TOM CLARK: Blood moon burning (the long golden hour) | They | Nica 78-18: A country that has "forged its own character through suffering"

Day three of the #carrfire - #firefighters are working hard to contain the out of control blaze that has consumed over 80,000 acres, destroyed over 500 structures and stands at 5% containment. 5 deaths have been confirmed including 2 firefighters #redding: image via Justin Sullivan @sullyfoto, 28 July 2018

Smoke and haze from #carrfire cause a strange color cast and the withered trees help form such a desolate landscape: image via Marcus Yam @yamphoto, 28 July 2018

#CarrFire [update] off Hwy 299 and Carr Powerhouse Rd, Whiskeytown (Shasta County) is now 48,312 acres and 5% contained. NEW MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDERS IN PLACE. Unified Command: @CALFIRESHU and Whiskeytown National Park.: image via CAL FIREVerifiedaccount@CAL_FIRE, 27 July 2018

Mark Peterson, who lost his home in the Carr Fire, gives water to goats that survived the blaze.: photo by Noah Berger/AP 27 July 2018

Update: 5 dead, including 2 children, as #CarrFire continues to burn: image via Marcus Yam @yamphoto, 28 July 2018

A firefighter lights backfires during the Carr fire in Redding, California.: photo by Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images, 27 July 2018

California wildfires burn amid record heat across the globe: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 28 July 2018

The #carrfire doubles in size overnight to over 80,000 acres. Hundreds of homes destroyed and several people remain missing. Red Flag warning extended to Monday morning at 8 am. #redding: image via Justin Sullivan, 28 July 2018

A black band covers the logo on a #redding fire dept. truck in honor of fallen #firefighter Jeremy Stoke who was killed while battling the #CarrFire.: image via Justin Sullivan, 27 July 2018

The deadly #CarrFire continues to rip through neighborhoods in the Northern California city of Redding. The wildfire has burned over 44,000 acres forcing thousands to flee. Photo @sullyfoto: image via Getty Images News @Getty Images News, 27 July 2018

Firefighters continue to battle the #CarrFire in #redding that has scorched over 44,000 acres, burned dozens of homes and took the lives of two #firefighters. The blaze is currently 3% contained.: image via Justin Sullivan, 27 July 2018

Burned-out properties near the Lake Keswick Estates area during the Carr fire in Redding on Friday.: photo by Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images, 27 July 2018

Villagers evacuate after a hydropower dam collapsed in Laos: image via Reuters Pictures@reuterspictures, 27 July 2018

#Japan Disaster-hit Japan braces for powerful typhoon Photo @MartinBureau1 #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 28 July 2018

#BloodMoonEclipse Photo @ArisMessinis: image via Getty Images News @Getty Images News, 27 July 2018

They

They

They don't know what to say
They didn't know what to say yesterday

They're waiting for someone to tell them what to say tomorrow

They'll show up for the show

They'll hold up the sign

They'll sign on the dotted line to get in the show

Just don't expect them to say anything

Or not expect to have everything they don't yet have
Or not expect everything they don't yet have

To come to them because they're them

Nobody told them they'd ever have to say anything
They secretly think being them is perfect

Although they can't say this
Because they can't say anything

Untitled [Barcelona]: photo by Rebecka, July 2018

Chicago, IL #11: photo by Mike McCawley, 2 July 2018

Nica 78-18: A country that has "forged its own character through suffering"

Returning militias, Managua, Nicaragua, 1982 | by Marcelo Montecino

Returning militias, Managua, Nicaragua, 1982: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 26 March 2014

Family of Disappeared, Managua, Nicaragua, 78 | by Marcelo Montecino

Family of Disappeared, Managua, Nicaragua, 78: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 28 August 2014

Madre, Managua, Nicaragua 78: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 25 October 2014

Madre

si mañana madre mia
la muerte me doblara en la trinchera
no llores
la honra de tu vientre
seria mi cadaver
mi sangre se convertira en abono
y mi vida sera un grito
hecho bandera

si mañana los esbirros
entregaran en tus manos
mi cuerpo masacrado
no llores
siente que te da orgullo
que tu distes a la patria
un hijo que no quiso ser esclavo
que prefirio el silencio de los siglos
antes de gemir bajo el latigo del verdugo.

