Nicaragua Network

1. Fire consumes unique dry tropical forest in Masaya Volcano National Park
2. Ortega attends inauguration of Maduro in Caracas
3. US State Department releases annual human rights report
4. Nicaragua among major exporters of garments to US
5. Nicaragua is world’s fifth largest organic coffee producer
6. Ben Linder project continues on 25^th anniversary of his killing
7. Nicaragua ratifies ALBA trade rules treaty
8. UNESCO accepts petition to consider Rama language as intangible cultural heritage
9. CSE cancels legal recognition of three small political parties
10. TELCOR decree reversed
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1. Fire consumes unique dry tropical forest in Masaya Volcano National Park

The recovery of the area burned in the Masaya Volcano National Park will take at least a century, according to Carlos Mejia, director of biodiversity at the Ministry of the Environment (MARENA).  Mejia spoke at a forum celebrating Earth Day.  He said, “The trees that survive the fire will be the pioneers for the development of new forest in the National Park.”  Kamilo Lara said that the dry tropical forest was “unique in Nicaragua’s Pacific region with important ecosystems that will be very difficult to restore.”  The National Park includes two volcanoes with five craters.  The main crater is called Santiago and all are referred to as the Masaya Volcano.  The fire began on April 9. 

The current forest began to grow after the last eruption of the volcano in 1772 which produced a massive lava flow over the Masaya countryside. Ecologist Jaime Incer Barquero explained, “The now-devastated forest on the slopes of the Santiago crater of Masaya needed around 230 years in order to establish itself in the openings among the lava rocks …and for that reason the plants and animals will possibly require a long time to recover.”  Some species will recover rapidly and others will take longer, he said.  Among the 130 known plant and animal species in the park are orchids, bromeliads, the national flower Sacuanjoche(Plumeria rubra), howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, anteaters, white-tailed deer, iguanas, squirrels, mockingbirds, and chachalacas with a total of 26 species of mammals, 90 birds and 30 reptiles.

Guillermo Gonzalez, director of the disaster agency SINAPRED, said that this year’s wildfires had burned 144% more land than during the same period last year, much of it in protected areas.   He said that the principal cause of wildfires was improper burning of fields before planting. Making the fires worse have been continuing temperatures of above 100°F.  Bernardino Bermudez, head of SINAPRED in Masaya, said that the fire at Masaya Volcano National Park had burned 351 hectares as of Apr. 18.   Over 350 people from fire departments, police, and civil defense were fighting the fire and Masaya police were investigating to determine whether the fire had been set.   Communications and Citizenship Coordinator Rosario Murillo announced on Apr. 17 that fires were burning in seven departments with the pine forests of the Department of Nueva Segovia, in the north of the country, being the most affected.  (Radio La Primerisima, April 18, 20, 22; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 16, 18, 20; La Prensa, Apr. 17, 19)

2. Ortega attends inauguration of Maduro in Caracas

On Apr. 19, President Daniel Ortega and First Lady and Communications Coordinator Rosario Murillo travelled to Caracas, Venezuela, to attend the inauguration of recently elected President Nicolas Maduro, where they were met at the airport by Executive Vice-President Jorge Arreaza.  Upon arrival, Ortega said that the principal battle of the people is the “struggle for justice, equality, and peace, because we do not yet have a world where relationships are equitable and respectful.” Arreaza said that 47 delegations had confirmed their attendance, including 17 heads of state or government.  At the inauguration, which was held at the National Assembly, they were seated in the front row with Uruguayan President Jose Mujica and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Informe Pastran noted that, “When Maduro arrived at the Assembly to be sworn in, he greeted Ortega effusively and the two embraced.”  After the inauguration, a traditional military parade was held to celebrate the 203 anniversary of Venezuela’s first steps toward independence on April 19, 1810.

The next day Ortega and Murillo, accompanied by President Maduro, paid their respects to the late President Hugo Chavez at the Barracks of the Mountain, west of Caracas, where his remains rest. They were greeted warmly by the crowd that had gathered to see the dignitaries visiting the sarcophagus in a steady stream.  Before Ortega and Murillo, the crowd had greeted Raul Castro and Cristina Fernandez, presidents of Cuba and Argentina respectively.  Murillo said that she was overcome with “profound emotions” and had asked God for consolation for all those who still felt vividly the loss of the late president and hemispheric leader.  (Informe Pastran, Apr. 19; Radio la Primerisima, Apr. 19, 20)

3. US State Department releases annual human rights report

On Apr. 19, the US State Department released its annual report on the human rights situation in all the countries of the world except the United States itself. [The report was released on the same day that a bi-partisan panel released a report saying that the US practiced widespread torture in the years following the September 11, 2001, attacks.]  In the section on Nicaragua, the State Department said, “Nicaragua is a multiparty constitutional republic, but in recent years political power has been concentrated in a single party, with an increasingly authoritarian executive exercising significant control over the legislative, judicial, and electoral branches.” The Report highlighted the funds that the country receives through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) which it said were not included in the national budget or supervised by the Comptroller General of the Republic.  The report said that while the law establishes penalties for official corruption, the government did not enforce the law effectively.  It accused the courts of being susceptible to bribes and manipulation.  It did note the detention and prosecution of officials such as Supreme Electoral Council employee Julio Cesar Osuna for links to drug traffickers. 

