{"id":83149,"date":"2020-07-01T11:52:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T19:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149///wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//?post_type=article&p=83149"},"modified":"2020-07-01T12:56:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T20:56:53","slug":"costa-rica-nicaragua-refugees-migrants","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149///wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//social-justice/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//2020/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//07/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//01/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149//costa-rica-nicaragua-refugees-migrants","title":{"rendered":"What We Can Learn from Costa Rica/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2019s Embrace of Migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

With darkness closing in around her in April 2018, Elizabeth, a 27-year-old Nicaraguan law student, clutched her 1-year-old baby in her arms as she waded through a muddy orange grove in northern Costa Rica. With only two changes of clothing for each family member and 2,000 c/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u00f3rdobas/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2014about $60/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2014in her pocket, she, her husband, and their two young children had caught the last bus out of the Caribbean town of Bluefields, Nicaragua, before government forces shut down all transit in and out of town and began a violent crackdown against peace marchers there./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

As an intern in the Bluefields Prosecutor/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2019s Office, Elizabeth had declined orders to prepare documents against a classmate who had been involved in a protest march. This made her, she says, a target for political retaliation from the Sandinista government of President Daniel Ortega. Now, as they fled through the night heading for the main road where they could catch a bus to the Costa Rican capital, San Jos/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u00e9, the little family hugged the trees so they could stay clear of the official border station./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

In settling into life in a challenging new city, finding work, and starting the process to gain legal status, Elizabeth became one of a growing number of political exiles from Nicaragua putting their experience and activism to work in their adopted country./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

The country she left behind, Central America/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2019s poorest nation, would witness a reign of terror in the months that followed: Government forces and Ortega-aligned paramilitaries would kill more than 300 Nicaraguans by September of that year, sending tens of thousands of refugees into Costa Rica./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

Aided by a Costa Rican government that has pursued a humane approach to the crisis, a number of the Nicaraguan arrivals have turned their difficult circumstances into a grassroots movement of sorts. They are supported by previous waves of Nicaraguan immigrants/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2014some of whom arrived in the 1980s, political exiles of the Somoza family dictatorship, which held autocratic power in that country for 43 years. Young students such as Elizabeth, eager to transfer their activism to their new surroundings, have an opportunity to tap into a rich ecosystem of public-private partnerships./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u201cWe/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2019re Nicaraguans: hard-working people, with good values, with respect for others,/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u201d Elizabeth says. /wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u201cWe try to strengthen that part of our character so that we can put something positive into the world and defend ourselves through love./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u201d/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u201cWe/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2019re putting on a good face here/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u201d/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

The Nicaraguan-led response to the refugee crisis is taking place across generations and socioeconomic groups. That diversity is on full display on a hot spring day in the parking lot and parish hall of a small Catholic church in north central San Jos/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u00e9 known as the Iglesia de Ladrillo. Hundreds of migrants stand under the eaves or in the blazing sun awaiting social aid spearheaded by other Nicaraguans. Young political exiles, working as volunteers, bustle back and forth, jotting down information on Post-it notes for beneficiaries./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

The people these volunteers are serving are economic migrants, people from a newer wave of displacement that began once Ortega/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2019s political crackdown led to economic collapse. At this monthly event, they are sorting through donations of toys and clothes that have been collected by Nicaraguan youth leaders, part of a group called Young Christian Migrants. At the same time, a nonprofit called SOS Nicaragua is registering them for monthly food allowances./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

Carlos Huezo, president of SOS Nicaragua, wends his way through the volunteers. His organization grew out of an impromptu, but passionate, response to the first waves of political migration. Himself a Nicaraguan refugee from the 1980s, he and others like him understand well what these new exiles are going through./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

SOS began by working with shelters and a hotel to provide beds for the influx of migrants, says Huezo, who owns a restaurant in San Jos/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u00e9. As the crisis continued and economic migration climbed, it shifted its focus to providing food/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/u2014raising about US $8,000 a month for supplies delivered by an all-volunteer staff./wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n/wp-json/wp/v2/article/83149/n

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