Nicaragua Network

1. Granada holds International Poetry Festival
2. Opposition divided over high level officials
3. National Assembly approves “Family Cabinets”
4. Nicaragua inaugurates C.A.'s largest solar power project
5. La Chureca dump transformation complete
6. Atlantic Coast briefs: Lobster diving extended; protest over Bosawas continues
7. Hearing held for Chontales miners protesting B2Gold
8. Hondurans use free Nicaraguan heath system
9. Nicaragua's Free Trade Zones grow
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1. Granada holds Poetry Festival

The ninth International Poetry Festival in Granada, dedicated to Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal, ended on Feb. 24 with the announcement that next year’s festival, the tenth, will be dedicated to the “Prince of Spanish Letters” Ruben Dario (1867-1916).  In the official communiqué ending the festival, the poets asked UNESCO to designate Granada and Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) as a World Heritage Site, called on the world’s governments to sign the Kyoto Protocol to protect the environment for future generations, and expressed support for the UN campaign to stop human trafficking and violence against women.  Attending the festival were at least 90 foreign poets from 60 countries along with 400 Nicaraguan poets from all parts of the country.  Gloria Gabuardi, a member of the board of directors of the festival, said that it costs about one million dollars each year to hold the festival, adding that funding comes from the European Union, Spain, Switzerland, the Nicaraguan National Assembly, and several Granada families. 

Cardenal read from a new anthology of his poems, “Somos polvo de estrellas,” and commented that he was uncomfortable with the honor saying, “I like silence, but I had to resign myself.”  Among others who read poems at the festival was Josue Zapata, a traffic policeman in Granada who has written poetry since he was eight years old. He was one of 30 police officers and 13 prisoners who participated.  Zapata’s poem was about a street child he had seen while on duty.    Enrique Vanegas is serving five years for domestic violence but because of good behavior he is under a special regime in the prison system.  He read a poem entitled “My Future” that he wrote as part of the National Police program for reinsertion into society of those who are serving time in jail. 

Margaret Randall, one of the poets from the United States, remembered that she lived four years in Nicaragua working with Cardenal and poet Gioconda Belli in the Minister of Culture and said that the festival gave her a chance to return to Nicaragua.  She said that, “To be in a festival such as this, where there are poets from so many countries… is a rare opportunity… to hear multiple voices of poets from different countries, different ages and focuses.” (El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 19, 21, 23, 24; Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 24)

2. Opposition divided over high level officials

The opposition political parties and civil society groups are divided over the election of the high level officials whose terms have run out.   The National Assembly should vote to approve the officials, including all of the magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) and all the justices of the Supreme Court, all of whom currently remain in office based on a 2010 presidential decree.  The governing Sandinista Party has enough votes in the Assembly to approve the officials on its own but Sandinista leaders have indicated that opposition deputies should have a voice in choosing 30% of the candidates for the posts, corresponding to the number of seats they hold in the Assembly.

But the opposition parties and groups have been quarreling for weeks about the choosing of candidates. The two Liberal parties are not talking to each other.  While the Constitutional Liberal Party has asked the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) to work together, Eduardo Montealegre, coordinator of the PLI Alliance, said last week that, “While [former President] Arnoldo Aleman is pulling the strings of the party and continuing to take it toward ruin, unity is very difficult.”  And the PLI itself is divided. Former Foreign Minister Francisco Aguirre summarized: “Some deputies of the PLI who aspire to posts in the CSE or in other state institutions say that their selection would contribute to a return to institutionality.  The others say that participating would be accepting the role of zancudos [mosquitoes, but meaning collaborators] such as occurred in the Somoza era.” 

Then on Feb. 24, the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), a part of the PLI Alliance, announced that it would not enter into any negotiations to select officials for the posts.  Party president Ana Margarita Vijil said, “We don’t want sinecures or offices and if they [the opposition Assembly deputies] do so, we are going to denounce them.  We don’t want a pact with Ortega.  And if the PLI makes one, we will leave the [opposition] bench.  We hope that won’t happen.”

Earlier in the week, National Assembly opposition leader Alberto Lacayo had proposed MRS leader Dora Maria Tellez for one seat on the Supreme Electoral Council while Deputy Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Barrios proposed Roberto Courtney, director of the electoral observation group Ethics and Transparency [a group that the US had a role in founding and funding], for another seat on that body.  Courtney’s reaction was not available but Tellez said that while she thanked Lacayo for the nomination, she was not interested in a government post.  She said that she believed the positions should be held by representatives of civil society rather than political party figures.  (Informe Pastran, Feb. 19, 20, 21; La Prensa, Feb. 20, 25)

3. National Assembly approves “Family Cabinets”

On Feb. 21, with only the votes of the Sandinista Party, the National Assembly passed an amendment to the new Family Code that would authorize the formation of “Family, Health and Life Cabinets” which the administration of President Daniel Ortega has proposed to strengthen the organizational capacity of each community in the areas of health, clean neighborhoods, education, security, local celebrations, prevention of domestic violence, emergency assistance at times of natural disasters, and other areas.  According to the government, the goals include “promoting consideration, esteem, self-esteem, and appreciation among those who share a community” as well as “applying the model of values that are Christian, socialist and in solidarity in a way that dignifies and promotes initiative, capacity, responsibility, duty, and rights along with more space for participation and decision-making in all areas of life.”  Each neighborhood cabinet would include all who wanted to join and would meet regularly to organize its activities.

