Advocating for human rights and fighting against exploitation in the third world for 13 years

The Miskito Coast

Hurricane Felix Aid

Images from Miskitia

Hurricane Felix – Disaster Response

For a while, Hurricane Felix looked as if he might pass north of Cape Gracias a Dios.  This cruel hoax was enough to slow early evacuations in Nicaragua, until it was too late. Then the killer curved south and quickly strengthened from a category 3 to the deadliest category, 5.  This meant certain death for hundreds of Miskito Indians on the low-lying coast north of Puerto Cabezas, in Big Sandy Bay.  My friends, Indian Rights Leader, Elvis Dublon and Dr. Umberto Castro Olayo, flew into the coast from Managua to protect their people, just before it hit.  These guys are men by any definition that matters in a crisis. 

When Felix struck, there was a 2-man video team with HD cameras in Managua.  No relief organization appeared ready to respond.  Young Josh and Jason of the video crew tried to get a helicopter or a plane, tried to get in with army transport, got ready to drive in as far as they could and finally decided to personally mount an audacious sea-born rescue of the Big Sandy Bay region…population 12,000 Miskito Indians.  This is the low-lying area where the eye-wall hit.  It is also the heart of the Miskito Indian culture.

Trouble was they had $130 US, no supplies, no ship, no support and no chance.  That didn’t matter, they would win anyway.  They had one friend, Juan Samuel, a Black Miskito Indian whom I never knew to back away from anything during my 13 years of  Human Rights work in Central America.  Even if no one else in the whole region, including some well-financed groups, ever got to Big Sandy Bay, these guys would get there and save lives. Like Juan says, the Old Man would help them.  

Josh, pictured above, was in the Cayes offshore of Big Sandy Bay 10 years before during a six-week expedition, when he was 14.  The day Felix struck, he turned 24. Regrettably, over a hundred men died when Felix hit these Cayes, many from thirst and exposure. Photo: IZ 

Robert Izdepski

Hurricane Felix Blog

SOS overseas

After 13 years of legendary Human Rights investigations, medical rescues and an aggressive push for accountability in the corporate/political realms relating to atrocities at sea, Sub Ocean Safety is now engaged in a desperate struggle to save human life onshore.  Focusing again on exploitation, SOS is fighting to give a voice to thousands of Agro-Chemical poisoning victims in sugar cane...[continue reading]

Sub Ocean Safety ~ Mission Statement: Beyond our documentation of exploitation, inside our political savvy and behind the compelling drive to expose corporate crime, beats the shared heart of compassionate, world-class investigators who give and risk all for the evolution of Human Rights in the forgotten backwaters of exploited humanity. [continue reading]

Above: A cane worker, after prolonged exposure to agricultural chemicals, gives us his last words and advocates for his companions to "Fight To The End" [waponi productions].