Coronavirus in Nicaragua

I was then scrolling through my Facebook feed, which was flooded with notifications I hadn’t opened in nearly a year. Many of the posts were from friends I made in Nicaragua, where I had gone nearly three years ago. During April of my eighth grade year, I went to Nicaragua through Seeds of Learning, a nonprofit organization based in Sonoma focused on improving educational opportunities in rural areas of Latin America. There, my classmates and I worked building a community school in the rural Tipitapa region and teaching local kids English. 

Interested in what the situation was over there, I messaged one of my Facebook friends, but the outlook didn’t seem positive. While the rest of the world is staying safe inside, Nicaragua is not locking down. In fact, the poorest Central American country is the only one in Latin America to not have declared a state of emergency. Its president, Daniel Ortega, is not backing down despite pleas from neighboring countries and the World Health Organization but rather, promoting and sponsoring big group gatherings and events. Lucrative boxing and soccer matches are still in play. Public schools are in session. Businesses are open in full swing. And no, social distancing measures have not been set in place.

Though Ortega’s government reports that there have only been 15 cases and five deaths as of May 4 in the country, those statistics have been in question. The COVID-19 Citizen Observatory estimates that Nicaragua has at least around 430 cases of coronavirus, a number that seems more reasonable with neighboring countries such as Costa Rica and Honduras racking up their cases at nearly 1,000 cases each. Ortega claims that the economy is more important and regards coronavirus as “A sign of God that the U.S. should spend less on atomic bombs and more on hospitals.”

To close or to keep open the economy has been a huge issue with which governments around the world have had to struggle. For Nicaragua, constant downturns in the economy have hit the country. In comparison, the United States GDP per capita is 28 times that of Nicaragua. 

“Before 2018, there was a pretty high unemployment rate, and then 2018 hurt the economy quite a bit with the political crisis,” said Annie Bacon, executive director at Seeds of Learning.” 

In 2018, Ortega had announced the creation of social security reforms that increased taxes and decreased benefits for workers, causing an outbreak of violent protests that rampaged the country. With that, unemployment rates rose to 6.1% by the end of 2019, and are projected to reach double digits by the end of this year.  

“Nicaragua is still working to rebuild its tourism, industry and market. ... There’s a lot of people who work kind of in the informal economy like selling things in the marketplace. It’s hard because they’re still open, but people are kind of having to make that really difficult decision between making the money they need while potentially risking getting sick or staying home,” Bacon said.

The conditions that Nicaraguans are facing are less than adequate. Poor infrastructure, spotty access to technology, filthy bathrooms, extensive littering and a laundry list of problems plague the country and its beautiful landscape. With how much the pandemic has affected a rich country like the United States, it’s hard to believe what COVID-19 can do to areas in Nicaragua. In Ecuador, dead bodies lie on the streets as authorities are overwhelmed from COVID-19 deaths. Cases in Brazil are soaring as the government attempts to cover it up. 

Living in the Bay Area, we are sheltered from the many problems facing the world and even other parts of this country. There will be struggle now and in the years to come to rebuild. But, over the economy, human lives are much more precious. 

Yes, we can be angry, complain, bored and mope around the house upset that we “can’t get a haircut.” But, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo says, anger is a luxury. Anger is a privilege that many don’t have time to think during crises like these. Change your mindset and use that anger to fuel positivity. 

Erika Pilpre is a junior at Aragon High School in San Mateo. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.