Update from Ceci in Nicaragua Part II

Hello again friends of Ceci! I was lucky enough to align with Mama Castor on Discord yesterday, so I have a new update. We chatted for quite a while as she actually had internet for once! She still dares not post, so I'm passing the info along.

photo from havanatimes.org, a site Ceci told me had pretty good coverage of what's going on compared to others. This photo is Nahiroby Olivas, 18, a student who was imprisoned for protesting: https://havanatimes.org/?p=144820

When I mentioned to Ceci that one of the articles I had read on a different site had said the death toll as far as they could tell was around 300, she said it must be much higher than that. That they know of, she said the death toll is more like 500-600 or worse. There were two mass graves found hidden behind a stadium. The humanitarian group who found them was then kicked out of the country.

There are a couple of prisons that she knows of. One called "el chipotle" which is a hellhole at the base of a volcano. It smells of sulfur, it has water (still? leaking?) in it, and not many have survived going there, though some people are still held there. There is another one at a stadium that was kinda-sorta "repaired" after an earthquake in the 70s, but even before all this went south, it was not very safe. She said even in the early aughts, they went to a game there and half of the stadium was fenced off so no one would go in that section because it was too unsafe. It is currently holding AT LEAST 600 political prisoners, but possibly more like 1200-1800 people!

image from Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/nicaragua-protests-180530130717018.html

Ceci said that one local news channel has the paramilitary outside, so the reporters aren't going to work, and they aren't getting the news locally.

Ceci said that they heard Trump had confiscated some bank accounts of Ortega's that were in the US on Friday, then they were officially under martial law on Saturday. She feels that actions like this just piss off Ortega who then takes it out on poor people. There are no US dollars at ATMs, only cordovas, and those are valued at whatever the bank arbitrarily decides they are worth. So like, the exchange officially says one US dollar is worth 31 or 32 cordovas, but if you want to exchange your dollars for cordovas at the bank (they claim you have to apply to get dollars from cordovas and tell them why you want them, but ultimately refuse all applications), the bank might say it's 36 cordovas per dollar. You never know what you're going to get. Prices for everything are skyrocketing. Ceci specifically said they were "on the same road as Venezuela." No one can afford to buy meat at the market, no imports are coming in, no exports going out. There are a lot of American expats there who normally have turkeys for Thanksgiving, and there were none. Christmas celebrations are looking bleak. Some celebrations they used to do are now illegal, because they involved fireworks, which are completely banned. Normally there is a big celebration on the 7th of December honoring the Virgin Mary and Christmas Eve on the 24th (plus fireworks on both occassions), and New Year's Eve as well - and all are banned because there is a curfew and you can't be out past 17:00, even without the fireworks part.

A lot of people have asked Ceci how they can help, can they send supplies or something, and she says no - it wouldn't get there. Customs would go through the packages and take any supplies you tried to send. So just send her good energy and prayers. She says even if people sent money to her bank in Canada, she wouldn't be able to access it until and unless they managed to get out of the country, and maybe not even then, as when people try to leave they often try through Costa Rica, which is having problems too (though not nearly like Nicaragua at this point). CR is apparently running out of funds and has some blockades set up, similar to the lead up to the SHTF in Nicaragua, but they don't have an army and aren't shooting people. Ceci says she doesn't know if it's better or worse in Nicaragua compared to Honduras or Guatemala.

image from Al Jazeera article linked above

She says under martial law, you can't go more than half a block without running into either the police, the military, or the paramilitary (which is the most dangerous of the three). They are in stores and the hospital, demanding to know why you're at the hospital.

The paramilitary and police were in front of a school, ostensibly looking for drugs. They were taunting kids and threatening to arrest them. One little girl threw a rock at them. A policeman drew a pistol on the girl and was going to shoot her in the head, but the principal intervened and saved her life. Ceci told me this story, and when I was searching for photos for this article, I found it referenced in a Havana Times article: https://havanatimes.org/?p=144859

In their account, "'I was crying, I was angry, because they were taking away my cousin. Seeing that a policeman was filming, I got mad and threw the rock at him,' said the fourteen-year-old student from a Managua high school, who on November 22 came out in defense of her classmates.

The student threw a stone towards a police patrol vehicle following a fight outside the school. She did so in reaction to the arbitrary detention of her classmates, with the collaboration of the school principal, Jessica Vallejos."

The article goes on to say that the students that were detained were freed later that day (after some of the police treated them roughly, and at least one was nice and said that "some police have wounds in their hearts for all of those who died."

image from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Nicaraguan_protests

Ceci told of another story where there was a family who lived in the upstairs of a house and had a shop downstairs where they made mattresses and pillows. The paramilitary wanted to use their roof to stand on and shoot people in the street. The father of the family said no, so the paramilitary set the shop on fire. All of the family died except for one daughter who wasn't at home at the time. There was an 18 month old and a 6 month old in the house, and witnesses said they heard them screaming as they died.

Some reporters at the beginning of the protests were shot or "disappeared." The government has outlawed all peaceful protests unless they are pro-government. They were having one in front of a cathedral on a Sunday. A man, who is Costa Rican, and his wife, who is American, were arrested. He was released after being tortured and beaten, but she has not been seen since. The American embassy is also closed (I found this article from May about that, but nothing since: https://www.ibtimes.com/us-embassy-nicaragua-closed-again-due-security-threat-2685906).

Ceci said the number one priority for prepping, now that she has this experience, has got to be meds and first aid supplies, as well as dried goods. Even flour has been hard to find. On Wednesday they couldn't find it in the regular shops. They found an unofficial "shop" - black market flour, y'all - where they were able to get some flour and sugar. Baking powder and yeast are also at a premium. When I asked - because I myself make my own baking powder due to allergies, out of baking soda, arrowroot, and cream of tartar, Ceci said there is no cream or tartar to be had and while they used to be able to easily get baking soda, they haven't been able to find it in six months. Spices in general are not available in stores anymore. They had bought some in bulk and put them in the freezer, but as they are now feeding twenty people (there used to be 21 but Don Manuel recently died - and they had to bury him themselves because there are no funeral homes or services of any kind), they weren't stocked for that kind of number.

As Ceci puts it regarding their food supply, they are not getting fat, but not wasting away. Luckily they have their garden (they might be trying to plant four times for the first time this year; normally they know they can plant three times), which also has lots of fruit trees, and the kids are getting goat milk and cheese from their goats. They lost some of their chickens to feeding the relations that came for Don Manuel's funeral, but still have some.

So there's the update, everyone. Send out your love to everyone in Nicaragua, and keep yourselves safe. <3

That minnow your mama always warned you about

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