October 28, 2026
Coleen Littlejohn
By Stephen Sefton
This tribute to Coleen Littlejohn, a founding member of the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition, was posted on the website of Tortilla con Sal, a Nicaraguan media collective, on Oct. 25, 2026. The author of the tribute is the collective’s coordinator.
In addition, Sara Flounders for the SanctionsKill Campaign wrote:
From the SanctionsKill Campaign, we salute the many contributions of Coleen Littlejohn. Coleen was one of the earliest, steady, determined activists of the SanctionsKill Campaign. She was a fierce defender of the Sandinista Revolution at a time when many U.S. activists had dropped away or become confused by the unrelentingly hostile U.S. propaganda.
Her warm home in Managua was an open house to numerous Nicaragua solidarity delegations. Coleen arranged personal meetings with numerous government ministries and neighborhood organizations which were so proud to show the real changes they were making in people’s lives. The meetings at her home were always thoughtful exchanges. Coleen was always encouraging and enthusiastic with new activists. Even when Coleen was sick and in undergoing medical treatments, she found the energy to welcome others and to join our Zoom calls to plan new actions.
Coleen Littlejohn died today, Oct. 25, after a long illness. She leaves a huge gap for all those who knew, loved and respected her outstandingly talented and tireless hard work for and passionate commitment to the Sandinista People’s Revolution and for Nicaragua, which for most of us are one and the same, as they were for Coleen.
In 2024, Nicaragua’s Co-president Compañera Rosario Murillo said of Coleen, “From 1980 here, always to the fore, compañera Coleen Littlejohn, whom we recognize for all her efforts accompanying us, and her constant dissemination of our realities and defense of our truths.”
Everyone lucky enough to have known her will have their own recollection of Coleen’s unquestionably impressive and influential record of enthusiastic work for and defense of Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution from the 1980s up until the very last weeks of her life.
For my part, I came to know Coleen quite late in life, really as a result of the failed coup attempt of 2018, during and after which she played a central role in mobilizing international solidarity in North America and Europe against the ferocious psychological warfare offensive of Western governments and their vast media, academic and NGO machinery of deceit and disinformation.
Others will recall Coleen’s leading role in solidarity with Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution during the 1980s, from the weekly demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy to arranging important material support, intensive media work and constant lobbying of both the U.S. and allied governments.
Later during the 1990s, apart from her political solidarity work, Coleen was very well-known for her successful work developing grassroots community organizations to accompany Nicaragua’s impoverished rural and urban families in overcoming the endless adversity of life under corrupt, neoliberal governments.
Coleen’s work made it possible for thousands of low-income families in Nicaragua to cope better than they might otherwise have done with the hardships caused by the campaign of privatization and public spending cuts imposed under the oppressive tutelage of U.S, and European ruling elites.
Coleen went on to take up posts in international financial institutions, working both in Africa and Latin America, which enabled her to gain extremely useful experience and insight into the thinking and workings of organizations like the World Bank, which she later put to good use to improve strategy initiatives with her compañeras and compañeros in solidarity with Nicaragua.
For me, one striking aspect in my conversations with Coleen was her humanity, in that she was always very clear and steadfast in supporting the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo despite having sincere personal friendships with ex-Sandinistas who later decided to work one way or another against the FSLN, aligning themselves with U.S. and allied imperialist governments.
Coleen’s Catholic faith was a decisive factor motivating and sustaining her solidarity with Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution and her forthright criticism of the contradictions and hypocrisies of Catholic Church institutions, including the Jesuit order’s abuse of its universities, from one of which, Lemoyne College, she was an alumna, for political attacks on Nicaragua’s government.
It is no exaggeration to say that losing Coleen is truly an irreparable loss for Nicaragua. Few individuals have made such a great positive difference to the lives of so many thousands of Nicaragua’s families over the last five decades. No one has her range of experience, knowledge and contacts across North America and Europe, nor her capacity to mobilize them in an effective, coherent way in support of what is now the most successful, strategic political project in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Sandinista People’s Revolution, something Coleen recognized with unrivalled clarity.
As always with the loss of much loved and highly respected individuals, we can celebrate the great gifts Coleen Littlejohn gave us all her life and take joy and inspiration from and in all her great achievements, for her unfailing kindness and humanity and for all she has taught us, thanks to her great heart and her exceptional, incisive intelligence.
¡Hasta Siempre Coleen!
¡Viva! ¡Viva! ¡Viva!
