While the coronavirus clearly triggered an economic meltdown, it would be an egregious error to solely attribute the economic decline to the virus itself.
We need a system that recognizes the important contribution of immigrants to U.S. culture, politics, and, in particular, the economy.
Over the years I’ve talked with hundreds of immigrants, and across all these conversations, one common thread stands out: migrants are risk takers.
The thousands of brave souls currently leaving Nicaragua are not doing so because they want to. Whether due to political persecution or out of economic necessity, they are fleeing for their lives.
Like their conservative predecessors, left-leaning presidents in Latin America have shown a tendency to fall for the vice of corruption. Recent studies argue the causes stem from more than just an absence of ethics but also high levels of inequality.
For decades, the United States’ National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, has played a key role in shaping Nicaragua’s political arena. Today, NED grantees are at the forefront of the civil society groups supporting the current protests.
Like the Arab Spring in 2010-2011, students have been at the epicenter of Nicaragua’s uprising from the beginning, but their discontent has spread like wildfire. Nicaraguans around the world are calling for change.
Writing from Nicaragua’s colonial city Granada, the author gives a personal view of the upheaval on the streets.
Although it is impossible to know what will happen in the hours and days to follow, it is clear that the rioting and looting over the last 48 hours has severely shaken Nicaraguan politics and economics.
