Nicaragua Network

1. Ortega gives long interview to Russia Today television
2. CSE removes Agustin Jarquin from National Assembly seat
3. Property waiver decision expected and other US-related news
4. Armed opposition bands or criminal cattle rustlers?
5. New poll shows increase in support for shipping canal
6. Organization founded to help migrant workers in Costa Rica
7. Economic growth of 5% expected for 2013
8. New pre-Colombian structure discovered
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1. Ortega gives long interview to Russia Today television

On July 25, President Daniel Ortega (who gives very few interviews) gave a very extensive interview to the television chain Russia Today which was broadcast in Russia on July 29.  In the interview, Ortega denounced United States policy and explained how he came to offer political asylum to whistle blower Edward Snowden. Ortega said, “He sent us a letter through the embassy of Nicaragua in Moscow.”   “Asylum has been sacred in Latin America,” he added, “a sacred principle, and for that reason it was not strange that we would find in Latin America the disposition [to grant asylum to Snowden].”  He said that the United States has spied on it citizens and on its allies in Europe and elsewhere, adding, “We have not only been spied on, we have been invaded by US troops.”  Latin America does not have the capacity to stop the US, he stated, “but Latin American and Caribbean citizens do have the authority, the strength, and the political will to unite.”

On economic issues, Ortega said that the former colonial powers continue to act as imperialists and agree completely with the strategies of the US.  “For example,” he said, “on subsidies, developing countries are forbidden [by the international financial institutions] to use subsidies and when trade agreements are proposed we are at a disadvantage because they do not renounce [their] subsidies.  It gives them a powerful instrument to control world trade.”

When asked by Russia Today about US bases in Honduras, Ortega said that the base at Palmerola dated from the time of President Ronald Reagan and his war against Nicaragua but that a base has now been installed in the Mosquitia, a region on the Caribbean Coast that includes part of Nicaragua as well.  Then he revealed that he had actually visited the Palmerola base a few years ago when a flight to Tegucigalpa was unable to land there because of the weather.  Then President Jose Manuel Zelaya (who was also on the flight) decided that the plane should land at Palmerola.  “One of the ironies of life,” said Ortega, adding, “We took pictures with US soldiers and officers” and toured part of the base.

When asked about Nicaragua’s recent reduction in poverty figures, Ortega said that Nicaragua still had a high percentage of its population living in the countryside and dedicated to agriculture.  He said that with programs like Zero Hunger and Zero Usury, women were able to become producers and feed their children and organize cooperatives.  Health care and public education, which were moving toward privatization under previous neo-liberal governments, were “reopened” to the population as they had been under the revolution in the 1980s. 

With regard to the possible shipping canal across Nicaragua for which feasibility studies are now under way, Ortega said that as the project moves forward Nicaragua will not abandon its development efforts in agriculture, food production and small-scale industry.  He noted that this was a tragedy that countries with great resources and little vision have lived through where they abandon efforts for food sufficiency and depend on the wealth that is being generated to import all their food.  “We have the privilege of having land, water and a population with a peasant farmer culture which is still well entrenched,” he said.  He added that the shipping canal will provide Nicaragua with the resources to invest in the landless peasants who have cleared parts of the nation’s forests in order to plant food crops, and provide the funds to reforest cleared land and save watersheds.

And finally, Ortega noted that because so many Nicaraguans in the 1980s studied in what was then the Soviet Union, many Nicaraguans speak Russian and some have Russian spouses who they brought to Nicaragua while others married and remained in Russia.  So, he said, “A relationship that was more than strictly formal and moved onto a profoundly human plane and has now been taken up again with the same warmth, the same respect, the same affection and the same esteem.”  (Radio La Primerisima, July 25, 29; Informe Pastran, July 25, 29; La Prensa, July 26)

2. Supreme Electoral Council removes Agustin Jarquin from National Assembly seat

On July 26, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) established a new precedent saying that the seats in the National Assembly do not correspond to the elected deputies as individuals but rather to the political party under whose banner they were elected.  The CSE used that argument to remove Agustin Jarquin Anaya from his seat in the National Assembly.  Jarquin was elected as a member of the Christian Democratic Union (UDC) in alliance with the Sandinista Party but, last month, he made a political alliance with the Independent Liberal Party (joining the Nicaraguan Democratic Bench—BDN) and promised strong, critical opposition to the Sandinista government.  The CSE said that Jarquin would be replaced with his alternate, a Sandinista.

