Nicaragua Network

1. Central American presidents meet with Obama in San Jose
2. Petrocaribe presidents meet in Caracas
3. Changes possible in Law against Violence toward Women
4. Commission meets to consider Bosawas invasions
5. National Assembly approves agreement to boost cacao production
6. Foreign debt rises
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1. Central American presidents meet with Obama in San Jose

The presidents of the member countries of the Central American System of Integration (SICA), including Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, met with US President Barack Obama on May 3 and 4 in San Jose, Costa Rica, in an interchange that did not result in any accord or agreement.  The members of SICA are Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic.  Obama said that he had come to the SICA meeting as an observer but would speak “a few words.”  He spoke of the importance of investing in infrastructure, energy efficiency, education, and citizen security. With relation to the last, he said, “We can’t just have a law-enforcement-only approach.  We have to have a prevention approach.  We have to have an education approach.” 

President Ortega said that the fundamental subject of interest for all Central Americans was the fight against poverty and that fighting poverty helps create the best conditions for confronting drug trafficking.   Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes said that poverty, inequality, and insecurity were the principal concerns of the countries of the region.  Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina reiterated his proposal to begin a debate about the decriminalization of drugs but that proposal was not taken up by the others. He also said that the trafficking of guns from north to south had not stopped, adding that it was a subject they should focus on.  Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla asked for sale of natural gas from the United States under favorable terms and Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli spoke of space opening up in Central America for investment from the United States in renewable energy. 

Before leaving, Obama met with 170 Central American business leaders who asked for assistance in making improvements in energy, transportation, and border infrastructure, in order to improve Central American competitiveness.  At that meeting, Mario Amador, president of the Chamber of Industry of Nicaragua, said “We are interested in integration of energy [grids in the Central American region] so that we can compete in international markets.”  El Nuevo Diario reported that Obama stated that the US was ready to collaborate “to achieve that energy integration,” adding that the US would “decidedly” support efforts to move forward with clean energy technology.

As usual, in the background, was the tension between Nicaragua and Costa Rica over the San Juan River.  When asked by the press, Ortega said relations between Nicaragua and Costa Rica were “normal”.   But Costa Rican Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo, when told of Ortega’s answer, said, “No, they are not normal.”  The World Court at The Hague said last week that it would decide at the same time the two disputes Nicaragua and Costa Rica have brought before it related to a tiny triangle of land at the mouth of the river claimed by both countries and an environmentally damaging highway built by Costa Rica on the south bank of the river.  A ruling is expected in the coming months.  Chinchilla boycotted SICA meetings while Ortega held the presidency but Ortega has attended sessions while she serves a term as president this year.

Obama’s presence brought out peaceful protesters including students and workers who carried such signs as “We don’t want and don’t feel like being a North American colony” (¡No queremos y no nos da la gana ser una colonia norteamericana!),which rhymes in Spanish, and “No military and no oil companies; Out Obama!”  Security was tight during Obama’s visit with many streets, highways, and buildings closed to the public.  Family visits were prohibited in one nearby hospital and helicopters flew over the city.  (Radio La Primerisima, May 5; http://www.whitehouse.gov//the-press-office/2013/05/04/remarks-president-working-dinner-sica-leaders; La Prensa, May 2, 4; El Nuevo Diario, May 1, 5; Informe Pastran, May 6)

2. Petrocaribe presidents meet in Caracas

San Jose, Costa Rica, was not the only city to hold a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere leaders last weekend.  The presidents and prime ministers of the countries that are members of Petrocaribe met in Caracas on Sunday, May 5, and agreed to form an economic zone which would “develop productive sectors in the participating countries.”  Petrocaribe is an association of nations that purchase petroleum from Venezuela on favorable terms which allow them to invest in anti-poverty and development projects.  The members of Petrocaribe are: Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Granada, Guyana, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Haití, Jamaica, San Cristobal and Nieves, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Santa Lucia, and Suriname.  Honduras and Guatemala were admitted as full members of Petrocaribe at this meeting.  Upon arriving in Caracas on Saturday night, President Daniel Ortega said that a major development pole was being strengthened and consolidated in Latin America and the Caribbean around Petrocaribe and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA). 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told Petrocaribe members that while the right wing expresses hopes that Petrocaribe will end, “Petrocaribe is just consolidating itself and getting stronger.” He predicted that the new economic zone, which will include “energy stability, financial stability and strengthened investment … will permit us to develop together.”  He noted, “As [late President Hugo] Chavez said, in the past petroleum was an instrument of domination and now it has been converted into an instrument of liberation.”  Also on Sunday, the presidents of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Honduras accompanied President Maduro to visit Chavez’s tomb on the two month anniversary of his death.  The next meeting of Petrocaribe leaders will be held in Managua on June 29.  (Radio La Primerisima, May 4, 5)

