Poverty in Nicaragua

Ekklesia raises the issue of IMf conditions in Nicaragua. Newly elected President Daniel Ortega is concerned that conditions being imposed by the IMF might create great hardship for the neediest section of the country.

Ortega is not alone in holding this view. Cardinal Obando y Bravo, the former Archbishop of Managua, who has a conservative reputation views the situation with concern. Recently he told a mass to celebrate Ortega's sicty first birthday what he consider to be one of the greatest injustices today;

"It is relatively a few who possess much and many who possess almost nothing. It is injustice resulting from the poor distribution of goods and services destined originally for all.”

The Cardinal added;

“Human rights are violated not only by terrorism, repression and murders but also by the existence of conditions of extreme poverty and of unjust economic structures that cause great inequalities.”

In recent years, there has rightly been concern and campaigns relating to the extreme poverty in Africa. It would be a shame if the needs of the poor of Central and South American were to be ignored