Trolls and Tolls

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.