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In the past week, I’ve seen two news items about some poor American who was railroaded into a murder conviction in Nicaragua. This guy was trying to launch a magazine about boating I think. He had a short term relationship with a young Nicaraguan woman who owned a dress shop near the Pacific Ocean. One day, when he was in Managua, the girl was brutally murdered. Even though he had about 10 witnesses placing him 2 hours away from the crime scene when the murder took place, he was found guilty, partly on the testimony of one of the murder suspects who was given immunity for testifying against the American. One of the scarier aspects was the attitude of local townspeople who agreed that the American was a “spoiled gringo” who deserved what he got.
Thank God the Ticos have a more civilized attitude towards gringos. I have to think that developers in Nicaragua trying to attract Americans are panicking at this travesty.
editer
I have been following that story and yes! If the stories are accuarate, it certainly appears that he was railroaded.
See more at
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comThis is truely a sad story, how ever I belive that as expats we take risks. One risk is that Nicaragura is a very unstable country and the judisal system is very different than what eric is used to in the states.
Knowing this Eric must understand that living in Nicaragua he was a target and the U.S. can’t bail him out and should not because he took the risk of living in a unstable invironment.
Mr Benson-
Although I agree with much of your statement-sad story,associated risks with living in Nicaragua, different judicial system, I find that your
“U.S. can’t bail him out and should not because he took the risk of living in a unstable invironment.” somewhat hard to swallow. At what point should the US abandon human rights. I’ll bet that the Jews were glad that you weren’t making judgements in Europe in the ’40s when Europe was an ” unstable invironment”. Then, again, I’ll also wager that blacks in the southern US were happy you weren’t around before civil rights when the south was an “unstable invironment” ETC, ETC. The fight for HUMAN RIGHTS in the world, hopefully, will continue, inspite of attitudes such as yours.I agree Senor Diablo, if I were to be “railroaded” anywhere I would hope to get all the help possible from the U.S. etc…that’s the least one could expect for participating in our tax program!
I was stunned at the statement in the Dateline program that said, “The US Embassy could not help him as they do not intervene in local issues.” Wow! That’s a real eye opener. If we extrapolate from that statement, do we conclude that no US citizen anywhere in the world will be helped by our Embassy should we find ourselves in a pickle? Makes me hope my step-daughter takes that job at the State Department; maybe having an “in” will be helpful someday! (NOT!)
The link provides little insight to the story. I heard through the grapevine that there was a jealous boyfriend (very popular in the area) who was the murder. I also heard that the local community would have rioted if the gringo was not convicted. Someone told me they heard that the judge convicted him to prevent a riot and citizens taking the law into their own hands (ala Guatemala) and that the judge actually said this. Can anyone confirm or deny these rumors????
This might provide more info: http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm. I don’t know about you, but I am going to write my congressman back home. If I got into trouble in any foreign country, I would certainly expect my embassy to help out. Isn’t that what they are there for??? tm
But if there was oil in Nicaragua, no doubt we would be in there like a flash spreading freedom and democracy all over the place.
Actually, no the Embassy is NOT there to bail your sorry butt out of a criminal matter, regardless of how baseless the whole scenario might seem. They are there to get you a new passport, help ship your body home if you croak in a foreign country, and take care of a lot of little piddling civil matters that pertain to your citizenship in the US. They are NOT there to lobby for your release from prison, provide you with legal counsel, or step on the prevailing laws of another country. So DON’T expect them to help you out. It’s not what they’re there for.
Ah, but there is oil in Nicaragua. And a US company is developing it. This was in the news about a month ago.
This railroading thing seems suspicious to me. I think we will have to wait for all the information to come out. Good luck on that point though.The news footage I saw definitely showed a lynch mob/vigilante type atmosphere in the streets of San Juan. People were wielding machetes and other crude weapons, and the crowd was pretty out of control. There seems to be a lot of conflicting “evidence” — he was jealous, he beat her, he didn’t beat her, he was kind and loving. Sad story no matter who did it. I wouldn’t want to be this guy in a Nica prison, that’s for sure!
Diablo, I do understand you comment about Jewish people during the WWI and WWII,
How ever that was a different time and a different place! Nicaragua is changing, it is has and always will be a volitial country because of the people themselfs.
My wife a Tica and I were talking about this story, she commented on that Nicas have a very nationalist view point and will not except gringos like Costa Rica does. Nicas are not passive like Costa Rica and will find blame for all economic woes on everyone but themselfs.
With the change of polotics and the alignment with other leaders Nicas will not welcome the young gringo in the story that is at topic. They will not welcome the U.S. intervention of what they think is their view of a fair judical system.
In turn when a U.S. citizen is living in Nicaragua they must see the writing on the wall a be aware of their surroundings. Don’t except the U.S. to bail them out if they are in trouble in their dream of parraidise. Just like the U.S. citizens in Lebanon should have left along time before the conflict happened last year!!!!
I wonder if the anti-gringo sentiment in Nicaragua has anything to do with how the US has forever and a day stuck their grubby little fingers in Nicaraguan politics; how we supported Samoza to the detriment of the whole country. . . well, you know the story, and it ain’t pretty, and aren’t we still there doing all kinds of nefarious things behind the scenes??? I think there is much more to this whole story than just the crime, which was awful enough, but the backlash was completely out of proportion, IMHO.
Do you really think that is the problem? What about all of the humanitarian that we have given to Nicaragua in the past years. There are a lot of things that do go on behind the scenes and you will never know but most of it is not some kind of waco black stuff that you might think of.
Many people think that the U.S. is the bad country out to destroy all of the little ones. This is not true many countries in Central and South America are hurting if they don’t recive the benifits of working with the U.S.
The topic is of a expat that got himself in trouble! He was not aware of his surroundings and got himself caught.
This anti gringo issue has been around for hundreds of years this just didn’t pop up in the last eight years.
Edited on Apr 29, 2007 22:48
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