Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
Now is not the time to abandon the Sandinistas
Returning from Nicaragua, ROGER McKENZIE asks why many progressives in the West feel qualified to denounce the Nicaraguan movement that is in a daily struggle against US imperialism
SANDANISTA: President Daniel Ortega speaks in Managua, July 19

DURING my visit to Nicaragua to help celebrate the 44th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, trade union leader Jose Antonio Zepeda told me that “the United States doesn’t hate Nicaragua. It just has interests in our country.”

That’s so true — and I would also say that the left should have more of an interest in Nicaragua. This urgently needs to replace cold war propaganda handed down by the right-wing press.

News of my visit to mark the anniversary of the overthrow of the US-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979 was met with negativity — to say the least — in some parts of the left.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
GENDER EQUALITY: A woman holds a Sandinista party flag at In
Features / 9 April 2025
9 April 2025
Our delegation found a small but brave and bold socialist nation that has withstood imperialist machinations and poisonous slander to make impressive leaps in healthcare and women’s rights, reports VETERANS FOR PEACE
A supporter of Brazilian President Lula da Silva of the Work
Features / 10 February 2025
10 February 2025
Long having been considered the ‘US’s backyard,’ Latin America is the crucible of anti-imperialist struggle – yet with the rise of China as an economic and ideological counterweight to Washington, we see a new phase of that struggle emerge, writes BEN CHACKO 
FIRST-HAND VIEW: Flavia Ocampo says Nicaragua has been a vic
Features / 26 November 2024
26 November 2024
Challenging critics of the Sandinista government, the young Nicaraguan union leader FLAVIA OCAMPO speaks to Roger McKenzie about the nation’s progressive health system and how trade unions have been at the centre of social progress
Features / 12 September 2024
12 September 2024
The Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group's HELEN YUILL tells the story of solidarity between two small nations, that despite geographical distances, that have united in their struggle against imperialism and colonialism