Nicaraguan farm labor organizer Augusto Obregon spoke about the correlation between poverty and free trade agreements at the University law school Friday in an event hosted by Witness for Peace Northwest.
Augusto Obregon is not only a campesino organizer, but is also the vice president of the Federation of the Integral Development between Farmers. Obregon, a longtime resident of Esteli, Nicaragua, stood before a crowd of approximately 30 people to call attention to the poverty Nicaragua is enduring due to neo-liberal trade policies, free trade agreements and a lack of subsidization for the small farming organizations he works with everyday.
Obregon, alongside translator Brooke Denmark, began his oratory by delving into the war the city of Esteli fought against the Somoza government in 1979. The war, Obregon said, “is difficult for him to discuss as many men died.”
Besides the human casualty aspect of the war, which Obregon knows well because he was shot three times, the farming industry also suffered tremendously because of it.
It took more than 200 farmers, 10 years and two power shifts in both the 1980s and 1990s for these farmers to fully gain their land titles back. Esteli citizens still had a long way to go before life was fully back in check.
“Even after all of this happened,” Obregon stated, “health care and education were both privatized, providing small farmers with little help.”
Various U.S. organizations entered Nicaragua with the intent of providing help for the farming conditions at hand; without subsidization, this was ultimately fruitless. Consequently, many Nicaraguan farmers illegally migrated to the U.S. and Costa Rica in hopes of utilizing their skills elsewhere. The sole motive behind this, Obregon said, “is so the farmers of Nicaragua could send money to their families back home.”
Inevitably, many of the illegal migrants are either leading lives while fearing they will be caught or are deported back to Nicaragua where the situation will seemingly never improve.
In an attempt to earn money, farmers of Esteli have cultivated more than 200 hectares, or 494 acres, of tobacco. The decision to do this, though semi-lucrative, has now contaminated the environment of Esteli.
The water is poisoned by the tobacco and pesticides, and food is scarce since much of the land is being used for tobacco instead of food production.
“My perspective on issues of the interdependence of the pros and cons of immigration was challenged,” University student Richie Scott said.
Scott came to hear Obregon speak because he is researching water sources in Latin America. He states that hearing Obregon speak about the environmental problems “puts a human face to all of the issues involving immigration” and the water resources in Nicaragua, specifically.
“People like Augusto Obregon remind us that we have a responsibility, as United States citizens, to rally behind the TRADE act as it shifts sovereignty back into communities and away from big corporations,” said Samantha Chirillo, co-director of the activist group Cascadia’s Ecosystem Advocates.
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