The application of cadmium is heavily regulated in legal pesticides. This leads many health experts to believe that the company is using illegal pesticides that are available only on the black market. Nicaragua Sugar Estates admits the disease is serious but denies responsibility for the epidemic and refuses to compensate workers for debilitating injuries incurred.

Ingenio workers told the Globalist of the frequent use of aerial sprays in the cane fields. René Vanegas, director of the New Haven/León Sister City Project, described the company’s usage of chemicals as “a matter of questionable legality with respect to international environmental laws.”

One former employee, Julio Ayala, explained to the Globalist how he used to dump company chemicals into the nearby river, contaminating Chichigalpa’s main water supply. An NGO called Viviendas León provided the town with a well for safe drinking water in 2004, but one well is not enough to quench the village’s thirst. Moreover, the river remains the residents’ only place to bathe.

Legal actions against the company have proved ineffective. In 2004, the residents of the region unsuccessfully pressured the national legislature to pass a law to define CRI as an “occupational” disease in order to be able to collect disability payments. Approximately 1,100 employees have filed three different lawsuits against the company over the last three years, contending negligent use of pesticides in the cane fields. Two of the suits were dropped because they lacked scientific evidence. The third suit received an out-of-court settlement in which the company denied responsibility but agreed to make “humanitarian payments.”

As if a CRI epidemic were not terrible enough, Chichigalpa faces a second epidemic: partial asphyxiation.

Nicaraguans are accustomed to the smell of smoke burning. The lack of an efficient trash collection system has given rise to a nationwide stench as residents burn their trash at all hours of the day. But the pollution generated by Goyena’s gigantic sugar mill is even worse. In fact, plumes of smoke can be seen from all over Nicaragua’s western coast. Crude sugar cane is difficult and expensive to process. It is both cheaper and easier to burn the cane first, which is precisely how the Ingenio conducts its sugar production—it is also a highly destructive practice.

The clouds of smoke that permanently linger over the village are causing lung problems that lead to numerous deaths each year. The residents of Goyena first tried to convince Ingenio to move its operations away from the village, as environmental laws stipulate, but their lawyer lost interest in the case before evidence could even be submitted. In 2003, when a group of employees attempted to march to the National Assembly in Managua to protest their conditions, the company allegedly paid police to block the main road to Managua to prevent their arrival.

The Pellas family has done its part to silence objections through “charitable” contributions. In 2007, for example, the family paid to repave the main road in Chichigalpa. That same year, it also helped construct a baseball stadium in the region, coincidentally named for the Pellas family’s most profitable product, “Flor de Caña” rum. And many children in the region have nothing but praise for the family that provided them with “Pellas” backpacks and “Pellas” pencils.

“Pellas is very clever,” remarked Serrano. “He makes Nicaragua say, ‘Oh, look at what Carlos has done for the little people.’ Meanwhile, he’s killing off the population.”

According to Vanegas, the Pellas family’s contributions to the community are classified by the government as “maintenance,” and qualify the Ingenio for tax exemptions. The fact that the Pellas family has been allowed to keep the mill at all under the Sandinista regime, which had originally expropriated it in the 1980s, is an indication of the family’s economic and political sway.

“Ah, socialism,” laughed Serrano. “The truth is, no government cares about the rural poor.”

And despite his populist rhetoric, Ortega seems to be proving Serrano right.

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