Nicaragua the Second Most Poor Country in the Latin America

Nicaragua is a Latin American country with such beautiful natural features as volcanoes, rivers and larger lakes of sweet water, situated in the heart of Central America. Makes frontier with Honduras and Costa Rica. The actual president of Nicaragua is Daniel Ortega, who two years ago was elected as president for the third time. The country of Nicaragua has a tropical weather, which is it advantage and weakness at the same time. Countries with warm climates are exposed to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. In only one year Nicaragua quaked 2,032 times. This is because of the plate tectonics, the theory that explains, the idea that the earth is divided into layers. Scientist have proven that when the earth gets very hot, the plate tectonics are most likely to move and create natural disasters. Everyone of these disasters affect Nicaragua economically. The two biggest disasters that Nicaragua had to face was the hurricane Mitch and the earthquake of 1972.

Nicaragua is the second most poor country of the Latin America after Haiti. In Nicaragua 30% of people are living in extremely poor conditions. They do not have homes or food to survive and most shelters are already full or are not safe. The 50% of the population in Nicaragua, are not in very poor conditions but make about 2 dollars per day. Also their their weekly wages are not enough to feed their families and supply their necessities. Other countries like the United States compared to Nicaragua have a more developed economy. Its poverty rate was of 15.2 in 2016, which was 2 times less than the poverty rate in Nicaragua, that same year. There are a lot of reasons why Nicaragua has became a third world country but, nicaraguans always point the president Daniel Ortega as the responsible of the poverty in the country. It is like in every community, when things are not working out, it’s always the leader’s fault. However, natural disasters have made the economy of Nicaragua undeveloped, because interfered with the main sources of money, agriculture and international business. Also natural disasters caused extremely poorness between the citizens of Nicaragua.

In 1972 Nicaragua was devastated by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake. This was the second most powerful earthquake that has impacted Central America but Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua were the most affected. The earthquake of 1972 affected 75% of the city of Managua.(History.com) The earthquake left approximately 10,000 dead and some 50,000 families homeless. (Countries Studies, 2015) Hours later the earthquake quaked Nicaragua, shelters started to get full. People were coming from all areas of Managua. That day many families had to sleep outdoors, because the shelters did not had space for them. The earthquake of 1972 had a huge negative impact in the economy of Nicaragua because many people lost valuable pertinences, one third of the population became homeless during and after the earthquake and interfered with international business. The country budget was not enough to supply those affected by the earthquake. Nicaragua received numerous aids from other countries but they were not enough to repair the damages.

The earthquake lead to the destruction of very important international business. During this time period Managua, the city of Nicaragua almost looked like the city of New York because of the development of the place. In Nicaragua you were only able to see buildings in every place, even the poor areas. Many of the buildings that were destroyed by the earthquake, those formed part of very important business, that were helpful to the economy of Nicaragua. According to Countries Study, the earthquake of 1972 destroyed 80 percent of Managua’s commercial buildings. Soon as companies, noticed their loses, stopped making business with Nicaragua and left to other countries. Another reason why international business was important to Nicaragua, was because it helped develop tourism. However Nicaragua during this times was not available for tourism, because many tourism sites, as the Malecon, Puerto Salvador allende and the old cathedral of Managua were destroyed. Also natural attractions like the beaches were closed because of the tsunami alerts. The earthquake of 1972 left Nicaragua with high rate of poverty. Unfortunately this earthquake was only the first one of the list of natural disasters.

In 1998 the second most powerful Hurricane of Central America, Mitch hit the costs of Nicaragua. The morning of October 20 of 1998, the hurricane “weakened to a tropical storm” but on the 31st of that same month, the hurricane became a “tropical depression.”(Hurricanes Science, 2015). Mitch, was worse than the earthquake of 1972. According to POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES there were found about 3,332 people dead. The estimated total of the damages were of  $1.5 billion.

Mitch caused big damages in one of the main sources of the economy of Nicaragua, agriculture. “Cash crops were most severely affected, with the banana industry losing an estimated 90% of its plants.”(Relief Web, 1998). These was equivalent to “$170 million in agriculture.” The lost of crops made it difficult to export for Nicaragua, and this leaded to a  GDP decline of 1.4% in the economy. (Nations Encyclopedia, 2018). These quotes support that the poverty of rates of Nicaragua is do to, natural resources because during every disaster, Nicaragua has declined it GDP(Gross Domestic Product) . Since the hurricane Mitch Nicaragua has not being able to recover, because every year the interest rates are increasing and Nicaragua does not have great leaders to help manage the economy. The president has tried to invest on tourism to get rid of the interest rates but once again, every year the country is being affected by storms. The natural disasters will always be the main causes of lowering Nicaragua’s economy because, it always happening and cannot be stopped.

Nicaragua is not well developed because many factors, for example the economy is not well managed, many people are not educated and some political leaders have stolen the capital money of the country, but the biggest factors are the natural disasters by which Nicaragua and its people have gone through. The first natural disaster that made one third or the population of Nicaragua homeless was the earthquake of 1972. This was the beginning of the the decline in the economy, because through the destruction of buildings many international business ended their relations with Nicaragua. The end of these relations costed Nicaragua lots of money, since many of these business formed a big part in the economy.

Also the the homeless population was a big struggle for Nicaragua because, there was not enough capital to sustain them. When many people lost their home it was the government’s responsibility to give them shelter, but it was really difficult because there were thousand of people asking for shelter. During this period there was a point when the shelters got full and people did not had where to go. Another big impact on the economy was the hurricane Mitch. This natural disaster was worse than the earthquake of 1972. A fact about this is that Nicaragua today, still recovering from this economical lost. Before the hurricane Mitch many people were recovering from the earthquake that made lose their homes and families, but once again with hurricane Mitch the story was repeated. Nicaragua kind of prepare for the hurricane but never expected that, it would hit the country worse than the earthquakes, 20 years ago. The Mitch hurricane made unrepaired damages to the agriculture. The 40% of Nicaragua’s economy is based on agriculture. So 90% of plants were damaged and this caused the reduce of exportations to other countries. Nicaragua will always have a slow process of raising its economy because every year suffers from floods. However, the economy of Nicaragua and natural disasters, do not mean that people cannot live there. Nicaragua is full of hard worker people that even though they have been through a lot, never stopped working. Also this country possess a lot of diversity in plants, animals and places that cannot be find in other countries.

Bibliography:

 

• “Nicaragua – Economy.” Encyclopedia of the Nations, www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Nicaragua-ECONOMY.html#ixzz5aBVkmAXb.

• “Poverty in Nicaragua: Causes and Progress.” The Borgen Project, 1 Nov. 2017, borgenproject.org/poverty-in-nicaragua-causes-and-progress/.

• “Central America – Hurricane Mitch Fact Sheet # 22 – Belize.” ReliefWeb, reliefweb.int/report/belize/central-america-hurricane-mitch-fact-sheet-22.

• Venezuela – The Judiciary, countrystudies.us/nicaragua/11.htm.

• Metoyer, Cynthia Chavez. “Hurricane Mitch, Alemán, and Other Disasters for Women in Nicaragua.” The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Wiley-Blackwell, 30 Oct. 2003, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1528-3577.00068/abstract.

• “Storms in the 1990s.” Hurricanes: Science and Society: Home, hurricanescience.org/history/storms/1990s/.