THE roots of these links extend back to the anti-imperialist struggle led by Augusto Sandino from 1927 to 1933. Sandino, considered a revolutionary hero in Latin America, led a rebellion against the US occupation of Nicaragua.
A Colombian-born Palestinian named Ghadeer Abu Sneineh joined Sandino’s guerilla army, recognising parallels between the oppression by colonial powers in Latin America and Palestine. Following Sandino’s assassination by the US-backed Somoza, Abu Sneineh travelled to Palestine to join the 1936 Arab revolt against British colonial rule.
Three years after the Establishment of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, (FSLN) in 1961, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded. The FSLN sent combatants to Lebanon to train alongside PLO fighters: one notable figure was Patricio Arguello, a Nicaraguan US, who trained in Palestinian camps in Jordan and was killed during an internationalist mission to free Palestinian prisoners.
