Nicaragua and Covid-19: The crisis is not only the Pandemic

By Anti-Capitalist Alternative – Nicaragua

The Ortega government declared that it will not decree a national emergency nor will it establish any social-health containment and prevention measures in the face of the Coronavirus crisis in Nicaragua.. Until the 13 of May, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, ONCE, reported 25 Confirmed cases: 10 assets, 7 recovered and 8 deaths (with a fatality rate of 32%, the highest in the world). He 20 In May, the MINSA updated: “279 positives, 63 assets, 17 deceased and 199 recovered.”

Meanwhile, heNicaragua COVID-19 Citizen Observatory* reported to 20 of May, an increase in infections 83% in the last week, with2,323 affected people, including cases of 246 health workers with symptoms associated with COVID-19 (mainly in Chinandega, Managua and Masaya). Y 465 suspected COVID deaths. It was revealed that 37 of the 98 political prisoners have symptoms of coronavirus; which anticipates a massive contagion within national penitentiary centers.

State ineffectiveness is critical in the community contagion phase. The lack of scientific information about the scope of the virus, promotes the spread of the virus throughout the country. Public hospitals are at capacity, and are approaching a resounding collapse, both at the infrastructure level, as medical-health personnel capable of facing the pandemic. According to a confidential article (25/3/20), “Official figures reveal that in Nicaragua there are73 hospitals, 143 health centers, 1,333 health posts, 5 specialized centers. For each 10,000 there are inhabitants 12 hospital beds, 10 doctors, 8 nurses and 9 nursing assistants.”No emergency budget, without basic protection supplies and without authorities that indicate a national emergency plan, Medical health workers on the front lines face an unprecedented health crisis with catastrophic consequences..

Despite, in April 2020, the Ortega dictatorship received from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, CABEI, a donation of 26,000 rapid detection tests for COVID-19, To date there are no exact figures on the tests carried out in theNational Diagnostic and Reference Center (CNDR), nor about the results of said tests. Despite secrecy and state negligence; Recently, CABEI itself granted a loan of 11,7 millions of dollars, supposedly to alleviate the impact of the pandemic in the country.

In the streets of the entire country the number of infections and deaths grows day by day, Y, surely the level of contagion is much higher, only that by not having official results on the tests carried out by the government; We do not really know the dimension of the impact that the virus has. With the same seriousness, Independent doctors and epidemiologists predict a dramatic jump in peak infections and the number of deaths in the coming weeks and some put the end of May as a possible peak.. Whatever, the question is very simple. If we go to an extreme scenario in the scope of the pandemic; Why not anticipate the declaration of substantive measures that provide a real response to the urgent needs of the population in Nicaragua??

And the “opposition”, what are you doing?

Since the dictatorship has already demonstrated its absolute negligence, bordering on sadism and necropolitics; Let's look at the leadership of those who are at the forefront of the opposition "AYB",  that in this context pointed out measures to confront the pandemic, measures in the service of mainly safeguarding business profits.

The Civic Alliance threw all responsibility on the dictatorship, but it does not challenge COSEP (and derivatives), to prohibit layoffs and work suspensions, does not propose quarantine for workers in the “non-essential” private sector with the payment of their full benefits. Nor did he present a contingency plan to reverse the almost 100,000 layoffs carried out in free zones in recent weeks. We now know that several textile factories are producing health protection supplies to be exported to the United States., even in the face of the seriousness of the lack of basic supplies in Nicaragua. To these highly favored sectors for years, They are driven by the economic need to sustain their million-dollar profits.

Meanwhile, the position of the UNAB Political Council, while it proposes to workers to accept precarious job conditions, vacation preview and salary reduction, At the same time, he asks the government to exempt large companies and transnational companies from taxation.. They also ran a virtual campaign proposing a moratorium on 3 months for payment of basic services, that would be charged once the pandemic passed; this is undoubtedlybread for today and hunger for tomorrow; for the majority who earn the minimum or who have been fired in this context, it is not real to pay 3 or more accumulated invoices.

At this time, it is urgent to provide basic supplies to medical-health personnel on the front lines throughout the country.; and this is possible by converting the productive matrix of the factories to immediately generate basic health supplies necessary in medical centers., prisons and general population. No mitigation or containment program in this context will respond to the real needs of the population., if it does not clearly recognize that this crisis must be paid for by those who have the most and not the vulnerable sectors, historically denied their most basic rights. If the opposition is not able to recognize this, then we verify that their speeches lack content or meaning.

No way out: Health and social rights. Our proposal.

