The Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partners of the Americas (WNPA), a private organization fostering direct contacts between the people of Wisconsin and Nicaragua, was formed in 1965. In April 1964 the partnership was suggested to state officials by James Boren of the National Association of the Partners of the Americas (NAPA), which sponsored such relationships in connection with the Alliance for Progress and the State Department's Agency for International Development. An association already existed, Boren explained, because Wisconsin's rural electric cooperatives had been involved in Nicaragua. However, other technical services were needed, particularly in the areas of health care, agriculture, education, and rural development, in which Wisconsin was uniquely qualified to assist. Furthermore, it was felt such direct “people to people” relationships could be effective in countering the spread of Communism in Latin America. Potential partner countries had been screened to ensure stability to spare the State Department and U.S. partners potential embarrassment. A telling point in favor of the selection of Nicaragua as a partner was the fact that the Bay of Pigs invasion had been launched from there.
The procedure for establishing a partnership consisted of a formal exchange of letters between the governor and president, to be followed by a meeting of Wisconsin groups to approve the partnership plan and a visit to Nicaragua by a survey team to assess the country's needs. Such an agreement was struck between Governor John Reynolds and President René Shick Gutierrez in the summer of 1964. Although a survey team prepared to visit Nicaragua, the trip was postponed after Reynolds' loss to Warren Knowles in the fall election.
In February 1965 Knowles and several dozen leaders from the Wisconsin business community, the University, state government, and various private organizations met with NAPA representatives, and the Wisconsin Partners of the Alliance Committee was formed. Three months later a five-person survey team traveled to Nicaragua to view conditions and develop project proposals. In July 1965 articles of incorporation were drawn up and the by-laws adopted. A parallel partnership organization was formed in Nicaragua under Dr. José Antonio Cantón, a physician in the Ministry of Health.
The Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partners was organized as a non-profit, voluntary organization governed by a board of directors. An executive committee selected from the board met weekly or biweekly to make administrative and policy decisions. Despite its status as a private organization, from its inception the Partners drew heavily from the personnel and resources of state government and the University of Wisconsin.
Initially, the Partners focussed on health care, agricultural assistance, and education among the rural population of Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast which consisted of English-speaking Moravians of Miskito Indian and African origin. This was due in large part to the involvement of Dr. Ned Wallace of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Philip N. Falk of the Madison Public Schools in the formative period of the partnership. Others active in this phase included William V. Thomas (first president of the WNPA, 1965-1966) and Eugene Clifford, both of the Wisconsin Rural Electric Cooperative; media specialist Walter H. Brovald; contractor Lester Rogers, president 1967-1968; Dean Leroy E. Luberg, secretary of the board, 1972-1982; Hugh Highsmith, chairman of the Partner Cities Committee until 1978; Dr. Henry A. Peters of the University of Wisconsin Medical School and president, 1968-1980; agricultural leader Wilbur N. Renk; Reza Rezazadeh, political scientist at UW-Platteville; and William Strange of the University of Wisconsin School of Business.
One of the earliest and most successful of the Partners' programs involved the exchange of visitors. Wisconsinites carried medical equipment, clothing, books, and other donations to Nicaragua, while Nicaraguans came to Wisconsin for training or to attend school.
Among the committees that developed programs in the 1960s and 1970s were those on health and nutrition, agriculture and rural development, education, sports, cultural exchange, rehabilitation, rural development, and partner cities. The first major test of the partnership occurred in September 1971 when within ten days, two hurricanes struck Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast. Aid in the amount of 30,000 pounds of food and supplies and more than $3000 in donations arrived from Wisconsin. Fifteen months later an earthquake leveled much of Managua, leaving 10,000 dead and 500,000 homeless. Material and financial aid totaling more than $250,000 was collected in Wisconsin.
While such catastrophes occupied the headlines, the Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partners continued their projects among the rural population. A rural health project was underway in eastern Nicaragua by 1971 under the auspices of the University Medical School and the Midwestern University Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA). By the mid-1970s, University medical students could elect to spend a portion of their fourth year in Nicaraguan clinics. In July 1976 CENDER (Centro Para Desarrollo Regional), a centralized organization for coordinating health programs in eastern Nicaragua, was established under Ned Wallace and later in the year a $375,000 AID grant was obtained to fund CENDER. The following year a regional educational radio station (Radio VER) went on the air, broadcasting in Spanish, Miskito and English.
