WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 05, 2007
Nicaragua Network Hotline (December 4, 2007)
Topics covered in this Hotline include:1. Councils of Citizen Power installed
2. Power cuts come to an end
3. Government and Nicaraguan Association of Journalists criticize media companies
4. Network of Women Against Violence accuses government and church of political persecution
5. Ministry of Education on track to achieve universal primary education by 2011
6. Nicaragua Network delivers call to decriminalize therapeutic abortion
Topic 1: Councils of Citizen Power installed
President Daniel Ortega officially installed the Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs) on Nov. 30 in a ceremony before thousands of supporters. The CPCs immediately took responsibility for the distribution of below market rice in poor neighborhoods. The CPCs are neighborhood and community bodies intended to bring democratic decision making closer to the grassroots level. The event culminated an intense ten day power struggle between the executive and judicial branches on the one side and the legislative branch on the other.
On Nov. 26 the Managua Appeals Court, which is made up of a majority of Sandinista judges, ruled in favor of the CPCs, thus reestablishing the legality of the CPCs by ruling against a National Assembly passed amendment that would have killed them as official entities. As part of the ruling the Appeals Court ordered National Assembly President Rene Nuñez to suspend publication of the law. The Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), and Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) had called for Nuñez's dismissal for failure to publish the Assembly's law, and the PLC and ALN threatened to paralyze the legislature, prompting Ortega to threaten to rule by decree. Four ALN deputies also split to form their own bench last week, further splintering the right-wing opposition.
On Nov. 29 President Ortega had installed the CPCs within a newly reorganized National Council of Social and Economic Planning (CONPES) with his wife, Rosario Murillo as Executive Director. This move sidesteps the legal challenges.
According to Ortega, the principal objective behind the creation of the CPCs is to allow the Nicaraguan people to "actively and directly participate in the decisions concerning the integral development of Nicaragua." The CPCs are councils made up of ordinary citizens who have been elected by members of their communities and neighborhoods and who will receive no pay or benefits in return for their work. The CPCs will have access to the governmental institutions and ministries through the system of municipal and departmental CPCs. "The sovereignty of our nation lies in the hands of the people, not in the hands of the President, nor in the hands of the ministers, deputies, mayors or councilors, because from now on it's the people who will decide what kind of system they want," he said. Ortega invited all citizens to get involved in their local CPC assuring that, unlike the mainstream media would have them believe, the CPCs are not controlled by members of the FSLN. Ortega said that the Nicaraguan Constitution protects civil society's right to organize itself and to participate in political decision making at local, regional and national level. According to Ortega the opposition parties "underrate and scorn" the poor majority with their attempts to deny the right to popular organization. Finally Ortega said that the CPC system will oblige governmental institutions to "acknowledge the will of the immense majority of Nicaraguans who live in poverty."
On Nov. 27, 123 CPC neighborhoods mainly in Managua but also in Matagalpa, Granada and Masaya began distributing rice at below market price as part of the government's plan to reduce inflation on basic products and guarantee access to basic foods. The spiraling cost of basic food products during the last few months, partly as a result of the mass loss of crops due to Hurricane Felix and the two tropical depressions which affected the country this year, has severely affected the impoverished majority who have seen the amount of food they are able to buy decrease dramatically.
Topic 2: Power cuts come to an end
After a year and a half of daily power cuts of up to twelve hours, Minister of Energy Emilio Rappaccioli announced last week that as of Nov. 28 "electricity will not be rationed.” Rappaccioli said that, in order to guarantee normal electricity flow as of Nov. 28 the generating plants donated by Venezuela would operate between 10 and 12 hours a day instead of just one or two. The change will cost US$300,000 a day for diesel fuel. The government plans to cover the extra cost with the money owed to the Nicaraguan Electrical Company (ENEL) by the Spanish electricity distributor Union Fenosa. Fenosa owes ENEL a total of US$50 million for electricity provided to the distributing company by state-owned generation plants. President of ENEL admitted that this arrangement may be problematic, however, due to the fact that Union Fenosa tends not to honor the debts it has with public and private institutions. The strategy may put additional pressure on Union Fenosa to leave the country and allow for the re-nationalization of electricity distribution. So far there have been no major power cuts, which suggests that the government plan is being successfully implemented.
Topic 3: Government and Nicaragua Association of Journalists criticize media companies
On Nov. 27 Government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said that the constant criticism of the Sandinista government published in mainstream media outlets are the "continuation of the terror campaign against the FSLN" which began at the same time as the organization's foundation over 45 years ago. "Media terrorism is the most common tool of the right wing," said Murillo, "and not just in Nicaragua, but in all countries where a revolutionary process is taking place." The aim of this type of campaign, she went on, is to "terrorize the population" in an attempt to "undermine revolutionary governments" and "reduce participation in revolutionary movements." Murillo said that the FSLN "has never been intimidated" by this type of campaign, however. According to Murillo, a survey carried out by the government shows that the majority of the population considers the constant criticism of the government as anti-Sandinista propaganda.
In an interview shown on Channel 4 one day earlier, presidential adviser and coordinator of the government Zero Hunger Program, Orlando Nuñez Soto, spoke at length about what he described as the "mainstream media smear campaign" against the government. Nuñez said that the media and communication sector has become a business, just like any other, and that in Nicaragua the largest media companies are "just political apparatuses loyal to the economic and political powers which finance them."
