Nicaragua: The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes
Nicaragua is still one of Latin America’s least developed countries, where access to basic services is a daily challenge. The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic plus the violence that has prevailed in the last years, job losses, a fall in consumer and business confidence, and a decline in labour-intensive sectors such as construction, commerce and tourism have taken a social and economic toll, further halting progress achieved in poverty reduction since 2005. Never rich in the first place, Nicaragua is striving to overcome the after-effects of dictatorship, civil war and natural calamities, which have made it one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Nicaragua is the largest country in the centre of Central American isthmus, bordering both the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and the North Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Costa Rica and Honduras, and it shares maritime borders with Colombia and El Salvador.
The country has a variety of climates and terrains, its landscape offers extensive coastal plains at the Atlantic, lowlands at the Pacific and interior mountains in the central highlands. The highest point is the peak of Cerro Mogoton, the stated elevation might be incorrect – figures vary between 2,094 m, 2,107 m and 2,438 m above sea level, but anyway, Pico Mogoton the highest mountain in the country. The mixture of cultural traditions has generated substantial diversity in folklore, cuisine, music, and literature, particularly the latter, given the literary contributions of Nicaraguan poets and writers such as Rubén Darío. Nicaragua is famous for a lot of lakes and volcanoes. The two largest freshwater lakes in Central America, Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua, are located there. The country’s attractions include wildlife-rich rainforests, volcanos, beaches and colonial-era architecture.
Nicaragua occupies an area of 130,370 km², compared it is somewhat larger than half the size of the United Kingdom or slightly smaller than the state of New York. The country has a population of 6.2 million people (est. in 2017). The capital and largest city is Managua, almost one-quarter of the country’s population lives in the city. Spoken languages are Spanish (official), and several regional recognized languages like Miskito, Rama, Sumo, Miskito Coastal Creole, Garifuna, and Rama Cay Creole.
According to world bank data, in 2017, Nicaragua maintained a good growth rate of 4.6 percent. Due to the social and political unrest that the country has experienced since April 2018, the economy contracted to -4.0 and -3.9 percent in 2018 and 2019, respectively. According to the latest forecasts, for 2020 growth is expected to fall to -5.9 percent, and would recover slowly to 1.1 percent by 2021.
Settled as a colony of Spain in the 1520s, Nicaragua gained its independence in 1821. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaragua has traditionally relied on agricultural exports to sustain its economy. But these benefited mainly a few elite families of Spanish descent, primarily the Somoza family, which ruled the country with US backing between 1937 and the Sandinista revolution in 1979. The Sandinistas began redistributing property and made huge progress in the spheres of health and education. They won a decisive victory in 1984 elections, but their leftist orientation also attracted US hostility and drove them to turn to the USSR and Cuba. This set the scene for a US-sponsored counter-revolution, which saw Washington arm and finance thousands of rebels, or Contras, in order to carry out attacks on Nicaragua from bases in Honduras. The US also imposed trade sanctions and mined Nicaraguan harbours. By 1990, when Sandinistas were defeated in elections held as part of a peace agreement, Nicaragua’s per capita income had plummeted and its infrastructure was in tatters.
Peace brought some economic growth, lower inflation and lower unemployment. But this was more than counter-balanced by the devastations of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed thousands, rendered 20% of the population homeless and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage. Nicaragua’s modest tourist industry – which had all but collapsed by the early 1990s – has enjoyed a revival.
Nicaragua is a presidential representative ‘democratic’ republic, or more precise, a family run business. President Daniel Ortega is head of state, head of government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. His wife Rosario Murillo is now the Vice-president and ‘communications chief’. Ortega, a Nicaraguan guerrilla leader and chairman of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) became first Nicaragua’s president in January 1985. Then in January 2007 and he managed to find a legal way to stay in power after January 2012, when his second and last government period was expected to end. Legislative power is vested in both the government and Nicaragua’s weak unicameral National Assembly, which is elected by proportional representation for five years.
The Nicaraguan government guarantees universal free health care for its citizens. However, limitations of current delivery models and unequal distribution of resources and medical personnel contribute to the persistent lack of quality care in more remote areas of Nicaragua, especially among rural communities in the Central and Atlantic region. To respond to the dynamic needs of localities, the government has adopted a decentralized model that emphasizes community-based preventive and primary medical care. Although Nicaragua’s health outcomes have improved over the past few decades with the efficient utilization of resources relative to other Central American nations, healthcare in Nicaragua still confronts challenges responding to its populations’ diverse healthcare needs and in combatting the current pandemic.
By Jumana Jabeer
