TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2008
Nicaragua Network Hotline (October 28, 2008)
1. MRS officially joins PLC campaign; government distribution of stoves and titles criticized2. Sandinistas take over AMNLAE
3. NGOs gain international support
4. Illiteracy falls below 10%; Health care access skyrockets
1. MRS officially joins PLC campaign; government distribution of stoves and titles criticized
On Oct. 26 the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) endorsed Eduardo Montealegre for mayor of Managua in the Nov. 9 elections. Montealegre was the Bush administration-backed presidential candidate in 2006. He is nominee of the right-wing Liberal Alliance led by the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) and is running against boxing champ and former Managua council member, Alexis Argüello of the Sandinista Party (FSLN). Taking part in the program of endorsement were MRS leaders Enrique Saenz, Dora Maria Tellez, Victor Hugo Tinoco, Hugo Torres and Edmundo Jarquin. The Sandinista dissidents called the FSLN a “deformation of Sandinismo” and called on the population of the country, but especially of Managua, to vote against the FSLN candidates. Shouts of “Democracy, Yes! Dictatorship, No!” were heard throughout the program.
Dora Maria Tellez said, “We had no other choice…. The MRS had candidates in 141 municipalities but Ortega took away our legal recognition, prevented us from participating, and we were not going to stay out of these elections...” She added that the MRS was not promised any posts or privileges in exchange for its support of Liberal candidates. The Liberal Alliance is composed of the PLC, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), and the “Let's Go with Eduardo” Movement. The Supreme Electoral Council took away the MRS legal recognition after the party failed repeatedly to file legally required paperwork. Notable by her absence was Monica Baltodano, of the Movement to Rescue Sandinismo, which joined the MRS for the 2006 elections. At a meeting last week of Rescue Movement leaders, she repeated her insistence that voters should cast a “null” vote in opposition to both the FSLN and the Liberal Alliance.
The Ortega government's distribution of property titles and stoves has also been criticized as an election ploy. Hundreds of families on urban plots in poor neighborhoods have received title after nearly 20 years of uncertainty. Superintendent of Property Yara Perez handed over 400 titles in Villa Reconciliacion Sur and expected to be travelling to other neighborhoods in Managua and cities throughout the country. On Nov. 5 she will be joined in El Timal by Cardinal Miguel Obando, coordinator of the Commission for Peace and Reconciliation to distribute titles to former combatants of the contra war. Opposition media noted that the visits by government officials to the poor neighborhoods were followed by members of the Councils of Citizen Power (CPC) urging the new property owners to vote for the Sandinista candidate for mayor. But Perez said, “Why are you suspicious? These people never got a response to their needs before and we began turning over to them their property deeds last year.”
In another program that opponents of the government criticized as unfair campaign use of government monies, a total of 25,000 poor families received a gas stove and a tank of bottled cooking gas last week. The press of people to receive the stoves was so great that a window broke in the House of the Peoples (formerly the Presidential Palace), where the stoves were being distributed, injuring three people. The stoves were donated as part of the Bolivarian Alternative for Our Americas (ALBA) trade program. The women previously cooked over wood fires. During a ceremony, President Daniel Ortega said, “This is a struggle we are waging to improve women's health and also to improve the environment by eliminating the cutting of forests.” The program will eventually benefit 200,000 families according to Ortega.
During his speech at the ceremony, Ortega condemned the print media and called the Inter-America Press Association “a mafia.” He said, “If our people gathered together are mobs, if our coming together is a dictatorship, then long live the dictatorship of the poor! Those who shout that there is a dictatorship act like the landlords of our people.”
On Oct. 24 Ortega also handed over the first 400 Houses for the People homes to poor families, mostly to low paid government health workers, teachers and police. The houses cost US$20,000 and the families will pay $40/month for them.
In other election news, Roberto Rivas, president of the Supreme Electoral Council said that there will be international election observation for the Nov. 9 election and that the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organisms is ready with a team of more than 40 observers made up of current and former electoral officials and that officials from the Council of Latin American Electoral Experts were presently in the country. He said a decision on national observers will be made “within the next few days.”
2. Sandinistas take over AMNLAE
Dora Zeledon, long-time president of the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Nicaraguan Women's Association (AMNLAE) resigned on Oct. 24 and turned over the Erlinda Lopez National House of the Woman to First Lady Rosario Murillo and members of the recently formed Sandinista Women's Movement. Beginning the week before, followers of the new Movement took over several of the 60 Women's Houses that AMNLAE owned throughout the country. On Oct. 22, Murillo made a surprise appearance at an AMNLAE national council meeting which Zeledon had called to discuss the takeovers. According to sources, Murillo demanded that AMNLAE follow the line of the FSLN and defend the administration of Daniel Ortega “or turn over its property, because AMNLAE belongs to the Sandinista Front.” And, in spite of the fact that the majority of the national council supported Zeledon, Murillo was able to impose her selection of Isabel Arauz to replace Zeledon.
