FRIDAY, JANUARY 04, 2008

Nicaragua Network Hotline (January 3, 2008)

1. Threats to amend budget, but opposition not as united as they claim
2. US spent US$8.1 million to “strengthen democracy” in Nicaragua in 2007
3. Central America increasingly rejects Washington consensus
4. Supreme Court of Justice investigates justices who freed Volz
5. 2007 saw turbulent relationship between government and media


Topic 1. Threats to amend budget, but opposition not as united as they claim

On Dec. 26 deputy for the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) Wlifredo Navarro announced that the opposition party deputies, members of the so called Block Against the Dictatorship, plan to make “profound changes” to the Executive's 2008 budget proposal. President Daniel Ortega's administration sent its budget proposal to the National Assembly in late November but the legislative branch failed to pass the bill because the opposition deputies, who have a majority, suspended the National Assembly on Dec. 15 in protest against what they describe as Ortega's imposition of the Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs).

On Dec. 29 presidential economic advisor Bayardo Arce dismissed Navarro's comments as “sticks and carrots [political threats] of ... a party which has its own political agenda.” “The only person I have heard talking in these terms is Navarro,” said Arce. According to the presidential advisor, “feelings are still running high” after the intense period of political confrontation which has followed the installation of the CPCs. He said he expects things to calm down in the new year and the budget proposal to be passed by the Assembly during the first few weeks of 2008.

Meanwhile, tension between the two main right wing parties, the PLC and the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), rose this week as the complicated legal situation of the leaders of the two parties (former president and convicted criminal Arnoldo Aleman and failed presidential candidate and alleged fraudster Eduardo Montealegre) came to the forefront. While the three National Assembly factions of Liberals (PLC, ALN and Bench for Liberal Unity) and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) are trying to run a united anti-Sandinista campaign in the 2008 municipal elections, the proposal made to the ALN by the PLC regarding Montealegre's desire to run for mayor of Managua could be interpreted as a poorly disguised threat.

On Dec. 27 the executive committee of the PLC demanded that Montealegre and the ALN “demonstrate” its intention to unite with the PLC by accepting a number of conditions including that Montealegre resign his seat in the National Assembly which would eliminate his immunity to prosecution.

Two days later, on Dec. 29, Attorney General Julio Centeno Gomez, a close ally of Aleman, announced that an investigation into three of the men implicated in the infamous Certificates of Negotiated Investment (CENIS) scandal had been opened. The three former directors of the Central Bank are Montealegre, Mario Alonso and Gilberto Cuadra. The CENIS were issued to bail out investors of three banks that failed as a result of fraud, turning the bank's private debt into a massive public debt for the Nicaraguan people. Montealegre insisted on his innocence and described the investigation as politically motivated “harassment ... coming directly from [President] Ortega and [Arnoldo] Aleman.”

Aleman, meanwhile, remains under house arrest despite an attempt by the PLC-dominated Second Managua Penal Court to overturn a ruling by the FSLN-dominated First Managua Appeals Court which limited Aleman to strict house arrest without permission to receive visitors after the former president had enjoyed the freedom to travel within Nicaragua and socialize as he wished for over a year. Later the same day, and before the ruling of the second court could be implemented, the First Penal Court reconfirmed Aleman's house arrest.

Topic 2. US spent US$8.1 million to “strengthen democracy” in Nicaragua in 2007

The US government has spent US$8.1 million on programs to “strengthen democracy” in Nicaragua during 2007, according to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Managua this week. The programs were carried out by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The US government spent between US$12-13 million in an attempt to prevent the election of Daniel Ortega in the 2006 presidential election. That it has already spent two-thirds of that amount on municipal elections that are nearly a year away demonstrates its continuing efforts to interfere in Nicaragua's democratic process.

US$2.1 million was spent on workshops carried out at municipal levels which supposedly “promote transparency in political funding, citizen participation and anti-corruption campaigns.” US$3.1 million was spent on programs to promote the “rule of law” by training “justice facilitators” and the promotion of “citizen participation in the administration of justice,” whatever that means. The remaining US$2.7 million was spent on preparation for the 2008 local elections including civic education programs and programs to encourage citizens to vote, which in 2006 meant encouraging citizens to vote for US favored presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre and against Ortega. The actions by US Ambassador Paul Trivelli in the 2006 presidential election drew a rare rebuke from Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza of the Organization of American States. The embassy report of its 2007 “democracy expenditures quoted Trivelli as saying, “Our support for democracy is transparent. We don't finance party activities or political candidates.” We presume he made that statement with a straight face.

