HAVANA TIMES – Two milligrams of fentanyl, equivalent to just ten to fifteen grains of salt, is enough to kill a person. Even so, every day more and more people – consciously or not – ingest the so-called “zombie drug”, considered an epidemic that in the last two years has killed more than 140,000 people in the United States.
The epidemic has also reached Nicaraguan migrants in that country. An analysis of CONFIDENCIAL data estimates that in 2023, at least 40 Nicaraguans died from causes related to the consumption of drugs that were laced with fentanyl. Most of them were young people who had migrated not long before.
Fentanyl, which circulates through the streets of the United States, has reached migrants, and is “ending the American dream of many Nicaraguans,” warned the Texas Nicaraguan Community (TNC), at the end of 2023.
TNC confirmed that, as of April 2023, at least six Nicaraguans had died as a consequence, although many other cases were not registered at the request of family members.
CONFIDENCIAL’s estimate is based on the construction and analysis of a registry of 140 Nicaraguan migrant deaths in the United States that occurred in 2023. The deaths were reported in press releases, social networks, TNC publications, and from users seeking funds to repatriate their relatives.
On most occasions, these deaths were attributed to heart attacks – the ultimate cause of death – due to the fear of social stigma towards the migrant community. Many families, who ask for money to repatriate their deceased, fear that people will refuse to support them thinking that “he died because he was a drug addict.” However, the fentanyl epidemic is more complex, and it is a drug that has taken root in the United States.
“Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid, up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine,” states the #APillKills campaign, from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, where an average of five people die every day from fentanyl overdoses, including accidental poisonings.
Carlos was killed by fentanyl
Carlos, 29 years old, had only spent three months as a migrant in the United States before he died from fentanyl-laced drugs.
The young man was originally from Managua, where he worked in construction. He had a wife and two daughters, ages eight and one. Before leaving, his family said, he had never used drugs.
He was affectionate with his daughters and made sure they had everything they needed, said his wife in an interview to a local media, when they were carrying out a campaign to repatriate his body. More than four thousand kilometers away from them, and depressed by loneliness, he tried drugs.
The day Carlos died, he had called his wife on the phone. He told her that he was drinking alcohol with other migrants, but that he would soon return to his apartment. The next thing she knew, he dropped dead on a New York street. Carlos had taken drugs adulterated with fentanyl. The consumption of these, along with liquor, caused him to have a seizure that prompted him to run out of the apartment and onto the street.
TNC gave the details in a publication that was later removed at the request of family members, which is why CONFIDENCIAL uses a pseudonym to identify him. Likely, the young migrant did not know he was using drugs adulterated with fentanyl. TNC explains that the migrant community is getting fentanyl mixed with other drugs.
Migration stress and drug use
The majority of reported deaths from TNC in 2023 were of men between 20 and 30 years of age. Their youth, difficulties adjusting to a new country, depression, and work burdens are causing many to use drugs, the Nicaraguan NGO said.
At the end of September 2023, the organization surveyed Nicaraguan migrants. Thirty-nine percent of 800 respondents said they were disappointed with their situation in the United States, that they have problems adapting, and have considered returning to Nicaragua.
Migrants tend to suffer from “migratory stress,” anxiety, and depression due to the fragmentation of their daily lives, according to a study entitled Drug u