Nicaragua, a relatively safe country for 35 years of its Democratically elected leaders, fell into chaos April 17, 2018 when seven Peaceful Uni-Protesters were killed.
Nephews Troy and Kyle bookend their dad, Gary, during Gary’s 60th Birthday Visit ~ Cloud Forest and Coffee Plantations hike ~ Nicaragua Sept. 28, 2017 my Due Diligence trip prior to Dec. Volunteering Start Date.
Leg #1 Playas del Coco, Costa Rica
Yup, we’ve made it from Diriamba, about an hour south of Managua, where Gary has been living, volunteering for four years. Our first leg was made far more harrowing; protecting and cajoling the five love-struck French volunteers to leave two or five days sooner than they wanted to, before our windows all closed for indeterminate lengths. Usually when leading groups of novice travelers or, at least unsuspecting, naïve, optimistic and rose-colored-glasses youth who have never experienced political upheaval or drastically changes circumstances and they argued, “I need more time for Goodbyes, final farewells,” – and last passionate romps, I normally state facts, presenting options and persuade them to see a clearer path to reason, i.e. safety.
They weren’t having it.
“Let’s leave next Monday, so we can have time to say goodbye to our students, friends, Host Families…and one last weekend in Diriamba.”
Guillaume and Cristian planning first Level 1 Adult Classes Sunday, April 29, one day after our 1st exodus’ return.
Thinking with other organs, and too emotionally connected to others (locals) whom could NOT simply leave with us, they stalled departures, thwarted more credible reports of upcoming road closures, impending violence due to projected break-downs in peace talks, and followed by desperation, frustration, anger, lack of resources, and fear.
Guillaume and I were on shaky grounds hoping for, but not adamantly pushing for an immediate early morning flight [escape] Wednesday, May 16.
Just two months before first murders of Peacefully Protesting teenagers, we were canvasing schools: Outreach for Adults of our students at local schools
“I’m not ready to leave tomorrow,” Emmanuelle, our newest, greenest and wholly ill-prepared Volunteer Coordinator, countered.
“Let’s give it 72 hours,” I retaliated compromisingly. “So much can turn sideways in five and a half days. In my experiences, something like this escalates, growing far worse and worse, before it gets better.”
April 22 Emergency Evacuation Meeting at Gary’s house. Andrea had just been whisked to the border.
With memories of his own frightening Afghanistan border crossing, Guillaume shifted from an immediate departure to a 5 1/2-day one, finally to the newly proposed 72-hour window.
“Yeah, come to think of it, five days is way too long to wait.” Guillaume, perhaps the only other person in the room with harrowing experiences in foreign countries’ upheavals, said. “I vote for leaving within 72-hours, by Friday morning.”
“Why don’t we wait until we see what happens with the Peace and Retribution talks in Managua tomorrow?” Emmanuelle offered.
Her only experience leading us had been six or seven days learning how to answer emails for incoming volunteers, preliminary financial issues, and of course exactly two weeks before when we’d escaped to San Juan del Sur, two hours closer to the Costa Rican border in case things went wrong after the initial Students’ Springs Demonstrations, April 18. She was doing her best, but inadequately equipped with enough solid information, surrounded by locals in their hyperbolic rumors-mills of promised Civil War, from a faction of military and militia’s Tuesday morning, 4-minute Radio Libre address to rumors that Ortega had died in Cuba after one of his dialysis or other medical treatments. Additionally, madly in love with a local, she just wasn’t thinking clearly.
San Juan del Sur ~ The Calm Amidst Carnage in the Capitol and other other pueblos and regions. April 23-28, 2018. Many of our Volunteers come here to surf, climb volcanoes [far from here] and learn the Nica Culture; dances, foods, customs.
“What difference will that make?” Gary volleyed. “If the talks go well, there will still be at least a month’s work of getting rid of Ortega, and bringing in an alternate government. If they go negatively, which all indications show they will; Ortega’s not walking away from the power, stepping down quietly, admitting to all these Human Rights atrocities. Things will deteriorate very rapidly.”
“Our windows or avenues to escape will also be drastically diminished,” I added.
“Sure, I hope the talks go well, and things get resolved quickly. But even if he does step down, you’re talking at least a couple months for things to stabilize. Who is there to take over? Who’s going to run the country if he’s dead, like some rumors claim.”
Gary, Léa and I at local school’s Open House; 1..2…Tree’s! Adult Outreach Program’s Meet-n-Greet for community’s parents ~ Feb. 16, 2018.
“Don’t say that!” Lydia, a proponent of leaving Monday interrupted. “That would be the worst thing. This guy has gotten rid of all his oppositions. (arguably, it is believed that Ortega has killed or silenced not just those from the Right, supposedly he’s even eliminated other Sandinistas, whom had gained popularity or a stronger voice over the last 12 years.) There would be chaos, because there’s no one in the leadership position right now. They’d all be fighting for position or power.”
