Greetings from Managua

Hi - I'm Bob Gumbrecht, associate professor of social science at the Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs. Welcome - this is my first post to the blog.

I'm writing this from Managua, Nicaragua. I'm here with a CMC class called Nicaragua: Democracy in the Age of Globalization. We are here for a week experiencing, as best we can, the reality of a country in which 80% of the population lives on two dollars a day (or less).

It's an exciting time to be in Nicaragua. A week ago sunday (Nov. 9th), Nicaragua held country-wide mayoral elections that pitted the ruling Sandinista party (FSLN) against the opposition Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). There have been lots of disputes over the results, especially in the large cities of Managua and Leon, and allegations of voter fraud by the Sandinista-controlled Supreme Electoral Council, which oversees elections. Leaders of both parties have urged their supporters into the streets to demonstrate, and there have been sporadic clashes between the two groups. It's been a little tense in Managua this week, and we've stayed close to our hotel and changed our plans a little bit to avoid getting caught in a melee. As of now, there's been no definitive end to the challenges and recounts, so who knows what might happen...

The Economist published a good overview of the situation this week: http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12607338

So far on our trip, we've:

• visited a huge free trade zone and toured a maquila (a factory, commonly called a sweatshop) that made sweatshirts for The Gap
• met with a former worker in that factory who was fired for union organizing
• met with an organization that works with families who live and work in the Managua dump (and toured the dump)
• talked with an economist who criticized CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement)
• visited the U.S. embassy to discuss the election situation
• traveled to the campo outside of Matagalpa to visit a fair trade coffee farm and processing plant, where we learned how to pick coffee and participated in a coffee tasting.

Lots more stuff coming up this week. I'll try to post some pictures in the next couple days and talk more about some of our more intense adventures...

Bob