Amid virus, Nicaragua drops celebration, readies monument

[Backseat Driver]

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/1134375-amid-virus-nicaragua-drops-celebration-readies-monument

President Daniel Ortega's government is being deterred by the coronavirus from holding the usual mass celebration to mark the July 19 victory of Nicaragua's revolution. Instead, it will unveil a new addition to its collection of monuments in the old city center of Managua. The 3½-ton Peace Bell will toll atop a 55-foot (17 meters) concrete tower not far from a grove of "Trees of Life," the huge abstract steel trees painted in garish colors that were sowed about the capital by Vice President Rosario Murillo, wife of the former revolutionary leader Ortega. Flower gardens and benches will surround the tower.

While the government had announced the bell tower would be inaugurated Friday afternoon, work continued at the site late into the day and there was no ceremony. There was no official announcement of a new time. In one of the few signs that Ortega's government is beginning to take the pandemic more seriously, this will be the first time in 41 years that throngs of people won't gather for the July 19 anniversary of the downfall of dictator Anastasio Somoza. Instead, a virtual concert is to be broadcast Saturday night and the bell will be formally dedicated at some point.

For months the government downplayed the coronavirus, keeping schools open and encouraging mass events while the rest of the world called for social distancing. International health organizations have repeatedly urged the government to take action while the public witnessed "express burials" and spreading illness. Some have criticized the bell project as a whim by Murillo at a time that Nicaragua's already struggling economy has been paralyzed by the pandemic. [snip]
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The world has gone crazy! One thing for sure: You can't trust statistics anywhere in the world the admin doesn't want them known. Meanwhile, somewhere along the line, one of the poorest nations with plenty of their own to mourn, raises an expensive bell tower in a bit of landscaped green space.