Dear Nica Times,
Following the recent Today Show reports on the Eric Volz case, I was sent a mass email by someone in New York who said he was trying to organize a boycott of Nicaragua in response to what he called a travesty that he seems to blame on the entire country.
The person wrote, I am calling on everyone I know to boycott Nicaragua I feel that it wasn t just a terrible act of injustice by a single judge in this country. I feel that the mob outside the courtroom which I have now had a chance to view with my own eyes from the Today Show footage played a large role in the outcome. To me, the populace of that town bears a large burden of responsibility.
The person went on to write that he and a group of friends had been considering visiting Nicaragua, but now won t be visiting or spending my money there. No one I know will.
As a seven-year resident of San Juan del Sur, a friend of Volz and owner of a small hotel here, I felt compelled to write the man back and tell him about some of the great things that are going on in this community and explain that I have never once felt an anti-U.S. sentiment. I told him about the free library and mobile project we have done in 27 communities to put books in the hands of children and to help educate a people who have known war and oppression and dictatorship and have even known boycotts at the hands of the United States before. More than once actually.
It was a small minority who participated in the mob. To me, it would be a perpetuation of injustice to boycott the innocent.
Jane Mirandette
San Juan del Sur
