On Wednesday 19 October the Edinburgh Latin American Solidarity Campaign hosted a meeting with two representatives of the Nicaraguan Citizens Defence Committees who were visiting a total of 12 countries to speak about what’s happened in Nicaragua since 1979.
There were about 100 people at the meeting and heard that 60% of the Citizen’s Defence Committees were women. The two representatives, Ronald Parades who is on the Defence Committee, and Fernando Saavedra who is on the Peace Committee, described how the US blockade is destroying the Nicaraguan economy and that 30,000 people have to be evacuated from Corinto the main port of Nicaragua.
The majority of the audience was interested to hear of successful developments such as the eradication of polio in Nicaragua. Unfortunately a member of ‘Militant’ found it necessary to cast doubt on these developments. He wanted to know (1) How can the Sandinistas say that the revolution was successful if industrial production had fallen since 1979? (2) According to recent reports the Sandinistas’ (FSLN) membership has fallen. Does this mean that the Committees have become elitist? (3) What are the conditions of the Miskito Indians? The Sandinistas answered in Spanish and before it was translated the audience knew they blamed the reports on Western bourgeois propaganda. They went on to say that the people of Nicaragua have all rallied round to defend their gains and production has fallen because of the imperialist US blockade. Human rights for the Miskito Indians were guaranteed by the constitution as were the rights of all people of Nicaragua. The only threat to these rights is the US blockade which is endangering people’s lives.
Lorna Morgan
FRFI 34 November 1983
