Nicaragua Network

1. UNESCO asks for protection of indigenous in Bosawas Reserve; government announces prosecutions
2. Churchmen, with one exception, lambast Law 779
3. Government presents outline of plan to confront coffee leaf rust
4. Hydroelectric projects moveforward
5. Nicaragua pays for Venezuela oil with food
6. Ortega meets with Palestinian Foreign Minister
7. Nicaraguan students to receive NASA training
8. School lunch supplies distributed
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1. UNESCO asks for protection of indigenous in Bosawas Reserve; government announces prosecutions

United Nations officials urged the Nicaraguan government to protect the habitat and indigenous inhabitants of the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve (a UNESCO site) and the Attorney General announced that the Supreme Court had been asked to open investigations of 17 lawyers for illicit activities in the writing of illegal land titles in the reserve.  James Anaya, UN Special Raconteur for indigenous rights, said in a communiqué, “The lack of advancement with effective measures to secure the territorial rights of the indigenous communities inside the reserve can lead to a worsening of the social tension that exists there” because of the settlement of “people who are not of indigenous origin.” He added that the deforestation of the Reserve puts at risk the habitat of the indigenous people there.  He said that he would continue to monitor the situation.

UNESCO Director Irina Bokova, who visited Nicaragua last week, said that she observed strong conservation policies and a consciousness of conservation in public opinion.  She stated that sensitivity to ecological issues should “begin in the schools where responsible citizens who will protect the environment are formed.”  Bokova flew over the Indio Maiz and Ometepe Biosphere Reserves and visited the colonial cities of Leon and Granada and indigenous community of Subtiaba in Leon.  Both Leon and Granada are home to UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  Possibly because of recent violent incidents there, Bokova did not travel to Bosawas. 

At his meeting with Bokova, President Daniel Ortega said Bosawas was a “human problem” with the Mayangna community that cares for the Reserve on the one side and the mestizo communities that have moved into the forest to plant fields and raise cattle on the other.   The problem has resulted from the lack of a response “that settles this peasant population and stops the migration that keeps moving the agricultural frontier.”  He said that there was also the problem of the illegal loggers “who use the needy peasant population, getting them to invade the reserve so that they can take out the timber. That is to say that we have need combined with delinquency which requires a response that attacks the diseases of extreme poverty and the lack of jobs.”

Attorney General Hernan Estrada announced that he had asked the Supreme Court to open investigation of 17 lawyers who are alleged to have violated legal norms in the sale of land.  The request stated that the government had knowledge of acts of usurpation and invasion of indigenous communal lands located within the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve.  “Among the irregularities we have found,” said Estrada, “are actions by lawyers in the exercise of their functions that affect the rights of the indigenous communities and the natural resources of the reserve, as are laid out in the police report.”  Among them were false sworn statements about land ownership.  The lawyers mentioned in Estrada’s report are from Siuna, Puerto Cabezas, Boaco, Matagalpa, Nueva Guinea and Managua.  (El Nuevo Diario, May 11, 13; La Prensa, May 10; Radio La Primerisima, May 9)

2. Churchmen, with one exception, lambast Law 779

With Esteli Bishop Abelardo Mata announcing that the sign of the beast (from the Bible’s Book of Revelations) was no longer 666 but rather 779, referring to the Law against Violence toward Women, known as Law 779, and Protestant evangelicals calling for a demonstration against the law on May 16, Nicaraguan churchmen, almost without exception, came out strongly last week against a law which they said was destroying families. Mata told Channel 12 News, “How many times is there a reaction based on anger, on desire for revenge, and once the accuser of her husband, her uncle, her cousin, calms down, she asks to revoke the case, but it is already in the hands of the law.”  He added that there should not be distinctions or privileges for one sector of society, namely women, adding, “There cannot be laws of first and second class.”

Mata was joined by Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, head of the Catholic Office of the Family, who said that the law was arbitrary, subject to the interpretation of the judge and of the woman who is making the accusation and “while there is no doubt that many cases will be just there is also no doubt that many others will be unjust.”  He said that “We have to work so that the family is reconciled in the peace of Jesus Christ.”

