Nicaragua Network

1. Roya hits Central America hard
2. Ortega attends CELAC summit in Chile
3. Costa Rican road causing serious environmental damage
4. Energy from wind power to increase
5. Nicaragua to offer land mine removal training
6. USAID program creates jobs and technology training
7. Nicaragua joins international outrage at fake Chavez photo
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1. Roya hits Central America hard

Amado Gonzalez, who grows coffee on 50 acres of land in Quilali, Nueva Segovia, says he has lost almost everything this year to the plague of coffee rust (Hemileia vastatrix). Another fungus, anthracnose (Glomerella cingulata ) is affecting some areas as well. “In this harvest I could only get out 80 hundredweights (100 lbs.) when three years ago my production was 400 hundredweights and now I don’t know what to do because this is my only source of income,” he explained.  He called on the government to help growers plant new coffee bushes.   Replanting one acre of coffee can cost between US$3,000 and US$5,000 depending on the quality of the seed.

Nicaragua was expecting to harvest two million hundredweights of coffee this year, a total value of US$500 million, but that figure could drop by between 200,000 and 400,000 hundredweights with a corresponding loss of export earnings, experts say.  Those same experts say that coffee generates between 300,000 and 700,000 direct and indirect jobs in Nicaragua each year.  The Ministry of Agriculture reported last week that nearly 200,000 acres of coffee had been affected by the rust.

All of Central America and part of southern Mexico have been affected by the outbreak.  It rated coverage last week in Bloomberg News and on the BBC. Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla said that her country could lose 30-40% of its harvest.  Honduras has declared a phytosanitary emergency to stop the movement of the plague.  Guatemalan growers said that they need US$40 million to fight the outbreak.  The Salvadoran government allocated US$3 million which caused an uproar among growers who said they needed US$18 million.

The Nicaraguan government and the Regional International Agricultural Sanitary Organism (OIRSA) laid out a plan in Managua on Jan. 17 to combat the rust.  A full survey of the extent of the problem including the mapping of affected regions will be finished before Feb. 15 and Agriculture Minister Ariel Bucardo said that the government plan will address the crisis with “phytosanitary measures, technology transfers, training, and a program to replant the coffee groves with varieties resistant to the rust.”  Organizations of growers and farm workers would also be strengthened. Trainings for the survey were scheduled to start on Jan. 28 with government officials at the national level, who would then train those in coffee growing departments.  The latter would then be sent to the affected zones.

Amilcar Navarro, president of the Nicaraguan Union of Coffee Growers (UNICAFE), said that an effective plan to prevent the spreading of the rust would need at least US$12 million, while the renovation of the coffee groves could cost US$150 million and take six years.  At the same gathering in Matagalpa, which was the inauguration of the government-sponsored Alliance for Prosperity Integrated Departmental Cabinet, Pedro Haslam, Family Economy Minister, said that the government was seeking “all the resources necessary” to confront the rust plague.

While experts agreed that climate change was making this outbreak worse than those in the past, lack of attention to the coffee bushes due to cost, was also a factor in all countries, according to the BBC report.  And better cared for coffee was less vulnerable as reported in El Nuevo Diario which said that the highest grade coffee, so-called “gourmet coffee” grown at the highest elevations for a substantially higher price, has not been affected by the epidemic.  Julio Solorzano, who grows gourmet coffee at 4,000 feet in the Department of Matagalpa, said, “We have done selective pruning, we’ve fumigated more, and that has meant we have new leaves, resistant to the rust.”  Most of areas affected by the rust are below 3,000 feet.  (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 22, 25, 28; Informe Pastran, Jan. 22, 28; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 17, 22, 24, 25; La Prensa, Jan. 26)

2. Ortega attends CELAC summit in Chile

Last weekend, President Daniel Ortega joined 40 other heads of state and government in Santiago, Chile, at the first summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the first summit meeting of CELAC with leaders from the European Union.  Also joining Chilean President Sebastian Piñera were the presidents of Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, among others.  Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also attended.  Not attending were Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, who is in the midst of an election campaign, and Federico Franco, the coup president of Paraguay, who was asked to stay away from the summit by the Chilean government after having been suspended from MERCOSUR (the Common Market of the South) and UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations).  The meeting began with special recognition of the efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who remains in Cuba after cancer surgery, along with the former presidents of Brazil and Mexico, Lula da Silva and Felipe Calderon, to found CELAC.

