Nicaragua Tour- A NACLA First
Butler, Judy
Two NACLA members, Judy Butler and Janet Shenk, had the privilege of leading the first group of political tourists from the United States to Nicaragua this past December. The 10-day tour,...
...Workers on a state coffee plantation shared their food with us, guards in one of the regional prisons permitted us to tour the facility, and people in the streets patiently slowed their Spanish to a crawl to be sure we all could communicate...
...Our first visit to that country proved that touring Nicaragua is the best way to evaluate that example...
...The 10-day tour, jointly sponsored by NACLA and Monthly Review Associates, attracted 37 of our readers ranging in age from 17 to 87, and coming from all parts of the United States and Canada...
...Janet was a bit apprehensive about the trip, never having been a tour guide before...
...Finally, on the eighth day, by popular demand and unanimous exhaustion, we did spend an afternoon on a deserted Pacific beach...
...But our guides rallied almost immediately...
...The importance of solidarity between the U.S...
...As we marched toward the crowd of 500 with our banner aloft, we were greeted with loud, spontaneous applause...
...Thus identified, we were met with warmth, generosity and openness wherever we travelled...
...There, in a relaxed conversation with our bus driver, Miguel, we learned that he was an ex-guerrilla fighter and had spent time in Somoza's prisons...
...the government tourist board, Inturismo, acts in a liason capacity...
...There we met the people from Viajes Universo who would be our hard-working companions for the next 10 days...
...While for this reason some do not perceive the Sandinista revolution as their own, we found that they share at least two important characteristics which should help the difficult process of integration: warmth and candor...
...We also met with Comandante William Ramirez, who was recovering from an illness in Niquinomo, Sandino's birthplace...
...Americans who will skip an afternoon at the beach if there's another cooperative, day care 43update update * update update center or hospital to see...
...Personally invited by Comandante of the Revolution and Minister of the Interior Tomds Borge, we attended a presentation of military promotions to exemplary fighters in the insurrection...
...Ramirez, a 44 member of the FSLN Secretariat, also heads the ministry in charge of what is called the Atlantic Coast - actually a region containing more than half of Nicaragua's total territory...
...But, at NACLA, one learns to do a lot of new things, so she packed her bags and gamely practiced her "tour-guide smile...
...A Nicaraguan government representative who joined us at our first post-tour reunion-yes, there has already been a reunion!-noted that the Reagan Administration has been so hostile to Nicaragua because, "it has been a shining example of how a revolutionary people can begin to build a more just society...
...But since all of us, tour leaders and participants alike, found it a wonderfully memorable experience, we would like to share a little of its content and flavor...
...strategy in the region, he apologized for possibly reiterating things we already knew...
...The blufileios share a history very different from their brothers and sisters on the other side of this vast, rich and relatively unpopulated country (see "Atlantic Coast Unrest," NACLA Report, Vol...
...There are American tourists that don't want to lunch at the fanciest hotel in town?, they questioned...
...XIV, No...
...The importance of this visit by North Americans was clear also to the Nicaraguan leaders who gave unstintingly of their time to meet with us...
...The tour was so successful, and we were so impressed with the importance of combatting the growing distortions about Nicaragua which appear in the mainstream media, that we are planning another tour for July 1981, the second anniversary of Nicaragua's revolution...
...Moises Hassan, a member of the Junta of National Reconstruction, spoke to us for two hours and stayed for a Christmas Day buffet at our hotel, even though he had used this holiday respite to get married only three days before...
...and Nicaraguan people became each day more critical as the U.S...
...At our request they quickly found some compafieros to stencil a banner for our bus, proclaiming us, "North Americans - Friends of the Revolution...
...Americans that make a political decision not to exchange their dollars on the parallel market at nearly twice the official rate...
...Viajes Universo is a private Nicaraguan tour agency...
...This trip was to be Viajes Universo's initiation into political tourism as well...
...With only a few near-disasters, we arrived safe and sound in Managua - a city surrounded by smoking volcanos and still showing the devastation of the 1972 earthquake...
...There is no way we can share with our readers the full impact of our trip, nor in these few lines deepen the analysis presented in the May-June 1980 issue of the NACLA Report...
...The group travelled to a number of cities including Managua, Le6n, Esteli, Matagalpa, Masaya, Monimb6 and Granada, and half continued on for an additional four days, visiting Bluefields on the country's Atlantic coast...
...I, being far too idealistic to contemplate such possibilities as personality conflicts or bouts of "turista," busied myself with last-minute hassles: how do we make sure that everyone knows the flight from Miami leaves 4 hours ahead of schedule...
...After a lengthy presentation on U.S...
...Those of us who took the boat ride to Bluefields along the lush Rio Escondido got a glimpse of Nicaragua's other reality...
...government escalated its support for the repressive junta in neighboring El Salvador...
...But," he explained, "I wanted to be thorough because I know that in your country you don't have this kind of access to your own leaders...
...JanlFeb 1981 NACLA's Janet Shenk translates talk on counterrevolutionary attacks by Nicaraguan Junta member Moises Hassan...
Vol. 15 • January 1981 • No. 1
