Author
jdc
4:00 mp3
0:00 - 0:33
Thousands of Nicaraguan workers covered with skin lesions, sores,
disfigurations and cancer are camped out in front of the National Assembly
building in Nicaragua's capital city, Managua, with scientific studies and
a federal court ruling backing their claim that a pesticide called nemagon,
sprayed on Dole banana plantations, caused these defects. But Dole Company,
and the manufacturers of nemagon, Dow and Shell, say that they hold no
responsibility for the workers' fate.
Victorino Espinales is one of the leaders of this group of workers that has
been camped out in Managua for over a month:
(translation - voiceover)
0:34 - 1:13
A group of workers contaminated by nemagon issued a complaint
against the Dole Company. A federal judge found the company guilty and
ordered them to pay the workers 500 million dollars. How much do you think
that North American company paid us, after 30 years of applying this
chemical? Believe it when I say they paid us nothing! But this chemical,
nemagon, in all of the areas where it was applied, will have continuing
effects for the next one hundred forty years.
Dole company has condemned us to live in a state of contamination
permanently, as well as our next generation of children.
1:13 - 1:41
Nemagon is a chemical that was banned in the United States in 1979, after
companies producing it found that they had poisoned their water supply with
nemagon while testing the chemical's uses. There are an estimated 17,000
people who have been affected by exposure to the nemagon pesticide in
Nicaragua alone, either by working on Dole's banana plantations, living
nearby, or simply getting water from a source that was tainted with
nemagon.
Katherine Stecker is a researcher with the Nicaragua Network, based in
Washington, DC
1:42 - 2:08
(Katherine Stecker talks about the effects of nemagon)
2:08 - 2:19
While bananas continue to be the most purchased fruit in the United States,
banana workers throughout Central and South America continue to be among
the most underpaid and overworked of all seasonal fruit laborers.
Victorino Espinales:
(translation - voiceover)
2:19 - 2:57
In reality, north American people, you need to know that all of these
products that you consume come to you stained with our blood, with our very
lives. You need to be clear, north American people, that we are equal, as
humans, but yet we are paying the high cost of our lives so that you can
have the products for a lower cost. I don't blame the north American
people, who are our fellow humans, but I blame these companies who have
poisoned us with this chemical. We have the right to live, we have the
right to work without being poisoned by chemicals. And that is why we're
here today.
2:57 - 3:03
Paul Baker, an international volunteer in Nicaragua, describes conditions
at the worker's encampment:
3:03 - 3:35
(Paul Baker talks about the people lying in hammocks, the respiratory
issues at the encampment)
3:35 - 4:00
The workers are demanding that Dole pay for their medical bills --unlikely
from a company that recently countersued the sick workers for 17 billion
dollars, accusing them of fraud and racketeering.
But the banana farmers are determined to stick it out -- saying that
they'll remain at their encampment until they feel that justice is served
in their case .
(ambient - 'claro que vamos a tener la justicia.....')