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One interesting thing about Nicaragua (and most Latin countries) is that they often use the military for public security. When I was in school in Mexico in 2000, I saw them everywhere, especially places where tourists frequented. In San Salvador in 2005, they were again everywhere that people gathered, parks, bus stations, etc, all carrying MP5s. In the northern country of Nicaragua, the military is used in conjunctions with the police for the security of the coffee producers at their own facilities and their transports.
On 26 Oct 2010, the local division of the military and police requested to use our facility to make a presentation and exhibition to the local coffee producers. In the presentation, they discussed their successes over the last few years:
- There had not been any kidnappings in almost 10 years
- During the previous season, there were only two vehicle hijackings which, after investigation, were determined to have been fraudulent; the truck drivers stole the vehicles and cargo.
One interesting thing that a soldier told me was that the military is rarely used internally to the country where action might be required. They are used as a deterrant, because they are trained to use full force, they go from 0 to lethal with no in between. Because of this, their presence works to reduce crime. Plainly put, the soldier said that a police officers are trained to try to try to avoid shooting someone... the military has a strict guideline to give one verbal warning, fire one round in the air, and then put the next in the center of mass if someone is threatening and does not cooperate.
The military made a presentation with a slideshow, gave out cookies and Coca-Cola, then displayed the local unit (much was which was not present since many were already securing the highways, coffee transports, etc).
General Sanchez made the presentation:
(If I remember his rank correctly)
The Matagalpa chief of police was present:
There were a lot of reporters there for newspapers and television.
For me, the most interesting part of the event was the exhibition of the soldiers and their equipment.
This is a scene that was probably pretty common in the jungle of the northern country 25 years ago...
The army unit had brought a few of their vehicles; a
few ZIL 131s and
Uaz 469s.
In regards to my ability to shoot photos, there was one fortunate event... as the military prepared to leave, one of their trucks wouldn't start. The Zils are mostly gasoline powered trucks, and one just refused to start. It was left at our facility with a soldier to guard it for approx 4 hours. He told me that most are 1967-1970 models, and when the Nica military first received the vehicles from the USSR in the 1980s, they were all in good running condition... but since that time their conditions have degraded due to lack of proper maintenance.
Since they left the hood up, I got to check out the very dirty engine.
"Made in RUSSIA"... in English?
I'm betting the 68 indicates year of manufacture of the tire... 1968.
A nice little UAZ:
In regards to my dysentery incident, I'm nearly back to 100%. This has been surprisingly harder to recover from than I expected. In 2008 while in Nicaragua for a month, I got giardia (amoeba in the intestines) with very similar symptoms, but recovery only took about 10 days. Giardia didn't cause me to feel exhausted quickly for 3 weeks like this bacterial infection did. Right now, I'm almost back to normal but still taking probiotics.
I'm also currently back in the States. My 6 month contracted had ended and my wife and I opted to not continue living in Matagalpa. There are a lot of reasons we decided to move back, prosperity and security being first and foremost, and many other reasons that are reserved for storytelling around a campfire with adult beverages. :-D
It's been a fun time living and working in the coffee biz and living in Nicaragua and sharing the photos and stories with y'all. I'll miss many things about the job and the country, but there is an equal amount that I won't miss. So I'm now closing this chapter of my life... we'll see what happens next!
