A death in Nicaraguan league puts pandemic squarely in public eye

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — As the new coronavirus spread and economies shut across Latin America, Nicaragua stayed open — schools, stores, concert halls and baseball stadiums, all operating uninterrupted on orders of a government that denied the gravity of the disease.

On a road trip last month, the San Fernando Beasts of the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League played a full schedule with fans in the stands and no personal protective equipment.

Then, during a May 16 game in the capital, Managua, manager Norman Cardoze Sr. and coach Carlos Aranda felt sick. Cardoze’s son Norman Jr., the team’s star slugger, was so weak and achy he didn’t play. Within two days all three men were hospitalized. The Cardoze father and son, who tested positive for the virus, spent a week in the hospital. Aranda, 58, arrived there unconscious, was not tested and died. Eight other players quarantined at home.

For a country that has refused to acknowledge the severity of the coronavirus, the death of a well-known sports figure and infection of two others was a powerful wake-up call.

Nicaragua’s Sandinista government has been trying to ignore and even actively obscure the impact of COVID-19 on baseball by threatening bans from the sport for those who refused to play. But so many players refused to take the field after Aranda died May 21 that the league was forced to suspend the playoffs that same day, first until June 5 and then until June 26. The national league has said only that it suspended the playoffs “at teams’ request.”

Nicaragua’s government has reported more than 1,100 confirmed infections and 46 COVID-19 deaths, numbers that it now shares only weekly. But Nicaraguan activists, opposition figures and international health officials have been pressuring President Daniel Ortega to acknowledge the true toll of the disease, obscured by a lack of testing and “express burials” of people suspected to have had COVID-19. Ortega’s critics have also demanded tougher measures against the disease in line with those of other countries in the region.

On Friday, U.S. Ambassador Kevin Sullivan said via Twitter that the virus is spreading in Nicaragua, affecting everyone, including U.S. citizens and diplomats. He urged people to self-quarantine and go out as little as possible.