Nicaraguan Plantation Workers 'poisoned' By Pesticides Fight For Justice

Hundreds of Nicaraguan plantation workers left sick or sterile after working with a noxious pesticide in the 1970s were dealt a blow this week when a French court ruled against their claims for compensation

Tonala, Nicaragua, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th May, 2022 ) :Hundreds of Nicaraguan plantation workers left sick or sterile after working with a noxious pesticide in the 1970s were dealt a blow this week when a French court ruled against their claims for compensation.

For nearly five decades, survivors have been fighting to be given compensation by the multinational firms Nicaraguan courts have held responsible for the malpractice.

In the municipality of Tonala -- a paradise turned hell for plantation workers in northwestern Nicaragua -- barrels that once contained the pesticide known as Nemagon or Fumazon still stand, rusting.

At one point, they were repurposed as water tanks.

"There were four plantations in Tonala, with up to 4,000 workers each," 60-year-old farmer Luis Gomez reminisced of the area's golden years from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

"It was where they paid best, they had hostels for employees and bananas were shipped every three or four days." His wife, Idalia Paz, 55, shared in the nostalgia, remembering how "people came from all over."For his work there as a youngster, however, Gomez was diagnosed years later with infertility.

"That joy ended in the sadness of not having children," said Paz, through tears.