While the other articles of the new Family Code had been passing with broad support, all opposition deputies voted against the amendment to authorize the Family Cabinets and statements of condemnation were immediate.  Alberto Lacayo, an Independent Liberal Party (PLI) deputy, said that the family cabinets were an invention, an absurdity, and it was a blow to Nicaraguan families to try to involve outside persons in intimate family affairs.  Deputy Eliseo Nuñez said it was a step backwards in terms of individual rights because Nicaraguans should have the right to organize themselves however they wished.  Deputy Edipcia Dubon of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) said the Sandinistas wanted to control the family and she criticized the deputies from the Liberal parties for not having left the chamber depriving the Sandinista deputies of a quorum.  The Catholic Church joined in the condemnation.  Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, head of the Managua archdiocese Office of the Family, Life and Children, said that the cabinets were “totally an offense against Christianity with a political objective, not a religious one.” He said, “We cannot permit that, in the name of God and Christianity, they trample the human and family rights of Nicaraguans.” 

However, Sandinista Deputy Carlos Emilio Lopez said it was untrue that the cabinets were going to reach inside each family.  The law does not give them that power, he said, adding that the cabinets would be set up only to organize families to improve standards of living in their communities and solve community problems.  (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 21; Informe Pastran, Feb. 21; El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 21; La Prensa, Feb. 22)

4. Nicaragua inaugurates C.A.'s largest solar power project

On Feb. 21, Nicaragua inaugurated the largest solar power generating project in Central America. With 5,880 photovoltaic panels, the renewable energy project in the municipality of Diriamba in the department of Carazo will serve 1,100 residences which use an average of 150 kilowatts of electricity a month. The panels will produce over one megawatt of electricity [1,000 watts per hour] from the sun, avoiding the release of 1,100 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and thus preserving the equivalent of 2.8 sq. kilometers of forest. Increased use of renewable energy last year enabled Nicaragua to reduce its importation of petroleum by US$241 million in comparison with the previous year. The solar project was built at the cost of US$12 million with US$11 million provided by the Japanese government and the balance from the national budget. The Japanese ambassador participated in the inauguration.(El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 21; Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 20, 21; Informe Pastran, Feb. 20)

5. La Chureca dump transformation complete

The integral development project for Managua's infamous Chureca dump, thought to be the largest in Latin America, has included not only sealing the landfill, new homes for the 258 families who had lived on the dump, and the construction of a school, but also the construction of a modern recycling plant. After four years, the recycling plant is now complete. The project has been funded by the Spanish government in cooperation with the Managua and national governments. The recycling plant allows the separation and sale of plastic, paper, metal, glass, etc. and the compacting of inert waste marketable for industrial fuel. In a private meeting with President Daniel Ortega, Juan Lopez-Doriga, director of the Spanish aid agency, celebrated the completion of the US$53.2 million project. He said that Spain's financial crisis was forcing it to cut back on its level of economic aid in Latin America, but that Nicaragua would continue to be a priority country. “We are going to work heavily in water and sanitation in Nicaragua in the next few years, Lopez-Doriga said.

For four decades the 42 hectare Chureca dump near the shores of Lake Xolotlan (Lake Managua) was an open wound where 1,500 people lived in unhealthy conditions and substandard housing. Lopez-Doriga told the families, “Your lives have changed and we are excited about that.” Where before there were many social problems such as child labor, domestic violence, illiteracy and school absenteeism, today there is a community of neat houses, a school, and many of the adults have jobs in the new recycling center which began operation at the end of 2012. In addition to the housing and school, the new neighborhood has a health center, a community center, sports fields, and a police substation. (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 19)

6. Atlantic Coast briefs: Lobster diving extended; protest over Bosawas continues

The National Assembly approved a third postponement of a prohibition of deep water diving for lobsters and other shellfish on Nicaragua’s North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) but this time added conditions to the postponement.  The new measure mandates that every quarter the Nicaraguan Fisheries Institute (INPESCA) must inform the National Assembly about progress it has made in the program of occupational conversion contained in the law when it was passed originally in 2007 but which was never effectively implemented. The new measure states that if INPESCA is unable to train the divers for other work (because if and when the prohibition finally goes into effect, lobster fishing will only be done with traps) the postponement will be indefinite. One source stated that lobster and other shell fisheries were the source of direct and indirect employment for 20,000 people in Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas. 

