Gracia para nada

I would be remiss if I didn't spend a little time talking/thinking about the poverty here. Its pretty tough, actually the second hardest in the Western Hemisphere next to Haiti. Haiti and Nicaragua are numbers 1 and 2 respectively in terms of being recipients of the most US military interventions in the world. Make no mistake, there is a direct coorrelation between that and the oppressive poverty that people live in day to day in both countries.
The 1979 Sandinista revolution came to power with the goal of reversing the policies of the previous century and charting a more egalitarian and just future for all Nicaraguans. The US violently, and criminally fought against this sovereign country in their pursuit and was even convicted of international terrorism by the World Court- the only country to ever receive such an honor - which Reagan, a war criminal in this regard, promptly ignored.
After 10 years of all out war, elections were held and the sufficiently terrorized population chose self-preservation in the form of Violeta de Chamorro, thus ending the Sandinista revolution much to the empire's satisfaction. Chamorro, Bolanos, Aleman, and now Daniel Ortega once again have not been able to do much to deal with this situation either. There have been some big demonstrations against the Ortega administration in the days that I have been here, led in part by Sandinistas like former VP Sergio Ramirez and writer Gioncanda Belli; maybe something will change. With the US bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan along with the power that Chavez has in the region, it would be an opportune time to act.
Its aggravating and pretty embarrassing to know that my government has done this to a people. To walk around here and see how people live and know that we in the US live at their cost it pretty disgusting. The Nicaraguans were not allowed to determine their own fate because they needed to keep producing sugar, coffee, cotton and other export goods at the desired price of the capitalist market to the north. That sounds like a great reason to make someone live in a one room tin shack their whole life.