TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
Nicaragua Network Hotline (September 18, 2007)
Topics covered in this Hotline include:1. Ortega: destruction left by Felix is "much worse than was expected"
2. National Assembly votes to continue criminal penalties for therapeutic abortion
3. Exxon-Mobil and Petronic sign agreement
4. National Assembly recommends that Ruth Herrera be removed from ENACAL
5. Bus and taxi owners protest outside IRTRAMMA
Topic 1: Ortega: destruction left by Felix is "much worse than was expected"
President Daniel Ortega described the destruction caused by Hurricane Felix as "immense" and "worse than we could have imagined" during the fourth official report about the emergency on Sept. 14. Ortega said "the disaster has paralyzed practically all social, economic and productive activity in the RAAN" [the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region]. He went on to say that "the ecosystem [of the region] has been partially destroyed." Ortega admitted that the authorities still do not have precise information about the material damages, the environmental damages or the loss of life caused by the hurricane and made a call to international organizations to help the Nicaraguan authorities to evaluate the damage.
Based on the official information available at the time, Julio Cesar Aviles, Second in Command of the Nicaraguan Army, gave details about the damage caused. Over 33,000 square kilometers were affected by Felix, which hit RAAN on Sept. 4 as a category five storm. Of the region's 300,000 inhabitants at least 188,000 were directly affected with 10,000 homes totally destroyed and a further 9,000 partially destroyed. As far as the death toll is concerned, there are only 132 people confirmed dead and 106 people reported missing. This figure, however, is likely to rise significantly during the coming weeks.
Crops were destroyed over most of the affected area and little infrastructure escaped damage or destruction.
On Sept. 14 the United Nations (UN) launched an international emergency appeal for US$39.2 million to cover the immediate basic needs of the Nicaraguan victims and to contribute to the reconstruction of the region. After being shown aerial photographs of the destruction in the RAAN, UN representative in Nicaragua Alfredo Missair, said "we are facing a situation of maximum emergency, the likes of which have seldom been seen anywhere on earth."
Reports about events in the RAAN describe generalized distress, hunger, destitution and chaos. On Sept. 10 the Mayor of Waspam Cornelio Tebas urged the government and the international aid organizations to work faster to get food, water and clothes to the inhabitants of the communities affected in Waspam. According to Tebas it has been impossible to get any aid to the communities upstream from Waspam because the local authorities don't have enough money for the gasoline they need for the boats.
The plans are to begin the reconstruction of the region as soon as logistically possible with the help of international donations. For at least six months, however, emergency food aid and imported clean water or water purifying devices as well as emergency shelter will be required. The Bosawas Reserve, which contains 10% of the world's biodiversity, was heavily damaged and there is a fear that some species were wiped out without ever being catalogued.
If you can make a contribution to help the Nicaraguan victims of Hurricane Felix, click here! You can also mail a check to Nicaragua Network, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. Write Hurricane Felix in the memo line.
Topic 2: National Assembly votes to continue criminal penalties for therapeutic abortion
By a vote of 66-3, on Sept. 13 the National Assembly defeated an amendment to the Penal Code which would have decriminalized therapeutic abortion if three medical specialists agreed it was necessary to save the life of the mother. Only the three deputies of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) voted in favor of saving the life of the mother. Twenty-seven Sandinista deputies voted with the right-wing parties while 11 stayed away from the proceedings.
During the debate human and women's rights protesters shouted so loudly that it was difficult to hear the deputies. Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) Deputies Wilfredo Navarro and Freddy Torres described the protesters as lesbians and murderers. The members of the FSLN bench were completely silent during the debate. The two voices which led the argument in favor of saving women's lives were MRS Deputies Monica Baltodano and Victor Hugo Tinoco.
The vote came as a surprise and great disappointment to women's rights activists and medical associations which had been consulted by the National Assembly Justice Committee. A week prior to the debate in the Legislative branch, the Justice Committee issued a favorable report on the amendment. A list of medical circumstances, including ectopic pregnancy, under which a therapeutic abortion would be permitted, was issued by the committee.
Ligia Altamirano, a gynecologist and member of the Nicaraguan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said that this legislature's decision will "deepen the chaos within the health service [where] doctors have doubts about whether to treat" women with complications relating to their pregnancies.
