Nicaragua Network

1. Economy grew 5.2% in 2012
2. Judicial branch accused of releasing drug traffickers early
3. Access to quality public education increases
4. Russia to build Central American anti-drug training center in Managua
5. Iceland helped develop capacity for geothermal energy production
6. New maternity waiting homesto be built

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1. Economy grew 5.2% in 2012

The Central Bank of Nicaragua announced on Mar. 22 that the Nicaraguan economy grew by 5.2% in 2012, a full percentage point more than originally estimated.  The growth was propelled by an increase in exports and strong domestic demand, according to the report released by the Bank.  Ovidio Reyes, general manager of the Bank, said that construction contributed the most to growth in GDP with a rise of 32% reflecting an increase in the business, industrial, and residential sectors, including affordable housing.  He noted that exports reached US$2.667 billion in 2012, an historic high, and 18% higher than the previous year. The principal exports were coffee, beef, gold, and sugar.  Exports from the country’s free trade zones totaled US$1.904 billion.  Foreign direct investment totaled US$1.102 billion. Foreign exchange generated by tourism reached US$421.5 million, an increase of 11.8% from the previous year.

Employment in the formal sector increased by 7.8%.  The consumer price index showed inflation at 6.62%, down from 7.95% the previous year.  Remittances received by Nicaraguan families grew by 11.3% last year to US$1.014 billion with US$553 million coming from the United States, US$182.6 million from Costa Rica, US$57.9 from Spain, and US$18.3 million from Panama. 

Bilateral and multilateral foreign assistance totaled US$1.342 billion and, according to the Central Bank, such aid “is being used in expanding our economic infrastructure (electrification, transportation, roads, etc.), social infrastructure (health, education, social protections, food security, poverty reduction among others) and in agricultural production and rural development.”  Multilateral assistance increased by 15.6% from 2011 to US$522.9 million while bilateral aid from other countries besides Venezuela declined 8.2%.

Aid from Venezuela totaled US$765.6 million of which US$550.7 was in the form of concessional loans from the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA and US$209.9 was direct investment.  Sixty-two percent of the PDVSA funds was dedicated to productive investment particularly in energy, fair trade, agricultural production, housing, transportation, and small business financing.  The rest of the PDVSA loan monies went to the US$30 per month bonus for government workers earning below US$230 per month, the public transportation subsidy, a monthly payment to seniors living in poverty, and affordable housing.

Reyes said that while the Bank expects a growth rate in 2013 or between 4% and 5%, it could suffer from a slowing of the economies of the United States and Europe and from the effects of the current plague of coffee fungus for a total of approximately one percentage point of growth.  (El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 23; Informe Pastran, Mar. 22)

2. Judicial branch accused of releasing drug traffickers early

Ana Isabel Morales, head of the Ministry of Government which is responsible for policing and security, told reporters on Mar. 19 that some Nicaraguan judges were more interested in lowering the sentences of prisoners convicted of drug crimes than of those convicted of other offenses.  While she said it was not a question of violating the law, she noted, “We have found cases of prisoners who were given 15 years who in less than a year have their sentences reduced to five and after two years [the judges] say they have served their time and they are released….  Is this correct?No!  It is not correct!”  She added that there are other cases of people convicted of common crimes who would merit release but that the judges show no interest in them. Morales went on to say that the National Police had expressed its concern about the release orders because it is completely dedicated to the fight to stop drug trafficking and has watched the government spending a great deal of money on the trials of the traffickers only for them to be later released.

Morales declarations came on top of accusations by Omar Cabezas, Human Rights Ombudsman [an independent, but government-appointed position], who for the second time this month accused officials of the judicial branch of “fetching and carrying” between different prisons for the drug traffickers.  He said, “For the first time we have discovered that prisoners for drug trafficking in the Carcel Modelo prison in Tipitapa are communicating with those who are in Granada or Juigalpa.” He also said that he had evidence that a judge involved in sentencing and prison oversight was behind the orders to release drug criminals.

Supreme Court Justice Marvin Aguilar answered the accusations saying, “Drug traffickers have not penetrated the judicial branch.  The fact that one judicial official has been affected does not mean that the structure has been affected because there is corruption everywhere.”  Justice Yadira Centeno said, “For one isolated case you shouldn’t judge the whole institution.” The president of the Supreme Court, Alba Luz Ramos, said, “We in the judicial branch are responding to corruption so if the Ombudsman tells us the name we are going to begin a disciplinary procedure immediately, while respecting due process.”

