Nicaragua Network

1. New mayors begin work
2. Prisoners in TELEVISA case sentenced to 30 years
3. Divers want postponement of ban on lobster and shellfish diving
4. Fenosa selling electricity distribution to other Spanish companies
5. Army arresting biosphere land traffickers
6. Students take university entrance exam
7. Program to help integrate blind people into society
8. Legendary musician Silvio Linarte dies
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1. New mayors begin work

The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) last week completed the swearing in of all the municipal authorities elected in November’s elections and new mayors and council members began taking possession of 153 local offices.  CSE President Roberto Rivas said that swearing in 6,380 officials in eight cities in four days was “hard.”  He also said the there were a few officials who had not yet sent in their financial disclosure statements and, that until they did, they could not officially take their posts.

In Matagalpa, Sandinista Mayor Sadrach Zeledon (who was reelected) issued a report on his past term in office, noting that, as revenues increased, so did projects completed.  Revenues for the municipality (which includes the city of Matagalpa and surrounding small communities) went up 217%, from US$6.3 million in 2009 to US$11.1 million in 2012 with the monies expended in public works projects.  Among the projects noted in the report were the paving of 332 blocks of streets, maintenance of 2,000 blocks, building and maintenance of 324 kilometers of rural roads, six kilometers of dredging in the Rio Grande de Matagalpa, construction of 462 meters of flood walls along the river, and scholarships to 3,158 students.

Not all municipalities were in such good financial shape.  La Prensa reported that nine municipalities handed over deficits to their new mayors, including eight in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) and Granada on the Pacific side of the country.  Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas) alone had a deficit of over US$620,000.  Other towns in the RAAN, with deficits totaling another US$600,000, were Rosita, Bonanza, Siuna, Waspam, Prinzapolka, Mulukuku, and Waslala.  Outgoing officials were from all the parties represented in the region: Sandinista, Yatama, and Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), with the Sandinistas leaving the biggest debt to Yatama in Bilwi. In Granada, new Sandinista mayor (and former vice-president under President Violeta Chamorro), Julia Mena said that her biggest challenge is unpaid back salaries of city employees. A total was not given.

In Leon, which has elected Sandinista officials for many years, incoming Mayor Roger Gurdian (formerly head of the National Autonomous University) promised improvements in urban transportation and garbage collection along with more schools and public spaces, and extension of sewage lines.  Gurdian stated that every day the streets of the city fill with garbage, adding, “It is not the same to just clean the historic center of the city [we have to also] clean the rural zone and the neighborhoods around the periphery of the city.”  He also said, “We want to put together a strategy of participation that comes out of our communities, since the projects require goals and actions that have to be shared in order for them to be adequate for each sector.” 

Communications and Citizenship Coordinator Rosario Murillo announced that after all the mayors and council members have taken office the national government will begin the installation of what she called “inter-institutional cabinets.”  She described them as “spaces for systematic gatherings to discuss the principal issues of local life with citizens so that ministers and high level officials can maintain regular contact with the people as a method of leadership.”  During 2013, the cabinets will begin at the regional and departmental (provincial) levels and later move to the local arenas.  The new law on municipalities mandated larger municipal councils which Murillo said should offer more opportunities for citizen input. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 15, 17; La Prensa, Jan. 20; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 19)

2. Prisoners in TELEVISA case sentenced to 30 years

After a trial of several weeks and a conviction on Dec. 20, the members of the group of 18 Mexicans who carried accreditation as television reporters for the Mexican television network TELEVISA were sentenced on Jan 18 to 30 years in prison, the maximum penalty under Nicaraguan law.  The members of the group were convicted of drug trafficking, organized crime and money laundering.  They were detained on Aug. 20 of last year after having entered Nicaragua from Honduras in six vans marked with the TELEVISA logo with a total of US$9.2 million hidden in two of the vehicles. 

Raquel Alatorre, the leader of the group, was sentenced first.  Her years of prison time totaled 35 years (eight years for organized crime, 20 years for drug trafficking, and seven for money laundering) but that was lowered to the maximum of 30 years.  Ramon Rojas, Alatorre’s lawyer, said that the convicted Mexicans would appeal their sentences, including taking them to the Supreme Court of Nicaragua if necessary.  He said that the sentences were unjust because no drugs were found in the vans when they entered Nicaragua. 

