astrid monte alegre, who supervising attorney for the nicaraguan american human rights alliance, and dan cova, lik a human rights lawyer and author of nicaragua, a history of us intervention, and resistance, is joining us from pittsburgh. thank you so much for joining us on inside story, a warm welcome to you all. ben, if i can start with you in managua, you say ben, that there's a lot of this information on nicaragua. so can you start off by telling us the reality of the situation in the country today? what is happening? absolutely, we have to understand what's going on in nicaragua today in the historical context of latin america for 200 years. this is the anniversary of the so called the monroe doctrine in which the united states has treated latin america as its proverbial back yard, or joe biden recently said front yard. but it shows this very arrogant mentality in which unfortunately, washington has not tolerated. many independent governments in the region, especially left when governments, cuba has been under sanctions under a blockade for more than 60 years by the united states and eve