Ofelia Thompson, a leader of the group of women in Bilwi who buy lobsters from the divers, said that the national government, the local government, and INPESCA should take advantage of the two year postponement to push realistic projects that will have an impact in the area, including factories or similar alternatives to diving.  The women had held a protest at the local pier demanding the postponement of the diving prohibition.  While diving is relatively well paid, hundreds of mainly Miskito Indian divers have died or been permanently incapacitated from the bends when ascending after dives.  (La Prensa, Feb. 22, 25)

In other news, the indigenous Mayangna communities in and around the UNESCO Bosawas Biosphere Reserve in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) have declared a “permanent emergency” because of the clearing of approximately 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) of rainforest in the last five years by colonizers form the western part of the country.  Speaking at the Meso-American Forum being held in Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, Aricio Genero, president of the Mayangna Nation, said that at this rate the Bosawas Reserve will disappear in five years.  The threats to Bosawas Reserve were recognized at the International Poetry Festival in Granada when Thiago de Mello, former Culture Minister of Brazil, and Bianca Jagger, a Nicaraguan human rights defender, said that they supported the petition of the Mayangnas asking the government to declare a national emergency to defend the reserve.  The government of President Daniel Ortega has demarcated indigenous land and issued communal titles to the land but has not been able to stop the movement of loggers and farmers into the indigenous areas.  (El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 25; Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 23)

7. Hearing held for Chontales miners protesting B2Gold

A closed-door hearing was held in Managua on Feb. 25 in the case of 12 miners from Santo Domingo, Chontales, at which the judge ordered the men detained for trial on April 25.  The small scale miners/gold panners are accused of causing grave injury to persons and damage to private property when the police on Feb. 9 broke up a four month long road block that the miners had maintained on a road leading to a B2Gold mine in Santo Domingo.  The defense attorney for the miners did not discard the possibility of an agreement between the parties before the trial. 

The police, at the request of B2Gold, farmers, merchants, and others, who used the road, arrived early in the morning of Feb. 9 to remove the road block.  They were received by the miners with stones, clubs, machetes, and home-made mortars.  Seventeen officers and seven protesters were wounded in the encounter during which the protestors also burned drills and pumps belonging to B2Gold.  Forty-seven were arrested of whom twelve were charged and are scheduled to stand trial. 

The gold panners maintain that B2Gold is mining in an area that they had used for artisanal (small scale) mining.  Nomel Perez Sosa, president of the Centenario de Santo Domingo Movement, one of the groups opposing the Canadian mining company, said that they are demanding that the company not damage the aqueduct, comply with environmental regulations, and return the gold that it removed from the 52 acre area that was theirs or pay the equivalent which they calculate at 56,000 ounces of gold or US$15 million.  Pablo Venturo, general manager of B2Gold in Nicaragua, said his company was open to dialogue.  He said the company had offered the small scale miners 76 acres of land within the B2Gold concession, processing of more of their gold, and technical assistance but “they insist on the US$15 million to divide among themselves.” 

Informe Pastran reported on Feb. 20 that the issue was becoming complicated for B2Gold because the public was viewing the company as a rich exploiting corporation facing off against poor artisanal miners.  Opposition National Assembly Deputy Alberto Lacayo formally asked the secretary of the Assembly for a special committee to investigate the charges of excessive use of force on the part of the National Police and accusations that they were acting in the interests of the company rather than those of the local citizens.  Lacayo said that the population was alarmed at such use of force against miners who were only asking for work and clean water.  (La Prensa, Feb. 10, 25; Informe Pastran, Feb. 20)

8. Hondurans use free Nicaraguan heath system

Hondurans living near their country’s border with Nicaragua are increasingly crossing into Nicaragua for medical attention, according to Nicaraguan health officials. In some communities in Nuevo Segovia, doctors estimate 6-8% of their patients are Honduran. Dr. Francisco Reyes, departmental health director, said that Hondurans perceive the Nicaraguan health care system as being better than their own since it is free and provides medicine to its patients. Dr. Reyes said that Hondurans would not be turned away but that their use of the departmental health care system had consequences because the budget is based on the population of the department and does not account for Hondurans crossing the border. (El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 25; Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 25)

9. Nicaragua's Free Trade Zones grow

Employment in Nicaragua's Free Trade Zones (FTZs) grew by 15% in 2012 reaching 103,000 jobs (56,000 women and 47,000 men) and exports totaling US$2.3 billion with a value added of US$700 million. While the majority of FTZs are in Managua, there are major centers of employment in Carazo (9,473 employees), Esteli (9,425), Masaya (8,590), and Chinandega (8,103). US-owned companies – 50 with 33,206 jobs – are the most numerous, followed by South Korea with 29 assembly plants and 28,794 employees. Between 2007 and 2011, private companies invested a total of US$500 million in Nicaragua's FTZs while last year alone they invested US$250 million, according to official figures. (Informe Pastran, Feb. 25)