TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2007
Nicaragua Network Hotline (August 28, 2007)
August 28, 2007Topics in this hotline include:
1. DGA impounds Exxon Mobile's storage tanks in attempt to force negotiation with PETRONIC
2. Ministry of Agriculture distributes seeds to small farmers
3. MRS joins right-wing opposition to Councils of Citizen Power
4. Taiwan to import "all available Nicaraguan coffee"
5. Arias and Ortega reopen bilateral relations despite ongoing historical discrepancies
1. DGA impounds Exxon Mobile's storage tanks in attempt to force negotiation with PETRONIC
Nicaraguan Customs (DGA) impounded a number of Exxon Mobil's oil storage tanks in the Port of Corinto. A judge in Chinandega ordered the seizure in response to unpaid income taxes of US$2,909,482. In all, the transnational oil company owes the Nicaraguan government nearly US$20 million in unpaid taxes. The move was widely seen as pressuring Exxon Mobil to negotiate use of its storage tanks, which have remained empty for several months, to store Venezuelan oil for the semi-public Nicaraguan Petroleum Company (PETRONIC).
Exxon Mobil, which has a monopoly over oil refining and controls over 80% of the petroleum market in Nicaragua, has so far demonstrated its unwillingness to cooperate with the government to overcome the country's severe energy crisis. As well as refusing to pay millions of dollars in taxes, Exxon Mobil has refused to extend credit limits to the electricity generators or rent its unused tanks to PETRONIC. Exxon Mobil's oil dominance in Nicaragua has been superseded by Venezuela's commitment to supply 100% of Nicaragua's oil needs with concessionary terms. Ground has also been broken on a joint Nicaragua-Venezuela oil refinery which will further marginalize the US oil giant.
As a sign of the extremes that the Nicaraguan press goes to criticize the Sandinista government, much of the press has sided with the transnational oil company and accused the government of using what are described as dishonest or underhand methods to achieve its objectives. According to the dissident Sandinista newspaper El Nuevo Diario, the government has demonstrated that its preferred method of negotiation is "with a pistol in the temples." It is nearly inconceivable that a newspaper with roots in Sandinismo would side with a transnational corporation which has a reputation as bad as that of Exxon Mobil, over a nationalist government asserting its sovereignty and trying to find solutions to the chronic energy shortage. Such is the state of Nicaragua politics today.
Of course, US Ambassador Paul Trivelli also weighed in warning that the "good climate for investment" in Nicaragua had been "put in doubt." Trivelli also suggested that the US government considers it a threat that the Ortega government could overcome the energy crisis with the importation of Venezuelan oil.
Minister of Energy and Mines Emilio Rappaccioli announced on Aug. 26 that the seizure would be suspended in the coming days. According to Rappaccioli, Exxon Mobil had agreed to negotiate the payment of the taxes with the government once the company' installations in Corinto were returned. Exxon Mobil denied that there is an agreement and refused to take the storage tanks back until the Venezuela oil is removed. Due to a lack of storage facilities, Venezuelan tankers are forced to pay US$100,000 a day to remain in Port Corinto while the oil is removed laboriously by tanker truck.
2. Ministry of Agriculture distributes seeds to small farmers
The Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle farming and Forestry (MAGFOR) will distribute 1656 tons of corn, red beans and white sorghum seeds to small farmers between Aug. 27 and 31, announced the spokesperson of MAGFOR Alicia Arroliga. The seeds will be distributed by MAGFOR delegates in all 153 municipalities of the country to farmers who own between 0.4 and 2 hectares of land. The seed is coming in time for the second planting. Many small farmers were unable to get seed for the first planting. Nicaragua's climate supports three harvests per year with each one smaller than the one before. Arroliga explained that the seed distribution is part of a program to increase the production of these crops and the food security of campesino families.
3. MRS joins right-wing opposition to Councils of Citizen Power
On Aug. 24 the National Assembly Justice Committee issued a favorable report on the proposed bill which attempts to prevent the implementation of the Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs) promoted by the Ortega government as a mechanism of participatory democracy. The bill, sponsored by the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), reads: "It is expressly forbidden for the Executive branch to create councils as a structure of the Executive branch by means of an executive decree."
Interestingly, the Justice Committee appeared to pay little attention to the consultations of the bill carried out over the last few weeks with civil society organizations, most of which did not see the CPC's as a threat to their own grassroots organizing. Several of the organizations consulted agreed that it would be legally impossible to prevent the implementation of the CPCs because participation in and interaction with the CPCs would be voluntary for citizens and institutions alike.
