TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2008
Nicaragua Network Hotline (October 21, 2008)
1. Finally a break after 24 days of rain!2. Government programs increase rural services
3. Government conflict with NGOs continues
4. US Ambassador admits U.S. errors and expresses concern about accusations against IRI
Topic 1: Finally a break after 24 days of rain!
After 24 days of uninterrupted heavy rainfall, the sun broke through on Oct. 19 and citizens were given a much needed respite. Managua reported 65 kilometers of streets destroyed within the city and 16 kilometers in the outskirts. Five more deaths from the departments of Leon, Matagalpa, Rivas and the North Atlantic Autonomous Region were reported, making a total of 17 during the last three weeks. Meteorologists with the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER) said that rains would continue but would be less intense.
Residents of the Pochocuape neighborhood of Managua have not had potable water since street pavement broke up 20 days ago causing a break in the water main. The improvement in the weather allowed workers from the National Water and Sewer Enterprise (ENACAL) to repair it. Where streets have broken up and busses cannot get through residents of some neighborhoods must walk. Enormous puddles provide breeding places for mosquitoes.
The Ministry of Transportation sent out many units of heavy machinery across the nation on Oct. 18 to begin the job of clearing trees from roads and to reestablish communication with communities isolated by the storms. Damaged or destroyed bridges will have to be repaired or rebuilt. The Agriculture Ministry sent out workers on motorcycles to investigate the extent of crop loss for the second harvest. Health officials are providing medical kits for all health centers.
Topic 2: Government programs increase rural services
Six communities in the municipality of El Viejo will have electricity before the end of the year. El Viejo is one of the largest municipalities on the Pacific side of Nicaragua at 308 square kilometers and 97,000 inhabitants. The project will cost US$200,000. Victoria Laguna, a community leader in El Espavel said, "I have worked for 30 years to get electricity and finally we'll be able to watch television and have our first Christmas and New Years with [electric] lights!"
The Ministry of Health (MINSA) announced it is releasing 25,000 doses of glucantime, enough to treat 1,621 victims of cutaneous leishmaniasis, better known as mountain leprosy. The disease is caused by the bite of a sandfly that breeds in rodent feces. The treatment requires 28-30 doses per patient.
Dr. Edmundo Sanchez, director of the ministry's Health Monitoring Department said that the Ortega government has a preference for the poor, "the most abandoned in this country over time." He said, "Health has no political party, we treat without distinction to race, political creed, religion or class; health is a right of the entire Nicaraguan population, and in this case the most disadvantaged are favored by the Government of National Unity and Reconciliation."
The 25,000 doses that have gone through quality analysis are part of a total of 100,000 doses, costing US$200,000, needed to treat all the 4,414 diagnosed cases of mountain leprosy. Symptoms are open sores on the skin where the fly has bitten. These heal, but when the scab falls off the scar becomes larger and deeper. In some cases the infection spreads and can cause severe inflammation of the liver and death. Most of the victims are in the Departments of Jinotega and Matagalpa. "Our brigades went house to house discovering those who were sick and testing them. Everyone who has mountain leprosy is guaranteed medicine," said Dr. Alcides Gonzalez, director of the MINSA's National Center for Diagnosis.
In other news, the National Fund for Forest Development and the National Forestry Institute announced that they are launching a project to reforest 50 hectares of the Brakira River watershed in the community of Tuapi, of a total of 180 hectares deforested by logging and fire. The watershed provides the potable water for Bilwi/Puerto Cabezas, the North Atlantic Autonomous Region capital. Reforestation will improve water quality for the city.
Topic 3: Government conflict with NGOs continues
Vilma Nuñez and staff of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) were pushed, kicked and verbally abused by a crowd of Sandinista government supporters when they accompanied leaders of the Civil Coordinator to an investigative hearing before a prosecutor on Oct. 16. The attackers took the camera of CENIDH photographer Camilo Calero, knocked him to the ground and kicked him. Nuñez and others of the CENIDH team were surrounded and pushed by the crowd which shouted “Corrupt! Thieves!” At a subsequent press conference Nuñez criticized the police for not intervening. She later met with National Police Chief Aminta Granera about the issue. The next day CENIDH attorney Gonzalo Carrion said that 60 people were involved and that CENIDH would file a criminal complaint at the end of the week. The Civil Coordinator had been called before the prosecutor as part of the government's investigation into alleged misuse of funds by a number of non-governmental organizations, coalitions, and movements.