Meanwhile, Assembly of God churches were calling on all those who felt injury from the law or that their constitutional rights were being violated to join them in a demonstration on May 16^th at the Supreme Court building.  The demonstrators will be demanding that the court rule in favor of the constitutional challenges to the law that have been introduced.  Assembly of God leader Saturnino Serrato said that his church supports all of the challenges.   

However, one high-ranking Catholic priest, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua Silvio Baez, came out in favor of the law.  He said that he was against violence toward women and felt that crimes and violence against women should be punished with the force the crimes merit.  He added that murder of women had become too common a crime and society was wounded.  He added, “I believe that it merits a special law and that doesn’t take anything away from the dignity of men… because our laws, the penal code, already punish violence against any human being.  (El Nuevo Diario, May 9; Informe Pastran, May 7, 13; Radio La Primerisima, May 7)

3. Government presents outline of plan to confront coffee leaf rust

Jose Adan Garcia, Agriculture Ministry official in Jinotega, announced a plan last week for the coffee groves of small coffee farmers which will include replacement of some bushes, and rehabilitation and maintenance of others over the next three years.  He said that 60 technicians and three phytosanitary inspectors will work on the project in the Department of Jinotega which, as Garcia noted, produces the most coffee of any department in Nicaragua.  He said that 26,000 acres of groves will be replaced this year while 45,000 acres will be rehabilitated through selective pruning and other operations.  Another component of the program will be the application of fertilizer on those plantations that were minimally affected by the leaf rust to prevent the further advance of the fungus which attacks weak plants first.  Garcia said that 34,000 small growers who grow fewer than five acres of coffee and 400 medium and large scale growers with 85 acres or more would be included in the program.  This program will be financed from the national budget through the government development bank Produzcamos and the Ministry of the Family Economy.

A longer term program was announced by Juan Ramon Obregon, director of the National Coffee Commission.  He said that the plan would affect 215,000 acres over eight to ten years and would involve coordination between the government and the private sector.  Obregon said that certified seed would be imported and the best national seed collected to create a germplasm bank.  Financing will come from ALBA-CARUNA (the ALBA funded credit cooperative), private banks, Produzcamos Bank, and micro-finance organizations.  Obregon explained that the country will continue to have to live with the leaf rust but with the help of Brazil will learn to work with plants that are more resistant. 

On May 13, opposition members of the National Assembly were scheduled to introduce a bill that would provide a government subsidy of US$85 per acre of coffee affected by leaf rust to growers to enable them to combat the plague.  Included with the bill was a letter from a number of growers asking Sandinista deputies to also support the initiative.

There are an estimated 40,000 farmers who produce coffee in Nicaragua with the harvest for 2012-13 reaching two million hundredweights in spite of the leaf rust infestation. While Nicaragua only produces 1.5% of the world’s coffee, the International Coffee Organization puts the country among the top ten producers in terms of quality. The government is expected to reveal more details about its plan to confront the leaf rust crisis in coming days.  (La Prensa, May 8, 10; Radio La Primerisima, May 7, 10; Informe Pastran, May 9)

4. Hydroelectric projects move forward

Officials of Nicaragua Hydroelectric Central (CHN), the company planning to build the giant Tumarin hydroelectric dam/power plant on the Rio Grande de Matagalpa, announced last week that they had reached an agreement with 315 families in the affected area of Apawas in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) to pay them US$2,065 per acre for their land.  The farmers said that if the payments are not made on schedule, they will resume the protests that have held up the project for six months.  CHN General Manager Roberto Abreu said that construction will begin in October and finish in 2017.  The plant will cost US$1.1 billion and will produce 253 megawatts of electricity.  When the project is finished, Nicaragua will reach 72.6% of its energy produced from renewable sources.  The expected savings in petroleum imports is US$70 million annually.