As comptroller general Jarquin was jailed in the 1990s by then President Arnoldo Aleman when he denounced the president for corruption.  He was President Daniel Ortega’s vice-presidential running mate in the 2001 elections which they lost.  He served as a deputy in the National Assembly, reelected in 2006 and 2011.  Jarquin wanted to be the Sandinista candidate for mayor of Managua in 2011 and when he was not selected he broke the alliance that the UDC had maintained with the Sandinistas since 2000.

Commentators noted that the ruling could, in theory, benefit the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) both of which are facing defections.  Wilfredo Navarro, elected and reelected as a representative of the PLC since 2001, is now a declared independent.  And Mauricio Montealegre and Santiago Aburto have recently separated themselves from the PLI and have threatened to form a new legislative bench. However, other observers pointed out that, in the past, many deputies moved from one party or alliance to another with no reaction from the CSE.

Luis Callejas, head of the BDN, called an emergency meeting of the bench saying that the CSE decision was a violation of the separation of powers and that he would ask National Assembly President Rene Nuñez, a Sandinista, to explain how “a band of delinquents could make decisions that are exclusively the purview of the National Assembly.”  On July 29, Jarquin himself declared that he would not obey the ruling and stated that electoral law “clearly establishes” that a deputy can change benches.  Francisco Mayorga, a member of the UDC and Nicaragua’s representative to the Inter-American Development Bank, said that he had not been in agreement with Jarquin’s decision to break the alliance with the Sandinista Party.  “This has been a government that has prioritized the common good and solidarity with the most vulnerable [exactly] the ideas of Christian Democracy,” he said, adding that Jarquin could have expressed his differences from inside the alliance.  (Informe Pastran, July 27, 29; Radio La Primerisima, July 28; La Prensa, July 28)

3. Property waiver decision expected and other news of US-Nicaraguan relations

Jose Adan Aguerri, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), told the press that he expects the US State Department to announce the approval for another year of the “property waiver” for Nicaragua. Each year in July the US must grant Nicaragua a waiver to a US law that requires that aid be cut off to countries that expropriate property of US citizens. In the 1980s the Revolutionary Sandinista Government expropriated the properties of high ranking officials of the Somoza dictatorship and the National Guard as well as foreclosed on properties which were mortgaged and abandoned by Nicaraguans who moved themselves and their money to the US. Many of these Nicaraguans later became US citizens and are covered under the law. Aguerri said that the Nicaraguan government was on its way to resolving 66 cases this year. He and Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) President Diego Vargas expressed hope that the wavier will be granted.

The Nicaraguan Navy accepted military aid of US$7.4 million from the United States as part of its “Wall of Containment” program to combat international organized crime and drug trafficking. The donation will fund construction of an operations center at El Bluff near Bluefields on the Caribbean Coast and include a storage facility, a boat ramp and a road connecting it to the Naval Base at El Bluff. The donation also includes the purchase of two Swift Boats for maritime interception duty. 

In other news, US Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has introduced an amendment to a diplomacy and international aid bill that would apply sanctions against any country which offers asylum to NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden. Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela have said they would offer asylum to Snowden. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved Graham’s amendment unanimously. The full Senate has not yet voted on the bill. US Ambassador to Nicaragua Phyllis Powers called Snowden a “traitor” and said he should face “justice in his country.” If the bill with Graham’s amendment were to pass both houses of Congress and be signed by President Obama, it would only apply if Snowden were to accept Nicaragua’s offer of asylum. (Informe Pastran, July 26, 29; La Prensa, July 26, 28)

4. Armed guerrilla bands or criminal cattle rustlers?

On July 23, head of the Army General Julio César Avilés said that one soldier was killed and another wounded in an encounter with armed men in the municipality of Pantasma in the Department of Jinotega.  He said that troops were sent to the area after receiving complaints from ranchers about cattle being stolen and people being kidnapped. He said that there were armed bands in Jinotega but said that they were criminal groups.  He added, “There are no [political]-military organizations as some have claimed; on the contrary, they are criminal elements who are out there many times living an apparently normal life but looking for information and when they identify victims they attack them to steal and extort money.”

