You are here: Nicaragua Dispatch / Interviews

Nicaragua surfing rides wave of fame

TOLA—After quietly developing a reputation as an alternative surfing destination with excellent beachbreaks and consistent conditions, Nicaragua’s waves are about to go mainstream. From July 14-22, the world’s top over-35 surfers will compete in the 2012 International Surfing Association’s World...

May 14, 2012 · 10 Comments

Tomas Borge dead at 81

After several weeks of battling for his life against a respiratory problem in the intensive-care unit of Managua’s military hospital, comandante Tomás Borge, the last living member of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN), died tonight around 9 p.m....

April 30, 2012 · 6 Comments

U.S. couple chronicles legacy of contra war

Looking back on the revolution that shaped her life, Graciela Morales Castillo is wistful yet clear-eyed. “Now that I am an adult and a mother and have a twelve-year-old daughter, I compare my daughter’s childhood with my own, and I...

April 10, 2012 · 5 Comments

Montealegre to negotiate ‘pacto’ with Ortega

The political power-sharing arrangement that has defined Nicaragua’s tropical democracy for the past decade is in need of serious restructuring under new management, according to opposition leader Eduardo Montealegre, who’s volunteering for the job. The 2011 general elections, which relegated...

March 13, 2012 · 4 Comments

Nicaragua sets tee time for golf tourism

TOLA—One of the world’s top golf-course designers thinks Nicaragua has all the right ingredients to become the next great golf destination, rivaling Hawaii, South Africa and Costa Rica. The man Golf World Magazine named “the hottest architect in golf” is...

February 28, 2012 · 15 Comments

US: Nicaragua is closing spaces

The Sandinista government is not acting like a good team player when it comes to building democracy in Nicaragua, according to Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. In addition to brushing away independent...

February 21, 2012 · 14 Comments

Oquist: Nicaragua can’t wait on climate change

There’s a lot of hot air in Nicaragua these days, and some of it’s due to global warming. Over the past 50 years, Nicaragua’s average temperature has increased by three degrees centigrade. Farmers and meteorologists have noticed a marked change...

February 13, 2012 · 3 Comments

Martinez eyes return to Majors

RIVAS- Dennis Martínez hasn’t thrown a strike since he hung up the baseball spikes 14 years ago. But at 57 years old, he looks like he could still work a solid five innings if given the nod and handed...

February 1, 2012 · 2 Comments

Red Sox sign Nicaraguan hurler

Veteran Nicaraguan pitcher and seasoned international troublemaker Vicente Padilla yesterday agreed to terms with the Boston Red Sox for a $1.5 million minor league contract that includes an invitation to spring training next March. Padilla, a hard-throwing and hard-drinking righty...

January 17, 2012 · 5 Comments

‘Indignation must be organized’

MANAGUA—As Nicaragua’s newly elected and reelected lawmakers report to National Assembly Monday for their first day of grip-and-grin and disingenuous argle-bargle, Sandinista reformer Monica Baltodano will not be among them. For the first time in 15 years, the National Assembly—or...

January 9, 2012 · 3 Comments