The aim of this smear campaign, said Nuñez is to discredit all government initiatives, especially those which aim to resolve urgent social problems like Zero Hunger and Zero Usury and to undermine FSLN support among the population. "Here in Nicaragua, the media was defeated in the last election ... and now the media is reacting like a defeated political apparatus, [because] when you lose, you get angry." Nuñez said that the largest media companies "have sided with the oligarchy" and instead of providing truthful information just express a political position. He also accused these media companies of failing to report on the progress of key government programs which are benefiting the impoverished majority.
On Nov. 27 the Nicaraguan Association of Journalists, the largest Nicaraguan journalistic association with over 500 members, issued the "Declaration of Managua" in which it called on the owners of media companies to "respect the Nicaraguan people's right" to receive "truthful information." "If the businessmen that own the media companies really are eager to practice freedom of expression they should respect the right of Nicaraguan society to truthful information, without censorship or falsities, with the aim of assuring general social wellbeing and not the wellbeing of select political minorities," read the declaration.
"The owners of media companies should respect news sources and the diversity of thought and opinions of journalists and of individuals and should respect the Nicaraguan society's right to receive ethical and socially responsible communications." The journalists went on to criticize the "double standard" demonstrated by media companies which provide excessive and meaningless coverage of urban violence and other violent events but "ignore our traditional moral values." Finally the journalists called on President Daniel Ortega to "correct the error" he committed by signing the "Declaration of Chapultepec," a declaration promoted by the Inter-American Press Association, which they said makes it more difficult for journalists to form unions.
Topic 4: Network of Women Against Violence accuses government and church of political persecution
Nine members of the Network of Women Against Violence were summoned by the Public Prosecutor's Office to respond to an accusation filed against them by the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH), a formerly moribund organization that was founded by the US government in the 1980s in an effort to “clean up” the contras' human rights image. It now apparently has ties to the Nicaraguan Catholic Church hierarchy. The organization has accused the women of crimes linked to a therapeutic abortion carried out on nine year old "Rosita" after she was raped by a man (who was later discovered to be her step father) in 2003.
On Nov. 29 the nine women requested support from the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), Nicaragua's legitimate and internationally respected human rights watchdog, and issued a document accusing the Ortega government and Catholic Church of being behind this campaign of "political persecution" of the leaders of the Nicaraguan women's rights movement. According to one of the accused, Juana Jimenez, President Daniel Ortega is also involved in this "scheme" in order to get "revenge" on the organization that supported his stepdaughter Zoilamerica Narvaez who accused him of rape in 1998. The intention behind this persecution, she said, is to "demobilize" and "demoralize" the women's rights organization which has criticized the government and the church for outlawing therapeutic abortion in Nicaragua.
Assistant Director of CENIDH Marlyn Sierra said her organization would be "with the nine women during the entire process in order to ensure their human rights are respected." The nine accused are Juana Jimenez, Yamileth Mejia, Ana Maria Pizarro, Violeta Delgado, Mayra Sirias, Lorna Norori, Luisa Molina, Martha Maria Blandon and Martha Munguia. Similar accusations were made against the women in 2003 but the Attorney General closed the case after the Human Rights Ombudsman issued a resolution confirming that the women had acted within the law.
Topic 5: Ministry of Education on track to achieve universal primary education by 2011
Nicaragua is on track to declare universal primary education in the country by 2011, four years before the 2015 United Nations Millennium Goal deadline, according to Minister of Education Miguel De Castilla. This is a result of the Sandinista (FSLN) government's policy of renationalization of education said De Castilla. Official statistics show that 94,000 new students entered the public education system this year after the government abolished the school autonomy law in January thus ending registration, monthly, and other fees charged in public schools. The Ministry of Education estimates that another 140,000 new students will be registered in 2008. By 2011, said De Castilla, "we hope that all 500,000 children currently unable to attend school will have been registered.”
Topic 6: Nicaragua Network delivers call to decriminalize therapeutic abortion
In consultation with our partners in human rights and women's organizations in Nicaragua, the Nicaragua Network, joined by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign of Great Britain, on December 4, sent a letter from the two organizations which included the signatures of over 300 US and UK solidarity activists and concerned citizens. The letter was faxed and hand delivered to key Nicaraguan officials asking them to do what they can to reverse the criminalization of therapeutic abortion to save the life of the woman. We had hoped that a new vote in the National Assembly in September would reverse the dreadful mistake made during the heat of the presidential election campaign in October 2006 to remove a more than 100 year old right of a woman to live if only an abortion can save her life. But, instead, the criminalization of therapeutic abortion was retained. The Nicaragua Network sent the letter to three key members of the Nicaraguan government: René Núñez, President of the National Assembly, Guillermo González, Minister of Health, and Manuel Martinez, President of the Supreme Court.
This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources. To receive a more extensive weekly summary of the news from Nicaragua by e-mail or postal service, send a check for $60.00 to Nicaragua Network, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. We can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355. Our web site is: www.nicanet.org. To subscribe to the Hotline, send an e-mail to nicanet@afgj.org
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