Immediately dismissing death rumors, others chimed in, “He’s not dead. Too many people are listening to these crazy, silly rumors.”
“I would rather err on the side of a positive outcome, running towards safety, to return in a month or two when things settle down, rather than be stuck here with no options left.” I added. “When we came back last time, (April 28) though things were calmer, Léa called us warning us to pick up emergency food from the market because there were rumors that they were going to burn all the local markets. This is so different.”
Bus to Masatepe, Nicaragua
“Yeah, those rumors were false,” Lydia said.
“But that’s part of the problem, no one can tell when something will pan out or not,” Gary added.
As I believed the last opportunity to escape had slipped away, I grew angry, nervous, and frustrated looking for any stray strands of grass to grab, getting us out safely. Fortunately, Pink Floyd, (one of four trusted and reliable local taxi drivers), rising to the challenge of gaining a last Golden Goose-egg from us over our revised scheduled Tica bus, $28.5/per evacuee, came to the house with the all these wonderful stories of IQ45 getting involved, or personal 1st-hand knowledge, supposedly having driven to the border earlier about the time we were having our second emergency evacuation meeting in the office –
“Definitely closed roads after 7 a.m., and no buses getting through,” Pink told Gary and I and Cristian outside since he’s afraid of the wild beast – Gary’s pet Husky, Everest. “The best time to leave is 3-4 a.m., before any blockades go up”, he’d continued after I’d brought Ana and Yahira inside. Additionally, Gary later told me how Floyd tacked on, perhaps in desperation, “There’s talk of some targeting foreigners, (hint-hint, kidnappings) so that the International Community would finally become an active participant in our wonderful country’s dilemmas.”
Gary’s Deadly Beast???
To this, Emmanuelle flashed, “Silvia says that perhaps Pink Floyd is exaggerating things in order to get our business over a Tica bus.”
Just a few days before first major upheavals in Managua, we were growing ~ This was very short lived. ;(
Yet, Cristian, a local 1st grade teacher and friend, whom tried enjoying time at the falls and other nearby spots earlier corroborated blockades less than five kilometers away.
Additionally, while they were outside explaining their fears of becoming trapped in country outside with Gary, Ana and Yahira other student teachers and members of Rap Sessions, echoed similar escape routes with me inside.
Costa Rica bus from Penas Blancas, Nicaragua to Liberia and San José – Jean-Marin, Emmanuelle, Simon, Guillaume and Lydia sleeping – approximately 7:30 a.m. May, 17, four+ days earlier than some had wanted to.
“You may be able to make it to the border if you leave around 3 a.m., Yahira said, while I was handing over class attendance sheets, 1.2..Tree! t-shirts and other materials so they could continue Adult Classes and Rap Sessions while we were gone.
“Yes,” Ana followed, “if you leave early enough, 3 or 4 in the morning, you could get to the border, [and Pink and the other two drivers returned] before they start blocking the roads.”
Ana, in her second year of a university teaching program, whom gives some of the foreign volunteers free Spanish lessons and teaches about five hours at Kaiser every Sunday, also related a story of harassment just a day ago.
“I hit a roadblock yesterday, coming back from San Marcos,” she’d told Gary yesterday. “They yelled at us to get off the bus or they’d slash the tires and break the windows. I hid my phone, jewelry and watch under my clothing, but they didn’t rob us. However, they painted ‘DO NOT PASS’ on the side of the bus. We had to walk the last two kilometers into town.”
“So what if Pink Floyd is taking advantage of us,” I said. “Three other locals we trust, who’ve actually been on two of these roads said exactly the same thing, leave earlier rather than later, before it’s too late.”
“You may not trust Pink Floyd,” Guillaume added, “but we can believe Cristian, Ana and Yahira.” Unanimously, we voted to leave Diriamba, suspending all NGO operations for at least a month.
All the volunteers safely on their premature journeys home, Gary and I relax and Debrief for a couple of days in Playas del Coco, Costa Rica before heading to Mexico for about two weeks. Plans to visit Cuba thwarted as flight prices skyrocketed from “Search” to final “Booking” ~ May 18, 2018
May 19, 2018
7:00 a.m. Leg #3
We are approximately 32,000 feet above conflicting Nicaragua, where according to Verónica, one of the many left behind with her two nearly-grown children in Managua, “They are celebrating the month-versary of The Students’ Revolution!”
Sad days ahead for 80-95℅ of people I’ve met in the sleepy farmlands of that once peaceful country. It’s hard to fathom all those bright, silly, disobedient, curious, intelligent, rambunctious, eager and effortlessly affectionate elementary school students we taught, (respectfully presenting pray-like hands before you, awaiting your gentle embrace, or the gaggle of chickadees flocking to hug you before and after classes, calling me to join their silly dances in the middle of the streets as most were our immediate neighbors) and their unpredictable futures. Then there are the wonderful innovative and provocative young adults, Ana, Yahira, Yesenia, Cristian, Obed, Martin, Alan, Vielka, Toto, Leo, whose lives will forever be scarred and seared from the calm restlessness, overcoming this torrential Ortega reign; Sandinista-Revolutionary-Hero-turned-Despot, and the prospects that they might have to draw arms and/or shed blood in order to overcome, survive and restore real lasting and sustainable leadership based upon mutual respect, freedoms and basic rights for all.
