Farmer to Farmer Update
June 12, 2018
The Farmer to Farmer Board requests prayers for the political upheaval in Nicaragua. A surge of violence has snuffed out economic activity and dimmed prospects to peacefully resolve a political crisis here that began as a protest against tax increases and turned into a revolt against Nicaragua’s longtime leader Daniel Ortega.
Since mid-April, more than 100 people have been killed in confrontations with police during mass protests and what human-rights groups say are paramilitary gangs aligned with Mr. Ortega’s government.
Among them were 15 people killed at a peaceful Mother’s Day protest march last month in Managua and 11 people by paramilitary groups and police in the predominantly indigenous city of Masaya this past weekend, including a 15-year-old protester who witnesses say was executed by a policewoman.
Nicaragua’s economic tailspin is hurting small businesses the most. Looters have ransacked more than 200 small businesses across the country during the past seven weeks, punishing the strained working class. Meanwhile, barricades are everywhere in major cities and roadblocks have paralyzed commerce and transit throughout the country.
Two months ago, Nicaragua was a popular and friendly tourist destination with the fastest growing economy in Central America. Now restaurants are closing, tourists are fleeing, and citizens avoid going out after dark for security reasons. While some businesses continue to operate, decreased mobility, security concerns and a general reticence to spend money are pushing the economy into a recession.
Nicaraguans say they are fed up with Mr. Ortega and his wife, the unpopular Vice President Rosario Murillo, who they say have usurped democratic institutions and snuffed out political opposition. Nicaragua’s business class, which until recently worked closely with Mr. Ortega, is demanding new elections. However, few believe Mr. Ortega and Ms. Murillo will step down or agree to hold early elections.
How has this impacted the farmers? The personnel of the organizations that work directly with the farmers have not been able to go to the farms due to lack of public transportation, roadblocks and the violence in the streets. Because of the lack of transportation, there is great concern whether the farmers will be able to get their products to market. Work on road improvements have stopped because of the fear of locals setting the machinery on fire.
Another huge concern is the cocoa project. A lot of hard work and planning has been done to increase the production of cocoa because of the opportunity to market cocoa commercially. This included the building of a nursery to provide plants for the farmers to purchase. This is the time of the year when the nursery should be grafting a hybrid branch onto 12,000 cocoa plants but because of the violence and transportation limitations, the challenge now is how to get the clone material to the nursery to do the grafting.
All of this has the potential to severely affect the positive economic progress that the farmers have made the past 15 years.
Please pray for the end to violence, that the presidential couple will step down, and that the democratic process may once again bring peace to Nicaragua. “Answer us when we call to you, O my righteous God. Give us relief from our distress; be merciful to us and hear our prayer.” Ps 4:1
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