CELAC is the largest hemispheric organism that does not include the United States or Canada.  Informe Pastran noted that it was “the culmination of a process of Latin American political affirmation to confront the United States that began in 1982 with the Contadora Group (Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela) to seek a negotiated solution to the Central American conflicts.” Cuba, expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS) half a century ago, took over the presidency pro-tem of CELAC at the end of the summit.  One of the unresolved issues for CELAC is its relationship to the OAS.  Informe Pastran noted that “While one of the objectives that motivated President Hugo Chavez to push for the creation of CELAC was to balance the OAS’s influence, other leaders such as Sebastian Piñera believe that its intention never was to ‘replace or substitute’ for the OAS.”

The participating nations from Latin America and Europe approved a Declaration and a Plan of Action promising “to maintain a climate that is favorable to investors, recognizing in all cases the right of countries to legislate in order to fulfill their national objectives in accord with their international commitments and obligations” and promising “to promote open, stable, predictable and transparent regulatory frameworks to foment investment and provide legal security for investors and local associates, while at the same time recognizing the sovereign right of States to regulate.”  The language was the result of a compromise.  The nations of the Bolivarian Alliance of the People’s of the Americas (ALBA) opposed the original wording which privileged investors but delegates were able to agree on final language that satisfied all parties.  The declaration also rejected the US economic embargo against Cuba, while supporting assistance for Haiti and Argentine sovereignty over the Malvina Islands.

In his speech, Ortega expressed Nicaragua’s support of nuclear disarmament, of the Colombian peace negotiations, and of the struggle to control drug trafficking, emphasizing with regard to the latter the obligation that consuming nations have to assume more responsibility.  He said that it was not enough to simply call for regional unity; rather unity should be based on policies oriented toward justice, cooperation, and complementarity, all principles of ALBA.  He explained how Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan-backed project with a broader membership than ALBA, functions: “It is not true that Venezuela is giving away oil.  Venezuela provides the oil and our countries pay 100% of that petroleum.”  He said that 50% is paid in cash and the rest on easy terms with 25% becoming part of an ALBA fund and 25% going into “a social fund in each country for infrastructure programs.”  He said that Venezuela’s longstanding dependency on oil had meant that it had not in the past developed its agriculture. This provided a market for the agricultural products of its partner nations.   (Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 25, 27, 28; Informe Pastran, Jan. 25; El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 27; La Prensa, Jan. 28)

3. Costa Rican road causing serious environmental damage

Atlantic tarpon, common snook, and tropical gar could disappear from the San Juan River because of the erosion of chemicals such as copper and magnesium into the river from the road Costa Rica has been building on its south bank.  This was one of the results of a study released by several respected Nicaraguan environmental groups last week.  The study also showed high levels of aluminum in the river but the scientists said that aluminum did not pose the same threat as the other minerals.  Copper, however, could cause serious damage.  Highly dangerous mercury was also found in several sections that were studied and its levels should be monitored closely, according to the study. 

The Humboldt Center, the Friends of the River Foundation, and the Center for Research on Aquatic Resources of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, who carried out the study, estimated that over 13,000 species of plants and animals could be in danger as a result of alterations in their ecosystems, including 39 critical points on the river and hundreds of acres of forest.  Victor Campos, deputy director of the Humboldt Center, said the road violates international norms on separation between roads and rivers, resulting in massive erosion.  The forest has been conserved on the Nicaraguan side of the river but the Costa Rican side has been converted to agro-industry and mining with roads to link farms and mines to population centers.  Campos said that DDT, diethyl parathion, and other damaging banned agricultural chemicals were found in the river, products of the erosion from farmed fields.

