August 17
GUEST: Barbara Larcom, human rights activist, coordinator of the Nicaraguan sister city Casa Baltimore Limay, and co-organizer of the monthly Nicaragua Webinar Series, talks about the successes of the Sandinista Revolution and why the US is still trying to crush it.
Baltimore sister city
The wall art to the right is a commemoration of the life of Ben Linder, US peace activist who was killed by the Contras in Nicaragua. He was shot while helping a rural community get access to electricity, and his assassins were paid for by the Pentagon.
Never content with a Latin American president elected by the majority of the people, the US Empire is still trying to rid the region of the Sandinista Revolution. We still blockade its commerce with the rest of the world. We still fund violent coups to overthrow their duly elected presidents. And we still fill our ever compliant media with attacks on Nicaragua's achievements.
People like Barbara Larcom are so important. They bring back what is actually happening in Nicaragua, so that we as citizens can understand our own militarism in the rest of the world. What right does the US have to boycott Nicaragua? To spend millions of dollars fomenting another armed coup? Haven't we learned our lesson yet; the Nicaraguan people don't want to be told what type of government to have.
Ben was an entertainer too, and often gave performances for the children of his Nicaraguan town. People from the North don't have to be killers. Perhaps Ben Linder will remind us that we don't have to keep hiring killers and sending them to Central America. We could send clowns, and seek peace rather than hegemony.