"There are over 20 medical associations within Nicaragua which have stated opposition to the abortion ban" said Altamirano, "but [the deputies] didn't listen." Doctor Leonel Argüello, member of one of the medical associations which was consulted by the Justice Committee said on Sept. 13, "Today, the death penalty has been reintroduced in Nicaragua." According to Argüello an average of 1,000 women a year will die as a result of the abortion ban.
Ana Maria Pizarro, representative of the Autonomous Women's Movement, said the FSLN deputies have "betrayed the memory of Carlos Fonseca and Carlos Nuñez Tellez who fought for a secular state and for women's rights." Over twenty women's rights groups have announced plans to carry out national and international protest campaigns with the aim of forcing the reintroduction of therapeutic abortion in Nicaragua. Forward motion on the reform stalled when the Catholic Church hierarchy denounced it a week before the vote.
According to Justice Committee chair Jose Pallais the Catholic Church hierarchy had approved the committee's list of medical circumstances under which a therapeutic abortion should be permitted. In public, however, no church representative confirmed this approval while Bishop of Esteli Abelardo Mata had publicly called on the deputies to maintain the abortion ban.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue in a few weeks.
Watch this space for a human rights action alert from the Nicaragua Network on this issue.
Topic 3: Exxon-Mobil and Petronic sign agreement
On Sept. 13 Rodolfo Zapata, General Manager of the Nicaraguan state oil company PETRONIC, and the representative of Exxon-Mobil in Port Corinto Gabriel Cedeño signed an agreement which, they said, brought an end to the month long dispute between Exxon-Mobil and the Nicaraguan authorities. On Aug. 17 seven storage tanks in Corinto, property of Exxon-Mobil, were seized by order of Judge Socorro Toruño in response to a US$2.9 million debt the US multinational company has with Nicaraguan customs. As part of the agreement signed last week the storage tanks were returned to Exxon-Mobil under the condition that PETRONIC is permitted to make use of them to store oil until December. Also as part of the agreement it was decided that in December Exxon-Mobil would either continue to rent the tanks or sell them to PETRONIC. Strangely nothing about the US$2.9 million debt was mentioned in the agreement.
4. National Assembly recommends that Ruth Herrera be removed from ENACAL
On Sept. 13 the National Assembly passed a resolution recommending that the President Daniel Ortega remove Ruth Herrera from her position as Executive President of the state water company ENACAL. The 43 deputies from the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) and the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) who passed the resolution also resolved not to approve any loans to ENACAL unless Herrera is removed.
Last week Herrera was summoned to the Assembly to give an explanation as to why 122 workers had not been rehired back into their positions within ENACAL after the Board of Directors change within the company in January. Herrera spent three hours detailing the acts of corruption these workers had committed during their time with ENACAL on which her decision not to rehire them was based. The ALN and PLC deputies considered her explanation "insufficient" and passed the motion recommending her removal. Herrera, who had been head of the Consumer Defense Network, took over a state-owned water company that was being systematically looted in preparation its privatization. Herrera stopped the privatization, cancelled a “modernization” contract funded with an Inter-American Development Bank loan, reorganized corrupt employees out of a job, and earned the wrath of neoliberal deputies.
5. Bus and taxi owners protest
Hundreds of owners of buses and taxis in Managua protested outside the public transportation regulatory body for Managua, IRTRAMMA, on Sept. 11 to demand that the institution be less strict with safety inspections and the application of fines. For over four hours the protesters shouted insults and threw objects at the building. The IRTRAMMA authorities refused to meet with the protesters. IRTRAMMA Director Francisco Alvarado said that the protest was organized by the "importers of wrecked cars who know that their vehicles won't pass the technical inspection." During the last few weeks IRTRAMMA has been inspecting vehicles used for public transportation in Managua as part of a campaign promoted by FSLN Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco to improve service in the capital. The inspections ended on Sept. 10 but, according to Alvarado fewer than half of vehicles had been inspected.
Marenco minimized the protest saying "it is time to bring order to our public transportation and they (the bus and taxi owners) must cooperate so that together we can improve the quality of the service." Marenco said that the transportation system has been receiving subsidies as part of his public transportation plan. He also said that a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) will allow the purchase of 350 new buses for Managua.
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