TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2008
Nicaragua Network Hotline (Dec. 30, 2008)
1. Inter-oceanic canal project once again on the table2. President modifies 2008 budget by decree
3. New conflicts arise over role of Councils of Citizen Power
4. Estimate of Nicaragua's forests at 7.5 million hectares
5. Manifesto “In Defense of Nicaragua” attracts global signatures
Topic 1: Inter-oceanic canal project once again on the table
Nicaraguan environmentalist Camilo Lara said last week that Lake Nicaragua (Cocibolca), even with its enormous size of 8,000 square kilometers, would feel the impact of the shipping traffic if an inter-oceanic canal were built across Nicaragua through its waters. He said that the project could cause greater floods and droughts to affect the country and stop reforestation efforts. A canal across Nicaragua has been a dream or a nightmare for Nicaragua since the 19th century and was the original impetus for US intervention in Nicaragua.
The presidents of Nicaragua and Russia, Daniel Ortega and Dmitri Medvedev respectively, signed a cooperation accord on Dec. 18 in Moscow and official sources indicated that the subject of a canal was discussed. Several routes are under discussion. The canal could follow the San Juan River, cross Lake Nicaragua, and traverse the Istmus of Rivas to the Pacific or travel the Tipitapa River to then cross Lake Managua (Xolotlan) and finally cross to the Gulf of Fonseca in the Pacific. It would have a length of up to 900 kilometers and would be able to be used by ships of up to 200,000 tons.
Lara expressed doubts that the canal would ever be built because of the problem of finding sufficient financing. President Daniel Ortega himself expressed doubts about the possible impact on Lake Nicaragua, saying that the lake “is the largest reserve of water in Central America” and he didn't want to put it at risk. Jorge Huezo, president of the Grand Canal Foundation, emphasized, however, that the bodies of water through which ships would pass would not necessarily be contaminated citing the case of Panama which imposes rigid norms. While Kommersant, a daily newspaper in Moscow, noted that “the majority of these megaprojects are not destined to leave the drawing board,” the Grand Canal Foundation found the project “technically feasible, economically profitable, and sustainable over time.”
Topic 2: President modifies 2008 budget by decree
On Dec. 26, President Daniel Ortega, by presidential decree, made changes in the 2009 budget that have languished in the National Assembly since opposition groups paralyzed it in October. The modifications include funds to pay teachers and Nicaraguan embassy staff abroad who have not been paid for weeks. Funds would also be transferred to the Ministries of Health, Transportation and Agriculture. Ortega justified his order by saying that, faced with an inoperative National Assembly, he did what was “in the national interest.” The end result of the budget decree is unclear since the Nicaraguan Constitution is clear that all budget changes must be approved by the National Assembly. On Dec. 27, at the inauguration of a government water project that is now bringing water from Lake Nicaragua to Juigalpa, Ortega defended his decree on the basis that there was no other way around the legislative paralysis.
The opposition jumped to accuse Ortega of committing a crime. The leader of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) bench, Maximino Rodriguez, said that the president has either been badly advised or has ignored his advisors. Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) deputy Victor Hugo Tinoco said that the paralysis in the National Assembly was due to “Ortega acting through [Assembly President and Sandinista] Rene Nuñez” who, he said, does not want to call a meeting of the Assembly leadership to convoke a special session because he knows that he doesn't have a majority.
Carlos Garcia of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) said that the fact that the National Assembly was paralyzed by a political crisis did not give the president the right to govern by decree, adding that the president did have the power to call an extraordinary session of the Assembly to approve budget changes but that Ortega did not do so because “of his arrogance, his power, his pride, his dictatorial system.” He said that, if the other opposition benches did not push for legal action against Ortega, the ALN would.
Topic 3: New conflicts arise over role of Councils of Citizen Power
According to El Nuevo Diario, outgoing Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco said on Dec. 24 that the first thing the new Managua city council would be asked to do in January would be to approve an ordinance to place the city council under the authority of the Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs). The Councils of Citizen Power are controversial citizen participation bodies that are often accused of being dominated by Sandinistas. Marenco, while a Sandinista, had a falling out with First Lady Rosario Murillo, the national coordinator of the councils as well as coordinator of the Council of Communications and Citizenship. Marenco said that if the 19 member Managua city council is going to be subject to another council of “I don't know how many hundreds, well I think that here we are not even going to be able to collect the garbage.” He added that it would be a violation of the Nicaraguan constitution.
