A man died this morning in Bethel. His name was Juan Carlos. He was 23 years old. He died from Chronic Kidney Disease. He was a sugarcane worker.
Chinandega means ‘place surrounded by cane’. There is little opportunity for employment here so most men are forced to choose between going to work in the sugarcane fields and watching their family starve.
This massive sugar monopoly is called “Ingenio San Antonio” is owned by the Pellas group where the sugar is grown for their companies Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited and Compania Licorera de Nicaragua which produces the famous rum Flor de Cana. Carlos Pellas is the third richest man in Central America and there are 125,000 Nicaraguans under his employment.
In the last decade or so, an epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) has been sweeping through the sugarcane field workers. It is caused by the pesticides that are used in the fields. The sugarcane is burned before it is harvested and the workers inhaled the dust and smoke all day long as they work.
These workers earn about $80 Cordoba a day which is equivalent to about $3.50 USD. Many times they have trouble getting even that as sometimes their paychecks are cut for no reason. Many of the men start in their teens and work long hours in the 100 degree heat, given only one 15 minute break for water and food. The men are regularly tested for CKD and if they test positive they are fired and sent home to die.
There is one hospital in Chinandega, and one dialysis machine. Once a man is diagnosed with CKD there is little or no hope for him and his job is usually passed down to his oldest son, if he is not already working in the fields. Around 3,000 men have died from CKD in the last 10 years and the statistics are growing worse. This has been the case in Bethel, the village we have been working with this past month. In this small community of 300 people, 60 have been diagnosed with CKD. Women and children are affected in the villages near the fields as the pesticides seep into the soil and water. This place has become known as the province of the widows.
What makes all of this even worse is that the pesticide is manufactured and exported form the U.S. This pesticide was once used in agraculture for a few seasons in the U.S. but was soon outlawed, however production still continued.
The name of the pesticide is kept under lock and key while the Pellas group adamantly denies that any of this is happening. Their influence is such in the Nicaraguan government that they can virtually make all of this disappear. However, the people dying here are real. The widows and fatherless children are real. They people are her are in a sort of slavery. Human life here is so easily replaced. It is cheaper to replace a dying worker than to switch to a safer pesticide and improve working conditions.
22% of our sugar in the U.S. comes from Nicaragua and used in all kinds of products. We eat it almost every day. Our team is working on a video where we interviewed men and women affected by the disease. I will post it as soon as we are done. In the mean time we have been in earnest prayer for this country and this broken community and our hearts have hurt for all of those we have met and the lives that have been turned upside down.
If you would like more information a good website I found is The Isla Foundation
http://laislafoundation.org/La_Isla/Home.html
