Nicaraguan Heritage and Hardships

The current situation in form Nicaragua has greatly improved over the past decade however it is far from perfect. It has suffered from decades of corrupt governments and violent revolutions. The leftist Sandinista's have ruled off and on for decades. During the eighties the US cut off all international relations with country which caused the already impoverished nation to slide into further despair. It is the second poorest nation in Central America only followed by Honduras. During the nineties and during this decade the freely elected officials were corrupt with fraud and embezzlement. Daniel Ortega who was the ousted Sandinista dictator of the 80s/90s was elected to President in 2006 when a three way election split the electorate allowed him to regain power. Despite all of this the country continues to make baby steps in economic development. The largest factor that has helped was allowing Nicaragua to join the North America Free Trade Agreement in 2003,and increasingly tourism is also helping to bring the population some economic relief.   

Most of Latin America follows strict Catholic belief systems. Catholicism is strictly against abortion and some forms of birth control. In Nicaragua, abortion is illegal and women's health is often secondary to general health.

48% of the population in Nicaragua live below poverty, unemployment is 3.8%, and another 46.5% are underemployed. The general mortality rate was 26.5 per 100,000 population in 2000. Infectious diseases fell from fourth to fifth place among the leading causes of death in the last two years, with the number of deaths attributable to this cause down by nearly 50% from 1996. Acute respiratory infections were the most common noticeable disease with an incidence rate for the 1997-2000 period of 2,658 per 10,000 population. Children under 5 years of age were the hardest-hit, accounting for 57% of all treated cases of the disease. The mortality rate was 6.47 per 100,000 population, with the hardest-hit group that of children under 1 year of age, which accounted for 55% of all fatalities. (According to Helping Hands)