US Citizens In Nicaragua
Warned As Transit Strike
Continues
The U.S. Embassy in
Nicaragua is warning
U.S. citizens to beware
of highway robbers and
take precautions during
a national
transportation workers
strike.
It said in a statement
Tuesday that two groups
of U.S. citizens were
robbed over the past two
weeks along a highway
between Managua and
Granada by men dressed
as Nicaraguan police
officers.
Meanwhile, striking bus,
taxi and tractor-trailer
drivers have set up
barricades throughout
the country to block
traffic.
The Embassy recommends
U.S. citizens buy fuel,
food and water to last
for at least a week. It
also advised that
travelers avoid driving
through barricades.
May 5 marked the
beginning of an intended
thirty-day strike, with
more than 1.5 million
public transport workers
and truckers in
Nicaragua protesting
rising fuel costs and
the lack of government
impetus to do anything
about it.
With road
blockades in several
places in Managua and
almost no public
intercity transport
allowed whatsoever,
Nicaragua is at an
effective standstill.
Containers full of goods
sit stalled on the sides
of highways, and even
sports teams have
canceled weekend
matches. When baseball
is put on hold in
Nicaragua, you know it
is serious.
The focus of the strike
centers on three unions’
demands for government
subsidization at the
fuel pump.
The
Federation of Taxi
Drivers, National
Transportation
Coordinator and the
Interurban
Transportation
Directorate demand that
gas prices, currently at
about US$4.70 per
gallon, be reduced by
more than US$2.00 per
gallon and frozen.
However, the government
remains firm that such a
policy would bankrupt
them, and the Ministry
of Transport and
Infrastructure has
offered to reduce the
price of gasoline by
only US$0.30 a gallon.
In Managua, some urban
buses continue to run –
those that already
receive heavy fuel
subsidies from the
government. However,
travel in the city is
both risky and tense,
and taxis refuse to
drive in neighborhoods
where there are known
blockades.
This week
informal reports told of
several strike-breaking
taxis which were stopped
by strikers at
blockades. Strikers
dragged passengers out
and then stoned the
vehicle.
On Wednesday,
more than 100 people
were arrested in the
city of León over the
strike, and at least 15
police officers have
been injured in
interactions with the
strikers.
Reports
trickle in of violent
scuffles in most major
cities throughout the
country.
While many hope an
agreement will be
reached between the
government and the
transport workers prior
to the planned
month-long strike,
many Nicaraguans say that the
situation has to get
worse before it gets
better.
A 1999
transportation strike
left two people dead and
48 wounded before a
resolution was reached. |
