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Electoral support for the Frente Sandinista in Nicaragua
increased dramatically between 2007 and 2011.
In the national elections of 2011
Youth throughout the country massively supported the Frente Sandinista.
Arlen Vargas of the Juventud Sandinista
explains the central role of youth for the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua
"I think there is no better word to describe the Revolution than Youth
Youth is a rallying point for the People and has been meaningful for everyone,
for what we now call the People as President or also what we call Citizens' Power,
because Youth has accompanied the whole process of community development
to the extent that I think the work done by youth for ordinary people
has given young people more social conscience and made them
more important as social protagonists.
That's why today we see so many young people
take on the work of the Revolution with such enthusiasm."
Loyda Barreda too emphasizes how the greater protagonism of young people
in Nicaragua, has strengthened the political model
of President Daniel Ortega's government
"...young people repairing schools, for example
to give pupils agreeable surroundings for their education,
or young people taking part in preventive health campaigns,
for example in emergencies we have had related to epidemics.
and its young people who have directly undertaken that work
of prevention and of informing local families
and too all the work done to care for and protect our Mother Earth.
It's truly an army of young men and women leading that work.
So the protagonism of young people is based on those terms
in this process of transformation, this process of great changes,
of transformation of consciousness and too of rescuing values."
"It's been an enriching experience.
It's allowed me as a young person to get to know the model in its essentials.
From the moment you take part in an assembly your barrio
to define a given project to benefit your community,
that gives us power and fills us with the satisfaction of being able to say
' I'm participating, I'm helping, I'm contributing, I'm building.' "
"Looking at participation in these spaces, we can see that it has increased.
And you can see too that a young person's participation, this is something worth noting,
that in years past, young people were simply spectators
the priorities of an adult prevailed over the young person
their word prevailed in a meeting. Likewise that of a man over a woman.
This has been the social reality and even today, still exists.
But we have seen how that imbalance, that gap, has progressively diminished.
One see community spaces led by young people, including chairing public meetings"
Clearly, the model of Citizens' Power
while it promotes youth participation also grows from that same participation.
So young people develop more social consciousness
around what it means to be a citizen,
to be a citizen with rights and with obligations.
That has been the best possible experience for us
of the community based model of Citizens' Power.
It's given young people a great opportunity to participate directly.
to take decisions, to be true protagonists.
So we can say now that in the fullest possible way,
we are participating in and we are building this Revolution.