Company of US-backed Somoza Dictatorship Sucked Nicaraguan Blood – Literally
Company of US-backed Somoza Dictatorship Sucked Nicaraguan Blood Literally
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Former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza | Photo: AFP
Published 19 July 2016
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The company collected blood plasma from up to 1,000 of Nicaragua's poorest every day for sale in the United States and Europe.
While Nicaragua suffered scores of human rights abuses under the decades-long Somoza dictatorship in the leadup to the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, the Somoza family was also simultaneously involved in a little-known but shocking business venture exploiting poor Nicaraguan people: literally sucking their blood to sell for hefty profits in the United States.
The aptly-named company Plasmaferesis was launched in Nicaragua in the 1970s by Pedro Ramos, a right-wing Cuban doctor who left the country after the Cuban Revolution brought Fidel Castro to power. The company bought blood on the cheap from poor and desperate Nicaraguans, separated and froze the plasma, and sent it to Europe and the United States, raking in huge profits.
The Somoza regime was directly linked to the shady business. Anastasio Somoza the last of the Somoza dynasty to rule the country before his overthrow in 1979 and his son were both part owners of Plasmaferesis, according to historical accounts of the era published in the 1980s. The firm also ran its operations on Somoza-owned property in Managua.
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