Nicaragua

Nicaragua, though Costa Rica’s neighbor, shows a dramatically different picture. It is the second poorest country in the Americas (Haiti is the poorest.) The income distribution is so unbalanced that 45% of all wealth is owned by 10% of the population. Meanwhile, millions live in poverty, with neither potable water nor electricity supplied to their homes. Some 831,000 live in a situation of extreme poverty. Such inequity is not built up overnight, nor have the proud Nicaraguan people simply accepted this reality passively.

When William Walker, a southern U.S. lawyer with heavy backing from the US government declared himself president of the country in 1856 and reinstated slavery, Nicaraguans resisted. Within a year, he had been ousted from power. Walkers political career ended in front of a firing squad in La Ceiba, Honduras. After half a dozen U.S. invasions and a decade long military occupation (1912-1933) Nicaraguans, under the leadership of General Augusto Cesar Sandino, forced U.S. troops out of the country. But from outside of Nicaragua, the U.S. helped their friend Anastasio Somoza take charge. The forty some years of Somoza father to son dictatorships were finally ended in 1979 with the triumph of the Sandinista revolution.

Unhappy with the Sandanista’s preferential treatment of the poor, the Reagan administration organized the infamous Contra war, launches a complete economic embargo and mines Nicaragua’s major port at Corinto. The International Court of Justice in The Hague condemned the U.S. war on Nicaragua in 1986 and ordered the U.S. to pay $17 billion dollars in reparations. However, the U.S. responded by declaring itself exempt from the Court’s rulings and continued supporting the war. To this date the U.S. has yet to pay a single penny. According to Oxfam country reports, “Nicaragua is crippled by the highest per capita debt in the world.” Yet, if the U.S. were to honour the World Court ruling, the debt would be paid three-fold.

In addition to political woes, the geographical location and tendencies of Nicaragua also makes it prone to environmental disasters. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and drought have historically plagued Nicaragua. Most recently in 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country, leaving some 10,000 deaths in its wake. As Nicaraguans struggle to rebuild their country, the neo-liberal leadership of the past three administrations only resulted in increasing levels of social and environmental vulnerability. Fair Trade coffee is currently one of the countries few promising alternatives.

As Kenneth Davids of the Coffee Review explains: “Nicaragua is simultaneously a rising star of Central American coffee and a poster child for what's gone wrong with coffee…” While Nicaragua earned the attention of aid agencies and “coffee idealists” due to its political history, it has also been slow to enter into the world of specialty coffee. The Nicaragua Specialty Coffee Association is attempting to change that, hosting Cup of Excellence competitions, improving quality, service and image in Nicaragua’s public outreach efforts. Nicaragua is now a serious player in both the Specialty and Fair Trade coffee markets.

Resources:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nicaragua.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Nicaragua-v.-United-States
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/debt_aid/debt_nicaragua.htm
http://www.coffeereview.com/article.cfm?ID=92