In a radio interview, Costa Rican Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Roverssi dismissed the study saying, “This is the beginning of a new volley of lies.  It embarrasses me to see professionals being used like this or they may be looking for some kind of favors by issuing a biased study.”  Although he admitted not having read it, he added that if it had been a professional study it would have “begun with the damage Mr. [Eden] Pastora did” with his dredging of the wetlands at Isla Portillo, which the Nicaraguans call Harbour Head, “and you won’t find that in this report.” He finished by saying, “We are going to continue with the road with the sovereign right that Costa Rica has to build wherever it wants and it will be done with high standards of care.”  However, Victor Granados, the president of Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly, confirmed that investigations continue into the corruption associated with the construction of the road.  Two people have been arrested and others are subjects of investigation in the case.  The Comptroller General of the Republic and the legislature are also investigating. 

Since 2010, Costa Rica and Nicaragua have been disputing a 2.5 square kilometer triangle of land at the mouth of the San Juan.  The case is before the International Court of Justice at The Hague.  Last year Costa Rica began building the 160 kilometer of road “for national defense” according to President Laura Chincilla, a few meters from the river.  Nicaragua took the building of the road to the Central American Court of Justice which asked Costa Rica to suspend construction and repair damages but Costa Rica ignored the ruling.  (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 22; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 22, 27; La Prensa, Jan. 23, 26)

4. Energy from wind power to increase

ALBA of Nicaragua, S.A. (ALBANISA), a company with Venezuelan and Nicaraguan capital, will invest US$90 million to build 40 wind turbines in the Department of Rivas. Called ALBA Winds, the project will produce 80 megawatts for the national electric grid. The project is the fourth wind farm in Rivas between the Pacific Ocean and Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) where prevailing winds are most favorable for renewable energy generation.

According to Emilio Rappaccioli, minister of Energy and Mines, the Sandinista government has budgeted more than US$350 million for the energy sector this year including oil exploration and bringing electricity to rural areas. US$284 of the total is slated for the development of renewable energy sources.  Moving from a state with chronic energy shortage and daily blackouts when President Daniel Ortega came to office in 2007, Nicaragua now generates a surplus.  The surplus will be sold to other nations in the Central America electric grid which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Nicaragua has focused on the development of renewable energy production. With potential for wind, thermal and hydro-electric production, Nicaragua’s capacity to develop renewable energy sources is “incredible,” according to one businessman in the field. (Informe Pastran, Jan. 28; La Prensa, Jan. 26)

5. Nicaragua to offer land mine removal training

Nicaraguan Army head General Julio Cesar Aviles announced on Jan. 25 that Nicaragua is establishing this year an International Center for Humanitarian Demining at which the Nicaraguan Army and Defense Ministry will train other countries on anti-personnel mine removal. Nicaragua developed expertise in the field while removing 2,034,190 explosives left from the Contra War, including 179,970 anti-personnel mines. The army removed mines in 74 municipalities in the departments of Chinandega, León, Managua, Rivas, Madriz, Estelí, Boaco, Chontales, Nueva Segovia, Matagalpa, Río San Juan, Jinotega, RAAS and RAAN. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 25)

6. USAID program creates jobs and technology training

US Agency for International Development (USAID) hopes to help create 1,000 new jobs in Nicaragua this year with an investment of US$20 million in a program started in 2009 to provide technological training for youth to be employed by large companies and financing for small, and medium (PYMES) companies. According to USAID deputy director Danilo Cruz-DePaula, this program has created 4,700 jobs since 2009 and enabled assisted PYMES to increase their exports by 153%. In partnership with Cisco Systems and Victoria Foundation, 150 youth will graduate this year ready for jobs that require technology skills. Through cooperation with private banks and businesses, but not the Nicaraguan government, the USAID program focuses on “anchor businesses” that then provide stable markets for export products produced by PYMES, including cooperatives. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 22)

7. Nicaragua joins international outrage at fake Chavez photo

The Nicaraguan government joined in international outrage against the right-wing Spanish newspaper, El Pais. The paper published a fake photo pretending to be Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez unconscious and on a breathing tube in his hospital bed in Cuba where he is recovering from cancer surgery. El Pais billed the photo as an “exclusive.” The paper has apologized to its readers after learning that the photo was fraudulent, but has not apologized to Chavez, his family, or the Venezuelan people. Director of Communications Rosario Murillo decried the “lack of respect for human dignity” shown by El Pais. She said that this happens when lies become the “norm for the global media” and criticized the media’s constant efforts to “destroy, with little help for building.” (La Prensa, Jan. 24; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 24)