Barbara Larcom and Jill Clark-Gollub with Orinoco Tribune , NicaNotes *, April 18th 2024
https://afgj.org/es-LA/nicanotes-more-sanctions-on-nicaragua-will-deepen-us-migration-crisis-a-conversation-with-barbara-larcom-and-jill-clark-gollub?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=5d5bdf50-0aa5-4f56-99cc-577d2b63f6c7
For Barbara Larcom and Jill Clark-Gollub, increased US economic warfare waged against Nicaragua will only translate into a worsening of the already delicate migration problem in the US and affect supply chains for Central American and Caribbean countries that trade with Nicaragua. The two activists from the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition were interviewed by Orinoco Tribune on March 6.
Video of the full interview with Barbara Larcom and Jill Clark-Gollub
by Jesús Rodriguez Espinoza of the Orinoco Tribune
Barbara Larcom is the current chair of the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition, an international alliance of organizations and individuals that support Nicaragua’s sovereignty. She also coordinates Casa Baltimore/Limay, a friendship project linking Baltimore, Maryland, with San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua. Rita Jill Clark-Gollub is active with the Maryland-based solidarity group Friends of Latin America and serves on the Coordinating Committee of the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition. She organizes study tours to Nicaragua and has published articles on Nicaraguan issues in independent news outlets.
When questioned about the current political and economic developments in Nicaragua, the activists explained that Sandinismo has promoted people’s participation in every aspect of social life, improving people’s lives in areas including human rights, healthcare, and gender equality, among others, and leading to an increase in infrastructure projects for citizens.
They explained that the smear campaign launched against Nicaragua and Sandinismo has drawn people into a defensive position, constantly responding to US accusations while losing sight of the vast number of achievements that the Sandinista Revolution can claim, from fighting poverty to reducing child mortality and malnutrition. “Part of this smear campaign is to prevent, to suppress, the good news coming out of the country and make us just devote our time to refuting them,” said Jill Clark-Gollub.
They explained that in the first 15 years after the Sandinista Front came back into office in 2007, maternal mortality went down from 99 to 33 per 100,000 births. Additionally, Sandinismo has improved education and healthcare. And, the violence rate is very low by Central American standards. The homicide rate in the US is about the same as Nicaragua, around seven per 100,000 inhabitants, they added.
The activists remarked on the particularities of the Sandinista Revolution that came to life supported by what became a strong cooperative movement along with the support of significant religious organizations, many of them connected to liberation theology. They explained that the revolution also gave autonomy to the Caribbean region of Nicaragua, which is home to a significant Afro-Nicaraguan and Indigenous populations that regained control of their ancestral lands.
On the criticism from “armchair communists” about the lack of Marxism in the Nicaraguan Sandinista Revolution and Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, Clark-Gollub explained that it is “a reflection of the fact that both revolutions are very much rooted in their own reality and the people, that it is not dogmatic formula that is driving what is happening. Rather, it is a social movement.”
On gender equality, Barbara Larcom explained that in Nicaragua, by law, there is a 50/50 rule for any elections for public office. “All the countries in the world are ranked as to their level of gender equity, and Nicaragua continues to be ranked very high. I think it was ranked fifth one year and, more recently, seventh in the world,” Larcom said.
On the economic performance of Nicaragua, Larcom explained that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicaragua’s strategy was to avoid shutting down the economy while providing proactive healthcare attention for the entirety of its population. As a result of this strategy, the economy of the country was not heavily affected. Unemployment currently is at 4%, and inflation is very low. They added that Nicaragua reported positive statistics during the pandemic in terms of overall COVID-19 deaths.
Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition work
Jill Clark-Gollub explained that, among members of the Coalition, Casa Benjamin Linder does amazing work organizing delegations to Nicaragua and holding courses about women’s rights and the autonomous regions. Barbara Larcom explained that the coalition includes members in the United States and in Nicaragua, Mexico, Bolivia, and the UK. seminarios web are also part of their recent work, and they are working to provide resources for people around the world about Nicaragua.
Barbara Larcom explained that the Coalition is revamping its website and it distributes a weekly newsletter through which people can learn more about the reality in Nicaragua from a perspective that is different from the mainstream media narrative. The Alliance for Global Justice, another Coalition member, publishes NicaNotas, a weekly update with information about Nicaragua. Larcom and Clark-Gollub invited individuals to contact them if interested in participating in webinars, delegations, and other initiatives.
Barbara Larcom explained that the threat of new illegal US sanctions motivated them to launch a campaign to put pressure on US Congresspersons to oppose this strategy. The Coalition is inviting all concerned US citizens to join the campaign to prevent these new illegal sanctions that will deepen the already complex US migration issues and affect the food supply that many Central American and Caribbean countries count on from Nicaragua. The coalition joined forces with the Americas Without Sanctions initiative to push harder on that front.
How to respond to smear campaigns
Barbara Larcom explained that a recent UN report about alleged violations of human rights in Nicaragua is one of the fronts they are working on, pushing United Nations organizations to properly report on the issue. The Coalition is working to protest the inaccuracy and bias and have created a URL for people to join the initiative by signing a statement explaining why the report is inaccurate. The statement has already been signed by a former UN rapporteur Alfred De Zayas.
The Nicaraguan initiative at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to charge Germany, with supporting the Israeli genocide against the defenseless Palestinian population in Gaza while defunding UNRWA was also highlighted. Jill Clark-Gollub explained that Nicaragua has a history of proactive actions at the ICJ and that it possesses skilled experts in international law, including Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the ICJ, Carlos Arguello.
The Palestinian issue was discussed, as people all over the world are realizing which countries truly respect human rights. On that front, the Global South, including Nicaragua, South Africa, Venezuela, and other nations, has played an important role by speaking up against the ongoing Zionist genocide in international forums, a trend that is expected to increase in coming years.
* This interview was published by OrinocoTribune.com on March 12, 2024