Then, on Mar. 21, Minister Morales said that a disturbance the week before had been initiated by foreign drug traffickers demanding extra privileges and she justified the actions of police in putting down the protest.  She added that the prisons were too crowded and for that reason the government was building seven prison farms and one maximum security prison module along with a new women’s prison, using US$7 million of the US$9.2 million confiscated from the 18 Mexican traffickers detained in the Televisa case.  She was speaking at a meeting of police chiefs of Central America, Mexico, Colombia, and the Caribbean.

Supreme Court Justice Rafael Solis said on Mar. 23 that the release orders for prisoners were in accord with the law and that the orders should be carried out.  He said that he had reviewed 23 rulings where prisoners convicted of drug crimes had been ordered released, seven of which had been issued by the criminal panel of the Supreme Court, and they were all in accord with the law.  He said that the prison system had refused to comply with some of the orders to free prisoners “because they are interpreting the law incorrectly.” (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 19, 21; Informe Pastran, Mar. 19, 21; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 19, 21, 23)

3. Access to quality public education increases

The 2012 school year saw the total enrollment in Nicaragua of 1,648,500 students from pre-school through high school. The retention rate for pre-schoolers was 96%, for elementary school students 91%, and for secondary school students 89%. The Sandinista government’s “battle for the sixth grade”, an effort to achieve universal education through the sixth grade [which corresponds to seventh grade in the US], saw progress last year with 9,439 more students passing the sixth grade and registering for the five years of secondary school than had in 2011. Seventy-five percent of school age students were in school last year, a significant advancement in the goal of educating all children and youth.

The government of President Daniel Ortega released preliminary results of research carried out by Cuban education experts, on the problems of Nicaraguan public education. One problem they identified is the shortage of teachers. Rosario Murillo, coordinator of the Council of Communication and Citizenship, announced that in 2014-2016 the government will annually add 509 preschool teacher positions and 500 secondary school positions. The researchers also identified the need for more secondary school textbooks, particularly math, language and literature, and natural and social sciences.  The need for more laboratories and computers, as well as the need to reactivate and improve sports facilities were also identified in the research. Murillo pledged government action in all the problem areas.

The rector of the National Autonomous University-Managua (UNAN), Elmer Cisneros, announced that beginning in April, the university will begin offering additional training to 45,000 primary and secondary school teachers in coordination with the Ministry of Education. The courses are to insure that all teachers gain the level of licenciatura [a degree in Latin America between a bachelor’s and a master’s degree] to improve the quality of education, in areas that will include history, geography, mathematics and Spanish.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced last week that it will begin a new program which will run through 2017 to improve access to water and sanitation in rural schools, giving priority to 24 indigenous and Afro-descended communities in the North Atlantic and north-central parts of the country, according to UNICEF representative Phillippe Barragne-Bigo.“During the last 30 years, UNICEF and other important donors such as the Swiss Agency for Development and Aid have been the principle allies of Nicaragua in the quest for universal access to potable water and sanitation in rural Nicaragua,” the UNICEF representative said. More than 275,000 people have benefitted from UNICEF’s water and sanitation programs.  He stated that he was confident that the Nicaraguan government would not be satisfied until there was 100% access in rural areas. Barragne-Bigo said that the focus on schools in the new aid cycle “is a component of efforts to advance quality and inclusive education.” UNICEF’s 2008 national study of schools revealed that 52% were without access to potable water and 72% did not have appropriate sanitary facilities.

In an education related story, a meeting of the YATAMA indigenous political party announced the founding of two schools to revitalize and develop the country’s indigenous languages and promote leadership among indigenous youth. The project is coordinated with the Miskito authorities in the La Mosquitia department in Honduras for the benefit of Miskitos on both sides of the border, according to YATAMA president Brooklyn Rivera.

