Status report on sugar cane agrochemicals ... - Sucre Ethique

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Forty-six people die every month as a result of CRF alone. This situation, the press release says,
must bring the country’s competent authorities to declare a health emergency, particularly in
the area where sugarcane is planted.
The situation is even more serious if we consider that, according to the people a� ected, when
someone dies of CRF, the health system records the cause of death as heart attack. The aim of
this is to hide this professional illness, thus “covering up for” the employer who should respond
for putting their workers’ health at risk and endangering their lives,” the release says.
For this reason, ANAIRC has sent yet another letter to the company -the tenth letter in just a few
years- asking Mr. Carlos Pellas, president of the Group, to sit down to talk with the victims and
open up a negotiation process.
“Over the past few years we’ve sent several letters to Mr. Carlos Pellas, asking him to listen to us
and give us a response, but he has refused to even acknowledge our request,” the vice-president
of ANAIRC, Gustavo Martínez, said to SIREL.
“We want to be compensated by the Pellas Group for the damages it has caused us. Right now,
everyone is resting, because the trip has been very tiring, but in the next few days we will begin
a series of mobilizations to protest in front of the Pellas Building so that they will hear us.”
For Julio César Paz, another member of ANAIRC, this march to Managua was something that
could not be put o� any longer. “We’ve seen too many people die in Chichigalpa, and as we have
had no reaction from the owners of Ingenio San Antonio, we had no choice but to come here to
demand compensation.”
Verónica Flores, one of the widows in ANAIRC, says that what she’s had to go through since her
husband died from CRF has been extremely tough. “Our struggle, as widows, is for a just cause.
My husband worked for almost 25 years at Ingenio San Antonio, where he got sick. It’s a sad illness,
because it slowly wears you down, until you’re left without any strength, without any possibility
of working. He spent the last six years of his life sick, but the � nal two years were the worst.
He su� ered so much, until � nally he passed away in September 11, 2008.
The illness and death of our husbands -Flores continues- has forced us widows to take over the
responsibility of supporting our families, and it’s very hard, because we have nowhere to turn to
earn enough to survive. In my case, I receive a widow’s pension of 100 dollars a month, but that
doesn’t even cover minor expenses. And that’s why we’re here.
Our husbands died because of their work at Ingenio San Antonio and it’s fair that we should be
compensated. We’re not going to budge from here until we get an answer. I ask people and organizations
in the country and around the world to support us, because we’re � ghting for something
that is just, and it is important that everyone is aware of what happened in the Chichigalpa
sugarcane plantations and all we’ve been through,” Flores concluded � rmly.
<strong>Status</strong> <strong>report</strong> on sugar cane
agrochemicals management
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ETHICAL-SUGAR