TELEVISA has denied any involvement with the eighteen false journalists.  However, they carried a letter supposedly signed by TELEVISA’s vice-president for national information, Amador Narcia, and Alatorre made 106 telephone calls to a number registered in his name. The validity of the signature on the letter is still being determined with the results of an expert handwriting examination by the criminal laboratory of the Nicaraguan National Police scheduled to be announced on Jan. 23.  (Informe Pastran, Jan. 18; El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 17, 19: La Prensa, Jan. 18)

3. Divers want postponement of ban on lobster and shellfish diving

About 1,000 lobster and shellfish divers gathered on the morning of Jan. 14 in Sandy Bay in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) to protest a law about to go into effect that would prohibit free diving and diving with oxygen tanks for lobster and shellfish.  Only fishing by traps and nets would be allowed.  Diver Josenton Fain said, “We won’t permit them to close down the diving; it’s our only source of employment.  Our families will die of hunger.” In fact, the law was passed to prevent the divers from dying or becoming paralyzed from the bends as have many hundreds of Miskito Indians who have found well-paid employment with commercial fishing boats.  As commercial fishing increased, lobsters became harder to find in shallow waters and divers have had to go deeper with the resulting threat to their lives and health.  The law was passed in February 2007 and was supposed to have gone into effect in February 2011, but was postponed until Feb. 22 of this year.

Not only the divers are protesting the law.  Owners of fishing vessels, such as Alberto Woo, are hoping to increase production as a result of the November 2012 World Court decision which vastly increased Nicaragua’s territorial waters in the Caribbean.  Atlantic Coast historian Avelino Cox said there are 17 indigenous communities in the RAAN who are dependent on diving for their survival and closing down the fishery will lead to an indigenous protest.  He said that the government must analyze the problems that stopping diving will cause since there are few other opportunities in the region and the divers do not have the training for any other work.

According to figures from the North Atlantic Fishery Association, lobster diving produces US$26 million for the region and that provides US$26,000 in tax revenue to the local Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas) government.  The Association predicted that Nicaragua could have to stop all of its clam harvesting totaling US$10 million and another US$10 million could be lost if the harvesting of sea cucumbers had to stop.

Regional authorities met in emergency session in Bilwi on Jan. 14 but released no statement.  While they were meeting, divers forced their way into the building demanding that the law be repealed.  On Jan. 18, the RAAN regional council announced that all the political parties represented on the council had agreed to meet in extraordinary session this week to discuss and vote on a proposal asking for another postponement of the law by the National Assembly in Managua.  Representatives of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast and of the Bilwi Ecumenical Council mediated a dialogue between government authorities and the fisheries industry.  Carlos Aleman, president of the Regional Council of the RAAN, said, “We have a proposal that they give us a postponement of another five years and if in that period we do not obtain the funds for conversion, then the diving would not be prohibited and they would work on another law.  That’s the proposal of the fishermen.”

The Nicaraguan Chamber of Fisheries released a statement in support of the postponement of the law’s effects “for a prudential period that is linked realistically to the execution of the projects that are contemplated in the Program of Occupational Conversion that was agreed upon and to others that support the improvement of the working conditions of the divers and the protection of our natural resources.”  (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 15; La Prensa, Jan. 18, 20)

4. Fenosa selling electricity distribution to other Spanish companies

Reports in the Spanish media seemed to confirm what had been rumored for a number of days—that two Spanish firms TSK Electronica y Electricidad and Montajes Electricos y Fomento del Sur (Melfosur) were negotiating to acquire 84% of Fenosa Natural Gas.  The latter, also a Spanish company, owns the two distributors of electrical energy in Nicaragua, Disnorte and Dissur.  The government of Nicaragua would continue to own 16% of the new company.  Disnorte and Dissur buy electricity from the various generators of electrical power in the country and distribute it throughout the nation based on a concession that runs through 2030.  Fenosa bought the distribution of electricity from the government under the privatization programs of the IMF and World Bank at a time when those institutions were demanding that poor countries privatize their water distribution, communications networks, postal services, etc. as a condition to receive approval for debt relief and international grants and loans.

