Julie Lamin, October 12th 2018
BBC Coverage of Nicaragua - Radio 4's PM program of Wednesday October 10th
There are lots of wonderful things about Radio 4, but sadly news reporting of Latin American countries has a habit of being patronising and erroneous. Your report on Nicaragua on the Wednesday PM programme continued this trend.
It seemed unfair that as Nicaragua was in the throes of saving the lives of its citizens from extensive flooding in the western part of the country you chose to ignore the co-operation and organisation to minimise loss of life. Instead you focused on the terrorists posing as political prisoners who have caused extensive damage, harm and suffering to ordinary Nicaraguans.
When the violence broke out in April 2018 although there are genuine critics of the government, many of the actions were destructive with arson attacks on schools, health centres and churches. Traffic was stopped through road blocks as thugs touted weapons terrorising ordinary citizens.
Those same ordinary people turned out to demonstrate against the thugs to get lorries moving with vital supplies of food to the nation. The mass demonstrations mentioned in your report are not mandated by the government but heartfelt expressions of love and peace for Nicaragua. If these people support Daniel Ortega it is because 72% of Nicaraguans voted for him in the last elections. Under his government poverty was halved because small businesses and co-operatives thrived enabling the poorest people to have an income to lift them from extreme poverty.
As someone who has followed events in Nicaragua since 1979 and particularly since summer 2017 when I spent a few weeks there as a teacher, I have seen a very different picture to the one who presented in your report.
Although your reporter gave the view of those accused of crimes of terrorism, you did not interview a single relative of victims of their atrocities, the torture and murder of teachers and police officers, people who have dedicated their lives to helping to make Nicaragua a better country to live in.
There was one point I agreed with your reporter, until April 2018 Nicaragua was the most peaceful country in the region, no small feat when you consider the fear people live in across the northern border in Honduras.
One final comment. At no point did you mention the $1.4million dollars the US is spending on its National Endowment for Democracy – a deliberate policy to undermine the democracy of Nicaragua.
You might also want to investigate the coincidence that any Latin American country that educates its people, improves their quality of life through food supply and transport, not to mention extensive and outstanding health policies, is a country marked out by the US for destruction by any means.
* Julie Lamin is teacher