TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2008
Nicaragua Network Hotline (April 22, 2008)
1. Incoming US Ambassador says Ortega should moderate his rhetoric2. Opposition fails to pass bill to reverse postponement of RAAN elections
3. Central Bank deposits CENIS debt payment awaiting definitive judicial ruling
4. Nicaraguan government guarantees personal security of FARC camp attack survivor
5. Central American countries agree to work together to increase regional food security
6. ENACAL puts lien on Union Fenosa properties
1. Incoming US Ambassador says Ortega should moderate his rhetoric
Robert Callahan, the man who is to replace Paul Trivelli as US Ambassador in Managua said that the Nicaraguan government has made unmeasured criticisms against the US and said President “Daniel Ortega and the other national leaders should be more prudent in their use of language and measured in their criticisms. This type of rhetoric can anger and hurt.” Callahan made these comments during his appearance before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. Callahan also said that closely observing Ortega's relationship with the government of Iran will be “a priority” for him during his time as US Ambassador.
Callahan, who worked with former US Ambassador in Honduras John Negroponte during the 1980s, was implicated as having participated in the scandalous Contra-Iran affair. It appears he will be no improvement over outgoing ambassador Trivelli. As with the last three US ambassadors to Nicaragua, Callahan's main priority will be to unify the Nicaraguan right-wing, a task that should prove no more successful for him than for his predecessors.
2. Opposition fails to pass bill to reverse postponement of RAAN elections
Deputies of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), the “We're with Eduardo” movement (MVE) and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), failed to pass a bill rejecting the recent Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) decision to postpone the municipal elections in three municipalities of the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) until April, 2009. These three opposition forces were unable to hold the legislative session because, due to differences with the other opposition party, the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), the session lacked a quorum with only 46 deputies of the 47 needed to pass legislation. They plan to try again on April 24. The PLC, MVE and MRS has been boycotting the legislature in protest of the CSE's decision and endangering IMF and European aid by refusing to pass an anti-fraud law required by the IMF before it will release its next round of loans. While recognizing that the IMF has no business requiring any laws be passed by sovereign countries, the Nicaragua Network bemoans the irresponsible behavior of the opposition parties.
3. Central Bank deposits CENIS debt payment awaiting definitive judicial ruling
On Apr. 15 President of the Nicaraguan Central Bank Antenor Rosales announced that US$20 million, which was scheduled to be paid to Banpro (Bank of Production) and Bancentro (Bank of Central America) that same day, was instead deposited into a “specific and exclusive” account at the Central Bank awaiting a definitive judicial ruling on the CENIS case. CENIS are the bonds sold during the Aleman government to cover the failure of four private banks, turning their private debt into at least US$492 million public debt. A recent investigation has revealed significant fraud in the issuing of the bonds. Between Apr. 8 and 10 Attorney General Armando Juarez and Fifth District Penal Judge Julio Cesar Arias seized the CENIS (Certificates of Negotiated Investment) bonds held by Banpro and Bancentro which were issued by the Central Bank in 2000 and 2001.
Independent economist Adolfo Acevedo is passionately opposed to the government making any further payments on the CENIS debt until the legality of the debt has been definitively resolved. As concluded by the Comptroller's General Office (CGR) in 2005 the very issuing of the CENIS (to cover public deposits after four national banks collapsed in 2000) was illegal, (the Central Bank is not authorized to issue bonds which create a public debt), and therefore the government is under no legal obligation to continue to honor this debt. The Supreme Court, however, is still to rule on the CGR's resolution.
4. Nicaraguan government guarantees personal security of FARC camp attack survivor
On Apr. 16, 26 year old Mexican student Lucia Morett, one of the three survivors of the Mar. 1 Colombian cross border attack on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) prisoner exchange delegation in Ecuador, arrived in Nicaragua. Morett, who has been recovering from her severe injuries in the Military Hospital in Quito, left Ecuador for security reasons and cannot return to Mexico because a right-wing Mexican group has filed a terrorism complaint against her. Morett decided to come to Nicaragua because the Nicaraguan government promised to guarantee her personal security. On her arrival to the country Morett was received by President Daniel Ortega. Her parents lived and worked in Nicaragua under the first Sandinista government.
