The IMF and Nicaraguan Doctors

Nicaraguan doctors have been on strike since mid-November, performing only "emergency operations." They are the lowest-paid of any Central American country and are demanding a 70% increase in salary. Meanwhile, those patients with non-immediately-life-threatening illnesses wait outside hospitals until they are ill enough to be considered near-death. The article describes a woman who contracted gangrene and had to have her leg amputated because the doctors would not treat her until her sister managed to sneak her in, posing as someone's aunt.

This article places the blame for the strike on the International Monetary Fund, which recently stated that it would cancel public debt for Nicaragua, while at the same time reactivating an economic program for the country that will require Nicaragua to take another loan package (this one for $100 million, versus the $201 million they cleared). According to the article, because of economic burden placed on the state due to debt repayments, there is little money for public health programs, such as doctors' salaries.

Here is a link to the article, from the news source CommonDreams, which I read but with an entire box of salt, as they are extremely liberal (note the anti-US commentary).