Violence in Nicaragua
Tim Rogers' Update, "Silent War
in Nicaragua: The New Politics
of Violence," (January/February
2001) was nothing new, mostly a
rehash of events of the early 1990s.
For example, although it discussed
the indigenous group Yatama, and
used a photo of Yatama combatants, it failed to analyze how that group's
uprising late last year, on the eve of
nationwide municipal elections,
grew out of frustration with the
infamous "Pact" between President
Arnoldo Aleman and former
President Daniel Ortega. The Pact
divides the political turf between
Liberals and Sandinistas, leaving
other political expressions-in a
supposedly multi-ethnic and pluri-
cultural nation-out in the cold.
An even more serious omission,
however, is the failure to note the
hundreds of local peace commis-
sions in areas such as Nueva
Guinea and Jinotega. Ironically,
there are more such groups today
than at war's end. These commis-
sions have played a key role in
negotiating with armed groups to
lower the conflict's impact on civil-
ian populations. They have inter-
ceded at times on behalf of the
rearmados when their cause was
legitimate. And by forming a grass-
roots expression of civil society in
remote villages, the commissions
have often taken upon themselves
the tasks of local government
which the central government has
forsaken in its IMF-prescribed
reduction of the state apparatus.
During Hurricane Mitch, the fluid
communication and participatory
organization of the commissions
helped to save lives in several
areas. To cover rural Nicaragua by
only mentioning the violence (and
tying that violence only to the war
of the 1980s), without touching on
today's politics, and not including
the brave organizational efforts of
ordinary citizens in rural villages, is
a disservice to the complicated real-
ity of the Nicaraguan countryside.
-Paul Jeffrey
Santa Lucia, Honduras
Tim Rogers Responds...
M y deadline for the article was
in September, two months
before the municipal elections.
Therefore, there was no mention of
the Yatama uprising in early
November in the North Atlantic
town of Puerto Cabezas, which left
some 20 people injured and several
others missing.
Mr. Jeffrey correctly points out
that the uprising was due to mount-
ing frustration with the "Pact,"
which excluded groups like Yatama
from participating in the municipal
elections. Despite threats of sabo-
tage and an election boycott by
Yatama leader Brooklyn Rivera, the
protests did not change anything
and the result was an 80% voter
abstention rate in the North Atlantic
region of the country.
The reality of the countryside,
granted, is extremely complex. And
many people are involved in impor-
tant organization work for peace.
My intention was not to neglect
these folks, but to focus on the fact
that much of the countryside
remains a tinderbox of old guns,
unemployed soldiers, extreme
poverty and marginalization. For
example, just this month, the
"Viviana Gallardo Commando,"
the kidnap gang responsible for the
1996 abduction of two Europeans
on the Costa Rican border, rearmed
and had a shoot-out with the rural
police.