However, peasant farmer Guillermo Davila told the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) that the Army and Police were persecuting his family, particularly his brother Jose Luis Davila, in the community of Santa Teresa de Kilambé accusing them of participating in the bands.  He asserted that there were several armed groups with political motives that moved through the area. He said that they were irregular forces and not criminals and asked for human rights groups and media outlets to visit the area.  Ana Carolina Pineda said that her husband Miguel Angel Peralta was detained following an encounter with combined forces of the police and army in Tamalaque, Jinotega, during which he received a bullet to the head.  She admitted that two weeks previously he had joined an armed group to oppose the government.

Television viewers of Channel 12’s program “Buenos Dias” were startled on the morning of July 25 when guest Roberto Petray, director of the Nicaragua Pro-Human Rights Association (ANPDH), called up a “Comandante Nicaragua” of the 25^th of June Brigade in the north of the country and put him on the air.  He said that he had been a member of the different Liberal parties but had taken up arms against the government of President Daniel Ortega four years ago.  He claimed to have an organized armed group and supporters in the area.  He alleged that there were a total of 22 different bands which he coordinates.

Meanwhile, Aminta Granera, head of the National Police, said that in the first half of the year the police had disbanded 104 groups of cattle thieves, recovering 1,288 heads of cattle, 15 vehicles, 46 weapons, and arresting 367 people.  However, she said that the thieves are difficult to track down and the police have been able to resolve only 42 out of every 100 cases of cattle rustling reported by ranchers.  (Informe Pastran, July 23, 24; 25; La Prensa, July 24; Radio La Primerisima, July 23, 26)

5. New poll shows increase in support for shipping canal

The polling organization M&R Consultores released another survey last week which showed once again strong support for the government of President Daniel Ortega.  Results indicated that 66.3% approved his management, 14.4% disapproved while 18.5% neither approved nor disapproved.  Seventy percent approved of his management of the economy while 25% disapproved.  Seventy percent had high hopes that the shipping canal which is currently being studied for its feasibility would help pull the nation out of poverty; 9.35% said that it was pure publicity, and 4.1% said that they didn’t know.  This was an increase in support for the canal of over 10 points from last month’s survey. (Informe Pastran, July 26; El Nuevo Diario, July 27)

6. Organization founded to help migrant workers in Costa Rica

A Costa Rican labor federation and the National Workers Front (FNT) of Nicaragua will officially launch the National Council for Migrant Support (CNAM) in February. Even before opening its office, the CNAM has 150 members from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia. The purpose of the organization is to help foreign workers get documentation and, according to Carlos Guzman of the FNT, to improve the labor,  social, and health conditions of migrant workers in Costa Rica. Costa Rica currently has a high fee for documents, US$800, which is beyond the means of many domestic, construction, and agricultural workers who average US$300 per month income. As of the 2011 census, there were 287,000 Nicaraguan legal residents in Costa Rica. In September, Costa Rica will begin to fine businesses for labor violations. (Radio La Primerisima, July 27; El Nuevo Diario, July 25)

7. Economic growth of 5% expected for 2013

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) projects that Nicaragua will have a 5% growth rate in 2013. That is second highest in Central America (Panama will have 7.5% growth and the other Central American countries are expected to grow between 2% and 3%) and fifth highest in the hemisphere. Nicaragua has also seen a growth in remittances from citizens living abroad, reaching a total of US$440.7 million in the first five months, an increase of 5.8%.  According to the Central Bank, accumulated inflation for the year is 3.79%, up from 2.19% in the same period of 2013. Nicaragua has also registered a growth in international currency reserves of almost 3%, standing at over US$1.7 billion, a reflection of Nicaragua’s positive trade balance with the US.  Nicaragua has also reduced its public debt since 2007 as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product. (El Nuevo Diario, July 25; Informe Pastran, July 27)

8. New pre-Colombian structure discovered

Researchers have visited a remote site on Apatuma mountain near the Yasica River in Tuma La Dalia, Department of Matagalpa, where a pre-Colombian ruin has been found. Anthropologist Mario Rizo Zeledon said the structure needs to be investigated because it may be a new type of human settlement for the area.  The site has hundreds of four and five-sided columns over a meter long set horizontally to form a wall or pyramid. Archaeologist Paulo Cruz said it would have taken years to build and the rocks, volcanic basalt, were brought from another site. He said the structure may have been a look-out point on the border between the Matagalpa and Tawahka Suma indigenous peoples. Civil Engineer Eddy Kuhl Arauz said that the structure could be the older than the Matagalpa people who inhabited the area when the Spaniards arrived. He said that no other ancient structures like this have been discovered in Nicaragua. (Radio La Primerisima, July 23; El Nuevo Diario, July 23)