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Episode 2: July 6, 2007--The
people that administer the Xochilt
clinic are totally amazing and are the epitome
of what romanticizes the revolutionary Latin
American. Each are very aware of politics, social
justice and the need to find a different path
for development than the one that has screwed
them over for the past 50 years.
Here’s a bit of history
of the Sandinistas and why
their passion runs so deep.
The Sandanistas were the revolutionary
movement in the ‘70s that “liberated”
Nicaragua from the oppressive Somosa dictatorship
that lasted about 60 years. In the ‘80s
Nicaragua was a communist country, but Reagan
decided to wage war against the Sandanistas.
We’re currently living
with Mayan in Leon (we are
renting a nice little house in the southern,
more humble part of the city, out of the tourist
mayhem of the center) who fought as a medic
for the Sandanistas from 1986-1989 and has been
an incredible fountain of information on the
finer details of the war. He also has a brother-in-law
that fought against him as a Contra (revolucionario),
but they don’t hold grudges. Even the
vice-president Jaime Morales is a former contra.
They call this the administration of reconciliation,
and I think for the most part it is true.
The people of El Viejo (the
town where the clinic is located) and the administrators
of the clinic remember socialism more fondly
than the current political and economic situation.
This past January Daniel
Ortega was elected president of Nicaragua.
Ortega was one of the commanders of the Sandanista
government and the head of the communist party
the FSLN. Now a lot of people feel hopeful that
a more socially conscious regime will begin
making real changes that will benefit the poor
of Nicaragua. Ortega has already created a free
universal healthcare program for the first time
since the Sandanistas were in power.
But it seems like Ortega is
far less radical than before, which could be
good and bad. For one, his vice president was
a general for the Contras. On the other hand
he is making deals with the ex-president Aleman,
who has been convicted of serious corruption
charges, and in order to get votes from the
right he has given Aleman kind of a half pardon.
Nicaragua is one of the many
countries in Latin America that are experiencing
a radical shift in their government’s
political agenda. As you’ll see in this
latest episode, the government is doing more
than before to help its people, particularly
regarding the Bananeros and the pesticide Nemagon.
I wish I could say that the
new government is pulling out all stops to fight
these corporations, but as you’ve seen
in the last episode, the Bananeros feel the
government isn’t doing their part. The
whole northern province of Chinandega is throwing
their hands up in frustration with the government;
they’ve protested every day since Ortega
came into office at the beginning of this year.
They even walked from Leon to Managua, which
is like 30 kilometers.
It seems that the government
is incapable of fully addressing these issues,
even though in our video footage, the Minister
of Labor painted a flowery image of what the
government is doing with kidney dialysis machines
in one hospital that we have never even heard
of. That kind of care is not available in El
Viejo where most of the banana workers live.
They don’t even make enough money in a
day to be able to travel to Managua (where we
believe the hospital is located) and back.
The new government does have
some positive aspects to it. It is encouraging
all sectors of the population to represent themselves
in a kind of neighborhood alliance where at
least 51% of the membership must be female.
They are also making the processes of the government
more translucent and accessible, but in reality
this is an illusion too.
When our group tried to get
a piece of medical equipment into the country,
we encountered a brick wall of bureaucracy so
thick it seemed like they were trying to fight
against us bringing a biopsy machine into their
country, a machine that will save hundreds,
maybe thousands of lives.
How is a Nicaraguan supposed
to be able to navigate this system when they
can barely afford to travel to the capitol?
We had to use a rental car to
drive back and forth between El Viejo, Chinandega,
Managua, then back and forth between the Ministry
of Health, Customs, and the mayor’s office
in El Viejo. It would have taken a Nicaraguan
a month to do what it took us a week to get
out of customs, all for a 30 pound machine used
to save lives. I can’t tell you how much
I appreciate the simplicity and relatively non-bureaucratic
systems the U.S. has.
Fraz and I have been here for
barely a month and have experienced the needs
of its people voice clearly and loudly. They
basically just want the simple things in life
one would expect: clean water, safe places to
work, electricity that works 24-hours a day,
health care, and other basic forms of an infrastructure
that makes a country healthy and strong.
The government is making steps
to make these goals attainable, and is reaching
out to any country it can; namely Cuba, Venezuela
and Iran, all of which are enemies of the United
States.
The U.S. government, with its
infamous fear-mongering tactics, has dubbed
the Venezuela, Iran, and Nicaragua alliance
as the “triad of tyranny.” It is
disheartening that our scared bully to the North
and the corporations who hide behind it are
one of the chains that hold Nicaragua down.
Nicaragua is on the verge of
something really good. It’s about to blossom.
One can hear it in the discos where they play
the songs that rallied them to victory. One
can see it in the murals decorating nearly every
street corner building.
Nearly everyone we’ve
talked to has been very nice and understanding
of our ignorance about our shared histories.
They all have something to say about the chemical
Nemagon and the banana workers. They’re
striving for integrity and morality in ways
that make the U.S. seem barbaric.
But you’ll find no Nicaraguan
who will be openly critical of the people of
the U.S. They see us as they saw themselves
a decade ago –oppressed and filled with
fear. Nicaraguans are a good and happy people.
The world should be celebrating their new freedom.
And the countries that are still oppressed should
be inspired by Nicaragua to rally together for
their own freedom.
Thanks for watching.
Loren Speer and Frazer Lanier
lspeer@mscd.edu
frazer.lanier@gmail.com
To make a Tax-Deductible Donation
to Xochilt Project/Project Sonrisas:
For more information
on Project Sonrisas: http://www.oregonbio.org/news/post/87
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