Nicaragua Network

1. IDB head praises Nicaragua and says investment in roads, bridges, ports needed
2. Borge & Asociados and M&R Consultores release polls
3. A week’s snapshot of Sandinista social programs
4. Zero Usury to expand to 130,000 beneficiaries
5. US ambassador speaks at AMCHAM celebration of ten years of CAFTA
6. Good rainy season predicted; rain falls in several regions
7. Nicaragua sends rescue personnel, including dogs, to Ecuador
8. Nicaragua’s volcanos continue to grumble

1. IDB head praises Nicaragua and says investment in roads, bridges, ports needed

Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), was in Nicaragua last week at the head of a technical commission to discuss future projects with the government and other sectors. Speaking at a working lunch organized by presidential economic adviser Bayardo Arce and Treasury Minister Ivan Acosta, Moreno said, “The country has grown at a rate of almost 5% every year since 2010. That is the highest rate in the hemisphere. In 2015, government finances were kept under control and the public debt continued its decline to approximately 45% of GDP compared to 87% ten years ago.” Moreno noted both the low levels of crime and violence in Nicaragua and the reduction in poverty saying, “In the last five years poverty rates decreased from 42.5% in 2009 to 30% in 2014. Likewise extreme poverty was reduced from 14.6% to 8.3%.”

Moreno said, however, that Nicaragua needs to invest about US$180 million annually in infrastructure, in particular roads and bridges, over a period of 20 years. “You understand this better than anyone when you look at a map of Nicaragua and see important agricultural regions without the roads to get their products out to market,” he stated. “This is the principal challenge and it is the one that the president is focused on,” he said.  He said that the IDB had participated in financing roads in recent years in Nicaragua, including the highway connecting Bluefields with the Pacific side of Nicaragua, and was providing a US$20 million line of credit for a feasibility study for a deep water port on the Caribbean Coast [Informe Pastran said at Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, while El Nuevo Diario said at Bluefields].

Over the last nine years the IDB has provided more than US$370 million in financing to build or improve over 1000 kilometers of roads in Nicaragua as well as helped Nicaragua expand electricity coverage from 50% to 85% of homes in the country. Moreno said that the IDB was also interested in helping Nicaragua expand broadband internet access throughout the country especially in rural regions. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 21, 22, 25; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 22; Nicaragua News, Apr. 22)

2. Borge & Asociados and M&R Consultores release polls

In the last two weeks, two polling firms have released results of their recent surveys of Nicaraguan public opinion. Borge & Asociados released a poll on the communications media completed in August of last year that was done for the Violeta Chamorro Foundation. The firm interviewed 1,200 people in all regions of the country. Sixty percent of those polled said that in Nicaragua there was freedom of expression for all; 10.9% said the country had partial freedom of expression while 26.3% said that they did not know. In answer to a question about whether there was freedom of the press for all communications media, 59.6% said that there was while 10.8% said that it was partial. Twenty-five percent said that it was bad for the Sandinista government to control some media outlets while 32.6% said that it was good and 34.5% said it made no difference. When asked whether it was important for the country to have independent media outlets, 88.7% said yes, while only 6.1% said it was not important. The results indicated that fewer people are reading the country’s printed newspapers with 85.2% saying that they watched television, 83.1% listened to the radio, while only 15.1% read the newspapers. Forty percent said that they listened to the radio on their cell phones. At the time of an emergency, 62.1% turned to television, 33.9% to the radio and 2.3% to the internet. Of those interviewed, 72.4% said that they accessed the internet with a smart phone, 16.6% with a computer, and 8.1% with a laptop. Thirty-eight percent go on the internet several times a day, 17.1% once a day and 34.3% once a week with 29.3% accessing the internet from their homes and 9.1% from work. Ninety percent said that they had accounts with Facebook or other social media.

The poll results were presented at the University of Commercial Sciences on Apr. 13 where communications professor Adrian Uriarte said, “First, we must note how cell phones have penetrated even into the rural zones, which was unimaginable even a few years ago. Second, we see that the vertical means of communication are being replaced by horizontal or social communication because people don’t want to just receive information but be producers of content and do citizen journalism.” He added that, while 80% of those polled said that their monthly incomes did not exceed US$300, “They prioritized the internet over guaranteeing the basic basket of goods.” He went on to say that “The social networks have reconstructed the public participation of people who were made invisible by the traditional media which preferred to give the microphone to dominant actors and the smart phone has made people the protagonists of their own agendas.” He noted that UNESCO had declared access to the internet a human right.

