March 03, 2007 The Gazette (Montreal)
	A Community Built on Coffee -- The two-room schoolhouse in Los Alpes, a small farming community in northern Nicaragua, is on a grassy hill surrounded by swaying banana trees. On a regular morning, visitors can find about 80 young students seated at the desks inside, their faces turned to the whiteboard at the front of the room as a teacher presents the day's lesson. Five years ago, there was no school here and Los Alpes coffee farmers say that without the extra earnings they get from selling through a fair-trade co-op, this school wouldn't exist.
November 07, 2006 Counterpunch
	A New Kind of Oil Diplomacy -- The Chavez-Ortega Alliance Events in Nicaragua, however, suggest that it won't be so easy for the Bush administration to roll back Chavez's ambitions. It now seems as if the Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega will cruise to victory in the country's presidential election and avoid a run off. As of Monday night, preliminary results show Ortega with about 40 percent of the vote, more than enough to avoid a future runoff.
September 06, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Civil society marches against CAFTA; PLC won't Pressure FSLN for CAFTA passage -- On September 8, several thousand people representing civil society groups and other organizations took part in a protest against the Dominican Republic and Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) in Managua.
July 26, 2005 United Students Against Sweatshops
	Support Nicaraguan Workers at Chaprich-Mil Colores! -- Workers in Nicaragua at the Chaprich-Mil Colores plant are struggling for reinstatement, as well as their outstanding salaries, severance, and benefits. The U.S. based owner Craig Miller has already fired 48 members of the independent union, refused to pay into national healthcare and continually denies workers their due salaries and vacation time.
July 11, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Let the Rivers Run: A plan for the intelligent management of water and the re-greening of Nicaragua's watersheds -- In this action alert, please find: 1) Introduction to the deforestation and water crises in the Global South 2) Outline of the project to address these crises in five departments in Nicaragua 3) What you and your local committee can do to help!
July 06, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	CAFTA Opinions across the Board in Nicaragua -- With the passage of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) by the US Senate and an upcoming vote in the House of Representatives, lobbying heated up in Nicaragua which also has yet to pass the trade agreement. Organizations representing the wealthiest agriculture and business sectors are pressuring the National Assembly for quick ratification.
July 06, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Political Conflicts Continue as OAS Returns -- Political tensions could diminish this week, as OAS representative and former Argentine Foreign Minister Dante Caputo appeared to some observers to be achieving a modicum of success in his negotiations with the parties in conflict in Nicaragua's tormented political scene. He began discussions on Friday, July 1. Meanwhile, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo reported that he had sent a message to President Enrique Bolaños containing proposals he had received from the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) and the Sandinista Front (FSLN). Obando said that PLC and FSLN leaders had said they were open to making their positions more flexible in exchange for Bolaños' agreement to renew the suspended national dialogue.
June 21, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Child Labor Acknowledged -- President Enrique Bolaños recognized this past Friday that 253,000 children between the ages of five and seventeen work in all sectors of the Nicaraguan economy, especially in agriculture and service. According to a census taken of child workers in Leon, the majority of child laborers works at least four hours a day and earns approximately 60 cents a day. It is also noted that the children often neglect their schoolwork or miss school altogether because of their jobs.
June 21, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	OAS: "Nicaragua has deep divisions" -- José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), stated on June 20 that the situation in Nicaragua could degenerate into a profound crisis due to the lack of will to dialogue and compromise on the part of the government and the opposition. Insulza had been in Nicaragua for four days attempting to fulfill an OAS mandate to bring the parties--the administration of President Enrique Bolaños and the Liberals and the Sandinistas which dominate the legislature--back to a serious tri-partite national dialogue. Upon leaving Nicaragua, Insulza left open the possibility of his returning in the middle of the week to Managua to continue his efforts.
June 21, 2005 Financial Times
	OAS chief fails to end Nicaraguan political impasse -- A four-day visit from the new head of the Organisation of American States failed to end a political impasse between Nicaragua's embattled president and the political parties seeking to undermine his powers.
