A lesson in Nicarguan history

We were in Managua today, and began our study tour this morning with two lectures/discussions.

The first was a lecture by Mark Lester, an American who works with the Center for Global Education out of Augsburg College in Minnesota and the Winds of Peace Foundation . His wife, Ann McSweeney, is our interpreter during the entire week. Their son Roque is also a member of our study tour. He is fifteen years old, and like Alex, was born in Nicaragua. The difference is that Roque has lived in Nicaragua his entire life. Mark and Ann have lived and worked in Nicaragua since 1985.

The theme of U.S. intervention and meddling in Nicaragua’s internal politics was quite evident in Mark Lester’s presentation. I don’t think most of us are aware of how the U.S. military occupied Nicaragua throughout much of its history. Perhaps the days of Ronald Reagan and Oliver North are still in the back of our minds, and we may remember how our government covertly funded the contra war. But our intervention has been going on much longer than that. U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua for significant periods of its history, specifically from 1912 - 1933. The U.S. then assisted in the installation of the Somoza family who ruled with dictatorships until the time of the Sandanista Revolutionary triumph in 1979.

I could elaborate more on this topic, and I'm not doing justice to the content of Mark's presentation. Suffice to say that many Nicaraguans are suspect of the U.S. government meddling too much in their own internal politics.