3. Changes possible in Law against Violence toward Women

Supreme Court President Alba Luz Ramos said on May 2 that there was consensus on the court that the Law against Violence toward Women, known as Law 779, should be changed to allow for mediation in certain cases.  Mediation is not allowed in any case according to the law as it currently stands.  Ramos said, “There is consensus.  But, if there is mediation it must be within the parameters established by the Code of Penal Processes and be restricted to a certain type of crimes.  By my criteria, they should be specified.  You can’t just simply say minor offenses.”  She added that, in labor conflicts or in interpersonal conflicts, mediation is permitted but, when a public crime is committed, it is not negotiable.  If the law is changed to allow mediation, she said, it must also be voluntary

There are at least four constitutional challenges to the law before the court.  According to Justice Rafael Solis, there are three ways the law could be changed. The court could declare certain articles unconstitutional, such as the one forbidding mediation.  The president could ask the National Assembly to amend the law.  Or the executive branch could issue an administrative order specifying mediation in the case of minor offenses.  National Assembly President Rene Nuñez said that any changes should be made by the Assembly.  He stated, “There is a law that has been passed.  If it needs to be amended, the amendment should be put forward.  One justice [Solis] gave his opinion but it is just his opinion. I hope that if there is to be a change, that it be made by the National Assembly.”

Groups supporting and groups rejecting the law have been holding demonstrations in recent weeks and announcing future rallies.  Glenda Orozco, a lawyer opposed to the law, called all citizens who feel their rights are violated by the law to demonstrate on May 16 at the Supreme Court. She said, “We have to tell the Court that we can’t accept this law because it is creating inequality between men and women and causing family disintegration.”  Bismark Davila, another lawyer against the law, said that by focusing on what he called the side issue of mediation the court had “avoided the basic issue of the unconstitutionality of the law.”  Lawyers who oppose the law assert that it favors one sector of society over another to the detriment of the rights of men.  Women who commit a crime are prosecuted under the Penal Code while men who commit the same crime are prosecuted under special law. And, opponents assert, the punishments are not proportionate to the offenses.

National Assembly Deputy Carlos Emilio Lopez said that the debate over the law is ideological with one side justifying violence against women and the other believing that there should be zero tolerance for such violence.  “From my point of view as a legislator and expert on constitutional law and human rights, there must be no justification for femicide, sexual violence, or any crime against a woman.”  He said that those who condemn the law “say that it erodes marriages and produces family disintegration.”  However, he stated, “It is the reverse: it creates respectful, united marriages and strong families that develop relationships of love, tenderness and harmony.”  He warned that allowing mediation should be well thought out because in cases of family violence the mediation may be between two people in conditions of inequality with the vulnerable person at risk.

The Network against Violence toward Women rejected any amendment to Law 779 to include mediation. Juanita Jimenez told Channel 12 News that the law was constitutional and the prohibition of mediation was based on a social and legal analysis of the dynamics in cases of violence which prevent equality of condition for women in these situations.  Amnesty International also warned against changing the law saying that it “provides women with a route to access justice and receive protection against violence.”  Amnesty researcher Esther Major said, in answer to the charge that the law damages families, “What damages families is the violence against women and children, not the law designed to help victims escape that violence.”  According to government figures, since the law went into effect in June of 2012, 6,482 cases of violence against women have been filed, 5,726 men have been detained and 696 have been convicted. (El Nuevo Diario, May 3; La Prensa, May 2, 4, 6; Radio Primerisima, May 3; Informe Pastran, Apr. 30)