Meanwhile, construction was begun on May 7 on the El Diamante hydroelectric project in the Department of Matagalpa which will generate power from the Upa River and provide electricity to the communities of El Jinete, El Jobo, Buena Vista, El Jícaro, and Azancor, in the municipality of San Ramón, as well as other communities in the municipality of Matiguas.  Company officials said that it will not include a dam or reservoir and will have no affect on the surrounding environment.  Official Sergio Rios said that the project had been well received by the indigenous communities of the area. It is expected to be completed in 18 months.  The project will cost US$16 million to build and will produce five megawatts of electricity.  (La Prensa, May 10; El Nuevo Diario, May 9)

5. Nicaragua pays for Venezuela oil with food

Nicaragua greatly increased the proportion of Venezuelan oil it paid for with food products in 2012. Of the 17 countries that are part of Petrocaribe, Nicaragua led in the amount of oil bartered for food. It sent 496,389 tons of food to Venezuela, a 208% increase over 2011. Guyana and the Dominican Republic also exchange food for Venezuelan oil. The food-for-oil transactions are handled through the semi-private companies Albalinisa and Albanisa which are jointly owned by Nicaragua and Venezuela. [These companies also provide much of the poverty alleviation funding in Nicaragua.] Nicaragua paid part of its oil bill with 21,362 steers, 13,778 heifers, flavored and skim milk, tuna, vegetable and palm oil, sugar, coffee, beans and bean seeds, among other food products.

The Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) praised the food-oil exchange calling it a “positive option” and a “benefit” to Nicaraguan businesses because it creates a greater export demand for Nicaraguan products. [And, since the introduction of the ALBA currency known as the Sucre, it also enables trade without use of US dollars.] (Informe Pastran, May 7; El Nuevo Diario, May 9)

6. Ortega meets with Palestinian Foreign Minister

On May 7, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki met with President Daniel Ortega during a visit to strengthen ties of friendship between the two nations. President Ortega pledged Nicaragua’s continued support for the Palestinian cause “for which so much blood has been spilled.” He said it is still being spilled because the State of Israel does not abide by [UN] resolutions and [international] agreements to go forward to consolidate the Palestinian State.

Al-Maliki, for his part, praised Ortega and the Sandinista Revolution. “I have to confess,” he said, “we live the Sandinista Revolution moment by moment, day by day.” He said that the victories of the Sandinista Front are victories for the Palestinian people. Al-Maliki noted that Sandinistas have even shed their blood for the Palestinian cause, citing Patricio Argüello who fell in battle in Palestine “defending the revolutionary cause of the territory and is now an icon and a leader for the new generations.”

Ortega lamented the fact that the people of Israel, who were victims of Fascism in the years of Nazi Germany, now have a government where the interests of the imperial powers dominate.   “They have converted the State of Israel into a military base to ensure their control, their dominion, their expansionist policies, destabilizing the region that has so much human wealth and natural resources.” Ortega said, “We want to normalize relations with the Government of Israel, but for that it has to have, as a minimal condition, respect for the Palestinian people.”   Al-Maliki also visited the National Assembly and, after leaving Nicaragua, he travelled to El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama. (Radio La Primerisima, May 7)

7. Nicaraguan students to receive NASA training

Thirty-one 6^th to 8th grade students (16 boys and 15 girls) from the Pierre and Marie Curie Universal School of Nicaragua will travel this week to the United States for classes with NASA scientists in Houston, TX, in space engineering, in particular the work in preparation for travel to Mars. The school came to the attention of NASA last year when five of its students discovered asteroid 2012 FE 52. In February the school inaugurated the Neil Armstrong Astronomical Observatory, the first of its kind in Latin America, a project which was initiated by Nicaraguan government science advisor Jaime Incer Barquero. It has a 15 foot dome transported from Baltimore, MD, which houses an 11 inch reflector telescope. The project was coordinated with NASA and cost US$500,000. The students will be accompanied by teachers and some parents. (Radio La Primerisima, May 11; El Nuevo Diario, May 11)

8. School lunch supplies distributed

Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo announced that the second disbursement of products for the school lunch program was being distributed to 10,000 schools in all 153 municipalities. She said, “We are talking about 100% coverage of preschool children in community, public and subsidized schools and primary schools, public and subsidized...covering nearly 1.1 million boys and girls from three to 12 years of age.” Supplies for the school lunch program amount to almost 200 million pounds of food including beans, corn, fortified cereal, vegetable oil and wheat flour. She said that as long as poverty exists “We have to keep fighting, battling together to defeat these scourges...” (Informe Pastran, May 13)