Then, on Apr. 20, M&R Consultores released its monthly poll in which 31.6% of those surveyed said that their family’s economic situation had improved from last year while 47.8% said it had remained the same and 20.1% said it had gotten worse. The poll surveyed 1,700 people in urban and rural areas between Mar. 30 and Apr. 11 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.43% and a confidence level of 95%. In this latest M&R poll, the percentage of respondents who said that they were political independents rose by 6.3% from the Dec. 2015 survey, reaching 43.9% with support for the Sandinista Party dropping from 54.3% to 50.2% and support for the opposition parties dropping from 8.1% to 5.9%.

The percentage of respondents who said that they would like to migrate dropped by 10.3% from Dec. 2015 with 36.1% saying they would like to leave the country, down from 46.4% in December. Of the total who said they would like to migrate, 28.2% wanted to earn money to start or expand their own business; 17.9% said they were unemployed; 14.3% said they wanted to earn money to pay off debts; 14.2% said there were not enough opportunities in the country; 10.3% wanted to save up money to buy a house; and 9.9% would leave to study abroad. Over 85% of those surveyed said that they knew no one who had been the victim of a crime in the last six months and 80.2% said that the work of the National Police was good while 18.3% said it was bad. Fifty-four percent said that security in their neighborhood had improved, up from 34.4% in December. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 13; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 20, 21)

3. A week’s snapshot of Sandinista social programs

Since the Sandinistas returned to executive power in 2007 with the election of President Daniel Ortega, the government has launched a multitude of programs aimed at recovering economic and social rights lost during the 17 years of US-supported neoliberal governments. These programs made Nicaragua one of the first countries to achieve the UN Millennium Goals for cutting poverty in half. Day in and day out these programs continue to reduce poverty and improve quality of life one family at a time, with a focus on the historically ignored families at the bottom of the economic totem pole and with a particular emphasis on channeling the support to women.

Last week alone government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo announced the delivery of galvanized roofing under Plan Roof to families in San Carlos and San Miguelito in the Department of Rio San Juan, free food packets to families in Managua; and 48,000 food packets distributed in 58 municipalities in the “dry corridor” of the Pacific which has been suffering two years of drought. Murillo also announced a program to deliver wheelchairs in the departments of Chinandega and Leon and the construction of 30 “solidarity homes” in Managua. She announced progress of a nutrition census of preschool and primary students that has weighed and measured 733,642 children so far, the delivery of 808 production packages (usually chickens, chicken wire, and seeds to urban households with the addition of a pregnant pig or cow and tree seedlings to rural households) in various municipalities. She said that the Nicaraguan Housing Institute (INVUR) has completed the building or renovation of 116 homes in Masaya, La Conception, Leon, and Ciudad Sandino, the products of a US$1.75 million investment. She also announced that in the coming days 3,044 inhabitants in 529 households in Mateare will be receiving electricity for the first time, thanks to an investment of US$357,142. Murillo also announced that the government is preparing the second distribution of food for the school meal program including 216,445 hundredweights of beans, rice, cereal, wheat and corn flour, powdered milk and cooking oil. This will cover 57 days of school meals (breakfast or lunch) for 1.2 million students. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 25, 22) 

4. Zero Usury to expand to 130,000 beneficiaries

On Apr. 21, the government announced that the Zero Usury Program would increase its coverage to 130,000 women beneficiaries of small business loans. The plan for 2016 was to support 100,000 mainly women heads of households but communications coordinator Rosario Murillo said that the program has been so successful that it has been expanded to 130,000 to give greater support to the PYMES (small and medium enterprise) sector of the economy, especially in tourism. With this increase, the total amount of credits extended will rise from US$21.2 million to US$28.2 million. Zero Usury, one of signature programs of the Sandinista government, focuses on women and offers borrowers low interest rates for them to set up or enlarge agricultural, industrial, or service businesses while providing them with technical assistance. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 21, 22; Nicaragua News, Apr. 21, 22)

5. US ambassador speaks at AMCHAM celebration of ten years of CAFTA

At a luncheon organized by the American-Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) in Managua last week to mark the tenth anniversary of the Dominican Republic-Central American Trade Agreement, US Ambassador Laura Dogu said that ten years ago there were many doubts about the benefits of the agreement in the United States and in Nicaragua but she said that it has been a success in generating trade, investment and jobs in both countries. She went on to say, “Citizen security, low labor costs, and the dialogue between the private sector and the government are frequently cited as reasons to invest in Nicaragua” but she claimed that “the fragile rule of law because of weak institutions, unpredictable customs procedures, and limited protection for property rights” are mentioned as reasons not to invest. “We exhort Nicaragua,” she said, “to confront these challenges in order to offer a better investment climate which will generate more economic opportunities for the Nicaraguan people.” She also urged Nicaragua to continue to pursue discussions about joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Alvaro Baltodano, presidential delegate for investment, said that, when CAFTA was discussed ten years ago, the Sandinista Party was worried about the impact it would have on the national economy but it has been successful because the Sandinista government concerned itself with creating the conditions for it to be successful. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 19; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 20)

