Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition 7.29.2025: Daniel and Rosario Remember Hugo Chavez; Becca Renk, Ben Norton, Stephen Sefton, Nan McCurdy on the Meaning of July 19
Becca Renk: 46 Years Later, Nicaragua’s Youth Still Lead the Revolution One of the questions I’m asked most frequently about Nicaragua is: “Does the revolution have a future?” To anyone who visits the country, it is obvious that Nicaragua’s revolution, which has managed to both revere its historical heroes and also treasure its youth, is stronger than ever. Young people currently make up 70% of the population. Although Nicaragua’s co-presidents are in their 70s, their government leadership at all levels is largely made up of young people.
So how does Nicaragua’s revolution, founded by Baby Boomers, manage to be relevant to Gen Z? On a practical level, putting youth in power ensures that young people’s needs are met…The most important program for Nicaragua’s youth is the universal access to free quality education preschool through university, including hundreds of free vocational training programs. “As a young person, I see more and more opportunities all the time,” says Abril Reyes Arriaza, in the JS19J Cultural Movement since secondary school. “I don’t think that anyone needs to leave our country to find new opportunities because there are plenty of them here.”
Ben Norton: The Struggle Against US Imperialism, Nicaragua Is a Model of Sovereignty The US empire invaded Nicaragua multiple times, imposed a colonial military occupation, propped up a puppet dictatorship, waged terror war, and backed violent coups. Yet the Sandinistas have always defended their nation’s sovereignty and endured relentless attacks by the US empire, not just for decades, but for centuries. The Sandinistas toppled Somoza and created a new revolutionary left-wing government on the 19th of July, 1979. Washington immediately launched another neocolonial war on Nicaragua. The CIA created far-right death squads, known as the “Contras,” as the US terrorized Nicaragua. In contrast, China has been partnering with the country to help it to develop economically.
Nicaragua has played a key role in pushing for a more multipolar world, in opposition to US imperial hegemony. The 19th of July 2025, marked the 46th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. Daniel Ortega pointed out that Europe is now remilitarizing and massively increasing its military spending on weapons because it, along with the US, wants to prepare for war against Russia and China. The United Nations has become a tool dominated by the Western imperialist powers. The UN needs a “refoundation,” Ortega said, to create a “new United Nations.” Ortega ended his speech warning that, although there is peace in Nicaragua today, “that does not mean that the enemy [the US empire] is resting. The enemy is always conspiring, always trying to provoke bloodshed, always trying to provoke pain in Nicaraguan families, because they believe they can defeat the revolution.”
Stephen Sefton: 46 years on, the Sandinista Popular Revolution, deepening democracy and modernization “Nicaragua's extraordinary success since January 2007 rebuilding the country from the economic ruin, extreme poverty and social deprivation of the 17 neoliberal years is a great embarrassment for the American and European ruling elites, on a par with the strategic failures they have suffered against China, Cuba, Iran, Democratic Korea, Russia and Venezuela among others…The intertwined motifs of democratization and modernization have been fundamental to achieving that success.” This article then gives a useful summary of the progress made in different areas in Nicaragua since 2007.
Nan McCurdy: The Strength of Peace: Nicaragua Celebrates the 46th Anniversary of July 19, 1979 As the 50,000 people invited to the evening celebration were coming in by bus, thousands of other people were lining roads – the roads that co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo would pass to get to the Plaza de la Fe. Daniel always drives himself – of course there are police cars in front and in back and police lining the road – but not getting in the way of onlookers who want to see their co-presidents. About six o’clock they slowly passed with windows down waving at everyone. As always, Co-President Ortega in his speech took the opportunity to give a history lesson since so many attendees are teenagers. To read all the speeches including those of the Co-Presidents: https://www.tortillaconsal.com/bitacora/node/7106
Nicaraguans overall support their government because it is the only one that has brought progress and development to the majority of the people with free education and healthcare; with 90% food security; with the best roads and infrastructure in the region, with one of the highest percentages of renewable energy in the world and 90.6% of the population have electricity; with parks and stadiums everywhere.
Thomas Jefferson articulates the Monroe Doctrine in 1786; Hitler based his German Lebensraum on the US model Thomas Jefferson: “Our confederacy must be viewed as the nest from which all America, North and South is to be peopled. We should take care too not to think it for the interest of that great continent to press too soon on the Spaniards. Those countries cannot be in better hands. My fear is that they are too feeble to hold them till our population can be sufficiently advanced to gain it from them piece by piece.”
In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler discussed U.S. laws and policies and noted that the United States was a racial model for Europe and that it was "the one state" in the world that was creating the kind of racist society that national socialists wanted, praising the way the "Aryan" US conquered "its own continent" by clearing the "soil" of "natives" to make way for more "racially pure" occupiers. The Nazis frequently referred to the bloody conquest of the American West as the historical warrant they needed to justify the clearance of the Slav population.
Co-President Daniel Ortega on anniversary of Hugo Chavez birth: Chavez too is alive, he is risen, he is in all of us, he is in all of our Peoples Hugo Chavez “was born on July 28th 1954 and today we are commemorating his Birth, but we are also commemorating another Year of his Life, because Heroes never die, they always live on, they always fight on…having known Comandante Hugo Chávez, from the very first moment I sensed in him firmness, tenderness and a Heart as great, as big, as good, as that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and I would say that on that day, on this day, a Saint was born in Venezuela…He is the noblest Saint I have ever known, in the conversations we had, there was nothing of evil, there was nothing of hurting others. No! What he wanted was for us to unite and to help each other, and that Venezuela was willing to help in any way it could, so that the economies of the most impoverished countries in this Region could develop.”
Co-President Rosario Murillo: Remembering Chávez is to live out the Courage that characterized him “We who had the Honor and Pride of knowing and interacting with Comandante Chávez, got to know his Heart, that first of all he is in the Heart of the People and is the Heart of the People, but also that his Heart was immense, reaching out and reaching every one of us. And every time he came to Nicaragua, he lavished Love, Tenderness, Soul-to-Soul Communication with this People which is also his own. And not only was. But is now, because he lives on here.”
July 27 Nicaragua Webinar recording: Revolutionizing Tourism – Nicaragua’s Model to Benefit Communities and Travelers. Family and community-based tourism in Nicaragua, and how this contrasts with other travel of today and of past decades. Becca Renk of Casa Benjamin Linder leads a discussion with recent delegation members Geraldine Cawthorne, Ken Yale, Gayle Nielsen, and Larry Fisk. They describe their recent travel under the current model, compared to past experiences.
Upcoming Events
August 24, 3 pm ET: Nicaragua Webinar. Mark your calendars during this hurricane season to learn about SINAPRED, Nicaragua’s National System for Prevention, Mitigation and Attention to Disasters, and how it contrasts with the US system.
September 21, 3 pm ET: Nicaragua Webinar on Nicaragua’s and Venezuela’s remarkable affordable housing programs, with Sofia M. Clark and a speaker from Venezuela’s Gran Misión Vivienda (TBA).
Nicaragua Delegations
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November 2025: Salud & Solidaridad: Hands-On Healthcare in Nicaragua
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