-G.P.P

- transcription Jairo Leiva

Este poema fue musicalizado por el Grupo Pueblo y el grupo Libertad en los años de la Revolución. El héroe y mártir Leonel Cruz Estrada, caído en 1979 la operación Astronauta en el km 11 de la carretera a Masaya, compuso este poema

- santiago009

Political Prisoners, Esteli, Nicaragua 78 | by Marcelo Montecino

Sandis at the Intercon, Managua, Nicaragua 79 | by Marcelo Montecino

Returning from Fighting Contras, Managua, Nicaragua 82 | by Marcelo Montecino

Returning from Fighting Contras, Managua, Nicaragua, 82: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 2 April 2017

Dole Banana Plantation, Nicaragua, 79 | by Marcelo Montecino

Dole Banana Plantation, Nicaragua, 79: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 4 December 2013

Militias, Managua, Nica 83 | by Marcelo Montecino

Militias, Managua, Nica 83: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 3 March 2017

Return From the Front, Managua, Nicaragua, 1982 | by Marcelo Montecino

Return from the Front, Managua, Nicaragua, 1982: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 4 August 2013

Somoza Forever, Leon, Nicaragua 1974 | by Marcelo Montecino

Somoza Forever, Leon, Nicaragua, 1984: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 12 July 2016

Poneloya, Nicaragua, 75 | by Marcelo Montecino

Poneloya, Nicaragua, 75 | The wall reads: "There's no one to vote for.": photo by Marcelo Montecino, 3 December 2014

Morning in Masaya, Nicaragua | by Marcelo Montecino

Morning in Masaya, Nicaragua: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 28 August 2014

EEUU podría considerar sanciones económicas a Nicaragua, dice su secretario del Tesoro, Steven Mnuchin. #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @AFPespanol, 21 July 2018

Nicaragua-Venezuela: 5 ressemblances et différences de la crise Photo @AFPphoto #AFP: image via Tupac Pointu @tpointu, 20 July 2018

Gobierno de Nicaragua controla feudo opositor tras operativo que dejó dos muertos #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @AFPespanol, 21 July 2018

Nicaragua: Worse than the war: Maria Isabel Sanchez, AFP Correspondent, Friday 27 July 2018

Managua -- When I was asked to go to Nicaragua, I didn’t hesitate for a second. I wanted to cover the critical situation that was happening there since April and not just read about it – or, more accurately, suffer – from the close-but-not-so-close vantage point of Venezuela. It was a situation that was “worse than the war” the country went through in the 1980s, according to residents.

In 25 years of working at AFP I have encountered extreme, risky and complicated moments in various Latin American countries. A year ago, with the team in Caracas, I covered four long and exhausting months of demonstrations in Venezuela. But this time it was different. Nicaragua is the country where I was born.

Paramilitaries are seen on trucks at Monimbo neighborhood in Masaya, Nicaragua, on July 18, 2018, following clashes with anti-government demonstrators.: photo by AFP, 18 July 2018

Along its roads, at intersections, next to traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, and crammed in the back of four-door pick-up trucks, the sight of civilians masked and heavily armed greeted my return to Nicaragua’s capital.

Just after arriving at the hotel, my photo and video colleagues and myself headed off to Masaya, a city that historically has always been the most rebellious in the country. In a small, modest cemetery three protesters were being buried. They had been killed by the pro-government forces of President Daniel Ortega while they manned barricades.

A friend of Jorge Carrion, 33, who was shot dead during protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega, carries a homemade mortar and shouts anti-government slogans during Carrion's funeral in the city of Masaya, 35 km from Managua on June 7.: photo by AFP, 7 June 2018

Friends and relatives cry during the funeral of Jorge Carrion, 33, shot dead during protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega, in the city of Masaya, 35 km from Managua on June 7, 2018.: photo by AFP, 7 June 2018

A blue and white Nicaraguan flag covered one of the wooden coffins, which lay at the bottom of a two-meter deep grave. Two men shoveled dirt onto it. Looking around at the mourners, I saw faces contracted by tears, impotence and rage.

A demonstrator stands inside a bus set alight during a day-long national strike held to mark two months of violent chaos under President Daniel Ortega, in Tipitapa, about 25 km from Managua on June 14, 2018.: photo by AFP, 14 June 2018

Each day I spent in Nicaragua was a challenge, professionally and personally. The violence had swelled beyond the limits of anti-government demonstrations: deaths and gunfire occurred daily, houses were torched – one with an entire family inside, children and adolescents hit by bullets, disappearances, persecution, harassment.

Tear gas, used almost daily in Venezuela during protests, was used only for a few days in Nicaragua. After, it was bullets that were fired.

