Yorlis Luna, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, October 16th 2021
Many people do not understand Nicaragua's social economy. It is an economy that goes hand in hand with the history and life of the people, the struggle for survival and the search for a better world.
Today I would like to tell the story of Don Mercedes Baltodano, a war veteran who is a living reflection of the strength, creativity and talent of the people.
He lost his foot in the contra war but nothing could take away his courage to move forward: from being a soldier he became a security guard at a plant nursery, and now thanks to the land he has been given and restored he not only has his own house but his family has their own small community business.
His vision, tireless work and motivation has created a productive space to feed his family and is an example of how the social economy is advancing in our Nicaragua.
I met Don Mercedes among the bright colours of different flowers such as lilies, butterflies and begonias mixed with the smell of medicinal plants from his nursery. .
Yellow and red and black butterflies fluttered around the area as a prelude to hope. To get to the lookout are, he made more than twenty arches of flowers that lead to a fantastic view of the Masaya volcano and the entire fourth region [of Nicaragua. Every detail of the farm, plant nursery and viewpoint has been made with a lot of creativity, work, dedication and love.
At first Don Mercedes seems surly, he almost doesn’t speak, but this all changes when he talks about plants and his face lights up. He explains: "I sell the plants at affordable, solidarity prices, so that everyone can have them".
Don Mercedes works with his wife and two children. After I had made several visits, he wanted to tell me more of his story.
As he does so, he stokes a fire to keep the mosquitoes and fills bags of earth and plants coffee in them.
Don Mercedes, tell me when you joined the Sandinista front?
My whole family is Sandinista, I have another brother who lost his foot, in my family alone there are four war wounded. I am no longer a war disabled, I am more of a war veteran, I joined the struggle and the Sandinista front when I was 12 years old, in my community in 1978 I participated in the war of liberation, then after the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution I joined a training school called Hilario Sanchez Vazquez.
In 1984 I volunteered for military service and was part of an irregular combat battalion called BLI German Pomares, I participated in operations in Honduras, I was unharmed there and then in a ten minute combat in El Toro hill they hit me, they destroyed my foot, my comrades walked with me for several days and my foot became gangrenous and I was hospitalised for three months. ...
….and then in 2018 I defended the revolution again from the war they launched on us.
You know I am old but I was against all the barbaric acts they committed, I was filled with anger when they began to kill policemen, when they killed Castillo, who was the president of the retired army in the area...they also killed his son a few days later he was found dead in a rubbish dump.
So that hurt me a lot, what was did done in 2018 was barbaric, they looted, they burned, they disrupted the streets, they disrupted our economy.They didn't achieve [what they wanted because people have a way to work… look at the way the Comandante even with all the limitations that the country faces has rebuilt everything.
If they do it again, we will defend ourselves because we will not allow them to take away the peace we have gained at such a cost.
They didn't achieve the economy because people have a way to work.
What was life like before and what is it like now?
Look, I am not ashamed to say that I was a soldier and did not know how to read or write, so the army taught me to read and write. When the Comandante lost the elections in 1990 we war veterans were abandoned, they froze our pensions, we had no medical attention, I worked as a security guard.
Now I never expected this land, I thank God first, then the Commandante and Mrs. Rosario, they are the only ones who have been concerned about restoring our rights...here nobody has been concerned about the people, only them.
Look at how they help the people with productive packages that include pigs, chickens, cows, houses, roofing materials...this has never happened before, look at how I used to walk around renting and the owners of houses if you didn't pay them they would throw your clothes and dishes into the street, not now....
How did you come up with the idea of this beautiful nursery?
The land was given to us by the state, the person who lived here before didn't like the place, he told me it was useless and I told him no man, don't curse the land, the land is blessed.
I started by planting I beans, manure, we made hedgerows, today where the viewpoint is you can see how we have worked. There are people who did not see the beauty of this place, but I did, before they gave us the property title they relocated us and organised us several times, I planted fruit trees in each place, I conserved the soil, I made containers for water.
Now here, we are developing little by little, the vision is to keep growing and not stop working.
We started with ten plants, then 100 and so we have expanded little by little, I worked in a nursery and so I saw how it was...I didn't know things about terraces, seedbeds, but we have learned. I looked at how we divide the work, not long ago we came back from planting beans soaked in sweat.... and now the sun is high and not to waste time we start to replant coffee but if we were to say we did nothing, so we are left without doing anything.
Comandante Daniel has given many people [the means]to prosper, we have to work the land, we have to put our plans in the hands of the Lord to prosper.
What would you say to the young people in Nicaragua?
In Nicaragua there is peace, in Guatemala and all those countries you hear terrible things, not here, because of the police, here we live well, we go about our work in peace.
What would you say to people outside the country?
What they say about Nicaragua is not true, imagine how the vaccines have been politicized and they are telling people in the neighbourhoods not to get vaccinated because the Commandante is looking for ways to kill people...imagine, if the country buys these vaccines because the state is concerned people are protected...always the lies, what they say about Nicaragua is not true here, you have to come here to see. Here the Commandante is concerned about the people, about the producers, looking for ways to reduce poverty, for me we are doing well.
In addition to having the beautiful nursery and viewpoint, Don Mercedes is making progress in agroecological production. "As long as the Lord gives me life, the idea is to grow, to bless the land, right now we are going to graft avocado...
I am concerned about healthy production, reducing chemicals, if we use insecticides we are damaging the environment, we do not apply chemicals here because it damages the land, now we do not leave the land unplanted so that it does not erode because otherwise the land remains only a corpse. ...it happens to the land as it happens to us when we go to the seaside and take off our clothes, we get burned...that's how it is, the land has to be covered [planted].
The land has to be worked so that we can prosper.