TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2008
Nicaragua Network Hotline (October 14, 2008)
1. Government seizes documents and computers from offices of CINCO and MAM2. Election observation still uncertain and other election news
3. Coffee growers alarmed at falling prices
4. Brazil to finance hydroelectric project in the RAAN
Topic 1: Government seizes documents and computers from offices of CINCO and MAM
National Police and a prosecutor, with a court order, on Oct. 11 entered the Center for Communications Research (CINCO) and seized documents and computers in an investigation of the NGO's use of international funding. CINCO is headed by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, editor of the Sandinista newspaper Barricada in the 1980s. Evidently the Minister of Government asked for information about the NGOs activities such as passing through funds from Oxfam-Great Britain through CINCO to the Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM). The order to search the CINCO offices came after Chamorro and Sofia Montenegro, director of CINCO, failed to appear before a prosecutor.
On Oct. 10, the authorities searched the offices of the Autonomous Women's Movement and seized documents. MAM leaders say that their network is not registered as a non-governmental organization because it is a social movement with hundreds of women. Patricia Orozco, a MAM leader, said that the search of the group's office was political persecution of the feminist movement because of its continuing campaign against the criminalization of therapeutic abortion passed in 2006 and reaffirmed by the current Sandinista government in 2007. MAM officially endorsed the Sandinista Renovation Movement candidates in the 2006 presidential and national assembly elections.
Special Prosecutor Armando Juarez said on Oct. 13 that, after preliminary examination of the documents from the CINCO and MAM offices, he had found the first evidence of crimes. He told Channel 4 television that he had established that CINCO had transferred important sums of money to MAM and other NGOs with “clear political goals.” He said that CINCO had paid for T-shirts for a march against the government of President Daniel Ortega with the words, “Democracy, yes! Dictatorship, no!” as well as money for at least one press conference for the MRS political party. Nicaraguan law, like US law, forbids NGOs to participate in the electoral process.
Juarez said that smaller sums were spent on campaigns to promote abortion. He reiterated the absurd claim made by other government officials that anyone who advocates the interruption of a pregnancy is in violation of the new Penal Code. He stated that these and other transfers of money from CINCO to other groups, but especially to MAM, were in violation of the mission CINCO laid out when it applied for recognition as a non-governmental organization. He said that in two or three years CINCO had handled more than US$10 million and 40 million cordobas in donations, transferring part of that money to other NGOs for activities that had nothing to do with communications.
The special prosecutor confirmed that he had obtained a judge's order for the bank records of CINCO and MAM as well as of other NGOs in order to establish the destination of donations. He said that he had asked for documents from Oxfam-Great Britain and that the group had been granted an extension until Tuesday to turn over its records. Other organizations for which the special prosecutor has obtained search warrants are the Civil Coordinator, the Nicaraguan Network of Community Commerce, Venancia Group of Matagalpa, the Nicaraguan Network of Municipal Women and the Syd Forum, a Swedish development organization.
Chamorro said that he had received calls from the Inter-American Human Right Commission expressing concern about the situation in Nicaragua. “There is concern outside Nicaragua; there is concern inside Nicaragua; we feel completely defenseless,” Chamorro said, adding, “Who can we turn to? The Supreme Court? The Attorney General who has been supplanted by prosecutor Ana Julia Guido of the FSLN?”
On Oct. 10 when the prosecutor first presented himself at the CINCO office but was not allowed entry, Sergio Miranda of Radio Ya denounced the prosecutor for “being soft” and called on members of the Councils of Citizen Power to come out and break down the CINCO doors and get the documents. At the same time, Movement for Nicaragua President Violeta Granera said on Radio Corporacion that the “democratic people of Nicaragua” were mobilizing to prevent “the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega” from taking over CINCO's office. In fact, however, the streets remained quiet.
This latest turn of events is complex and elements of it are disturbing. Any country regulates the activities of its NGO's and has the right to audit them to determine compliance with the law. The Nicaragua Network was audited for tax year 1985. When the first audit found nothing the IRS sent another auditor to do it all over again. When that audit confirmed the first, they sent an auditor from the national office. At that point we refused to cooperate in what had clearly become political persecution. They dropped it at that point. The audit was time-consuming and diverted staff from our real work.