I’ve seen their two futures; one was well on its way of becoming a Fool’s Gold dream of peace and prosperity, with gradually improving conditions under the Steal Thumb of an old delusional man and his cronies and merry businessmen – reaping rewards no matter who’s in power. It was unsustainable because abuses became more drastic, while the most prosperous, more curious, most frustrated youth learned more of world uprisings, relatively tranquil changeovers of power as well as their strength in a unified voice of Dissent or Revolutionary.
The second has been well documented in a photo essay book about Ortega’s rise to glory late in 1970s, and the brutal Civil War, puppeteered by the Reagan Administration and other semi-overt illegal actions against this wonderful nation and other struggling neighbors, particularly Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
All in the name of fear-mongering, hyperbolic “The Russians are Coming!” anti-Socialist rhetoric, which most fell for because we trusted our News agencies and the governments, giving them far too much credit where pathos ruled and ethos was actually lacking. Evidence can always be supplied to support whatever discourses most beneficial to the 1℅ers the world over.
There are perhaps two other possibilities, but none realistically see peaceful change of power, especially since all major opposition voices have been forever silenced.
Who will rise to the top to lead? Some taxi drivers, the true eyes and ears of most countries, believe another Junta of 7-9 universally trusted people should…will come to be their Zues ex Machina, but whichever way things turn, years, not months are needed.
Now many believe, International Intervention, even from the Big Brother State which created these messes over 130 years ago, are Nicaragua’s fastest, best way to democracy. Yet, Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing do NOT make a benevolent landlord, only a once-bitten, twice-shy affinity for associations with more Che Guevaras, Gandhis and true peaceful methods of change rather than another oligarchical regime disguised as a democracy. But then again, it’s not my country, but in the short time there, the 300-500 I’ve come to care for, this will be yet another country under my skin.
Most of us, sighs of relief on the Costa Rican side of Penas Blancas border.
Crew in cramped office. Léa, my replacement or co-coordinator for two months, (tilted head), escaped Saturday, May 13, though under duress, as “there were many people in the street (Managua) with weapons,” she texted me from the airport. She was one of us in the 1st San Juan del Sur, prep-evacuation April 23-28.
Andrea, from Spain, in nervous tearful goodbye hugging Host Family, Michelle, a week earlier than scheduled.
Andrea, from Spain, in nervous tearful goodbye hugging Host Family, Michelle, a week earlier than scheduled. Andrea, fearing missing return flight to Spain due to civil unrest, left for Costa Rica Sunday, April 22, prior to our first prep-escape which followed the next two days.
***As research for my journeys living in my first Central American Nation, one of the seven books I’d read, Salman Rushdie’s, 1987 The Jaguar Smile – A Nicaraguan Journey helped me better understand the chaos America had set upon this once peaceful nation and others like it. “Rushdie’s first full-length non-fiction book, [written] after visiting Nicaragua, relates his travel experiences, the people he met as well as views on the political situation then facing the country.” ~ ISBN0-8050-5311-5 [WiKi]
Other sources [all HYPERLINKS and write-ups WiKi] I’d encountered during my 6-month tenure in Nicaragua were:
Belli, Gioconda (2003). The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War
Kinzer, Stephen (2007). Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua. The Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College. ISBN978-0-674-02593-6.
Belli’s and Kinzer’s were equally fascinating, as one is from the POV of someone who’s LIVED the effects of Colonial Interference and Manipulation of her country and the other the disillusionment of a Journo, working his beat, only to come to the realization that what he was expected to cover what NOT what he was witnessing. In fact, only in hindsight, years later had some of the true ramifications of what he’d experienced truly become known to him.
There are dozens of other sources I watched, “bootleg” underground Short Films, poetry, Artists I’d met and Journos and others I’d interviewed outside these wonderful young adults and co-Volunteers; locals also in our building who’d experiences spanned decades of changes; both great and small.
From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today by Helena Solberg – co-produced by Glenn Silber, this 1982 Documentary probes the human realities and the political complexities of life in Nicaragua following the 1979 insurrection that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. Providing a personalized perspective on the country’s past and present are the Chavarrias, a family of six. [WiKi]
Nephew Kyle Ziplining ~ We took a short break from Hiking with his brother, Troy and Dad, Gary ~ Coffee Plantations Portion
Since these trying times, Nicaragua has settled though Ortega remains in power? – as co-president of Nicaragua since Feb. 18, 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. [WiKi]
“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends.“
Do Epic Shit 