6. Good rainy season predicted; rain falls in several regions

The Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER) forecasts a good rainy season which should begin in May and the government said that municipal governments must take the measures necessary to prepare storm sewers, roads, and bridges to handle what could be a “copious” rainy season. The municipality of Managua announced plans to invest more than US$28 million in cleaning and repairing the city’s massive storm sewer system but experts said that could still be insufficient to prevent flooding of some neighborhoods. Fidel Moreno, general secretary of the Managua mayor’s office, said, “We have enlarged and resurfaced the causeways and added four kilometers of new storm sewer drainage pipes” along with setting up 17 small dams to hold back water, cleaning garbage from 58 kilometers of causeways, and community organizing to keep the garbage out of the causeways during the rainy season. City councilwoman Rosa Argentina Navarro, however, said that none of this will be enough to stop flooding until and unless the watershed south of Managua is reforested.

There are hopes that with a good rainy season the lowering of the water level of Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) can be reversed. The Lake shore has moved back 200 meters in some areas preventing ferries from landing at some lake ports and decreasing the number of fishers in the lake. [For example, you can no longer take a ferry from Granada to Ometepe.] Fisherman Rogelio Zamora of San Miguelito in the Department of Rio San Juan said that the boats have to be dragged a long distance in the mud and the catch has dropped substantially as has the number of fishers.

It rained over the weekend in several parts of Nicaragua, including in El Sauce, in the Department of Chinandega, La Concepcion in Masaya, Morrito in Rio San Juan, and Acoyapa in Chontales and farmers expressed hopes for a good rainy season. Meteorologist Andres Aristegui said, “It will just be a little while before the rainy season starts; it will be next month. We shouldn’t think that just because a tropical depression has passed through, the rains have started.”  (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 19; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 20, 25; Informe Pastran, Apr. 21, 25)

7. Nicaragua sends rescue personnel, including dogs, to Ecuador

Two rescue dogs and three Nicaraguan firemen from United Firemen without Borders traveled to Ecuador on April 20 to assist with the emergency response to the devastating 7.8 Richter scale earthquake that hit the fellow ALBA country on Apr. 16. Ecuador’s Ambassador to Nicaragua Aminta Buenaño stated, “The rescuers traveled in the company of two Labrador Retrievers that have been trained to search for people after catastrophes.” The ambassador stated that there are approximately 200 Ecuadorians in Nicaragua and that currently none of them have lost family members in the earthquake. International disaster groups as well as experts from such countries as Venezuela, Spain, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Cuba, El Salvador, Bolivia, Honduras, Chile and China have sent emergency personnel to the disaster areas on the Pacific Coast. In 2009, President Rafael Correa refused to renew a rent-free lease for a US military base in Manta, one of communities hardest hit by the Apr. 16^th quake. President Daniel Ortega has sent a letter expressing condolences for the losses in the earthquake and offering both personnel and material aid to help Ecuador respond to the disaster. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 21, 19)

8. Nicaragua’s volcanoes continue to grumble

Nicaragua’s volcanos continue to keep officials, and those who live near their flanks, on alert. The San Cristobal volcano in Chinandega erupted once again on April 22 sending ash over a mile high and emitting rock and gases. At least 11 communities received ash fall from 10 explosions that day. The volcano had not erupted since June of last year. The Health Ministry sent health workers to the surrounding communities to attend to any residents who had been affected by the eruptions. The Masaya volcano, one of Nicaragua’s most popular tourist attractions, has been closed to visitors due to continued growth of the lava lake in the caldera and more instability on the south and southeast slopes of the Santiago crater with risks of landslides. On Apr. 20, German experts from the Volcanology Association arrived to video, photograph and study the lava lake inside the volcano. A National Geographic producer, Sam Cossman, is already producing a documentary on the volcano. The Sandinista government continues to stage disaster drills to prepare first responders and the public for disasters ranging from volcanic eruptions to earthquakes and tsunamis. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 22; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 22, 19)