International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism – Country hearing: Nicaragua

Practically in a permanent way …

Interventions, occupations, sanctions, political aggression, commercial and economic aggression, financing and training of mercenaries, blockades, mining of ports, terrorism, tortures, and every other kind of sabotage!  This is the history of Nicaragua and this is why we fight imperialism.

For Nicaragua, I presented a small number of local voices, which I described as “this little engine of 6.5 million people that work with their friends and put their people first”.  And now they are beginning to tell the story of their own freedom and successes in driving forward their own Sandinista revolution.

The Tribunals – chronicle the roots as well as the destructive poisonous fruits of imperialism.

Tribunals for Cuba, Nicaragua, Yemen which was planned but I see it is now canceled, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Eritrea, and more have been held since the beginning of the year.

“The Tribunal is a collective effort to build systems of accountability—rooted in global cross-movement solidarity—both within and outside of the law, to challenge the violence of imperialism through sanctions. We interrogate sanctions not from the perspective of those who enforce them, but from the perspective of those most impacted by them, namely the peoples of Asia, Africa, and South America.”

and

“People’s Tribunals capture the ethos of self-determination and internationalism that was expressed through twentieth-century anti-colonial struggles and was institutionalized in the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Cuba. They bring together movement lawyers, scholars, and organizers from around the world and are designed by and accountable to the social movements and communities in which they are rooted.  Operating outside of the logics and institutions of capitalist and imperialist law, People’s Tribunals make decisions that may not be binding and do not have the force of law, but their achievements in a political and discursive register inspire and provide the tools necessary for present and future organizing.

People’s Tribunals allow the oppressed to judge the powerful, defining the content as well as the scope of the procedures, which reverses the norm of the powerful creating and implementing the law.”

The Video of the Nicaragua Tribunal.  It is long, just around 3 hours, and is probably best suited to listen to as a proverbial Saturday night movie.

For a historical overview, the 4th speaker, Wilfredo Navarro, sketches the main events.  I do promise you, if you have a heart, the history and testimonies included here will break it!  But you will also again become committed to the current trajectory in our world.  The one that we talk about:  fair economic and financial systems, of multi- or pluripolarity, and justice.  At GlobalSouth.co, we will continue to chronicle the hopeful path with its heartbreak and its joys, and Nicaragua is a fine example of this.  But first, they have to chronicle their bitter legacy and their determined path to success, as they define it.