With relation to elections, the report said, “The November municipal elections were widely considered to be marked by a lack of transparency. Opposition political parties, NGOs, and the media complained of numerous irregularities in the CSE’s management of the electoral process, including biased CSE decisions that gave undue advantage to the government’s FSLN party.”  However, more positively, in the section on labor rights, it noted, “With some exceptions the government effectively enforced applicable laws and often sought to foster resolution of labor conflicts through informal negotiations rather than formal administrative or judicial processes.”

Responding to the report, Adjunct Prosecutor General, Ana Julio Guido said, “Here we are working well and we are being transparent.”  She stated, “We are very satisfied with our institutions, with the work that we are doing; we believe that we are one of the countries in Central America with the institutions that have acted with total transparency.  We have worked hard to maintain that prestige at the international level.”  She added that if the National Police and the Public Ministry have problems, any agency could have them but what is important is that they have the will to work on them and move forward.  “We are unconcerned about what the US State Department says,” she said.  She added that the efforts in Nicaragua against organized crime and drug trafficking have been successful, not allowing drug traffickers to gain a foothold in the country.

Except in the section on worker rights, the State Department reports do not refer to the economic and social rights laid out in the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which entered into force in 1976. These include the right to food, water, shelter, education, health care, employment, and others.  (La Prensa, Apr. 21; Informe Pastran, Apr. 22; http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/#wrapper

4. Nicaragua among major exporters of garments to US

Nicaragua ranks 11th by volume and 12th by value among countries exporting garments to the US, according to the US Commerce Department. The garment industry represents 59% of Nicaraguan exports generating US$1.368 billion in 2012 and 69,000 jobs. Investors have found Nicaragua attractive due to high productivity, low wages, and low crime, as well as its proximity to the US, cutting transportation costs so that it rivals Bangladesh, Vietnam, and China in cost per unit upon delivery. Other factors cited by investors include Nicaragua’s participation in the Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and the government’s investment in roads and infrastructure. Nicaragua’s textile factories produce for major US chains such as Target, JC Penney, Wal-Mart and Kohl’s, and for labels such as Wrangler, Gap, Under Armour, Levi, and Docker, among others.

Labor leader and National Assembly Deputy Gustavo Porras cited Nicaragua’s labor stability as a key factor in the growth of Free Trade Zone factories which include the textile industry. A tripartite dialogue including the government, labor unions, and factory owners sets the minimum wage in the FTZs including regularly scheduled wage increases. Porras said, “It’s not the development model we want, but it is what exists and it has had the important function of creating 105,000 jobs [including garment and other assembly plants].” He said he hopes the sector will grow to include 140,000 jobs this year. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 18, 22)

5. Nicaragua is world’s fifth largest organic coffee producer

Nicaragua is the fifth largest exporter of organic coffee according to the International Coffee Organization (ICO). In 2012 Nicaraguan organic coffee producers sold 100,913 sixty kilogram sacks primarily to the United States and Europe. The ICO said that was a 14.5% increase over 2011sales. Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mexico, and Honduras lead Nicaragua in organic coffee sales. Colombia and Brazil, which are the world’s largest conventional coffee exporters, fall far behind Nicaragua in the organic coffee market. Nicaragua’s organic coffee sales have grown a whopping 308.9% since exporting 24,674 sacks in 2005.

Organic coffee earns 15-20% more for the grower and is cheaper to produce than coffee grown with chemical fertilizers and insecticides according to Juan Carlos Munguia, president of the Nicaraguan Association of Specialty Coffees. Munguia added that most of Nicaragua’s organic coffee is produced by small scale growers with properties of between 8.6 and 17.2 acres and most of it is grown in the country’s traditional coffee region composed of the departments of Esteli, Madriz, Nueva Segovia, Matagalpa, and Jinotega. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 22; Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 22)

6. Ben Linder project continues on 25^th anniversary of his killing

The most recent report by the Global Wind Energy Council highlighted Nicaragua for adding 40 megawatts of wind-generated electricity this year, raising the total electricity produced by wind to 102 megawatts. Part of those efforts is a project by the friends and family of Ben Linder, who was murdered by the Contras fighting to overthrow the revolutionary government on April 28, 1987. The project in El Jocote is administered by the Nicaraguan organization ASOFENIX and Portland, Oregon’s Green Empowerment, founded to continue Ben’s efforts to bring electricity to rural Nicaraguan communities. Green Power organizes volunteers from Portland to travel to Nicaragua to work on small-scale renewable energy projects. Ben was a native of Portland. The El Jocote project uses small scale solar energy installations to pump water for irrigation in this farming community. April 28 will be the 25^th anniversary of Ben’s assassination. He was 27 years old when he was killed, along with two Nicaraguan companions, while measuring water flow rates for a small hydroelectric project to bring electricity to the Northern community of El Cua. Benjamin Linder, Presente! (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 18; Informe Pastran, Apr. 18; http://www.gwec.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Annual_report_2012_LowRes.pdf, http://www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/index.php/articles/2013/03/renewable-energy-experts-head-to.html) 