The disagreements between AMNLAE and Murillo grew out of AMNLAE's refusal to support the Ortega government's opposition to sex education, therapeutic abortion, and its position on conflicts with some non-governmental organizations and movements. In a communiqué, Zeledon said that “the blackmail, the threats, the manipulation and the public campaign of questioning and invalidating the work of AMNLAE are things that violate the autonomy, bylaws and statutes of our organization.”
Zeledon, a Sandinista militant, was an FSLN deputy in the National Assembly from 1997 to 2001 and is now an alternate. In her message of resignation she listed some of the accomplishments of the organization, including work to reform the electoral law based on broad consultation with Nicaraguan women, opposition to gender based violence, and education of women about their civil rights.
3. NGOs gain international support
On Oct. 22, the European Union released a statement which expressed concern about what it called the harassment of non-governmental organizations in Nicaragua by the Ortega government. The statement said that accusations through the media against NGOs and civil society representatives should not be substituted for legal processes in the courts. The statement questioned what the “true objectives of these intimidation maneuvers” were. The document went on to say that EU countries consider that NGOs “play an essential part in the democratic life and development of Nicaragua” and confirmed the commitment of EU countries to continue to include NGOs in their foreign aid to Nicaragua.
Foreign Minister Samuel Santos criticized the EU statement saying that the government was not persecuting civil society organizations and that the EU statement was based on biased and false articles in the media. “They generalize that there is a conflict with all NGOs and I clarified for them that there are 4,202 registered NGOs and there is a problem with only one registered group and one that is not registered,” Santos said referring to the Center for Communications Research (CINCO) and the Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM) whose offices were searched and documents seized last week by authorities. What the government is trying to do, he said, is “defend our institutions” and “make sure the law is followed.”
On Oct. 23, the US State Department expressing concern about the Nov. 9 municipal elections and about accusations against NGOs. State Department spokesperson Robert Wood claimed that the invalidation of two political parties and intimidation of civil society groups “put in doubt the credibility of the municipal elections.” He added, “We are also concerned because the Supreme Electoral Council has not approved with adequate time the requests of international and national groups for credentials to observe the elections.” He said that Nicaragua should comply with Article 23 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter which states that it is the obligation of governments to create conditions for free and just elections. A group known as the Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter also expressed concern about the electoral process. The letter was signed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark and others.
5. Illiteracy falls below 10%; Health care access skyrockets
Education Minister Miguel De Castilla reported on Oct. 25 that illiteracy now stands at 9.9%, down from 35% when President Daniel Ortega took office, the lowest level in Nicaraguan history. The Ministry of Education used the Cuban literacy program “Yes I can” to achieve the reduction. De Castilla recalled that the great National Literacy Campaign of 1980 reduced illiteracy from 52% to 12.9%, but, he said, under the neoliberal governments since 1990, illiteracy had climbed again. He stated that the goal was to reduce the rate to zero by the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution on July 19 and to be able to announce at the celebration that Nicaragua was free of illiteracy. He said that in the last 19 months fundamental structural changes have been made in education in Nicaragua and added that, for 2009, his goals were to advance in mathematics and science. De Castillo said, “We have to understand that this is just one of the battles of our government, the battle for Housing for the Poor, Zero Usury, Zero Hunger, Program “Love”, all are programs in a single battle against poverty.”
Minister of Health Guillermo Gonzalez on October 21 said that use of the public hospitals and health centers has grown by 40% in 2008 over 2007 and in 2007 it grew 50% over the previous year. “The lack of doctors has been a struggle we are confronting. It is a complicated subject that can only be solved with financial investment,” he said. He added that the demand for free medicine and treatment has put pressure on the health care system. “Appointments have grown by 40% over the previous year and the same for surgery,” Gonzalez said. “We have calculated that by the end of the year we will have spent US$30.75 million on medicines and we have had to ask for a budget increase for 2009,” he explained. He said that the government is investing millions of dollars to develop the hospitals and health centers, which he called “the reestablishment of a right” of the population. “In 21 months the government has transformed the health care system from a model of attention just to injuries and disease into a conception centering on the family, the community, and the person seeking treatment,” he said.
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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