This morning, as I prepared to go to San
Marcos to return some library books, my empleada
Maria José told me that the “T” junction at Las Esquinas
(where the road to San Marcos connects to the Pan American Highway) had been
commandeered by a group of mainly young men, stopping traffic and charging
money to be able to continue on. I wasn’t sure I heard her correctly; there is
a National Police station right there at the intersection, and I could not
believe such an anarchistic hijacking of the freeway would be tolerated.
True enough,
when I hired a bicicleta to take me
to the bus stop in Las Esquinas, traffic was backed up in all three directions.
The bicicleta wove in and around the idling trucks and vans and brought me to a waiting
motito, where the driver explained
that the buses were not running. So I hopped in and went on to San Marcos.
The big news
of the day was the beginning of “dialogo”
in Managua, between the Ortega government and representatives of various
rebellious factions from the continuing protests and government violence. A
clear majority want Ortega to go, but the Sandinista party and those who are
its functionaries are perforce loyal to Ortega. Nobody seems to expect anything
particular to emerge from the dialogo,
but it is seen as a victory to have forced Ortega to the table.
I stopped at
the grocery after the library, and then found another motito back to Las
Esquinas, where we were blocked by an even larger gang of mainly young men, who
had laid big stones and pieces of wood across the road. The motito driver tried
to get someone to let us through, without success. Someone set off some firecrackers,
which elicited whoops and people running from further away. It was clear that
the least disturbance could raise the excitement to uncomfortable levels. I
paid him and got out to try and find a bicicleta. Then, suddenly, the blockade
opened and some traffic was allowed to proceed, and the motito came by and
picked me up again.
I asked the
motito driver why the police were just standing around, watching the extortion
for passage. “They are afraid,” he said. “The new gasoline tariff of 15% is why
the men are getting the money.” I later read in La Prensa that these tranques --blockades-- were held at other major arteries in the country, protesting rising food costs, in addition to gasoline and propane.
 |
| From La Prensa |
There were
perhaps 50-60 men in the intersection. All along the highway to my front gate,
onlookers were standing, watching. Half a kilometer to my house, another group
of men had obstructed the highway with wood and palms. The sound of trucks idling lasted for two days. No doubt, the usual food and drink sellers were doing brisk business.
This is a
tense time. So many people whose poverty and powerlessness have become
intolerable can be momentarily intoxicated by these moments of brute power and
anarchy. Not exactly a harbinger of stable daily life, as the thunderous blast of
firecrackers continues.
