Nicaragua Trip Canceled
We have been planning a trip in June with fourteen people from Commonway to travel to Caulatuú, Nicaragua. In the last six weeks, the country has experienced a level of unrest unseen in the past few decades. In response, Food for the Hungry has canceled all trips to Nicaragua this summer. While we are upset that we don’t get to visit Caulatú again, our concern lies fully with the peace, security, and safety of our friends and in all of Nicaragua.
This was to be our fifth trip, and we are already planning to go again in February and June of next year, if not sooner. A number of folks from Commonway have already had the opportunity to visit, and many of us sponsor children from Caulatú. It is our continued hope and prayer that God will be at work bringing transformation to the families and communities among our friends.
The current crisis in Nicaragua began in mid-April with widespread protests across the country in response to a new law that affected workers’ pensions. Over the coarse of a few days, the protests spread, but the government responded with violence with reports of up to 100 people killed and hundreds injured. The president retracted the law, and the protests subsided, but the situation has opened up deeper issues centering around the increasing authoritarian government of the current president, Daniel Ortega, and the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, his wife. There are widespread calls for their resignations and new elections.
A good friend of ours who works for Food for the Hungry and lives in Managua posted the following recently on social media.
This I share with you although some people still do not want it to be read.
We live in a country where after 26 days of protest, 65 dead and 500 wounded, the vice president, who is also the first lady, goes on television to talk about earthquakes and baseball.
We live in a country where the Minister of Health prohibits medical care in public hospitals for those injured in the protests.
We live in a country where the head of the National Police has not shown her face in 26 days to respond to the bloody repression of the students.
We live in a country where the mayors coordinate the Sandinista mobs to attack the population in exchange for financial compensation.
We live in a country where the official media devise false news presented by mediocre actresses to generate confusion.
We live in a country where the defenders of the regime are more concerned with the chayopalos shot down than the people killed.
We live in a country where the opposition student leaders have been in the university for more than 10 years without being able to graduate.
We live in a country where we do not know where the president is. In the last days of chaos, we have only heard a 46 second message asking for peace. But without doing anything to achieve it.
We want a different country. We want Ortega–Murillo to go.
