Each “tree of life”, a whim of VP Rosario Murillo, had a price tag of $20,000 in 2017, not including electricity and maintenance costs.
HAVANA TIMES – Sixteen “trees of life,” better known as “chayopalos” (named for Rosario Murillo’s nickname, Chayo, and “palo” to mean “tree”) or “tin trees,” were reinstalled in Managua on Sunday, June 23, according to Rosario Murillo, spokeswoman and vice president of the Ortega regime, through pro-government media. The reinstallation is being carried out six years after dozens of these metal structures were demolished during the citizen protests of the April Rebellion of 2018.
Murillo did not specify the cost of the “trees of life,” as she calls them, or of their installation. However, each “chayopalo” or “metal tree,” as citizen protesters renamed them, had a price tag of some $20,000 in 2017, not including electricity or maintenance costs. In addition there were security costs, because each group of metal structures was “looked after” by a security guard.
According to Murillo, the reinstallation is “in recognition of the heroic deeds of so many Heroes and Martyrs who gave their lives so that now we can live with dignity and sovereignty.” She did not specify which heroes and martyrs she was referring to, but the dictatorship omits the more than 300 people assassinated
