Nicaraguans demand action over chronic kidney disease

Photograph: Oswaldo Rivas /Reuters

“I was healthy when I started working for the company and sick when they got rid of me,” said Walter, who asked for his surname to be withheld to protect his relatives, 13 of whom work in sugar cane. “Every family here has lost someone, the work is making us sick, but there are no alternatives,” he said. “We are all dying from it, it’s a total epidemic.”

The exploitation of Nicaragua’s landless rural poor by a handful of wealthy families working with US agribusinesses was one cause of the 1979 uprising against the dictator Anastasio Somoza. The country is now ruled by a former Sandinista revolutionary, President Daniel Ortega, and he faces accusations of abandoning the country’s campesinos in pursuit of a political pact with big business.

Nina Lakhani takes a good look at chronic kidney disease (CKD) with Nicaraguans demand action over illness killing thousands of sugar cane workers, According to Dr Catharina Wesseling, CKD is an occupational disease that “predominantly affects male workers exposed to excessive heat and dehydration – conditions which are most severe in the sugar cane industry."

“Whole families are being wiped out by this illness, we want to be compensated fairly, and make sure every sick worker has access to medical treatment, this is our right. We are disappointed with Commandante Ortega’s government, they have no concern for our health … us ordinary working people have been sold out,” said Juan Rivas. No one from the government met the marchers.

I understand why the US will seek $1 billion to help the Northern Triangle of Central America, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. However, it's somewhat uncomfortable that the increased assistance won't include Nicaragua, the region's poorest country. 

They clearly don't have the gang and cartel violence of their neighbors, nor do they force tens of thousands of their youth into exile. However, they do have the corruption, weak to non-existent democratic institutions, and a general sense of insecurity that we are looking to overcome in the region. Nicaragua could also contribute important knowledge when it comes to various community policing models.

If you believe that increased assistance from the US will deliver intended benefits to the recipients, perhaps it is time to be proactive and include Nicaragua.