Nowhere to Go: Nicaraguans in the Face of Indifference

In difficult and hopeless situations the boldest plans are the safest.
Titus Livius

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
Elie Wiesel


When it comes to solving small, everyday quandaries—whether it’s repairing a car without the appropriate spare parts, or making a remarkably good baseball out of old socks—Nicaraguans are the most resourceful and ingenious people I’ve lived among. Nevertheless, in comparison to their neighbors to the south, the country’s workforce remains largely untrained. Over thirty years of self-serving power-mongering among the nation’s political elite, along with several abrupt shifts in systems of governance, have resulted in disjointed and incoherent educational policies. And, ultimately, in spite of vociferous claims of revolutionary or democratic triumphs, the Nicaraguan people have ended up the losers.

These factors, combined with the excruciating poverty that afflicts so many citizens of this nation, have resulted in a great many losing hope. The hardships of the past five decades include the bloody overthrow of a dynastic dictatorship, a civil war, a never-ending chain of blatant corruption on both ends of the political spectrum, a devastating hurricane, electoral fraud, and a void of honest, inspiring leadership. This seemingly endless cycle of wretched fortune has led the Nicaraguan people to the brink of despair.

In a recent poll conducted by M & R Consultores, 50.1 percent of Nicaraguans have stated that, if given the opportunity, they would leave their country.

The thought that three-million Nicaraguans are prepared to seek a new beginning elsewhere is disheartening. It’s difficult to imagine so many people willing to abandon everything they’ve ever known—home, family, and friends—to risk venturing into unknown societies in search of better lives.

Moreover, upon examining the catch phrase of the polling question—“if given the opportunity”—the notion of voluntary emigration becomes even more tragic, a portrait drenched in pathos. Although Nicaraguans are prepared to leave their world behind, where would they go? There’s not a single nation disposed toward receiving three million refugees. Costa Rica, the country to the immediate south, is already overflowing with Nicaraguan immigrants who’ve been arriving in a steady, abundant flow since the late 1970s. In fact, Nicaragua’s inability to stem the tide has contributed significantly to the growing tensions between the two nations. And the United States, the destination of choice among most of those polled, certainly will not open its arm to these tired, huddled masses—particularly now that immigration reform has become such a divisive issue.

Economics, the opportunity to study, and the current political situation are the prime motives Nicaraguans express for wanting to leave. The country’s current political power struggles have slowed foreign investment—the lifeblood of economic development in Central America—to a trickle. And now that the machinations of the ruling Sandinista party have Daniel Ortega poised for reelection—even though the constitution expressly forbids consecutive presidential terms—Nicaraguans are bracing for the situation to take a turn for the worse.

Given Nicaragua’s enduring state of chaos, there appears to be little hope for a genuine change that will boost the nation’s chances for sustained economic growth and employment. What’s more, the specter of armed conflict, with reports of former Contras regrouping in the north, is casting a dark cloud over the future.

Given these circumstances, then, one cannot express surprise that half of Nicaragua’s population would leave their homeland under the right conditions. The problem is that there’s no place else to go; and now that the good people of this country face the frightening prospect of a coming dictatorship through electoral fraud, and possibly the beginnings of yet another civil war, what’s most alarming is that the world beyond its borders remains, to all appearances, indifferent.