In the lead up to the February 25, 1990 elections, President George H.W. Bush told the Nicaraguan people that the U.S. would keep funding the Contras (counter-revolutionaries recruited, funded and directed by President Reagan, the State Department and the CIA in 1980s illegal war), block loans and maintain the...

But Nicaraguans Will Not Let the Evil Empire Dictate Who They Vote for, with Sandinista Revolutionary Leader Daniel Ortega Poised to Win The Sandinista party won with 62% of the vote in the 2011 elections and with 72.5% in 2016. Polls show the Sandinista Party winning as much as 70% of...

Plan follows precedent of 1970s state-sponsored assassination campaign targeting leftists. Operation Condor was a U.S.-directed secret intelligence program in the 1970s and early ’80s in six South American U.S.-backed dictatorships—Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay—that resulted in the torture and “disappearance” of thousands of people. The victims included dissidents and...

U.S. foreign policy is increasingly promoted by billionaire-funded foundations. The neoliberal era has created individuals with incredible wealth who, through “philanthropy,” flex their influence and feel good at the same time. While these philanthropists can be liberal on some issues, they almost universally support U.S. foreign policy and the...

A Review of Vijay Prashad’s book, Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations, with foreword by Evo Morales (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2020). During his confirmation hearing in February, the CIA’s latest director William J. Burns continued a long Agency tradition of playing up the threat...

By failing to educate students about the many genocides the U.S. government has supported, they promote a dangerous nationalistic ideology. In the age of the pandemic, as many high school classes are being taught remotely, the value of personal interaction for students cannot be overstated. While traditional high school history...

Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) has become one of the most feared paramilitaries in Mexico over the last decade. Images of the group have become the standard depiction of the Mexican cartel writ large. Their propaganda videos often feature groups of masked men bristling with enough small arms to...

With a new Cold War heating up between the U.S. and Russia and China, Witness for Peace Southwest, Addicted to War and CodePink organized a Truth Commission on the original Cold War on March 21st, which brought together the testimony of historians, activists and others who lived through the...

While sitting in my apartment in Caracas, Venezuela, and reading the online edition of Time magazine (5/19/16), I noticed a report asserting that there was not even something as basic as aspirin to be found anywhere in Venezuela: “Basic medicines like aspirin are nowhere to be found.” I walked out of the...

For over seven weeks, events in Nicaragua have devolved into an increasingly common scenario for leaders who find themselves at odds with Washington: the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, stands accused of “killing his own people” after authorities have used “lethal force” in quelling recent protests. The unrest, which has resulted in...