Seven years ago, Nicaragua was subject to a violent attempted coup that lasted from April through July, 2018. In a four-article series published in Monthly Review in 2023, Dan Kovalik and FoLA's John Perry shed much-needed light on how the coup attempt unfolded. The first article looks at how it was planned and how it started. The second article discusses the “national dialogue” which began in May 2018 but which failed to end the violence. The third article shoes how, as the violence increased, support for the coup began to wane. The final article explains how the coup attempt was halted, discuss its aftermath and consider what it means for the future of Nicaragua’s revolution.
Is USAID a “Criminal Organization?”—In Nicaragua, the Evidence Suggests It Is
U.S. President Donald Trump has just closed down USAID after Elon Musk branded it “a criminal organization,” adding “it’s time for it to die.” Is there any truth to Musk’s allegation? One “beneficiary” of USAID is Nicaragua, a country with one of the lowest incomes per head in Latin America. Between 2014 and 2021, USAID spent US$315,009,297 on projects there. Uninformed observers might suppose that this money helped poor communities, but they would be wrong. Most of it was spent trying to undermine Nicaragua’s government and, in the process, gave lucrative contracts to U.S. consultancies and to some of Nicaragua’s richest families.
Friends of Latin America 