Murillo gave a speech to newly elected Sandinista mayors, vice-mayors, and city council members on Nov. 29 in which she talked about “installation of the model of citizen power in the municipalities where the people will govern beginning in January” as well as “consolidation of the model of direct democracy in the municipalities.” But she also said, “We're talking about learning to coordinate, to respect the space of each one of us, to listen to each other with respect and to include all opinions. We're talking about all of us Sandinistas and non-Sandinistas achieving integration in a Cabinet [of Citizen Power] that will work next to the local government, in coordination with the central government.”
The speech and Marenco's interpretation of it gave rise to a flurry of protest. Leonel Teller, spokesman for the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), said that city council members of his party would vote based on the people's needs and not on the orders of minority groups that want to impose political criteria. He added that “changing representative democracy for a failed and obsolete model like that of so-called direct democracy is not even a subject of discussion for us.” Venezuela is pioneering models of direct democracy that are neither “failed” nor “obsolete.” It remains to be seen whether Nicaragua can develop a system of popular democracy that fits its own culture.
Edgardo Cuarezma, Sandinista political secretary for Managua and a city council member, said on Dec. 26 that the role of the CPCs has been misinterpreted. He said, “The Sandinista Front has a political project which is to give greater participation to the population through citizen power. Citizen power will have a lobbying role in the sense that the Sandinista council members represent these citizens and they can come to discussions here as part of the direct democracy that the FSLN is proposing.” He stated, “No one is talking about having a super-body; I believe that that was a misinterpretation.”
Topic 4: Estimate of Nicaragua's forests at 7.5 million hectares
When the government completes its forest inventory in February 2009, projections are that the total will be 7.5 million hectares, according to Roberto Araquistain, vice-minister of Natural Resources and the Environment (MARENA), who cautioned that the figures are preliminary. Previous estimates put the forest coverage at only 3.5 million hectares. He said this is the first complete national inventory that will provide data on lumber, forests, and biodiversity for future environmental services. Currently it is estimated that Nicaragua loses 70,000 hectares of forest each year.
Araquistain said that, although the data is “very preliminary” it appears that the extent of forest coverage in Nicaragua is not as low as previously thought. He said it appears there are 3.5 million hectares of virgin forest and that various programs have recovered another 1.5 million hectares. Araquistain said that if you add 2.5 million hectares of forest in 62 protected areas of the country, you reach the 7.5 million hectares figure. As part of the forest preservation programs, he noted that burning by peasants to prepare the land for cultivation has been reduced considerably. He also pointed out that since 2007 when the National Reforestation Campaign was initiated, 40,000 hectares of trees have been planted through cooperation between MARENA, the National Forest Institute and the autonomous governments of the North and South Atlantic regions. The government has constructed nurseries for 5 million trees while allies in the business community, including the sugar industry, have produced 14 million more trees for reforestation.
Topic 5: Manifesto “In Defense of Nicaragua” attracts global signatures
Hundreds of people from more than 40 nations have signed a manifesto “In Defense of Nicaragua” over Christmas week. Signers include the daughter and grandson of Augusto Sandino and the grandson of Chile's slain president Salvador Allende as well as, according to Radio La Primerisima, “Sisters of the Maryknoll Order in the United States, legislators from many countries, reporters, academics, artists, women's movement leaders, writers, professionals, historians, poets and solidarity activists from around the world.” To read the manifesto, view the signers, and to add your own name if you wish, visit www.tortillaconsal.com.
The manifesto states in part:
“We free women and men, who believe Another World is Possible, declare:
1. Our unconditional support for the right of the Nicaraguan people to self determination and national sovereignty, without foreign interference of any kind.
2. Our support for the independent, sovereign, popular, course taken by the FSLN government, led by President Daniel Ortega.
3. Our delight at the Sandinista victory in 105 out of 146 municipal authorities in this year's municipal elections.
We reject and condemn:
1. Foreign interference in Nicaragua's internal affairs.
2. The policy of blackmail used by the governments of the United States and the European Union.
3. The campaign of lies promoted by the international (dis)information corporations and multinationals.
We encourage:
1. All the world's peoples, especially in North America and Europe, to renew their links of friendship with Nicaragua, pressuring their respective governments to increase the sums destined to eradicate poverty in Nicaragua and to oblige them to desist from interfering in the internal affairs of the Nicaraguan people.
2. Social communicators, especially in alternative communications media, to break the silence on the situation in Nicaragua and to actively inform in a truthful, independent way on what is really happening in Nicaragua and the Central American region.
3. The progressive and independent governments of Latin America and the world to show their unrestricted solidarity with the Nicaraguan people and its legitimate democratically elected government.”
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