Nicaraguan civil servants 'fear political pressure'

Tens of thousands of Nicaraguan civil servants who claim they’ve been wrongfully terminated by the leftist Sandinista government are appealing for help from the US Department of Labor.

Alvaro Leiva, the lawyer representing the group, claims that nearly 20 percent of Nicaragua’s entire public-sector workforce has been fired “illegally for political reasons” since the Sandinistas returned to power in 2007 under President Daniel Ortega.

Workers claim that in addition to the mass layoffs of civil servants deemed disloyal to the ruling party, the government has implemented a system wherein job applicants are usually asked for a letter of recommendation from their neighborhood Sandinista Council of Citizen Power.


Source: Global Post