Enrique Picado of the Nicaraguan Community Movement told Channel 12 News that the sale should be transparent.  He said that electricity is a vital resource which should be in the hands of the state but, since it is private, consumers should know who they are going to be paying and demand better service.  He added that the new owners should invest in improvements that will reduce energy loss which is paid for by consumers.  (Informe Pastran, Jan. 21; El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 19)

5. Army arresting biosphere land traffickers

Lt. Col. Marvin Paniagua, head of the Ecological Battalion of the Nicaraguan Army, announced the capture of Víctor Manuel Taleno, considered to be one of the largest illegal traffickers of land in the Bosawas biosphere reserve and indigenous territory. The Bosawas is a 20,000 sq. km. territory in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region and is home to many of the Mayagna people. Rolando Davis, leader of Mayangna Sauni AS territory, said they had called on the army and Attorney General’s office to evict colonizers who are causing severe environmental damage to the reserve and nearby indigenous land by clear cutting the forest for agriculture and cattle ranching. Over 1,000 families have bought land at “laughable prices” from Taleno and 16 other land traffickers, who the Army is also seeking to arrest. "We we will keep working toward a permanent plan for the protection of Bosawas,” Col. Paniagua said. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 21)

6. Students take university entrance exam

Jan. 19 saw 13,188 high school students take entrance exams in Spanish and Mathematics for 8,020 openings at Nicaragua’s National Autonomous University (UNAN). The UNAN offers 68 majors, the most popular of which are Medicine, finance and public accounting, and English. The entrance exams count for 60% of an applicant’s rating, and it is felt that the two subjects are the best indicators of a student’s likely success in higher education. Students will be informed of the results on Jan. 26. The UNAN has campuses in Managua, Carazo, Matagalpa, Chontales, and Esteli. Some 20 students with disabilities took the entrance tests.

Telemaco Talavera, president of the National Council of Universities (CNU) said Nicaragua hopes to enroll 30,000 new students in public universities and said that the CNU is working with the Sandinista government to make a university education more accessible to historically marginalized populations. He said Nicaragua ranks among the highest countries in Latin America for student retention at 80%. He said that 30,000 special aid packages that include tuition, board, basic needs, and health insurance as well as 110,000 scholarships are available for the public universities with additional scholarships coming through ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas). Talavera also said there are 200 graduate programs offered both inside and outside the country. He said that while costs still prevent some students from enrolling, the public universities are less expensive than the private ones. This is a global reality, not one unique to Nicaragua, he said.  (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 17, 19; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 21)

7. Program to help integrate blind people into society

One of the responses to last year’s “Voice for All” disability census conducted nationally by a Cuban medical brigade, a training program for blind people has been developed and is ready to accept students. The program, which will take between 6 months and a year depending on the student, will teach Braille literacy, use of the white cane for mobility, daily life activities including household tasks, use of the abacus for math, and crafts for economic self-sufficiency. The Cuban medical brigade found more than 16,000 blind people, 1,150 of whom are members of the Maricela Toledo Association of the Blind. The program will be offered at the Aldo Chavarria Rehabilitation Center. This is a “comprehensive rehabilitation” program designed to integrate blind people into the general society, according to program organizers. (La Prensa, Jan. 16)

8. Legendary musician Silvio Linarte dies

Silvio Linarte, one of Nicaragua’s musical icons, died Saturday of complications from diabetes. Linarte, who had performed traditional Nicaraguan songs since the 1950s, was founder and a lead singer of the group Los de Palacagüina, the only one who had been singing with Carlos Mejia Godoy since 1974. Linarte received the Ruben Diario medal in 2007 for his valuable contribution to the cultural life of Nicaragua. In 2011 his second leg was amputated following the first amputation in 2005. According to his wife, he continued to be cheerful through all his health problems and never stopped working until his death.  Musical great Carlos Mejia Godoy and other Nicaraguan musicians conducted a musical tribute to Linarte and condolences to his family flowed in from President Daniel Ortega and other ardent fans. He was buried in Leon after a service incorporating the Misa Campesina, so often sung by Los de Palacagüina. (La Prensa, Jan. 20; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 21; El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 19)