Ortega government is a repressive authoritarian one and it’s been tightening the screw for a long time. A lot of priests have disappeared in the middle of the night which is crazy when you consider it’s a very religious country. Tourists and expats who have been critical of the government on Facebook in the past are being banned from the country and expulsed mid stay, actual Nicas know not to talk bad of Ortega online. There was a lot of very fucked up things happening during the protests.
There is also essentially no middle class and the water quality and housing is terrible. There’s a lot of kidney problems amongst kids because of the water quality. The one good thing about the country is it’s free healthcare, which is kind of funny seeing the poorest country in central america implement something that is apparently out of reach for the richest country on the continent. The healthcare obviously isn’t great and you still have to pay for your medication but still.
All that to say that the article is skewering things a bit. If it truly cost 400$, the country would be essentially a graveyard. A lot of them don’t even make minimum wage, the country doesn’t have the infrastructure to actually police it’s businesses.
This is really the crux of it:
What you do is adapt: you eat rice, beans, instant soups, cheese when you can afford it, or a cheese substitute like cream because it goes further,
There hasn’t been a time in Nicaragua’s history when this wasn’t the main stable diet. Their national meal is rice and beans pan fried, it’s what they all eat for breakfast. They don’t mention what they consider basic foods in the article but I’m guessing they added meat everyday or ketchup and relish to the list (any kind of name brand sauce or products are brutally expensive). Sadly, a basic “western” diet is essentially out of reach for all average citizens of developing countries. We live in luxury while the rest suffer.
It’s also worth noting that the US is essentially trying to starve the Nicas using sanctions so they revolt. Although the price of beans and rice has gone up, we aren’t there (yet) as the article makes it seem. I don’t think it’s the best solution, it’s definitely the worse for the population, but authoritarian governments are difficult to dislodge and political assassination are a no go these days so idk.