Ruth Paine in Nicaragua - A New Witness (Vox Charles Swift)

[Guest]

From their newsletters (in 2014 the history was described in 3 parts, summary focussing on RP here below) :

In 1990 Ruth Hyde Paine stepped in Pronica, she became a guiding force for ProNica’s evolution through the 1990s and beyond.

 Ruth Hyde Paine, led the all-volunteer team in St. Petersburg, Florida. She worked with Jim Carlson on newsletters and Norman Malakoff on cargo shipments, all the while garnering and inspiring a new generation of ProNica supporters. In addition, Ruth regularly traveled to Nicaragua to ensure smooth operations at all levels of the organization. She was truly the glue that kept the stateside and Nicaraguan branches working in concert toward a singular mission.

 The Florida office had no shortage of its own exceptional volunteers. In 1995 they launched the 16th and final 40-foot shipping container of material aid . The decision to stop was made because most of the third party shippers that offset the fixed costs had dropped out. Stateside staff reflected, “The Shipping Project, born during the US embargo of Nicaragua, fired imaginations [and] energized volunteers...” Norman Malakoff, the maverick community activist who initiated the project and coordinated the massive efforts for nine years was there at the finish line, helping unload the last container in Managua. It was a fitting end to a remarkable decade-long undertaking. The less glamorous but vital administrative work in the stateside office was ever increasing. In 1996 Ruth Hyde Paine wrote, “We began ten years ago, a volunteer crew of defenders of human rights... We wanted to do something tangible. We now have a very effective organization with a clear mission and skills delivering aid to very well-run projects in Nicaragua.”

 In the Florida office in 2006, after 16 years as clerk of ProNica, Ruth Hyde Paine wanted to be near her family in California. It was hard to imagine who could replace her. Stateside coordinators in the 2000s had been Ken Kinzel, Doug McCown and Kathy Wingard.    But Ruth brought a special continuity, with her love and dedication generally translating into full-time volunteer work.  Between 1990 and 2006, she traveled to Nicaragua ten times. Affectionately and diligently, she nurtured the bonds between ProNica and its spiritual parent organization, Southeastern Yearly Meeting (SEYM) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Like clockwork, newsletters went out, donations were processed, bills were paid and hearts were even mended. Ruth ensured that through every transition, whether in Nicaragua or the US, ProNica’s mission remained right on track.

 

[Kirk Gallaway]

That's right Tracy, you notice he goes from, I don't know, perhaps  finding an empty office somewhere? to "Ruth Paine has always been a CIA agent". That's quite a leap, with no chewy caramel in the center.

It's worth bringing up, but it's like a number of stories here, until he and his story is fleshed out some more, to me he'll just be another old Jack Klugman doing another "Quincy".

heh heh

Interesting find Jean Paul! I thought the date of RP's leadership was earlier. Then I browsed the Wheaton article, which talks about RP's involvement starting around 1991. But the Contra War was over  by 1990. A CIA backed "pro Democracy" candidate Violetta Chamorro beat Sandinista Daniel Ortega in 1990. So this was never going on in the jungles during the thick of the Contra War. I guess I should have realized that.

As a young man, I crossed the Nicaraguan border in a car during Somoza's reign in 1976 to be processed by a bunch of army recruits in dilapidated barracks, toting M-16's, and then again with my car in 1980 after the Sandinistas had taken over to find bright new offices manned by a bunch of what looked to be middle class people my age with U.S. made posters of Sandino and Che Guevara on the  walls!

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Kirk Gallaway

[W. Tracy Parnell]

Kirk and Jean Paul,

Thanks very much for your comments.