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Sandinista Youth pledge to carry on building socialism

YOUNG Sandinistas vowed yesterday to build on the foundations of Nicaragua’s revolution as they celebrated the 40th anniversary of the organisation’s founding with activities taking place nationwide.

Vice-President Rosario Murillo described the Sandinista Youth as the country’s “divine treasure” as she praised their role in Nicaraguan society on Thursday. 

The left-wing movement’s youth wing was founded by Gonzalo Carrion after the 1979 revolution.

Yesterday also marked 39 years since the start of the National Literacy Campaign, which saw some 95,000 students and teachers involved.

Prior to the Sandinista revolution, between 75 and 90 per cent of Nicaragua’s rural population was illiterate, according to estimates. 

One of the major forces tackling this problem was the Popular Literacy Army (EPA), comprised of young people who worked full time in the rural and mountainous areas.

Sandinista Youth member Auxi Garcia told the Star: “Since the ’80s, youth has been at the forefront of the revolution.

“The first great task we undertook was to fulfil the mandate of Commander Carlos Fonseca Amador, ‘and also, teach them to read’ through the Great National Literacy Crusade, which ended the rate of more than 50 per cent illiteracy that reigned in the country back then.”

The campaign was a huge success, with with the number of people who could not read or write reduced by more than 50 per cent in rural areas. Nicaragua received Unesco’s  Nadezhda K Krupskaya award for the campaign.

Ms Garcia explained how the Sandinista Youth worked in cotton and coffee production to aid the economy. 

But during the 1990s – the period of “governing from below” while the Sandinistas were out of office – they united to “defend education” from the effects of neoliberalism, she explained.

Now, young people are involved in many activities, including “promoting art and culture … and support for the most vulnerable sectors of society, in emergencies and all the tasks assigned to us in the second phase of the revolution.”

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