Meanwhile, Cecilia Millan, legal representative of Oxfam-Great Britain in Nicaragua, said that her organization was “extremely responsible” in its control of funding to the programs it supports, noting that Oxfam-GB had worked in Nicaragua for 45 years. She said that Law 147, which regulates organizations and associations, “says absolutely nothing about having to have legal recognition. Only if you handle public funds do you have to have that status.” Oxfam-GB was called to make declarations before a prosecutor after the Ministry of Government asked the prosecutor to investigate possible illegal activities in a covenant signed between Oxfam-GB, the Center for Communications Research (CINCO), and the Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM).
On Oct. 16, the Nicaraguan Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Autonomous Women's Movement denounced the Nicaraguan government before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva for a law, passed under the previous government with support of the FSLN which criminalized therapeutic abortion, and for its “campaign of persecution” against civil society groups which work to restore the 100 year old exemption. MAM representative Juana Jimenez told the news agency EFE that women's movement leaders who fought to reverse the prohibition were being accused of justifying the crime of abortion and of money laundering, accompanied by threats of legal action against them. Dr. Oscar Flores said that his organization was alarmed by the impossibility of guaranteeing the lives of pregnant women in the cases of preexisting serious illnesses. He said that the prohibition created uncertainty in the practice of medicine.
Six women Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu who won the prize in 1992, issued a statement which called for an end of repression against Nicaraguan women's organizations by the Ortega government. The statement said the Sandinista government “historically was known for its aspirations for justice but now it intimidates individuals and organizations that struggle in defense of human rights.” The Nobel winners expressed their solidarity “with Nicaraguan feminists who have been unjustly attacked in their continuing struggle for reproductive rights and basic liberties.” The declaration expressed particular concern about the government's attacks against feminist journalist Sofia Montenegro.
On Oct. 14, President Daniel Ortega said that no one is above the law and that the non-governmental organizations have to show their account books to the authorities, even those groups led by “members of the oligarchy who believe themselves untouchable.” Carlos Fernando Chamorro, president of CINCO, who was believed to be the target of Ortega's remarks, said that in the 1980s, when he was editor of the Sandinista daily newspaper Barricada, Ortega never called him an “oligarch” or said that he thought he was untouchable. “But now that I am defending my rights and defending democracy and freedom of association and of expression, investigating reports of corruption in this government, then he says that I believe myself untouchable,” Chamorro said. He added, “I say to Daniel Ortega that if he wants to put me in jail, then do so, but I am not going to make any concessions, cede my liberty or my conscience, and not let myself be threatened.” CINCO and MAM offices were searched last week under court order after they refused to appear before prosecutors investigating their use of funds.
Topic 4: Callahan admits U.S. errors and expresses concern about accusations against IRI
Robert Callahan, the new U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, spoke about the frequently conflictive relationship between the two countries before the Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 15. He spoke about William Walker (who made himself president of Nicaragua in the 1850s) saying “I believe that many people in the U.S. today would also have been happy with his defeat in 1856. He was a sinister, intolerant man…not the ideal representative of the United States for Nicaraguans. Callahan said nothing about the “sinister, intolerant” US President Ronald Reagan who launched and funded the contra war in the much more recent 1980s which cost the lives of 40,000 Nicaraguans, caused an estimated $17 billion in damages, and was ruled illegal by the World Court. Callahan himself was one of the executors of the contra war from his position as top aide to John Negroponte, US ambassador to Honduras.
Callahan must have thought he was being generous when he said, “I would say without commenting on motives or geopolitical considerations, that the United States committed many errors here, some of commission, some of omission and many Nicaraguans in government and outside of government committed errors also.” But he knew he was telling a lie when he said, “I want to declare publically that everything that we do here, each program in democracy, health, education, exchanges of students, soldiers or artists, each donation to the police or the army, each thing, we do in a public and transparent fashion. So that when you hear accusations that the United States is secretly trying to undermine democracy in Nicaragua or furtively involving itself in partisan politics, please remember what I just said. Everything that we do we do openly.” Try to get a current list of recipients of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) or US Agency for International Development grants, which are the main source of the Ortega government's distrust of NGOs, and you will see for yourself that his assertion is untrue.
Also last week, Callahan wrote a letter to Foreign Minister Samuel Santos expressing his “profound concern” about the investigation by the Nicaraguan government of the International Republican Institute (IRI), one of the four NED core groups, and warned that it could result in a deterioration in bilateral relations. The Supreme Electoral Council has accused the IRI of intervening in Nicaragua's electoral politics and an IRI spokesperson admitted in 2006 to a Nicaragua Network delegation that the group “created” the opposition group Movement for Nicaragua. Callahan asked Santos to give the IRI and its director in Nicaragua, Sergio Garcia, two weeks instead of three days to bring together the materials requested by the prosecutor's office. He noted that the order from the prosecutor had stated that Garcia's failure to appear with the documents could result in his detention. Callahan's request was granted.
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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