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Nicaragua

In The News

Aid Heading To Gaza, Lavrov In North Korea, Note-Taking AI

👋 Merhaba!*

Welcome to Thursday, where aid trucks are waiting to enter Gaza from Egypt, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, and AI is about to make it easier to “skip that useless meeting”. Meanwhile, Francesca Paci for Italian daily La Stampa writes about how Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s perceived weakness ultimately benefits Hamas.

[*Turkish]

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In Nicaragua, A Tour Of Nightlife Under Dictatorship

Nicaraguan publication Divergentes takes a night tour of entertainment spots popular with locals in Managua, the country's capital, to see how dictatorship and emigration have affected nightlife.

MANAGUA — Owners of bars, restaurants and nightclubs in the Nicaraguan capital have noticed a drop in business, although some traditional “nichos” — smaller and more hidden spots — and new trendy spots are full. Here, it's still possible to dance and listen to music, as long as it is not political.

There are hardly any official statistics to confirm whether the level of consumption and nightlife has decreased. The only reliable way to check is to go and look for ourselves, and ask business owners what they are seeing.

This article is not intended as a criticism of those who set aside the hustle and bustle and unwind in a bar or restaurant. It is rather a look at what nightlife is like under a dictatorship.

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This Happened—January 10: Pinnacle For Ortega

Daniel Ortega is inaugurated as president of Nicaragua for the first time on this day in 1985.

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New Revelations Of García Marquez's Ties To Cuba And Nicaragua

Like other intellectuals of his time, the celebrated Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez admired Cuba's Fidel Castro. What's just been revealed, however, is also, as one text reveals, the Sandinista rebels who have stifled Nicaraguan democracy in past years.

BOGOTÁ — Entirely isolated and criticized by the international community, Daniel Ortega was again sworn in earlier this month as president of Nicaragua.

Ortega has now outdone Anastasio Somoza, the despot he helped topple in his youth, with a record 26 years in power and starting a fifth mandate, including a fourth consecutive one and the second with his wife Rosario Murillo as vice-president.

After Cuba's Fidel Castro, he is the regional tyrant most frequently cheered by Colombia's leftist intellectuals, and praised as his people's emancipator from "yankee oppression."

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In The News
Anne-Sophie Goninet and Jane Herbelin

Assange’s Extradition, Nicaragua & China, Sweden v. IKEA

👋 Сәлем!*

Welcome to Friday, where the U.S. wins bid to extradite whistleblower Julian Assange, Nicaragua breaks off ties with Taiwan to align with China and Sweden takes issue with IKEA branding. In the wake of New Zealand’s plans to ban all future cigarette sales, we take a look at toughening smoking laws around the world.

[*Salem - Kazakh]

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Ideas
Marcelo Cantelmi

Nicaragua: Latin America's Left Betrays Its Own History By Excusing Ortega

Leftist states defending rigged elections to be held Nov. 7 in Nicaragua are not so much protecting regional socialism as approving despotism itself, which they too were victims of...

-OpEd-

BUENOS AIRES — Four days before Christmas 2020, Nicaragua's parliament, which follows the dictates of the country's ruling couple, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, passed a law to effectively outlaw their political rivals. Barely two paragraphs long, the pernicious and pompously named Law to Defend the People's Rights to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace, lumped the entire opposition into the category of "traitors to the fatherland."

It ruled that anyone the government considers terrorists and "plotters" could no longer seek elected office. It also provided a pretext for the arrests in the subsequent months of the main opposition aspirants for presidential elections, now set for November 7.

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Nicaragua
Rodrigo Uprimny

We Once Cheered Ortega: Revisiting History In Nicaragua

None should be more dismayed by Daniel Ortega's despotic slide than those who hailed his revolution as a triumph of democratic socialism, some 40 years ago.

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁThirty-nine years ago, on July 19, 1979, those of us who were young were busy celebrating a historical event: the entry of rebel Sandinista forces into Managua, Nicaragua"s capital, after the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza.

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Nicaragua
El Espectador

Nicaraguan Regime Crackdown Is A Humanitarian Emergency

Police and pro-government paramilitaries have killed more than 200 people — including a 14-month-old boy — since a wave of anti-Ortega protests began in mid April.

-Editorial-

BOGOTA —The Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua is continuing its bloodbath against the opposition. So far, at least 212 have been killed since protests against the government began two months ago, according to a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which sent a team to Managua this week in a desperate bid to curb the violence and renew dialogue between the sides.

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Nicaragua
Rodolfo H. Gil

Latin American Elections, A Mirror Of Global Unrest In 2018

Governments in several Latin American states are facing angry voters who may remove them from power, but perhaps of greater concern is the spreading wrath against all politicians, everywhere.

BUENOS AIRES — Another big crisis has erupted in Latin America. Nicaragua. This erstwhile member of the declining forces of so-called 21st Century Socialism is in fact the other facet of the Venezuelan experience.

The Sandinista government controls the armed forces and police, and it has had a relatively successful run given Nicaragua's size and impoverished state. The regime had forged a firm alliance with the private sector and revamped its Marxism with a mix of zealous Christianity.

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Nicaragua
Benjamin Witte

Nicaragua, A Death Toll And Daniel Ortega's Destiny

-Analysis-

Nicaragua's crafty caudillo, Daniel Ortega, has weathered the storm — for now at least. But his grip on power is certainly not what it was before the dramatic developments of the past two weeks.

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Nicaragua
Giacomo Tognini

Nicaraguan Indigenous: Biosphere Reserve Is Our 'Lungs'

Indigenous groups say the Nicaraguan government should do more to protect the massive but quickly disappearing Bosawás Biosphere Reserve.

MATAGALPA — The 20,000-square-kilometer Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in northern Nicaragua is as biologically rich as it is expansive, covering about 15% of the national territory. It is also home to various indigenous communities. And yet — despite its designation in 1991 as a UNESCO World Heritage site — the largely unexplored jungle area is under serious threat from illegal settlement and logging, the Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario reports.

The government estimates that there are at least 34,000 settlers squatting on indigenous and protected land within the reserve. To address the problem, it launched a so-called "Action Plan" five years ago that combines tighter security and stronger environmental standards within the reserve and economic development of nearby areas. Army operations have targeted timber traffickers and illegal land dealers in the area.

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Nicaragua
Benjamin Witte

Ortega And Maduro, Burdens Of A Shared Destiny

Just hours before outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama's emotional farewell address in Chicago, another head of state was taking center stage down in steamy Central America to let just the opposite be known: He's still very much here, with no plans to leave power anytime soon.

Daniel Ortega, the long-serving leader of Nicaragua, first came to power through a 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Somoza family dictatorship. He headed the country's junta government (1979-1985) before serving as president until 1990. Two more terms followed, starting in 2007, and on Tuesday, Ortega was sworn in for yet another five-year period, the Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario reported.

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