A riot police officer fires a weapon during clashes with students taking part in a protest in Managua on May 28, 2018.: photo by AFP, 28 May 2018

Just like it was at war, the government launched an intense operation combining police, anti-riot forces and paramilitary groups to “liberate” and “retake” territory in Masaya, tearing down to the last the hundreds of road barricades of loose paving stones that had been built in a sign of resistance and as a way of protecting local residents.

Friends and relatives carry the coffin of Jose Esteban Sevilla Medina, who was shot dead during clashes with riot police and paramilitaries at Monimbo neighbourhood in Masaya, some 35 km from Managua, on July 16, 2018.: photo by AFP, 16 July 2018

Wearing masks, the paramilitaries go about their business wearing the same-color t-shirts: white one day, sometimes green, other times grey or blue, so they don’t get mistaken for the protesters on the roadblocks. The latter are also masked, so they aren’t identified by the police and especially any neighbors loyal to Ortega. For the government, they are all “terrorists.”

For our own security, we try to go to the zones of conflict only after a clash has happened, and always in a convoy with colleagues from other media. Despite that, sometimes we get caught in the crossfire of bullets or homemade mortars, as happened one day in Masaya, in the flashpoint neighborhood of Monimbo. According to locals, there was an elite sniper on one of the roofs.

An anti-government demonstrator fires a home-made mortar during clashes with riot police at a barricade in the town of Masaya, 35 km from Managua on June 9, 2018.: photo by AFP. 9 June 2018

In this district of indigenous craftsmen, I interviewed a mathematics physics professor. He was a child when a popular uprising in 1979 toppled the dictator Anastasio Somoza. As a young man in the mid-1980s he fought to defend the revolution in the mountains where he lost a leg.

But nothing could console him over the death of his son in April this year, found in a trench. We spoke for a long time through an afternoon. After, we remained in contact. He kept me up to speed when anti-riot units and paramilitary forces approached with the aim of taking Monimbo.

Anti-government demonstrators remain at an improvised barricade in the town of Masaya, 35 km from Managua on June 5, 2018.: photo by AFP, 5 June 2018

With a bullet-proof jacket and a helmet making movement difficult, we walked kilometers between the barricades of paving stones to enter villages to find witnesses of what had happened there.

In Sutiaba, an indigenous part of Leon, a city 90 kilometers northwest of Managua, we arrived early in the morning. We left the vehicles on the outskirts of the city and walked toward the center, guided by local colleagues who helped us avoid the routes controlled by police and paramilitaries. Before leaving, one of our guides closed his eyes, lowered his head and prayed.

The few residents we found in the streets of the town, which otherwise seemed deserted, pointed us to houses where, the day before, something had happened as pro-governmental forces had violently invaded. We knocked on the door of one of them and a women opened it to us. In front of us, just a meter and a half away, there was a body covered with a white sheet lying on a bed. On one side, a small bloodstain was barely visible.

A supporter of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega takes part in a pro-FSLN government rally on Nicaragua's National Mothers Day at the Rotonda Hugo Chavez in Managua on May 30, 2018. : photo by AFP, 30 May 2018

The most difficult moment is one when a decision needs to be made. To take the risk or not to go to where conflict is happening. In Diriamba, 40 kilometers southwest of Managua, we arrived early in the morning with other international journalists in three vehicles, a day after the government’s forces. According to human rights groups, more than a dozen people had been killed in the operation there.

Paramilitaries surround the San Sebastian Basilica, in Diriamba, Nicaragua on July 09, 2018. Armed supporters of the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega burst into the basilica, besieged and insulted bishops who had earlier arrived in Diriamba.: photo by AFP, 9 July 2018

Coming around the corner of a street, we found ourselves in front of the basilica, next to which there were around 50 paramilitaries. Inside the church, a dozen people had taken refuge in the priest’s quarters after escaping gunfire the day before. Two flags of Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front had been hoisted atop the town’s clock tower.

Unable to turn back, we continued on our way, projecting calmness and keeping an eye in the rearview mirror to see if we were followed. A few streets on, we stopped and, after discussing it, decided to go back. We first went up to speak to two women in the group of paramilitaries, thinking it would be easier.

Paramilitaries rest in Monimbo neighborhood in Masaya, Nicaragua, on July 18, 2018, following clashes with anti-government demonstrators. The head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has described as "alarming" the ongoing violence in Nicaragua.: photo by AFP, 18 July 2018

Once we convinced the masked men that we simply wanted to know their version of what happened, we called the rest of our colleagues.

