In this part of the world there aren´t many unions that are as organized as the ones at home, particularly the Nicaraguan public transportation organizations. The ''transportistas'' are a collection of individual drivers and cooperatives. This means that a nation-wide strike takes a while to actually get going (if it happens at all). So we wondered - will the strike actually happen? if it does, who will stop working (taxis, busses, microbusses)? what kind of demonstrations / blockades will happen? are we going to get stuck in Managua indefinetly until this thing gets figured out? Managua has been fun, we´ve met some amazing people, but weren´t particularly excited about being there until the slow-moving wheels of Nicaraguan politics sorted things out.
Monday morning came and went, our busses to the Nehemiah Center worked just fine, so we thought maybe things had blown over. But, then came Tuesday morning - the day we were hoping to go to Granada. Very few taxis were on the road, and the ones that were looked rather nervous. On the news we saw crowds of drivers surrounding working taxis at intersections, taking their 'Taxi' sign from their roof of their cars and writing 'Al Paro' on their windshields. 'Al Paro' translates directly as 'To The Strike'. The word was there actually was a wide spread strike happening. Officially all taxis and busses throughout the country (except within the city of Managua). This meant, no busses to Granada - at all.
The only thing to do was to shoulder our packs and see if we could find somebody willing to take us to the Tica Bus station. Our plan was to try to hop a ride with this international bus line to Granada. We hoped this Costa Rican run bus company wouldn´t get involved with a Nicaraguan strike. We did find a taxi driver, who after picking us up changed the sign in his front window to ''out of service'' to be less consipicuous (though we thought driving 2 gringos around was fairly obvious). We got to the Tica Bus station without incident and then I went to see if we´d be able to get a ride with them to Granada. The guy at the front desk tried explaining to me that this wasn´t possible because the busses from Managua didn´t stop in Granada. But - he knew a guy. ''Great,'' I thought, ''everybody know´s a guy, and they always have the best price, with the safest car.... but we are pretty stuck.'' So we agree to have him call his buddy who will drive us to Granada for $30 (OUCH!! the microbus we were hoping to take would have normally cost us $3). A few minutes later ''the guy'' showed up in his white and yellow Taxi - not the inconspicuous unmarked vehicle we were kinda hoping for. But on the up side it was a relatively new Yaris, with working seatbelts, trunk, shocks, no broken windows or crazy dingly balls all around the dashboard. All in all, the nicest taxi we have seen on our entire trip, so we decided to bite the bullet and go for it.
As we drove through Managua the roads were pretty quiet and we avoided most of the main intersections. As we left the city we saw rows of busses that normally seviced the routes south lined up along the road. As we drove by our driver pointed to some of them and said to me ''there are your busses to Granada''. Good thing we didn't go to the regular bus stop and hope one came by, because we would have been 100% out of luck. Going a little further he started to chatter away on his cell phone to some other drivers he knew, and I managed to piece together that he wasn´t actully all that sure we´d be able to get through to Granada at all!
I really began to wonder when we got to a dead stop just before the city of Masaya - the most major intersection on the highway between Managua and Granada. After unsuccessfully trying to find a way around the traffic jam (which we knew was caused by the striking transportation workers) we inched our way forward to see what the situation was. When we got to where all the busses were parked along the side of the road, and the drivers were demonstrating we could see things were relatively orderly and peaceful. None of the burning tanks of fuel, rubber bullets and tear gas we later heard got used in Leon. We did get a bit nervous and made sure the doors were locked when our car was swarmed by some of the striking drivers. But, they seemed to be satisfied with a bit of somewhat heated exchange with our driver and writing 'Al Paro' on his windshield. They couldn´t take his taxi sign because he had already put it in the trunk. After that, we were a bit nervous and on the lookout for another more serious blockade, but made it uneventfully to Granada.
Hiring the driver was expensive, but turned out to be a good move. Since then the strike has become more serious and it would have only been more difficult to find transportation. We cut short the last of our plans in Nicaragua and decided to take the Tica Bus all the way to Panama after several great days in Granada. From the sounds of things it has been making an impact throughout the country, where the majority of people don´t have cars and depend on the taxis and busses for any of their transportation.
The markets in Managua are having a harder time staying stocked, the outlying towns are having problems getting supplies delivered and rice prices have gone up (again). When asked if people are stocking up on food in the event of a shortage in the near future, a local market vendor in Managua said people are spending LESS because they´re having a harder time making money. The stike is definetly having a high profile impact, and (so far) has wide spread popular support. But, so many of the people affected (drivers included) live day-to-day, with very little (if any) savings. There is no such things as union-supplied strike pay here. How long will they be able to hold out? How long will things stay relatively peaceful? Does the government care?
One of the bus co-ops has publically stated they are prepared to strike for a month. As of a couple days ago the government hasn´t shown any interest in even talking, hoping the multi-faction strike will fall apart all on its own when everybody involved really starts feeling it pinch. The ones who feel it the most and the quickest are those who live day to day... and depends on the public transit system in one way or the other to facilitate their income. The trouble is, that is the majority of the Nicaraguan population.
What is at issue? The Transportistas want a fixed gasoline price throughout Nicaragua. Their fare prices are government regulated and after several increases over the last year the fares cannot be raised any more without putting them out of reach of those who need the busses the most. But, gas prices keep going up. Income staying equal, costs going up, how can they make a go of it?
Suspicious facts about the government's handling of oil in Nicaragua that are making people angry:
- Prices in neighbouring Honduras are significantly cheaper
- Nicaragua SELLS oil to Honduras
- Hugo Chavez (Venezuala) has made a deal with Daniel Ortega´s Sandinista government where they can buy Venezualan oil at a very economical rate, with a long term payment period, and a percentage of which they don´t need to pay for at all.
- this oil (and its profits) are managed by a Sandinista company, set up for this express purpose
- the only bus organization that receives government subsidies is the Managua City busses... which is owned by a Sandinista
- there is little to no transparency about how the profits of buying cheap Venezualan oil and selling it to Honduras are being managed. More specifically to WHOM are the profits going??
So, to all appearances, Daniel Ortega the self proclaimed 'man of the people' - Sandinista protector of the poor and down trodden - has some sneaky oil deals on the go. Who is financing them? The average bus driver, taxi driver and rural lady who needs the bus to get her vegetables to the market. I hope that the strike can shake some better deal out of the government, and I really hope that it happens soon enough that the average Nicaraguan doesn´t have to pay too dearly for it.
That being said, I´m glad that we aren´t trying to traipse around Nicaragua at the moment.
1 comment:
thank you for this post, Jay: I really enjoyed reading some of the complicated details behind your experience of the strike. Glad you guys made it to where you wanted to go too, of course!
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