We have been increasingly disappointed with the actions MRS since the November election. The Nicaragua Network remained neutral given that there were two parties with roots in Sandinismo contesting in the election. However, since the new government came into power in January, the MRS has increasingly allied itself with the right-wing parties, particularly the ALN which is most closely allied with US government objectives and Nicaraguan banking interests. We believe that antipathy to Daniel Ortega has led the MRS into serious political error. The Nicaragua Network will never return to the days of “Comandantes, give us your orders,” but we will always support measures to benefit the poor majority and to assert Nicaragua's right to be free of US intervention.
4. Taiwan to import "all available Nicaraguan coffee"
On Aug. 27 Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian said his country was willing to import "all the Nicaraguan coffee available" on the international market. Shui-bian also announced that a Taiwanese delegation of investors and technicians would come to Nicaragua in September to look into ways to increase the amount of coffee and other agricultural goods produced in the country.
Shui-bian was in Nicaragua for a three day official visit as part of his tour of Central America to consolidate Taiwanese relations in the region. He described President Daniel Ortega as his "best friend" and Nicaragua as Taiwan's "greatest ally." Just a day before, however, he said the same of El Salvador and its President Elias Saca. "I value this country, the importance of this government and the support I give to my brother, my best friend, Commandant Daniel Ortega," said Shui-bian at a political event in Matagalpa on Aug. 27.
During the event, at which 250 starter packs were given out to campesino families as part of the Zero Hunger program, Ortega thanked Shui-bian for the US$1.1 million donation his government made to the program which aims to eradicate extreme rural poverty. Ortega went on to say that he hoped Nicaragua and Taiwan would be able to establish "fair trade" relations as part of this "new phase of bilateral relations." He also asked that Taiwanese investors don't look to invest only in Nicaraguan Free Trade Zones but also in areas such as agriculture and cattle farming and to work with small and medium size producers and companies.
5. Arias and Ortega reopen bilateral relations despite ongoing historical discrepancies
The Presidents of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Daniel Ortega and Oscar Arias, took steps towards
reconciling the two countries which have been at odds for the past ten years over Costa Rica's desire to run armed patrols on the Rio San Juan and over Nicaragua's unhappiness with Costa Rica's treatment of Nicaraguan immigrants. The two men expressed their desire to improve their political and personal relations and to promote bilateral projects on the border between Nicaraguan and Costa Rica.
Ortega and Arias announced their decision to leave the disagreement over Rio San Juan to the World Court and to continue normal bilateral relations. Ortega also announced his plans to visit Costa Rica in October to continue discussions about the promotion of bilateral projects. Costa Rica is the only country in Central America Ortega has not visited since returning to the presidency in January.
Arias said that he feels "unsatisfied" with the current migration law in Costa Rica which has created a situation of great insecurity for hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguan immigrants. Arias said that he has been promoting a new migration law which is currently being processed by the National Assembly.
Ortega and Arias have not enjoyed enjoyed warm personal or political relations since the 1980s when both were president of their countries for the first time. Costa Rica served as safe haven for US-funded contra attacks on Nicaragua. Recently Ortega repeated his long standing accusation that Arias conspired against the Sandinista government allowing Contra troops to operate within Costa Rica and promoting a policy of exclusion within the Central American peace negotiations of the time. Ortega also recently discredited the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Arias in 1987, saying that the peace agreement signed in Esquipulas, Guatemala in 1987 was the result of the inclusive policy promoted by the other Central American presidents. Arias receiving the Nobel Peace prize was not as outrageous as when Henry Kissinger got it, but solidarity activists were quite dumbfounded at the time.
After their meeting and joint press conference Ortega and Arias participated in the forum "Twenty Years After Esquipulas II: The story told by its creators," which was also attended by former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel D'Escoto, former president of Guatemala Vinicio Cerezo and former Honduran president Rafael Callejas.
It was interesting to note the discrepancies in the different versions of the negotiations which resulted in the signing of the Esquipulas agreement in 1987. According to Arias and former Guatemalan president Cerezo the Esquipulas agreement saved Central America from the hegemonic struggle between the Soviet Union and the US. Ortega rejected this version saying that the Soviet Union "did not donate one bullet" to the popular struggle which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship.
According to Arias, it was he who presented the peace plan on which the final Esquipulas agreement was based. Both Cerezo and Ortega, however, contradicted Arias saying that not only was he not the principal protagonist of the peace agreements, but that he was the only one unwilling to include the Nicaraguan government in the negotiation process. Despite their discrepancies, however, all three agreed that twenty years after Esquipulas, several of the regional objectives outlined in the agreement remain to be met, for example the eradication of poverty and social injustice.
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