MRS flag, the hat of Sandino

Our final meeting in Nicaragua was with Silvia Nadine, a representative from the Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista (Sandinista Renovation Movement), one of the current political parties. The party was founded in 1995 and the creators included some members of the original FSLN. Many of the members joined the MRS due to dissatisfaction with the contemporary FSLN party and their actions. This frustration stemmed from the disconnect between the implementations of the FSLN and their initial platform. Nadine told us that many of the FSLN members were unwilling to accept that the party was not functioning in the way it had been intended to and that a new party was necessary to push for governmental reform.

In 2006, the MRS had decided to support a presidential candidate, Herty Lewites. Lewites was well-known and thought of as having a serious shot at the presidency, however the candidate mysteriously died three months before the election. Nadine told us that the media projected the story as if he had died of natural causes, but the MRS was fairly certain that there was more to the story. Lewites had captivated the young population and had the possibility of winning and therefore challenged the FSLN status quo in Nicaragua.

In 2008 the MRS’s status as a political party was taken away by the FSLN, which was clearly not ideal, but Nadine told us that this allowed the party to see who was on their side and who was willing to fight this injustice. During one such demonstration a government official’s car was set on fire and the police would not investigate the burning of the car. She even told us of a liberal family that was assassinated by the FSLN and how their murders were never investigated either. Clearly the party has been met with a lot of retaliation.

Nadine told us that one of the biggest obstacles they face as a party is the lack of trust in the system. People do not feel motivated to vote because of the many voting frauds that have happened in the past. In addition, many people are fearful of the violence that has been shown to come with challenging the status quo in Nicaragua.

Additionally she told us of a barrier to the involvement of young people; because the FSLN controls public universities and the scholarships awarded for those universities, students have been manipulated by this power of capital. Public demonstrations do not occur on college campuses because of this control. Many students want to express their opinions and discontent, but they cannot for fear of losing their access to education. As a current college student who has participated in various politically motivated demonstrations on Ohio State’s campus I find this restriction of public space quite devastating and disempowering. I worry for the safety and sanity of the students feeling the weight of this limitation.

I enjoyed ending the trip with this talk. Hearing from a smaller party trying to navigate and change the current political climate in Nicaragua was inspiring. Despite the limitations they face, Nadine made it clear that the MRS will continue organizing communities of people and fighting for the rights and opportunities of every Nicaraguan.

Coming to Nicaragua I wasn’t expecting to be shocked or all that surprised by the conditions in which people live and survive, and I would say that I haven’t been. The things, however, that strike me the most are the slight variations and specificities of life that aren’t surprising, but rather under-the-radar. The everyday, almost mundane, glazed-over outcomes of a historically intervened upon, economically poor society.

On Tuesday we concluded our time at the NicaHOPE community center by driving around the neighborhood they were created to serve, which lies directly outside of La Chureca, the city dump (which Olivia talked about in her post). During our drive we were accompanied by Sofia Salgado, a young woman who had spent a significant portion of her childhood collecting recyclable materials in La Chrueca alongside her mother and sister. She told us that the three of them combined would collect enough pounds of glass, plastic, cardboard, etc. per day to earn 80 Córdoba (about 3 USD). For reference, today I bought two headbands at a market in Masaya for 80 Córdoba exactly.

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