Topic 3. Central America increasingly rejects Washington consensus

Central America, which for nearly two centuries has been under the political and economic thumb of the United States, appears to be moving toward Central American and Latin American integration and an increasing rejection of the Washington consensus of free trade and neoliberal economic policies despite its continued adherence to the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Central American leaders are increasingly choosing to create broader links with other Latin American nations such as Venezuela. Central America is also extending commercial and political links and alliances with other regions of the world such as Europe and Asia.

The return to power of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua in January 2007, and the recent electoral victory for center left candidate Alvaro Colom in Guatemala, furthered this trend which the current Honduran administration, led by nationalist Manuel Zelaya, began with its inauguration in January 2006. Meanwhile, Costa Rica continues to be deeply divided over its entry into CAFTA and there is much resistance to the beginning of privatization of public services. El Salvador is now the only country in the region which remains faithful to the US under the leadership of the ultra right wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) which has governed the country since 1989. Many analysts are predicting an electoral victory for the left wing anti-imperialist Farabundi Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) in the 2009 general elections. Heavy handed US intervention in the last presidential election narrowly averted an FMLN victory. However, seeing what happened in neighboring Nicaragua, Salvadoran voters are less likely to be scared by US threats to deport them or cut off remitances.

Topic 4. Supreme Court of Justice investigates justices who freed Volz

The Supreme Court opened an investigation into the two justices of the Granada Appeals Court, Roberto Rodriguez and Alejandro Estrada, who ruled to free US citizen Erick Stanley Volz, convicted of the rape and murder of Nicaraguan Ivania Jimenez Alvarado. Volz left Nicaragua on Dec. 21, unlikely to return for the appeal of his 30 year prison sentence. The same two justices ruled to uphold the sentence of Julio Martin Chamorro, who was convicted of acting as Volz' accomplice in the crime. Vice President of the Supreme Court Rafael Solis said that the decision to investigate Rodriguez and Estrada had been taken because they had issued the ruling under “circumstances which were less than transparent.” Solis denied the claims made by the opposition parties that Volz was liberated as the result of a negotiation between the government and the US Embassy.

Topic 5. 2007 saw turbulent relationship between government and media

During the past twelve months the relationship between the government and a number of mainstream media outlets, including La Prensa and El Nuevo Diario, the two main newspapers, went from bad to worse. La Prensa has long been pro-US government and a bastion of the Conservative Party which has now linked with Eduardo Montealegre's Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN). El Nuevo Diario has become the party newspaper of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) which has increasingly allied itself with right-wing parties to thwart the programs of the FSLN government of Daniel Ortega. The Nicaragua Network Hotline, which has traditionally relied on the Nicaragua print media, has been forced to diversify its media sources in an effort to report fully on what is happening in Nicaragua. Neither of the two major parties, the FSLN and the Constitutional Liberal Party, has its own newspaper, so everything in the print media is filtered through partisan political agendas.

Many media outlets insist on referring to the Ortega government as a “tyranny” and to Ortega himself as a “dictator.” While there are many valid criticisms of Ortega as a person and as a leader, such media hyperbole does nothing to explain the Nicaraguan reality. La Prensa recently posed the hypothetical question as to whether Nicaragua is experiencing a “rebirth of fascism” after one of its journalists was detained for a few minutes by government security guards after climbing over a security fence at a public event.

In the past few months Ortega has taken the hostile media head on and begun to speak of the “media campaign to undermine my government,” claiming that certain media companies have direct links with and possibly funding from the US Embassy. During the recent institutional crisis originating from the installation of the Councils of Citizen Power Ortega described those who opposed the move to install a new system of direct democracy as “rabid dogs.”

During the last week headlines such as “Jihad against journalists,” “Verbal Terrorism,” “More Harassment of the Opposition” have accentuated the ongoing hostility between government and mainstream media. The Nicaragua Hotline will continue to do its best to reflect valid criticisms by the opposition while also reporting the advances in poverty reduction and direct democracy by the Ortega government.

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