So, there is no doubt that audits can be conducted for political reasons and the Ortega government's attempts to criminalize lobbying to overturn the more than 100-year-old right to have an abortion if needed to save the life or health of the mother is indefensible. On the other hand, the US strategy to roll back the advances of progressive governments in Latin America is to invest heavily in NGOs and other civil opposition groups. The Movement for Nicaragua, for instance, was created and funded by the International Republican Institute (IRI) according to an IRI spokesperson. The IRI and the other core groups of the National Endowment for Democracy launder money by giving it to groups which then give it to other groups, exactly like what is being investigated in the case of CINCO. It is the toxic presence of US government money and that of a few right wing NGOs from other countries in Nicaragua that justifies the Ortega government's efforts to determine the funding sources of the NGOs and social movements. What is not justified is to go after NGOs because they are lobbying on behalf of women's lives and health.
Topic 2: Election observation still uncertain and other election news
The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) said last week that it still has not made a decision about the accreditation of observers for the Nov. 9 municipal elections due to “a variety of opinions on the subject among the members of the Council.
In other election news, Liberal Alliance candidate for mayor of Managua, Eduardo Montealegre, campaigned over the weekend with former President Arnoldo Aleman in several towns in the Department of Rivas. The two were irreconcilable rivals two years ago at the time of the presidential elections when Montealegre was the US-backed presidential candidate of the National Liberal Alliance running against the so-called pact between Aleman and Daniel Ortega. Now Montealegre is a candidate of a Constitutional Liberal Party-led alliance of Liberal parties.
Meanwhile, according to La Prensa, some 25 members of the Movement to Rescue Sandinismo left the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) last week and rejoined the FSLN. The Rescue Sandinismo faction is the historical left-wing of Sandinismo which allied with the social democratic MRS for the 2006 presidential election. They were welcomed back at a ceremony held in the Sandinista community center in Managua. They said that they were “disenchanted” with the dissident movement because of its anti-government positions. Roger Moreno questioned “How is it possible that we, being Sandinistas, being of the left, are going to follow the right?”
In other news, Baltodano continued to differ with the majority opinion of the MRS which last week called on voters to vote for “anybody except Daniel” meaning for any candidate that was not running on the Sandinista ticket. The MRS is not on the ballot after losing its legal status due to failure to meet legal requirements earlier this year. Baltodano insisted that voters should cast a blank ballot saying, “There are those who argue that Aleman is the lesser of two evils. We believe that we have to say no to both. Neither is the answer to the economic and social problems of the people.” She has indicated that in the future the Rescue Movement would apply for its own legal recognition as a party.
Topic 3: Coffee growers alarmed at falling prices
The high cost of coffee production and roads in disrepair, combined with falling prices, are creating a possible crisis in the coffee sector this year according to Jose Angel Buitrago, president of the Nicaraguan Association of Exporters (EXCAN). The international price for coffee closed on Oct. 8 at US$116.90 per hundred pounds, down from US$144.26 in August, a 17.7% drop in price. Buitrago said the crisis would be exacerbated by the rising cost of fertilizer, the country's bad rural roads, and the high cost of fuel. It currently costs about US$110 to produce a hundredweight of coffee.
Adding to the potential crisis is a lack of liquidity in the market due to the world financial crisis and an oversupply of coffee with respect to demand. Buitrago said that in spite of the low sale price, coffee growers would be forced to hire coffee pickers or lose their crops. The harvest begins in about one month.
The minimum wage was raised recently by the government over opposition from business leaders, and an attempt to avoid paying the increase may well have been a motivating factor for Buitrago's crisis call. He said that the higher wage “is going to entail higher costs for the grower and he might say, 'Man, it is better to just let the beans fall from the trees' or he might tell the coffee pickers 'Let's go halves.'" The coffee sector is projecting a harvest this year of 85,000 tons, compared to last year's 100,000 tons which produced US$200 million in export earnings.
Topic 4: Brazil to finance hydroelectric project in the RAAN
Foreign Minister Samuel Santos announced from Brazil on October 8 that Brazil had agreed to loan Nicaragua $US350 million to construct the Tumarin hydroelectric project in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). When complete, the facility has the potential to produce 160 megawatts of electricity. Santos said the project will be "highly profitable" because of the unsatisfied demand for electricity in Central America. He also said Brazil might invest in other hydroelectric projects in Nicaragua and declared that the investments would be "mutually beneficial" to both countries and the investors.
Nicaragua is pushing hard to develop hydroelectric power. By 2013 it expects to generate 404 megawatts from nine new projects, seven of which have already obtained funding. Currently 98 megawatts is being produced at state-owned hydroelectric projects in Jinotega and Matagalpa. We have received no communication to date from Nicaraguan environmental groups about any environmental or population displacement concerns.
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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