Thousands of victims of pesticide poisoning in Nicaragua are demanding medical and financial aid, which the government has failed to provide. Multinational companies that use the pesticides Nemagon and Fumazone are also being sued for billion of dollars in reparation for the damages.

Thousands of victims of pesticide poisoning in Nicaragua walked for days to set up a protest camp in Managua, most of whom were getting sicker and growing weaker. Ailing with kidney failure, liver damage, cancer, and a host of other side effects of the pesticide Nemagon, they demanded to be heard by the new Nicaraguan government to honour the previous administrations’ commitments to provide for their medical and financial needs.

Agricultural workers reportedly won the passage of a special law for dealing with suits brought by persons affected by pesticide poisoning during the presidential terms of Enrique Bolaños (2002-2007) and Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002).

This is the fifth time since 1999 that people with claims against Nemagon have marched to Managua on foot and set up camp in the central Pedro Joaquín Chamorro park. The style of their protest is simple: they raise hundreds of temporary shelters made of black plastic, cardboard and tree branches, and live there.

Thousands sick

“Everyone here is sick,” Sergio Garcia said, referring to the 673 women and 2,580 men living in cardboard and plastic shelters in the Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Park. He himself has kidney disease. He and the others walked 140 kilometres from Chinandega to Managua to ask the new government of President Daniel Ortega to fulfil the promise given years ago of free medical care, financial support, special ingredients for their diets, 25 coffins a month, and even plots in municipal cemeteries.

The protesters attempted to attract the attention of the government to their plight by going on hunger strike, threatening to set fire upon themselves, burying themselves to the neck in the ground, and even tying themselves to wooden crosses. This was the fifth time since 1999 that a protest march of this kind was held; over 2,000 people have already died since then from diseases linked to the toxic chemical.

Hilario Calero, member of the commission of agricultural workers trying to negotiate with the Ortega administration, shares in the frustration. “We have tried so many things, and although we have appeared in the media, we haven’t moved the hearts of the politicians,” Calero said.

Miracle product

The protesters had been exposed for years to the toxic dibromochloropropane (DBCP), the chemical in Nemagon and Fumazone. It was used as a pesticide in banana plantations until the early to late-1980s. Exposure to DBCP through inhalation or skin absorption causes cancer, chronic kidney failure, liver damage, acute respiratory disease, birth defects, heart attacks, sterility, muscular atrophy, skin complaints, and internal bleeding.

DBCP was developed in the early 1950s in the United States by Dow Chemical Co. and Shell Chemicals and was marketed as a miracle product. Although laboratory tests in the 1950s showed that the pesticide caused sterility in rats, it was given clearance by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1961. It became instantly successful with American fruit companies, which exported it to their plantations in Central America and all over the world.

The health problems caused by Nemagon were observed in 1977, which led the US Environment Protection Agency to order companies to stop using it. Dole Food Co., however, continued to use it in the Honduras until 1978 and in the Philippines until the late 1980s.

“The most amazing thing about the Nemagon catastrophe is that it could have been avoided,” Dr. Barry Levy, former president of the American Public Health Association, said. “The companies went forward [and put it on the market]. And then when the American government abolished the product here, they expedited it to other countries.”

Not an easy struggle

Banana giants Dole Food Co., Chiquita Brands, Fresh Del Monte Produce Co., and petrochemical companies Shell Chemical Co., Dow Chemical, and Occidental Chemical, are being sued for billions of dollars in reparation for the damages brought about by DBCP. But although the Nicaraguan courts ordered Shell, Dole, and Dow to pay 489 million dollars to 500 male banana workers in 2001, the companies refused to pay and even filed countercharges against the workers.

“It has not been easy,” Boanerges Ojeda, from a law firm representing 4,000 plaintiffs, said. “The transnational corporations are immensely wealthy and are capable of keeping the trials snowed under with paper for many years to come, but we are certain that we will eventually win.”

Ojeda’s statement could be based on a recent development in the victims’ continuing efforts to claim compensation. A Los Angeles Superior Court recently agreed to try the case brought by 13 agricultural workers, making it the first time that Nemagon victims have gained a hearing in a US court. Their previous attempts at filing their cases in the US have been mostly rejected, with American judges arguing that their courts are not the appropriate arenas for trying these cases.

Human rights abusers

The refusal of the American multinational companies to compensate its workers has also been cited by Global Exchange, an international human rights organisation. It released a paper calling fourteen multinational companies, including Dow Chemical, the “worst corporate evildoers.”

“Corporations carry out some of the most horrific human rights abuses of modern times, but it is increasingly difficult to hold them to account,” the article stated. “Economic globalisation and the rise of transnational corporate power have created a favourable climate for corporate human rights abusers.”

Sources:
“Central America: Workers left sterile by pesticide seek justice” from Inter Press Service, posted on November 12, 2004, <http://ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26266>.  
“Malaysia: Gov't pulled in opposite directions on pesticide use” from CorpWatch, posted on July 23, 2003, <http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7714>.   
“Nicaragua: Chiquita's children” from CorpWatch, posted on May 23, 2005, <http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12312>.
“Nicaragua: ‘Invisible’ victims of pesticide protest government neglect” from Inter Press Service, posted on August 21, 2007, <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38968>. 
“The 14 worst corporate evildoers” from CorpWatch, posted on December 12, 2005, <http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12869>. 
“US: Deformities in infants blamed on migrant worker pesticide exposure” from CorpWatch, posted on May 25, 2006, <http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13624>.