The Mayangna indigenous people are also working to preserve their language and have demanded from the national government teachers who are bilingual. Teacher Elizabeth Salomon McClean from Waspam stated that thanks to a program from the UN Education, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO), they managed to produce an atlas of wildlife in the watersheds of the rivers of the Mayangnas territories that is used for teaching the language. In the municipality of Bonanza students receive bilingual education, but in the Rio Bocay and Awastigni regions classes are only in Spanish, she said. Under Nicaragua’s Autonomy Law, the Law of Language Use in Communities of the Atlantic Coast, and the General Law of Education, indigenous communities have the right to education in their mother tongue. (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 21, 25; Informe Pastran, Mar. 21, 25; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 21; La Prensa, Mar. 23, 24)

4. Russia to build Central American anti-drug training center in Managua

Victor Ivanov, head of the Russian Federal Anti-Drug Service, attended the meeting in Managua last week of the police chiefs of Central America, Mexico, Colombia, and the Caribbean and laid the first stone for a training center for the police forces of Central America in technical areas of the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.  He said, “The problem of drugs is a worldwide threat.  It is of such a size that it destabilizes the economic situation of many countries and that is why we have to fight it.”  The head of the Nicaraguan Police, Aminta Granera, said that the training center “will have a profound significance, above all at this time when the police forces of Central America are making the greatest efforts to guarantee in the best way possible greater security and greater tranquility for our families and our people.” 

Attending the laying of the first stone for the center were the chiefs of police who participated in the conference and James Casey, the representative in Nicaragua of the US Drug Enforcement Agency.  US Ambassador to Nicaragua Phyllis Powers said that she hoped that the aid would complement the work of the DEA and the efforts of the Nicaraguan Army and Police in the fight against drugs, arms trafficking, human trafficking and the laundering of money from organized crime.

Last week also saw the completion of a donation of busses by Russia to Nicaragua for use in Managua which, along with other busses, has resulted in a complete renovation of Managua’s public transportation system.  Ivanov met with President Daniel Ortega and with Minister of Government Ana Isabel Morales to finalize documents for security agreements between the two countries to be signed in May.  Ivanov visited Peru before landing in Nicaragua on Mar. 19.  Earlier in March, a joint force of Nicaraguans and Russians dismantled a drug operation linked to the Zetas cartel that was shipping drugs to Europe and Russia. (El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 19, 23; Informe Pastran, Mar. 22, 25; Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 11, 12)

5. Iceland helped develop capacity for geothermal energy production

Nicaragua and Iceland have completed a five year, US$4.2 million agreement to increase Nicaragua’s capacity for geothermal energy production. During the five years, Nicaragua received technical assistance, a modern geothermal laboratory, and Nicaraguan graduate students studied in Iceland. Nicaragua is part of the Pacific “ring of fire” containing the world’s most active volcanoes. According to Minister of Energy and Mines Emilio Rappaccioli, Nicaragua has the capacity to produce 1,519 megawatts of electricity from geothermal sources, three times the entire energy use of the country.

The program was administered through the Icelandic Agency for International Development (ICEDIA).  Nicaragua taps only 7% of its geothermal potential according to officials. Of the 12 locations appropriate for geothermal energy generation, only two have been exploited and three have had exploration concessions granted. Engilbert Gudmundsson, director of ICEDIA said, “We expect that the Government of Nicaragua will be able to decide when to give or not to give concessions based on a comprehensive vision of risks and geothermal resources.”

Rappaccioli said that by the end of the year Nicaragua will be producing half of its electricity from renewable resources and the government has a goal of 95% clean energy generation by 2020.  According to Informe Climascopio 2012, Nicaragua is surpassed only by Brazil in Latin America as the country most attractive for the production of renewable energy. (La Prensa, Mar. 20; Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 20)

6. New maternity waiting homesto be built

Communications Coordinator Rosario Murillo announced that that the Sandinista government will construct 47 new Casas Maternas, or maternity waiting homes, and will repair and remodel 17 others between May and September. [Maternity waiting homes are centers where rural women who are referred by local midwives as needing to give birth in a hospital can stay before and after delivery. The homes are seen as a way to resolve what the World Health Organization calls “the tyranny of distance” and lower maternal and infant mortality.] This is work toward the goal of having a casa materna in each of Nicaragua’s 153 municipalities. Municipal governments, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, will carry out the construction and repairs. Murillo said that by strengthening this form of primary health care, hospitals will be freed up to administer to pregnant women at the time of delivery. (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 21)