nicaragua for more than a decade, by attending conferences in Nicaragua during field trips, by keeping a diary during each trip, and by communicating with Nicaraguans on a near weekly basis to manage development projects.