In the late 1970s the Partners' growing concern about political conditions in Nicaragua caused them to formulate an explicitly non-political statement of their aims. In April 1978 the Partners obtained an exemption of duties and custom taxes from President Somoza, and in the following month they began to develop cultural exchange programs. At the same time they began to question the appropriateness of their programs in light of conditions in Nicaragua. Late in 1978 the status of the AID grants were questioned due to the political situation, and by early 1979 concern for the safety of U.S. citizens effectively halted travel. In February 1979 the Peace Corps was withdrawn, leaving several Partners projects unfinished and the AID mission barely staffed. By mid-1979, Partners activities in Nicaragua were at a standstill.
By June 1979 the Partners were receiving first-hand reports of Somoza's impending defeat at the hands of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). In July they created a Task Force on Relief and Development, and in August a survey team visited Nicaragua. Although the country was ravaged by the civil war and burdened by foreign debt, the team was impressed by the level of activity, caliber and democratic orientation of the newly appointed government officials. Once again the citizens of Wisconsin responded with contributions of money and material assistance.In the following years official relations between the two nations cooled, but the Partners attempted to maintain cordial relations with the Sandinista government. An AID-funded omnibus program grant was obtained in June 1980 to continue CENDER projects; in 1981 a cooperative program between the University of Wisconsin-River Falls School of Agriculture and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) was initiated and a delegation of Nicaraguan businessmen toured Wisconsin. However, the Executive Committee grew increasingly concerned about the future of the organization and the AID programs, and a number of partner cities suggested discontinuance of their relationship.
In his November 1981 travel report, Board member Steve Heinzen referred to the public relations challenge faced by the organization, at a time when U.S. media echoed the Reagan administration's claims that Nicaragua was teeming with Marxists, by stating, “The Partner Cities were not Somozan in 1964 when the Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partnership started! The Partner Cities are not Communist simply because the FSLN has taken control of the federal government.”
Student and professional exchanges continued in 1982, but relations were strained when Partners access to the east coast was restricted and the government began to broadcast its own programs on Radio VER. Nicaraguans associated with CENDER were questioned and subjected to harassment owing to the Sandinista government's suspicion of the WNPA (which had maintained friendly relations with the Somoza government) and of the population on the east coast in particular (a hotbed of Contras activity). Caught between the increasing hostility of the U.S. government toward the Sandinistas and reduced funding, by 1983 the Wisconsin-Nicaragua partnership had returned to the small-scale projects that had characterized its early years.
Nevertheless, both 1983 and 1984 saw efforts to reactivate the partner city alliances, several of which had been dormant since 1979. In June 1983, Janesville and León renewed their ties, followed by Racine-Bluefields in the spring of 1984. By then, WNPA members numbered 125, more than twice as many as the previous year. Administration, fund-raising and publicity efforts were facilitated when the Partners hired project assistant Mary Fowler in March 1982 and full-time coordinator Peter Thornquist in January 1983. The AID granted NAPA a three-year, $600,000 grant in October of that year for Central American programs and WNPA hoped to channel a portion of this aid through already existing programs such as Women in Development and P.A.T.H. (Partners Appropriate Technology for the Handicapped).
In the fall of 1983, Wisconsin's Secretary of State Doug LaFollette toured the sewing co-ops, clinics and other Partners projects in the Managua area. However, his support went to the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (WCCN), a group that was founded in 1984 by a group of community leaders who wanted to promote the sister state relationship while remaining free to voice criticism of the U.S.-sponsored Contras war in Nicaragua. The WNPA's articles of incorporation discouraged opposition to U.S. foreign policy, stating that “no substantial part of the activities of this corporation shall consist of carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation”. By the fall of 1984, tensions between the two groups had reached a head as the WNPA tried to disassociate itself from the WCCN feeling that the WCCN was claiming credit for the Partners' longstanding efforts.