June 20, 2005 Nicaragua Network
	Human Rights Action Alert! -- Human Rights Action Alert! For all those concerned about academic freedom and freedom of thought! Write Homeland Security, the State Department, and Congress! In this action alert please find: 1) Information on the Dora Maria Tellez visa denial 2) Points to include in your letters 3) Names and addresses of public officials
June 14, 2005 Nicaragua Resource Network
	CAFTA Committee Report to National Assembly Still Not Released -- Carlos Noguera, chair of the special committee on CAFTA in Nicaragua's National Assembly, said that CAFTA "should not be contaminated with political questions." However, the two main parties in the Assembly, the Liberal and the Sandinista, have not come to any accord on a committee report on legislation implementing the agreement.
June 14, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Possibilities for Renewable Energy Ignored -- Last week, at an exposition sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on "Renewable Energy as the Alternative for Nicaragua," Narciso Mayorga, a renewable energy specialist, said that the main problem is Nicaragua's lack of a clear policy for its development. Mayorga noted that Nicaraguans have been told over and over that their only opportunity for overcoming the country's costly dependence on petroleum as a principal source of electricity is renewable energy, but without result. Nicaragua, he said, has the greatest potential in Central America for renewable energy in all its forms, including hydroelectric, geothermic, wind, solar and biomass.
June 14, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Nicaragua among Countries to Receive Debt Relief -- After months of negotiations, the G-7 (Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom), plus Russia, agreed to cancel the debt owed to the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank for 18 of the world's poorest countries, including Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia and Guyana in Latin America. There was no agreement to cancel debt owed to the Inter-American Development Bank.
June 07, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	New coalitions form around controversies -- A group of political leaders from parties such as Bolanos' Alliance for the Republic, the Conservative Party, the Nicaraguan Christian Path, and the Party of Nicaraguan Resistance have come together to form an anti-pact, anti-fraud coalition called the "Common Front."
June 07, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Mil Colores factory not paying into Social Security -- According to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), the free trade zone factory Mil Colores, of U.S. ownership, has not paid into Social Security the contributions deducted from workers' paychecks for three months and has not paid its 580 workers for the month of May.
June 01, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Anti-Pact Demonstration Draws Thousands -- Thousands took to the streets on Thursday morning, marching down the Avenida Bolivar in Managua in repudiation of the Sandinista-Liberal Pact of 1999-2000, which they saw as a root cause of the present crisis. Marchers carried huge signs declaring "Enough of the Pact," while protesters dressed as pigs adorned themselves with pictures of Ortega and Alemán signing the famous pact. Protest organizers believe that the march was successful in sending a strong message to the pact leaders: either suspend the constitutional amendments passed in January of this year, along with the election of the directors of the Superintendency of Public Services (SISEP), or the population will intensify its efforts of rejection.
May 31, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Distrust Undermines National Dialogue -- The United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) coordinator in Nicaragua, Jorge Chediek, stated that distrust is undermining continuation of the national dialogue. The tripartite negotiation has been suspended because of the Bolaños government complaint that the Constitutional Liberals (PLC) and Sandinistas (FSLN) are failing to comply with the agreements while they accuse President Enrique Bolaños of the same. The center of the storm lies in the election of directors for the Institute of Urban and Rural Reformed Property (INPRUR) and of the Office of Superintendent of Public Service (SISEP), besides the constitutional reforms that the executive branch does not recognize. Each of these new laws transfers power previously held by the executive branch to the legislature.
May 31, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Farmers Demand Development Bank -- Hundreds of farmers marched this week to the National Assembly to demand the creation of an agricultural development bank to stimulate agricultural production, and to oppose the passage of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). Also, they demanded laws that would provide for secure legal ownership of their property, for improvements in production infrastructure, and for protection of natural resources.
May 17, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Nemagon Victims Sign Agreement with Government -- On May 13 members of President Bolaños' cabinet signed an agreement with leaders of the protesting victims of pesticide poisoning. The 19-point agreement includes the promise of free lifetime healthcare for all former banana and sugarcane workers affected by exposure to the agrochemicals Nemagon and Fumazone in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
May 17, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	CAFTA Passage in Nicaragua Doubtful -- While President Bolaños was with the other Central American and Dominican Republic presidents in the US licking the boots of their transnational masters by promoting the Dominican Republic and Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), passage of the trade agreement by Nicaragua faded further into the distance.
