TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2008
Nicaragua Network Hotline (August 26, 2008)
1. Literacy Crusade celebrated; Ortega threatens withdrawal from OAS2. Threat to withdraw from OAS criticized
3. ALBA meets in Tegucigalpa; women protest
4. MRS calls for voters to cast null votes in November
5. Santos tells international conference “Potable water is a right.”
6. Dora Maria Tellez announces 12 hour fast; then cancels after threats
Topic 1: Literacy Crusade celebrated; Ortega threatens withdrawal from OAS
Thousands of young people and veterans of the 1980 literacy crusade gathered on August 23 to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Sandinista Literacy Crusade that reduced illiteracy from 53% to 12%. Between 1990 and 2007, illiteracy grew once again which is the reason why the Ortega government has launched another national campaign to teach the population to read and write. President Daniel Ortega presided over the commemoration and in some ways overshadowed it with a statement that Nicaragua might withdraw from the Organization of American States (OAS). On August 21, the OAS had announced that the Permanent Council would consider the matter of the cancellation of the legal recognition of the Conservative Party and the Sandinista Renovation Movement. General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza said, “We are concerned about the exclusion … since those parties are the opposition that exists in the country and they should participate in the elections.”
The MRS won only 200,000 votes in the 2006 presidential election and has three seats in the National Assembly. It failed repeatedly to file required paperwork with the Supreme Electoral Council resulting in its decertification. The Conservative Party, once a powerhouse in Nicaraguan politics, has been unable to field a national candidate in over a decade and failed to recruit the required candidates in 80% of municipalities for the upcoming election resulting in the loss of its legal status.
Ortega warned OAS Secretary General Jose Maria Insulza that Nicaragua may “withdraw from the OAS because it will not accept impositions around the conduct of the November municipal elections.” Even while reiterating his respect for Insulza, Ortega went on to condemn the OAS as “that instrument of the empire and the oligarchy.” Ortega said that Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Cuba fight a battle "where the enemies of the people try to weaken these [revolutionary] processes, resorting to all types of campaigns." “Now it is a low intensity war of lies, infamy, and calumnies, through the guns of the mass media that are at the service of the oligarchy and imperialism backed by the OAS,” he said.
Ortega said there is a growing offensive against an important victory in Bolivia, where “our brother Evo Morales” won a referendum with an ample majority of the Bolivian people. "Now they are attacking our brother Rafael Correa” where a referendum is scheduled for Sept. 28, “and they are attacking our brother in Venezuela [Hugo Chavez], where the elections will be Nov. 23, and [they are attacking] us, where elections will be held Nov. 9." Ortega condemned as “disguised agents of the empire” humanitarian organizations, NGOs and women's networks which have circulated repeated accusations against Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua at the OAS and he criticized Insulza for saying that Nicaragua is not conducting the electoral process in the “best manner.” He added, “Nicaragua will continue walking with the OAS or without the OAS, because here there is a revolutionary process that has deep roots and that is what irritates our adversaries and our enemies."
Topic 2: Threat to withdraw from OAS criticized
The Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) on August 25 condemned President Daniel Ortega's threat to withdraw from the OAS. "The Constitutional Liberal Party rejects the threats of President Daniel Ortega to withdraw our country from the Organization of American States,” read their official communiqué which went on to demand accreditation for OAS electoral observers. According to PLC deputy Francisco Aguirre Sacasa, Ortega is looking for the perfect excuse to leave the OAS and fulfill his desire to form another institution that does not include the United States and “he is thinking that he would be accompanied by other countries.” What is uncertain, according to Aguirre, is whether any other country would want to “accompany him on this adventure.”
Agustin Jarquin, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly and a member of the FSLN alliance of parties known as the Convergence, said “it would be lamentable” if Nicaragua withdrew from the OAS. He added that he hoped that sensible policies would prevail. Alberto Ramdin, Adjunct Secretary of the OAS, reacted to Ortega's statements by saying that the OAS was the only organization “where we can discuss all the political problems, security, development and all the subjects that are important for the nations of the hemisphere.” He went on to say that “The only thing that creating a parallel organization to the OAS would do is fragment the unity [of the hemisphere].”
