TUESDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2008

Nicaragua Network Hotline (October 7, 2008)

1. Continuous rains cause floods and deaths throughout country
2. MRS says vote for anybody but the FSLN and other election news
3. National Assembly examines Tropigas intervention
4. Government to crack down on NGOs according to Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs
5. Workers to own shares of companies
6. Temporary Protected Status extended for Nicaraguans in the US

Topic 1: Continuous rains cause floods and deaths throughout country

By Monday, Sept. 6, the number of deaths caused by the week's floods had risen officially to eleven but unofficial figures had the number higher by several victims. Civil Defense authorities reported that 4,800 people had been evacuated from their homes and were staying in shelters. The Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER) said that two wide areas of low pressure surrounded the country and the rains would continue in the Pacific, central highlands and Atlantic regions for at least a day or two. Rivers throughout the countries had risen out of their banks, bridges had been destroyed and landslides had destroyed homes. In Managua, Lake Xolotlan (Managua) rose into the homes of those who live on its shores, forcing evacuations. The departments most affected have been Jinotega, Matagalpa, Madriz, Boaco, Nueva Segovia, Granada, Managua and Chontales.

Managua authorities reported massive damage to roads and storm sewers by the rains. [Managua's massive storm sewers carry rain water from the nearby mountains known as the Sierras de Managua through the capital city to Lake Managua.] Vice-Mayor Felipe Leiva said that the city's ongoing street repair work had been stopped and that the severity of the current rainy season had made it very difficult to carry the work forward. Sixteen to 25 kilometers of streets have been destroyed as have storm sewers in numerous areas of Managua. Jorge Berrios recently reported that the central government program Streets for the People was repairing streets in the outskirts of Managua.

Topic 2: MRS says vote for anybody but the FSLN and other election news

Sunday marked the official beginning of the 2008 municipal election campaign. While Fr. Bismarck Conde, vicar of the Managua cathedral, on Sundday urged people to vote and advised the electorate to, “with wisdom and prudence, elect candidates who will work for your municipalities,” the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) called on voters to vote against the governing Sandinista Party (FSLN) to prevent President Daniel Ortega from installing a “dictatorship” in the country. Edmundo Jarquin, the MRS candidate for president in 2006, said, “After a long session, the 120 delegates of the MRS council, with just one vote against and four abstentions, decided to call for citizens to vote for democracy and against dictatorship.” He added that the MRS was calling for voters to choose any option “except that of Daniel Ortega.” The MRS leader called on voters to support Liberal Alliance candidates associated with Eduardo Montealegre's faction. Montealegre was the favored candidate of the Bush regime in the 2006 election. “What we're saying,” Jarquin insisted, “is that you have to vote for the lesser of two evils.”

Dora Maria Tellez, also of the MRS, added that while Nicaraguans might not have a candidate to vote for, they did have a candidate to vote against. She denied that the MRS was going to make an alliance with any other political party. She called on all political, social and economic sectors of the country to join efforts to confront the “project of Arnoldo Aleman and Daniel Ortega.” The MRS holds three seats in the National Assembly and lost its legal status to run municipal candidates after failing for over a year to comply with electoral law requirements.

The FSLN candidate for mayor of Managua, Alexis Argüello, who won world boxing championships in three weight categories and served as vice-mayor of Managua from 2005-2007, launched his campaign with a caravan through the capital city. “We are going to work with love and affection to have a clean city. We are committed to all of you, with our leader Daniel Ortega,” he said, accompanied by Daysi Torrez, FSLN candidate for vice-mayor. Sandinistas have controlled Managua's local government for the last 10 years.

In other election news, Montealegre, the Liberal Alliance candidate for Managua mayor, accused the FSLN of trying to distract from what he claimed was the fact that its candidate is likely to go down to defeat by encouraging a court case against him for slander by economist Nestor Avendaño. Montealegre abstained from accusing the highly respected and politically independent Avendaño of being part of any FSLN conspiracy. Montealegre is facing criminal charges for his role in the aftermath of several bank failures and Avendaño has filed slander charges against him for a public attack by Montealegre. Avendaño was a strong critic of converting the failed banks debts into public debt which wiped out most of the gains Nicaragua won from the cancellation of most of its foreign debt. Montealegre is protected from prosecution because, as a former candidate for president, he is a deputy in the National Assembly.

Topic 3: National Assembly examines Tropigas intervention

Nicaraguan consumers are paying slightly less for gasoline and cooking gas since the Nicaraguan Institute of Energy (INE) seized and began operating the liquefied gas company Tropigas which was refusing to import cooking gas unless it received a 100% rate increase. Gasoline and diesel fuel also dropped in price. Regular gas dropped to US$1.26 per liter while super dropped to US$1.31 per liter. In Managua the 100 lb. cylinder of liquefied gas dropped from US$62 to US$60. The INE said that the drop was due to the drop in world prices.