In defense of public health, medical-health personnel, workers from all sectors and the Nicaraguan community as a whole,  We propose a series ofbackground measures to face the health impact, economic and social of this crisis; and continue organizing to overthrow the dictatorship of Ortega Murillo and the pillars that support it. From Alternativa Anticapitalista we raise this program because we have no confidence in the government apparatus, nor in the leaderships of the “opposition” that defend private profit in the midst of the pandemic. We call on other political platforms and social movements throughout the country to value these proposals and take them as their own to coordinate strategies of unity in action to achieve them.:

1. Promote the urgent creation of Emergency Committees that democratically discuss action plans and decision-making to guarantee all the necessary conditions and resources in the face of the pandemic, in every hospital and workplace, barrios, communities, markets, educational centers and other interaction spaces.
2. TState transparency and access to information about the pandemic: number and results of tests performed, location of the sources of greatest contagion, availability of supplies in health care centers and, accountability for the use of financial resources. Enough of institutional secrecy.
3. Declare a social and health emergency to design and implement pandemic prevention and mitigation measures, which include, but they are not limited to quarantine, the suspension of classes at all levels and activities that promote agglomeration of people.
4. Immediate freedom for political prisoners. Carry out mass testing for the designation and adaptation of quarantine and isolation spaces of prisoners and SPN staff who test positive for COVID-19. Take measures to avoid prison overcrowding, added to review of cases of minor crimes that can be released. Guarantee all sanitation and biosafety measures to reduce the risk of contagion in national prisons.
5. Unified Health System under the control of its workers. Put all the installed capacity and private health resources at the service of the population without any discrimination(Hospital and primary care network, laboratories, pharmacies, ambulances, respirators and all supplies available in the context of the pandemic). This crisis cannot be faced with 3 models (public, private, provisional) privatized and precarious. Health is a right, not a business.
6. Immediate hiring of healthcare personnel, and essential tasks, with commensurate salary and full labor rights. This includes students and residents.  
7. Implement mass and periodic screening tests prioritizingto health personnel and essential workers. Likewise, carry out tests in agglomeration centers such as markets, collection centers, asylums and prisons, etc. This would allow the positives to be found and isolated in a timely manner.. Given the ineffectiveness of the state and private profit, we propose the centralization of detection tests in the hands of organized and independent medical personnel..
8. Emergency budget for the health sector, financed with thenon-payment of foreign debt and the tax collection of large fortunes, starting with banks, corporations and transnationals.
9. Immediate reconversion of the productive matrix of public and private factories managed under the control of their workers; for mass production of alcohol 70%, masks, gloves, law, soaps, beds and other health supplies to supply the hospital and primary care network. Guaranteeing protection and biosecurity elements accessible and free for the entire population during the pandemic.
10. Enable all useful infrastructure to meet health needs, and social.All public and private infrastructure such as hotels, stadiums, convention centers, shopping centers, etc, conditioned in advance according to health requirements, can be used for quarantine, assistance or protection of patients and health personnel. Enable field hospitals. In this processcreate shelter centers for homeless people.
11. Universal emergency subsidy equivalent to the cost of livingfor vulnerable sectors, informal workers, unemployed and homeless.
12. Immediate suspension of VAT for everyonefood, health and essential products.
13. Exempt payment for basic serviceswater, electricity, telecommunications to popular sectors and hospital networks. We are committed to recovering public property, and nationalize basic services under the real control of workers and users of companies.
14. Sovereignty and food-nutritional security throughout the country.Access to nutritionally necessary food for the population, without private or state speculation networks, to prioritize health and not corporate profits.
15. Prohibition dismissal and suspension, roll back the results, paid work leave, and all biosafety conditions for essential work personnel.Teleworking must be agreed upon with the staff, respecting all current labor rights., provide all the inputs and resources necessary for this modality applying, Besides, reduction of working hours, without affecting salaries. Require large companies and transnationals that are hostile to this policy to open their accounting books to demonstrate their “red numbers.”.
16. General increase in pensions and retirements to the cost of living.Apply a general increase in reduced pensions and minimum retirements, automatic indexation according to inflation.
17. Democratize media.Against media monopolies, and the information manipulation of the government and businessmen. Enough censorship and harassment of independent journalists. To confront the pandemic, it is vital to have free access to accurate information, serving the population as a whole.
18. Not one less, we love each other alive! Effective application, without mediation, of the law 779, and Adequate budget for its implementation against gender violence, enabling emergency lines against violence, immediate creation of shelter houses, psychological support and subsidies for victims of sexist aggression, speed in processing complaints, immediate removal and detention of the aggressor from the home.
19. For a university community at the service of society. Student strike due to the suspension of classes to attend to infection prevention measures. Autonomous student organization, without business or government interference.
20. Solidarity between Central American peoples. To address regional problems we call for solidarity and coordination between Socio-Sanitary Emergency Committees - or their equivalents- in Central America.
21. Total cessation of repression and full respect for human rights, social and economic of the Nicaraguan population. End all political persecution.
22. Out with the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship! For a constituent assembly, libre, sovereign, Democratic, multiethnic and plurinational, to turn everything around.

The resources necessary for the entire society are available, and are entirely generated by working people. We have to get hold of them and use them to stop the pandemic, meet the human needs of the population and save lives. Today more than ever we must prioritize the health and economic well-being of the majority at the expense of the parasitic profits of capitalism.
Based on these proposals, We call on the working population and youth throughout the country to take these measures as their own and organize emergency committees throughout the country.. To give your opinion, to demand solutions, to actively participate in denouncing, filming situations of unhealthy work or repression, uploading to social networks all the truth that wants to be hidden, from the dictatorship and from the false opposition. These are the measures we lift, pointing to a government of those of us who never governed. On that path we prepare by building the Anticapitalist Alternative and the LIS.

ANTI-CAPITALIST ALTERNATIVE
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