7. Nicaragua ratifies ALBA trade rules treaty

The National Assembly approved, by a vote of 65-24 with one abstention, the treaty creating ALBA Economic Space— People’s Trade Agreement (EcoAlba-TCP). ALBA stands for Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas. The treaty was negotiated in February 2012 by the ALBA country presidents in a meeting in Caracas, Venezuela. It is a framework for a shared, independent development zone based on sovereignty and solidarity in order to expand a new model of economic relations in Latin America different from the logic underpinning Free Trade Agreements. Sandinista Deputy Walmaro Gutierrez described it as an effort to establish “rules of the game in terms of trade.” He called it very positive for the economies in terms of cooperation and technology transfer. He said it was a positive and concrete response to private business sector demands for a legal instrument offering legal security for trade among the ALBA countries. Gutierrez said the ratified treaty will benefit Nicaraguan businesses through increased financing from the ALBA Bank, greater investment by companies fostered by the cooperative trade bloc, and it will boost trade using the Sucre monetary system which does not require US dollars as the unit of trade. 

The opposition in the National Assembly voted against the treaty. Opposition Deputy Javier Vallejo explained that the bench opposed it because “it is loaded with political overtones by a group of countries supporting the deceased President Hugo Chavez, the main promoter of ALBA.” Opposition Deputy Pedro Joaquin Chamorro predicted that the “project will be extinct in a short time due to the death of Chavez and because his successor [Pres. Nicolas Maduro] is illegitimate and without leadership ability.” The ALBA is comprised of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Dominica, Barbados, Antigua, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 18)

8. UNESCO accepts petition to consider Rama language as intangible cultural heritage

The United National Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) accepted the petition of Nicaragua to consider the inclusion of the indigenous Rama language and customs as intangible cultural heritages of humanity needing of special attention to save them from extinction, the organization announced on Apr. 17.  The petition now passes to the UNESCO Consultative Council for a final decision. The next meeting will be in Baku, Azerbaijan, in December.  Nicaragua first presented the petition in 2011 and since then has modified it according to UNESCO requirements.  If the petition is accepted, the international community will be asked to provide assistance to save the language which has only 1,600 speakers living mainly on Rama Cay in the bay of Bluefields in Nicaragua’s South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS).  UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger notes that of the 6,000 languages currently spoken on the planet, 2,500 are at risk of disappearing, including 714 in Central America.  (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 17; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 20; http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00553#/culture/ich/img/photo/thumb/08488-LRG.jpg)

9. CSE cancels legal recognition of three small political parties

The Supreme Electoral Council announced on Apr. 16 that it was withdrawing legal recognition of three small political parties because they had not fully participated in the municipal elections of 2012.  The Christian Democratic Union Party (UDC), the Central American Union Party (PUCA) and the Neo-Liberal Party (PALI) did not present candidates or did not present enough candidates to satisfy the electoral law which mandates that a party to retain its legal recognition must run candidates in 80% of the races.  The number of city council seats was raised substantially in the last elections to increase citizen participation.  The UDC, which had previously run in alliance with the Sandinista Party (FSLN) ran independently in the 2012 elections, fielding candidates in 31% of the races.  Julio Acuña, director of Attention to Political Parties of the CSE, said that the UDC could appeal the decision to the Constitutional Panel of the Supreme Court.  UDC vice-president Wendy Puertos said that the decision was not legal and she insisted that her party had fielded candidates in 126 municipalities.

Acuña also stated that several small parties which did not capture even 1% of the vote in the last national elections, including the indigenous party YATAMA, the Coastal Unity Party, the Nationalist Liberal Party, and the Alliance for the Republic (APRE) had been given more time to register the members of their national party structures.  Acuña said that the major parties, supposedly including the Sandinista Party, Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), and the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), had updated their information.  (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 16; Informe Pastran, Apr. 18; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 16; La Prensa, Apr. 17)

10. TELCOR decree reversed

The regulatory agency for the telecommunications industry, TELCOR, announced that its March 22 administrative order that required telecommunications companies to submit to TELCOR for approval the names of their directors and managers would be modified to require only that the companies inform the regulatory agency of the names of key high level company officers, including financial officers.  The officers would not be subject to the approval of TELCOR. Diego Vargas of the Nicaraguan American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) said that respectful dialogue had prevailed.  (Informe Pastran, Apr. 19; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 20)