In their interviews, the paramilitaries declared that they didn’t have weapons and were simply residents who had organized themselves against the protesters to “liberate” the people. Several locals supporting them came up. Mid-morning, there were around 100 of them when a delegation of bishops arrived to provide assistance to the residents holed up in the basilica.

Yelling a slew of insults, the government supporters surrounded the clergymen and pushed their way into the church by force when the doors were opened to let the bishops and journalists pass. Chaos followed. Suddenly, between shoves and blows, we saw masked men, some armed, force their way in looking for those taking refuge.

Paramilitaries burst into the San Sebastian Basilica, in Diriamba, Nicaragua on July 09, 2018. Supporters of the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega besieged and insulted bishops who had earlier arrived in Diriamba: photo by AFP, 9 July 2018

A woman afraid of pro-government Sandinista youths embraces a nun as she takes shelter at the San Sebastian Basilica in Diriamba, Nicaragua, on July 9, 2018. Hundreds of under-pressure Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega supporters broke into the basilica.: photo by AFP, 9 July 2018

At the altar, two paramilitaries saw me taking photos with my cellphone and turned on me. After an argument one of them snatched my phone.

I followed him and grabbed it back. That enraged him and he fiercely shoved me. Forcing myself to stay calm, I persuaded him to let me delete the photos. Once that was done he allowed me to leave the church.

In the melee, colleagues managed to find each other and we exchanged our respective experiences: our photographer Marvin Recinos was beaten on the arm by one masked man who stole his camera; one journalist from a local TV station had his nose broken and his equipment also stolen; the paramilitaries had also aimed their weapons at a cameraman from an international news channel.

We quickly left Diriamba, shaken and conscious that it could have turned out worse.

Peasants who spent the night at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, where they took refuge during deadly clashes after a march marking Nicaragua's National Motherâ€™s Day, rest inside the church on May 31, 2018.

A Managua, des paysans ont passé la nuit dans une église après des affrontements mortels la veille ayant suivi une marche dans la capitale. 31 mai 2018.: photo by AFP 31 May 2018

Several times I found myself at a loss to see how little the rest of the world was paying attention to what was unfolding in this poor little Central American country.

With a history marked by military invasions, civil wars and natural disasters, it seems to have forged its own character through suffering.

Coming from Venezuela, a country often on the front pages of the international press with the turmoil of its never-ending crisis, I was stunned that the situation in Nicaragua attracts less of the world’s interest, even though it was bloodier.

For journalists, it’s also much more dangerous. We never went out at night. Managua and other cities in the country were under a curfew imposed for months. From 6pm, the streets of the towns and cities were deserted. Many businesses were shuttered and nightlife was dead.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (R) and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, cheer at supporters during the government-called Walk for Security and Peace in Managua on July 7, 2018.: photo by AFP, 7 July 2018

As in Venezuela, official sources of information were unavailable. A request for an interview with the president was politely refused by his wife Rosario Murillo, who is also his vice president and the government’s chief spokesperson.

The international media was also accused by the government of waging a disinformation campaign and to facilitate a “coup d’état,” which put us at risk when we covered pro-governmental demonstrations. But, so far, correspondents sent to the country have had no problem getting in.

A municipal worker sweeps the floor in front of a mural depicting Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (L) and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at Cuba square in Managua on November 26, 2016, the day after Castro died.: photo by AFP, 26 November 2016

For the month I was in Nicaragua, I often heard the refrain “it’s worse than the war,” referring to the conflict the country saw with the Sandinista revolution and the subsequent battle against Contra rebels backed by the US. It was said because of the impotence residents felt, not because of fear. They were displaying admirable courage, like that that I saw in Monimbo.

I finished my assignment in Nicaragua a day after an attack on students at the National Autonomous University who had been at the forefront of protests, and on a nearby church where, between raking gunfire, they had taken refuge for a night.

That Sunday, as I traveled out of the country, a government operation began to “retake” the rebel district of Monimbo.

A woman looks back after passing by a barricade in the neighbourhood of Monimbo, in Masaya, a city some 35 km from Managua, on May 21, 2018: photo by AFP, 21 May 2018

"They aren’t attacking. We have people wounded and we can’t evacuate them. They have us surrounded," the professor told me on WhatsApp.

It was the last message I received from him. I later saw on social media a photo of him next to a little shrine with an image of his son between white and yellow flowers.

“Urgent, urgent! The professor has been kidnapped,” read the caption, and since then I’ve had no news about him.

View of the headquarters of the FSLN which were occupied and looted by a mob of protesters in Diriamba, 40 km from Managua, on June 14, 2018: photo by AFP