This is the 20th edition the International Courier magazine, new epoch. The subject chosen for this number is the Central American region, whose countries are going through intense processes of class struggle. A region where the IWL has had four decades of militancy, and has held active presence.
Central America is going through a very rich process of mass struggles, as well as significant political processes. In this magazine, along the reports and analysis of reality, we also approach the historical processes that preceded these processes, and to great extent, explain them.
Particularly, in the contradiction between the depth of mass struggles (often heroic) and the leaderships of these struggles, who betrayed them and led them to defeat. Such was the case of the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) and FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) leaderships in the 1980s, of the Nicaraguan and El Salvador revolutions each.
This contradiction repeats throughout these years. For example, with the capitulation policy of Manuel Zelaya and LIBRE in Honduras (followed by most left wing of the country), or with the hesitations of the labor leaderships in Costa Rica to actually carry out a state employee strike against the “fiscal plan” applied by the PAC (Citizen Action Party) administration. Taking these elements into account, the article that opens the magazine attempts to provide a general view of the entire region.
Due to its importance among the left wing, we dedicate a five-article dossier to Nicaragua. We approach the present, a report on repression, the influence of the Castroist Cuban leadership in the process of the FSLN, the history of the Simon Bolivar Brigade, and how the process of the Nicaraguan revolution affected Trotskyist organizations at the time.
About Costa Rica, we include two articles: one referring to the great strike of the state employees and another about the economic-political general framework of the country, where this struggle takes place. We also include two articles about El Salvador: the first is a ten-year balance of the FMLN administrations, the second approaches Salvador Cayetano Carpio and his standings. He was the “Commander Marcial” that opposed the capitulation of the FMLN.
The analysis of the processes of the countries in the region concludes with an article on Honduras and the deeply negative role of Manuel Zelaya and LIBRE, and another on the crisis of the Jimmy Morales administration in Guatemala, a “new face” of the country’s bourgeoisie that wore our rapidly.
Finally, in the period when we closed this edition, Daniel Ruiz was arrested. An oil worker, leader of the PSTU in Argentina. This is an expression of Mauricio Macri’s administration persecution of fighters and specially, of the IWL-FI organization in the country. Let us remember that there is an arrest warrant against Sebastian Romero, a dismissed worker of General Motors, also militant of the PSTU. For this, we include the calling to carry out an international campaign for freedom for Daniel and to stop persecution of Sebastian, as well as the first results achieved.
THE EDITOR
Presentation of the International Courier Magazine N20, on Central America