4. Commission meets to consider Bosawas invasions

The commission appointed by President Daniel Ortega to resolve the issue of invasions by land grabbers into the communal indigenous lands in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve (a UNESCO site) met in Siuna on May 3.  Among those present were Attorney General Hernan Estrada, second in command of the National Police Francisco Diaz, Army Chief of Staff General Oscar Balladares, Environment Minister Juana Argeñal, Supreme Court Justice Marvin Aguilar, and Ana Julia Guido of the Public Ministry.  After the meeting the commission announced that strong measures would be taken against those who were trafficking in the land of the reserve and those who have cleared parcels for pasture or planting will be removed.  Authorities have identified some twenty land traffickers, among them lawyers, aides to local mayors, and others.  Lawyers have drawn up titles for parcels within the communal land grants of the Mayangna indigenous and sold them to prospective settlers. 

Environmental Minister Argeñal said, “There are a great many people in the core area [of the Reserve] who shouldn’t be there.”  She added, “For a start, we are not going to permit chain saws in the Reserve and no one should be in the core area of Bosawas.” Attorney General Estrada said he had met with all the judges in the Caribbean Coast region to explain to them that they must stop drawing up documents that have no value for the indigenous territories, noting “It was explained to the judges that they can’t continue to use illegal mechanisms to traffic with community lands.”

Another meeting of the commission is scheduled in which the strategy for the removal of the settlers will be decided.  Plots of land will be found for poor families who have real need, the commission announced, while the land traffickers will be brought to court to answer for illegal sale of land, environmental crimes and other offenses. 

According to geographer and environmentalist Jaime Incer Barquero, twenty percent of the Bosawas Reserve has been destroyed, as much as 100,000 hectares of forest, with catastrophic consequences.  [These figures are a bit confusing because, according to UNESCO, the core area of the Reserve is 330,000 hectares which would make the loss almost one-third.  However, the total of the Reserve, including the buffer and transition zones is over 2 million hectares, in which case a loss of 100,000 would be only 5%.] Aricio Genaro, president of the Mayangna Nation, said that certain species of flora and fauna have disappeared from the Reserve.  He stated, “The deforestation has had repercussions for community food security, loss of biodiversity, and loss of indigenous culture.”  On May 8, the Mayangna plan a rally in Managua before a meeting that they have scheduled with the government on May 9.   Genaro said that the Mayangna community was not invited to the meeting of the commission in Siuna.  “They told us it was a government activity but we as principal actors didn’t participate,” he said. 

A UNESCO representative is scheduled to arrive in Nicaragua this week to evaluate the situation in Bosawas.  (La Prensa, May 4, 6; http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?code=NIC+01&mode=all)

5. National Assembly approves agreement to boost cacao production

Last week the National Assembly ratifiedthe International Cocoa Agreement, a United Nations treaty incorporating both producing and consuming nations. Sandinista Deputy Wálmaro Gutiérrez, chair of the Production, Economy and Finance Committee, explained that the legislature is approving this type of international tool because it allows access to important funding sources such as the Common Fund for Commodities that will strengthen, build, and improve production and open new markets. Nicaragua produces about 3,000 metric tons of cacao per year with yields of about 774 lbs. per acre. The price of a metric ton of cacao on the New York market is currently at US$2,335. Gutiérrez said the goal is not to compete with the countries that export enormous quantities of cacao but rather to improve thequality of Nicaragua’s product, giving it a unique flavor, and from there move to increase production.In its 2012 report, the Center forExport Procedures (CETREX) reported that income from cacao exports reached US$3.9 million. The Tropical Agriculture Center for Research and Education (CATIE) predicts that in the next ten years Nicaragua will double the amount of land dedicated to cacao from 6,500 hectares to 13,000.   (El Nuevo Diario, Apr 30; Radio La Primerísima, Apr 30)

6. Foreign debt rises

Nicaragua’s foreign debt had risen to US$8.665 billion by December of 2012, according to the Central Bank.  That figure is 82.5% of Nicaragua’s gross domestic product.  Some economists feel that a debt to GDP ratio of over 90% puts a country in the danger zone.  [The United States government debt to GDP ratio passed 100% last year.]  Nicaragua’s public foreign debt is US$4.289 billion and private foreign debt is at US$3.385 billion. The figures for internal government and private debt were not released.  (La Prensa, May 6)