May 17, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	National Assembly Establishes New Property Institute, and U.S. Withdraws Visas from 89 Sandinistas and Liberals -- On May 16, La Prensa featured a headline reporting "U.S. 'Black List' Filters Out." The article revealed a list, the existence of which had been rumored for days, of prominent Nicaraguans, members of both the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) and the Sandinista Party, who have had their visas to enter the United States revoked. It appeared that the withdrawal of many of the visas was connected to the May 10 passage, by a large majority of the National Assembly, of a law setting up the Reformed Rural and Urban Property Institute (INPRUR).
May 10, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Still No Assembly Decision on DR-CAFTA -- Despite President Bolaños' promises to his sponsor, George W. Bush, to pass the Dominican Republic - Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), the National Assembly has not voted on the agreement or even set a date to debate it. The FSLN has indicated it will vote against the unfair agreement and the Constitutional Liberal Party is perfectly happy to embarrass Bolaños by waiting until the US Congress acts on it.
May 10, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	US State Department: Radical Populism is as Dangerous as Terrorism -- On May 8 El Nuevo Diario published a special report, written by Roberto Collado in Washington, about the US government's position on what are referred to as "radical populist" governments and political organizations in Latin America. It quoted a US military official of the Southern Command of the US army who classified "movements that undermine democracy in Latin America" as one more link in the chain of evil that the Bush administration is willing to destroy in the hemisphere.
May 10, 2005 IN THESE TIMES
	Chiquita's Children -- In the '70s and '80s, the banana companies Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita used a carcinogenic pesticide, Nemagon, to protect their crops in Nicaragua. Today, the men and women who worked on those plantations suffer from incurable illnesses. Their children are deformed. The companies feign innocence.
May 03, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Rural Women Speak Out Against DR-CAFTA -- A forum organized by the Foundation Among Women (Fundacion Entre Mujeres) with the aim of allowing rural women to express their opinions about the Dominican Republican and Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) was held in Esteli on Apr. 21. Delegates from cooperatives and associations of female agricultural workers from all over Nicaragua participated. The organizers of the event explained that it was the first of several forums called ?For a Globalization Based on Justice and Equality? planned for the coming months.
May 03, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Nemagon Case Taken up in Venezuela -- Lawyers for former banana workers poisoned by the US-banned insecticide Nemagon announced that Venezuelan Supreme Court has accepted their case to collect millions in compensation for former banana workers awarded by a Nicaraguan court in 2002. Plaintiffs have attempted to collect on their judgment against Shell Chemical Company, Dow Chemical Company, and Standard Fruit Company (Dole) in Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, and the US without success. Nemagon causes sterility, pain, cancer and birth defects. Banana and sugar cane workers have been camped at the National Assembly for weeks demanding justice, but both the Bolaños government and the National Assembly have ignored their pleas.
May 03, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	IMF Cuts Off Loans to Nicaragua -- Arbulu Neira, representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Nicaragua, reported that the IMF had suspended a US$17 million loan for budget support, the World Bank had done the same with US$35 million loan, and that the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) had withheld US$15 million from their international reserves, due to the lack of an economic program agreement for 2005 between the government and the IMF. Neira explained that time is running short and the Nicaraguan government has not yet presented its proposal.
May 03, 2005 Nicaragua Network Hotline
	Subsidy for Managua Buses Ends Week of Extreme Violence -- A mid-week agreement by the government to subsidize bus fares finally ended more than a week of increasing violent protests caused by soaring oil prices. The violence peaked on April 25 when police repressed demonstrations at 14 sites in Managua.
April 07, 2005 Agencia de Información Fray Tito para América Latina
	Campaña permanente contra TLC con EE.UU. -- Los nicaragüenses están en alerta permanente contra el Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) de su país con Estados Unidos. Varias organizaciones sociales anunciaron el inicio de una campaña de movilización permanente en todo el país.