1988 – Nicaragua
The Journal you are about to read was written on a trip I made to Nicaragua in October of 1988 with the Witness For Peace (WFP) organization.
At the time, a clandestine war was in progress between the U.S. backed Contras and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. In the U.S. it was very difficult to get unbiased information about what was going on in Nicaragua and why.
If you can recall Oliver North and the Iran Contra affair, you will also remember that the level of political ‘spin’ concerning this war was very high.
WFP undertook to organize small groups of Americans (and others) to go to Nicaragua to see for ourselves what was happening.
During our two weeks there, we met with all sides. We talked with the Pro-Sandinistas, the Pro-Contras and the common people; who were caught very much in the middle of this geo-political struggle. We rode around in the back of open pickups, slept on dirt floors and talked with various people on all sides of the issue – and we heard some brutal stories.
This journal is a rough and ready thing and it was never intended for publication. It is a snapshot from ground level taken in a very difficult time and place.
The Journal
In addition to the Journal, itself, there are also some auxiliary materials. These include a photographic record of each page of the original handwritten Journal (Photos of the Journal), some brief notes on the contents of the 19 audio tapes which were recorded on the trip (Tape Contents) and links to each of the 19 tape recordings (below).
I want to point out that the Journal is the central thing here. These auxiliary materials are more the sort of thing that researchers might like to pursue.
If you listen to the tapes, some Spanish will definitely help.There is no Tape 08B. Its contents were inadvertently lost to an overwriting error.
This is the end of the tapes.