At least 26 people were killed during the Colombian army cross border attack including the FARC international spokesperson Raul Reyes and four other Mexican students who had traveled to Ecuador with Morett. According to the families of the students, they were visiting the camp as part of an academic investigation into insurgent movements in Latin America. The five young Mexicans had arrived in Ecuador on Jan. 1 (2008) in order to take part in the Second Congress of the Continental Bolivarian Coordinator during which a video by Raul Reyes was shown. During an interview with a Mexican radio on Apr. 17 Morett said that, for security reasons, she could not reveal how she and the other Mexicans had made contact with the FARC before traveling to the camp where Raul Reyes was stationed. During the same interview Morett denied she had had any reasons other than academic ones for visiting the camp.
On Apr. 17 President Ortega said that Morett in is Nicaragua “in transit” before “she considers it possible” to travel home to Mexico. “We have welcomed a Mexican sister” to demonstrate “our solidarity” and “without forgetting that Mexico has often provided shelter to Nicaraguans,” said Ortega.
5. Central American countries agree to work together to increase regional food security
During a meeting of the Foreign Ministers and the Agricultural Ministers of the member countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA), Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, it was agreed that the region's governments must work together to confront the sharply diminishing level of food security in the region. After the meeting, which took place on Apr. 17 in El Salvador, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Marisol Argueta de Barillas said that she and her regional colleagues had discussed “very concrete, short term measures to confront the situation of food insecurity that has got the entire world worried.”
Argueta de Barillas said that a regional plan of action, which will be written by the region's agricultural ministers in liaison with the trade ministers, is to be presented to the region's presidents at a SICA Summit which will take place in Nicaragua on May 7. She said that it had also been agreed that the members of SICA will work together to ensure that international organizations treat the matter of the region's food security with responsibility. For example, she said, the regional governments have been working toward presenting a common agenda prior to the European Union - Latin American and Caribbean Summit which is to take place in Peru next month. Finally, in anticipation of a visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the SICA member countries are “looking into the possibility of creating commercial links between Central America and MERCOSUR.”
6. ENACAL puts lien on Union Fenosa properties
On Apr. 21 the Third District Civil Judge of Managua, Napoleon Sanchez, put a lien (worth approximately US$1 million) on two properties and several trucks belonging to the Spanish transnational company Union Fenosa as part of the legal actions being taken against the company by the state water company ENACAL. President of ENACAL Ruth Herrera explained that “arbitrary power cuts” to ENACAL wells have caused millions of dollars worth of damage to ENACAL pumping systems in numerous regions of the country.
Herrera said that ENACAL had decided to go ahead with the lien having unsuccessfully attempted to recover compensation for the damage through administrative channels. Herrera explained how Fenosa has systematically appealed all the INE (the energy sector regulatory body) rulings in favor of ENACAL. Herrera went on to say that ENACAL is planning to carry out further liens on Union Fenosa for the cost of repairs to its equipment. “We are going to have to use this method more frequently,” she said. “How else can we stop Union Fenosa?”
The embargo comes just a few days after President Daniel Ortega revealed Union Fenosa's refusal to comply with the terms of a recently signed agreement with the government. Last week Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli announced that Fenosa had agreed to give the government 16% of its shares in Nicaragua in return for the cancellation of a US$10 million debt it has with the Nicaraguan state. On Apr. 18, however, Ortega said that Fenosa had gone back on its word and was now unwilling to hand over the shares or allow for a government representative to sit on its board of directors in Nicaragua. Ortega said that he had sent his economic advisor Bayardo Arce to Madrid to meet with representatives of the Spanish government with the aim of sorting out this problem.
Herrera insisted that the ENACAL embargo had nothing to do with the government's ongoing negotiations with Union Fenosa although some commentators believe it is the government's way of pressuring the Spanish company. Union Fenosa spokesperson Jorge Katin, meanwhile, said that Fenosa would respond to ENACAL's embargo by taking legal action against the state company for the millions of cordobas it owes in unpaid electricity bills.
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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