Joan Kruckewitt | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Journalist |
Known for | Writing on Latin America, writing a biography of Ben Linder |
Joan Kruckewitt is an American journalist and writer. Kruckewitt has reported on Latin America and Europe for ABC Radio, Pacifica Radio, RKO, Mutual, NBC, Monitoradio, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and NPR. [1] She is the author of The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua and has contributed to other books.
Kruckewitt visited Guatemala in 1980 for an undergraduate program, but the program was cancelled due to the extent of political violence in the country at that time—Kruckewitt described seeing the bodies of assassination victims in two separate incidents in a single week. [2]
From 1983 to 1991, Kruckewitt lived in Nicaragua, reporting on the Contra War for ABC Radio. In 1989, Kruckewitt traveled to Panama and reported on the U.S. invasion of that country. [3]
Kruckewitt returned to Nicaragua in 1993 to investigate the killing of Ben Linder, an American internationalist murdered by the Contras. Kruckewitt had known Linder personally, meeting him on several occasions when they both worked in Nicaragua. [4] In 1995, assisted by fellow journalist Paul Berman, she located and interviewed a Contra who claimed to have been involved in Linder's killing and in 1999 she published the first biography of Linder. [5] [4] In 1997, The San Francisco Chronicle published an excerpt from the then-upcoming book, describing a Contra ambush near the town of El Cuá. [6]
Reviewing The Death of Ben Linder in The Texas Observer , UT Austin professor Milton Jamail, who visited Nicaragua in the 1980s, described it as "compelling and well-written" and felt it accurately captured the negative effects of U.S. policy in Latin America. [7] Pierre LaRamee, reviewing the book in the NACLA Report on the Americas , felt that it was a valuable account of international support for the Sandinistas. [8] Norman Stockwell, publisher of The Progressive who visited Nicaragua in the 1980s, called The Death of Ben Linder "The most thorough story of [Linder's] life, his work, and his death" and an "excellent book." [9] Noam Chomsky described the book as "a poignant and gripping tale," The Seattle Times called it "compelling" and "painstakingly detailed" and Nicaragua Monitor, a publication of the left-wing Alliance for Global Justice, praised Kruckewitt for "beautifully and honestly" telling Linder's story. [5] The book also received recommendations from Lonely Planet, [10] the Friends of Batahola, [11] Green Empowerment, [12] University of Connecticut archivist Tanya Rose Lane, [13] and Friends of the ATC, a Nicaraguan solidarity organization. [14]
The University of Oregon archives contain a Ben Linder collection that includes drafts and outlines of The Death of Ben Linder, recordings of interviews Kruckewitt conducted while researching the book, and correspondence Kruckewitt maintained with the archives. [15]
Kruckewitt contributed an essay on Honduras to When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror in 2005. She discussed the manner in which the Reagan administration altered traditional Honduran policy by enlisting the country in their campaign against Nicaragua and building an alliance between Honduras and El Salvador. [16] Oberlin College professor Steven Volk described this article as a particularly valuable description of the U.S. government's training of Latin American allies to torture and assassinate opponents. [17] In 2007 she reviewed Disappeared: A Journalist Silenced, a book about the murder of Guatemalan journalist Irma Flaquer, for the Journal of Third World Studies. [2]
The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 following the Nicaraguan Revolution. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all Contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance.
José Daniel Ortega Saavedra is a Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as coordinator of the Junta of National Reconstruction (1979–1985) and then as President of Nicaragua (1985–1990).
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the country's capital and largest city. As of 2015, it was estimated to be the second largest city in Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population of six million includes people of mestizo, Indigenous, European and African heritage. The main language is Spanish. Indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English.
Nicaragua is a nation in Central America. It is located about midway between Mexico and Colombia, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. Nicaragua ranges from the Caribbean Sea on the nation's east coast, and the Pacific Ocean bordering the west. Nicaragua also possesses a series of islands and cays located in the Caribbean Sea.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.
Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle was the President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country between 1972 and 1974, even during the period when he was not the de jure ruler.
Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan-born novelist and poet known for her contributions to Nicaraguan literature.
Benjamin Ernest "Ben" Linder, was an American engineer. While working on a small hydroelectric dam in rural northern Nicaragua, Linder was killed by the Contras, a loose confederation of rebel groups funded by the U.S. government. Coming at a time when U.S. support for the Contras was already highly controversial, Linder's death made front-page headlines around the world and further polarized opinion in the United States.
The Nicaraguan Revolution encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to oust the dictatorship in 1978–79, the subsequent efforts of the FSLN to govern Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, and the Contra War, which was waged between the FSLN-led government of Nicaragua and the United States–backed Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution marked a significant period in the history of Nicaragua and revealed the country as one of the major proxy war battlegrounds of the Cold War, attracting much international attention.
William D. "Bill" Stewart was an American journalist with ABC News who was murdered by Nicaraguan government National Guard ("Guardia") forces while reporting on the Nicaraguan Revolution as Sandinista rebel forces were closing in on the capital city of Managua in 1979. Footage of his execution was repeatedly broadcast on network television, resulting in an uproar in the United States against the Somoza regime.
The National Reorganization Process was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, which received support from the United States until 1982. In Argentina it is often known simply as última junta militar, última dictadura militar or última dictadura cívico-militar, because there have been several in the country's history and no others since it ended.
Édgar Chamorro Coronel is an ousted leader of the Nicaraguan rebel Contras who later became a critic of the rebels and their Central Intelligence Agency sponsors, even cooperating with the Sandinista government in their World Court case, Nicaragua v. United States. He is a member of the prominent Chamorro family that provided five of Nicaragua's past presidents.
North American Congress in Latin America (NACLA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1966 to provide information on trends in Latin America and relations between Latin America and the United States. The organization is best known for publishing the quarterly NACLA Report on the Americas, and also publishes "books, anthologies and pamphlets for classroom and activist use". The NACLA Report on the Americas print magazine was briefly discontinued in 2015, but relaunched under the Taylor and Francis imprint Routledge in May 2016.
This is a bibliography of selected works about Nicaragua.
Jewish Nicaraguans or Nicaraguan Jews are Nicaraguans of Jewish ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Nicaragua. They are part of the ethnic Jewish diaspora.
CIA activities in Nicaragua have been ongoing since the 1980s. The increasing influence gained by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a left-wing and anti-imperialist political party in Nicaragua, led to a sharp decrease in Nicaragua–United States relations, particularly after the Nicaraguan Revolution. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to support the Contras, a right-wing Nicaraguan political group to combat the influence held by the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan government. Various anti-government rebels in Nicaragua were organized into the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the first Contra group, at the behest of the CIA. The CIA also supplied the Contras with training and equipment, including materials related to torture and assassination. There have also been allegations that the CIA engaged in drug trafficking in Nicaragua.
The United States has at various times in recent history provided support to terrorist and paramilitary organizations around the world. It has also provided assistance to numerous authoritarian regimes that have used state terrorism as a tool of repression.
Yvan Leyvraz was a Swiss employee of Solidar Suisse and part of the international solidarity brigades in Nicaragua after the presidential election victory of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas and the ensuing Contra war. He was the second Swiss national to be killed by US-supported contras in Nicaragua.
The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua is a biographical account of the life of Ben Linder, an American engineer who was murdered by Contras while working on development projects in Nicaragua during the Nicaraguan Revolution. Published in 1999 by Seven Stories Press, it was the first published biography focused on Linder, whose death had sparked significant political controversy in the U.S. in 1987. The book received generally favorable reviews from newspapers, academic journals, and individuals and organizations involved in Nicaraguan solidarity work.