TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007
Nicaragua Network Hotline (November 27, 2007)
Topics covered in this hotline include:1. Battle over Councils of Citizen Power continues
2. International donor group praises government anti-poverty programs
3. President of AMNLAE speaks out against ban on therapeutic abortion
4. Garment industry conference held; Humboldt accuses factories of violating environmental laws
5. Venezuelan donation helps alleviate food shortage
Topic 1: Battle over Councils of Citizen Power continues
On Nov. 19, the National Assembly, with a total of 52 votes, overrode President Daniel Ortega's veto of Law 630 in which the Assembly declared that the Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs) could not be a structural part of the state. The Councils were created by a law which the Assembly had passed in January. Thirty-seven of the 38 Sandinista deputies abstained from voting while one, Gustavo Porras, voted to sustain the president's veto. Voting to override were the deputies from the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), and two former MRS members who had been “allies” of the FSLN, Juan Ramon Jimenez and Mario Valle.
Under the legislation passed over Ortega's veto, CPCs would not be part of the executive branch but could be party structures of the FSLN, without any government budget or official standing. Opposition parties fear that as the most organized part of society, FSLN supporters would dominate local participatory democratic bodies such as the CPCs. Rather than contest democratically on a level closer to the people, the PLC, ALN, and MRS strategy has been to block the CPCs or turn them into FSLN structures without official standing.
Ramiro Silva, a deputy from the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), reminded his colleagues that they themselves had in January approved the law which allowed the president to set up the councils.
On Nov. 20, the Managua Appeals Court ordered the president of the National Assembly, René Núñez, not to publish the law until the Supreme Court ruled on two challenges from the Council of Directors of the CPCs. The Constitutional Panel will rule within 60 days on the first challenge which was a form of restraining order, but there is no deadline for the full court to rule on the constitutionality challenge. The Supreme Court is equally divided between eight FSLN justices and eight PLC justices.
Ortega criticized the opposition to the CPCs, accusing opposition leaders of being financed by the government of the United States. “U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli himself said as much publically,” Ortega stated, “adding that it was the support that his country was giving to democracy.” Meanwhile, leaders of the PLC called for the removal of Assembly president Rene Nuñez for failure to publish Law 630 which is required for it to take effect. PLC, ALN and MRS deputies broke quorum twice to protest Nuñez's failure to order publication of the law, prompting Ortega to say, “If they paralyze the Assembly, they will force me to govern by decree. If they don't pass the laws to benefit the people, I will approve them; there is no other way.” He added that the best course was not to go that far and to let the courts rule on the issue.
Topic 2: International Donor Group Praises Government Anti-Poverty Programs
The budget support group of donor countries expressed its “total confidence” in the Nicaraguan government and assured the disbursement of a little more than US$100 million in aid in the coming year. One of their priorities for aid is the struggle against extreme poverty, which they said affects 46% of Nicaragua's 5.1 million residents. The budget support group includes Germany, Finland, Norway, Holland and the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the European Commission. The amount described represents an increase in aid for 2008 of more than US$20 million over what those countries provided in 2007.
World Bank representative Joseph Owen, whose organization holds the rotating presidency of the budget support group, said that they are satisfied with the government's performance in the last 11 months. “I think that the performance of the government has been very, very good and has advanced impressively. Initially it was a little slow, but now we have all the plans for implementation of the anti-poverty programs,” he said. “Also we have an understanding of the special priorities. The government has a very special focus on social issues and I believe it sees it as important to improve infrastructure for the small and medium producers and to take measures in terms of energy. We see advances and I want to congratulate them,” Owen concluded.
Topic 3: President of AMNLAE speaks out against ban on therapeutic abortion
Dora Zeledon, president of the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Women's Movement (AMNLAE), said on Nov. 23 that “Each day the state goes backwards in terms of women's rights. In the last 16 years there has not been one law that answers to the needs of women. And now even our right to life has been penalized.”
Noting that Nov. 25 was to be observed as the International Day to Stop Violence against Women, she lamented that the National Assembly, along with banning therapeutic abortion which had been permitted in Nicaragua for more than 100 years, also refused to include the crime of femicide in the new Penal Code. She urged the legislators to pass the Family Code which has been “locked in a drawer for years,” to decriminalize therapeutic abortion, and to pass a budget with a gender focus. She said that the Ministries of Health and Education should carry out campaigns to raise awareness about violence against women and improve a woman's access to the justice system when she is a victim of violence. She noted that violence against women affects not only women but children as well which impacts the whole society. Thousands of women participated in marches in Managua and in the various departments to stop violence against women during the week preceding Nov. 25.
Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association (ANPDH) filed an accusation with a Managua public prosecutor against nine women members of the Nicaraguan Network of Women Against Violence including the coordinator of that organization, Violeta Delgado, and other women's organizations accusing them of covering up a crime and conspiracy to commit a crime, evidently with relation to the struggle several years ago to obtain a therapeutic abortion for a Nicaraguan child raped in Costa Rica. A communiqué read at a press conference by Sofía Montenegro of the Autonomous Women's Movement, said that the ANPDH had been inactive for some time but was under the control of Bishop Abelardo Mata of Estelí. Montenegro alleged that President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo were behind the accusations. ANPDH was the contra “human rights” organization set up and funded by the US government during the 1980's contra war.
Topic 4: Garment industry conference held; Humboldt accuses factories of violating environmental laws
On Nov. 22, the XI Latin American Conference on Free Trade Zones began in a Managua hotel with the attendance of over 100 representatives of businesses and others involved in the textile and garment assembly industry in the region. Retired General Alvaro Baltodano, presidential delegate for the promotion of investment in Nicaragua, said that the conference delegates were analyzing the impact that free trade zones have in job creation and what the zones bring to the economies involved. Baltodano noted that there is a need to transform free trade zones into something more stable for the workers who suffer when factories come and go from one day to the next.
He said that the government is making plans to convert the airport at Punta Huete, 50 kilometers north of Managua, into a port for the importation of materials and the export of finished products. This increased capacity, when added to planned improvements to Nicaragua's sea ports, would encourage companies to remain in the country for longer periods, he added.
Baltodano said that the companies had to increase their level of social benefits and observe environmental laws, noting, “This should be the value added that the companies leave behind to compensate for the tax exemptions and other benefits they receive.” Baltodano said that free trade zone factories currently employ 90,000 Nicaraguans, an increase during this year of 8,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the Humboldt Center released a report on Nov. 21 showing that more than half of the country's free trade zone garment factories do not comply with Nicaragua's environmental laws. Victor Campos, Assistant Director of the Center, said that his organization had visited 27 maquiladoras in March and April of this year. The majority of the observed violations were in disposal of waste water from the factories although other environmental laws were being violated as well. Seven of the 27 factories did not have an environmental permit to function. Some factories minimally process their waste water before dumping it into Lake Managua or into a nearby river, but others do not.
Campos said “We consider that there is a complacent attitude on the part of the Environment Ministry in terms of enforcing the country's laws.” He stated that as a result of the entering into effect of the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement more factories are being built without environmental regulations. He added, “We at the Humboldt Center believe that the investments in the maquilas are important but we believe that it must be responsible investment; we're not asking more than that they comply with the laws against environmental crimes.”
Topic 5: Venezuelan donation helps alleviate food shortage
Venezuela has donated US$16 million to Nicaragua specifically to help the government confront the inflation in food prices resulting from losses due to Hurricane Felix and two serious tropical depressions. Rice and beans will be purchased locally to be sold at below market price through the National Enterprise for Basic Food (ENABAS), according to ENABAS director Roger Romero. “We are working on a campaign to supply the population directly through the creation of solidarity networks based on fair trade,” he said. The networks, he said, involve farmers, cooperatives and citizens organized in local Councils of Citizens Power who will make sure that the food products get to the neediest at low prices. The government is providing financing to help farmers get out their crops and sell them directly into these distribution channels which will use small stores and community centers for distribution.
Beginning on Nov. 22, beans were being sold at the new distribution centers at US$0.63 per pound, about US$0.37 less than market price, according to Romero. He added that next week the centers would begin selling rice saying that “we are evaluating what other needs might arise.” He said that the government is in talks with bakers in order to try to guarantee low prices for bread ingredients and keep the price of bread low for consumers. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced the elimination of tariff barriers on the importation of certain ingredients used in the production of local foods in order to reduce prices to the consumer. The government is trying to hold down inflation, which reached an annual rate of 10.71 in October.
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