Tropigas officials presented to Assembly deputies two contracts for the immediate purchase of 700 million gallons of liquefied gas, committed themselves to respect the prices established by the regulatory agency, and to fill all tanks fully which may result in a return of operations to the company. Meanwhile, the National Consumers Defense Network denounced the Tropigas Company for fraud, false advertizing and other offences. The claim was presented to the public prosecutor on Oct. 2 by Gonzalo Salgado, coordinator of the Network, who said, “We are asking the Public Ministry to investigate so that independent of what INE, the executive branch, or the National Assembly decide, Tropigas be held responsible for these crimes.”

Topic 4: Government to crack down on NGOs according to Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs

Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Valdrack Jaentschke said on Oct. 1 that his office had met with foreign organizations that fund non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to warn them that they must comply with regulations and cannot finance NGOs in order to intervene in Nicaragua's internal affairs. He also told them that the funds provided must be used strictly for the purposes established in the covenants they sign. He said that NGOs which receive money from abroad will be closely watched because some of them try to substitute for political parties.

“We have met with the different groups and we have told them that we are not trying to persecute them but in the light of recent events we are trying to review everything,” the Vice-Minister said. He added that Oxfam-Great Britain was warned that it cannot continue financing organizations that are trying to overturn the legitimately elected government of Nicaragua. Jaentschke said, “We are going to stop the aggressiveness of those NGOs that, based on a supposed dictatorship here, have gone to lobby in other countries to try to affect those countries' relationships with us; we are now working on that partisan political activity of the NGOs that was almost invisible.”

Jaentschke warned that the finances of the NGOs will be closely supervised, saying, “We are going to do an exhaustive review of the expenses and of the utilization of funds with relation to the goals [of the organization].” Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of CINCO, was called before a prosecutor on October 2 as part of an investigation into alleged illegal actions “against the state of Nicaragua.” Chamorro said that he would be accompanied by attorneys from the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH).

The Bush regime's accelerated use of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) to fund NGO's throughout Latin America to destabilize the growing number of progressive governments has increased distrust of NGO's in Nicaragua and elsewhere. This is lamentable because the NGO's that are not tainted by NED and USAID money, and that of several right-wing Canadian and European sources that work in concert with the US government agenda, get painted with the same brush of suspicion as those which are funded by the US government and its allies. We hope that Nicaragua and other Latin American countries will take steps to protect the free speech and association rights of the domestic opposition, while we applaud their efforts to monitor and control US government intervention. We note that the US has strong laws regulating the involvement of NGOs, or non-profits, in US electoral politics. Nicaragua and Latin American countries certainly have the right to protect the integrity of their own electoral systems and we urge that this legitimate right not be used to suppress the also legitimate right for citizens to disagree with their government.

Topic 5: Workers to own shares of companies

In November of this year sugar workers may realize their long delayed hope of receiving the ownership shares in several sugar processing plants that they were promised 16 years ago when the companies were privatized. Cesar Mairena of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman announced that, on November 26, Prosecutor General Hernan Estrada, the General Secretary of CORNAP (Public Sector National Corporations) and the former cane workers would sit down to work out the terms of the deal. The right-wing governments had not followed through on the promise made in 1992.

CORNAP is also working to reactivate and privatize the EMEMSA metals factory into the hands of the workers. The factory makes plows, rakes, cultivators, and other metal items including containers to store and transport water or gasoline. The Ortega government found that the company had been badly administered and owed money to government agencies and to its workers including back pay, taxes and social security. CORNAP has helped the workers acquire US$75,000 to purchase equipment and raw materials and has negotiated work contracts with state run and private institutions. It has also renegotiated the company's debts.

Topic 6: Temporary Protected Status extended for Nicaraguans in the US

Nicaragua celebrated on Oct. 2 the decision of the United States to extend by 18 months the Temporary Protected (Immigration) Status (TPS) of 3,500 Nicaraguans living in the United States. This is the seventh or eighth, depending on the source, extension of special immigration status for Nicaraguan immigrants, allowing them to continue to live and work in the United States. According to the Foreign Ministry, Nicaraguans have 60 days to apply for the extension to July 2010 with the Department of Homeland Security. Nicaraguans living in the United States sent US$800 million to their families in 2008 according to Radio La Primerisima. The US financial crisis is likely to reduce the amount Nicaraguans can send home, according to analysts.

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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