Topic 3: ALBA meets in Tegucigalpa; women protest
Representatives of several member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) met in Tegucigalpa, on August 25 where President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras signed his country on as a member of the ALBA, joining Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Dominica. The signing took place in the middle of a burning controversy between the government and business sectors who oppose joining the ALBA saying that it is a conspiracy against free enterprise. The agreement must be ratified by the Honduran congress where approval is far from certain.
The signing by Zelaya was attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage. President Zelaya accused the private business groups that opposed Honduras joining the ALBA of being responsible for the poverty that he said affects 70% of the 7.5 million Hondurans. “We are sovereign enough,” Zelaya said, “so that we can tell the world that Honduras does not have to ask the permission of any imperial power to join the ALBA.” He added that the ALBA would help to end the country's energy dependency by building a hydroelectric dam, would reduce illiteracy, help with health care and permit the injection of US$400 million into productive projects.
Women groups protested the presence of Ortega wearing black T-shirts and carrying photos of his stepdaughter Zoilamerica Narvaez, who ten years ago accused him of sexual abuse. On August 22, Honduran Minister for Women Selma Estrada resigned her post in protest against Ortega's visit. A petition on the accusation is before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The issue was thrown out of Nicaraguan courts because the statute of limitations had run out.
Topic 4: MRS calls for voters to cast null votes in November
The Movement to Rescue Sandinismo, headed by Henry Ruiz and Monica Baltodano, called on voters to cast null votes in the municipal elections scheduled for November 9. A proclamation from the Movement, which forms part of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), stated that the movement was not promoting abstention “because that leads to a passive citizenry indifferent to political actions.” Rather voters were asked to mark all the boxes so that the vote will be declared void.
Baltodano said that to accept the rules of the game imposed by the “Ortega-Aleman regime” by marking one of the boxes of the parties of the pact would mean legitimizing that authoritarian and exclusionary regime. “To vote for one so that the other will not win,” explained the proclamation released by the group, “is part of this terrible game in which one cannot even argue that there is a dichotomy between left and right.”
Topic 5:. Santos tells international conference “Potable water is a right.”
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos on Aug. 25 told a water conference in Zaragoza, Spain that the Nicaraguan government views access to potable water as a “right” on the “National Day of Nicaragua” at the three-month long conference. Santos lamented that there are governments in the world that "prefer to make war" rather than address the present situation of the planet, where "one out of five inhabitants does not have access to potable water" and "forty percent do not have basic clean water systems." He told the assembled delegates that water is a vital and limited resource and "not privatizable." He said that under the government of President Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has changed its conduct and handling of water resources and is working to make potable water available in the countryside as well as in cities. Ruth Herrera, head of the state water and sewerage company ENACAL, also spoke at the conference, saying that the Nicaraguan government was promoting environmental education in schools and universities to encourage citizen participation and involvement. She said that the cleanup of Lake Xolotlan (Managua) had begun and that, by the end of this year, Nicaraguan residents will begin receiving potable water from the massive Lake Cocibolca (Nicaragua). She stated that the government had brought water to 40,000 new families in urban settlements that had been waiting 15 to 20 years for water service.
Topic 6: Dora Maria Tellez announces 12 hour fast; then cancels after threats
Former Sandinista guerrilla leader and Health Minister, Dora Maria Téllez, who is a leader of the opposition party Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) announced that she would fast for 12 hours in the Central Plaza of Leon on Sunday, August 24, to protest the hard economic life of Nicaraguans and to demand that the government of President Daniel Ortega define and apply policies “to restrain the high cost of living that is reflected in the highest inflation in years.” The first half of the year saw an inflation rate of 13.3%, according to the Central Bank, the highest in Central America and matching the rate of inflation for the same period last year. She was to be joined by a group of women supporters of the MRS. The MRS planned a cultural event and protest in Leon on August 26. Tellez fasted for 12 days in July to protest a decision by the Supreme Electoral Council to cancel the MRS party registration based on disqualification under the electoral law.
From the night of August 25, Sandinista leaders and leaders of the Councils of Citizen Power (CPC) installed a stage, speakers and banners in the plaza to denounce Tellez' fast and the cultural activities. Nicolas Palacios, MRS legal representative in Leon, said that the MRS had a permit from the National Police to carry out its activities in the Central Plaza. He said that the CPC banners over the streets carried offensive messages that called for violence against the MRS adding that the CPC and the FSLN were trying to provoke clashes between the two groups of Sandinistas and for that reason the MRS decided to suspend its activities.
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