Nicaragua hit by food shortages on top of high prices

Earlier this month, our report from Nicaragua by Marla Dickerson documented how high food prices were hitting the country's population hard. Now, a violent transportation strike in the Central American nation is causing food shortages by preventing produce from getting to market.

''Things are going from worse to more worst,'' said veteran market vendor Manuel Ramírez, inventing a superlative to describe his frustration with the unraveling situation in Nicaragua.

''Even the [produce] baskets look like they are on strike,'' he said, nodding to the large market bins that are empty except for a few rotting tomatoes and what appears to have been lettuce." Miami Herald.

Photo: Maria Concepcion Ramos, 39, carries a bag of rice on her head while shopping with her daughter Corina at the wholesale market in Managua. Tomas Stargardter / For The Times

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City