TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2009
Nicaragua Network Hotline (March 24, 2009)
1. US groups ask Ortega to withdraw Nicaragua from SOA2. Constitutional Liberal Party loses members to PLI
3. Ortega will not meet with Biden but will attend Summit of the Americas
4. World Bank grant enables funding of 31,620 small producers
5. Rama seek UNESCO cultural heritage designation
6. Carazo free of illiteracy
Topic 1: US groups ask Ortega to withdraw Nicaragua from SOA
Radio La Primerisima on March 19 ran a story about a petition being circulated by the Nicaragua Network and School of the Americas Watch requesting that President Daniel Ortega be the sixth Latin American president to announce that his country will no longer send military officers to be trained at what La Primerisima called the “School of Genocide.”
On its web page La Primerisima printed the text of the letter which notes that Somoza's brutal National Guard sent more officers to be trained at the School of the Americas than any other country before the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979. The petition also points out that five countries have announced withdrawal (Venezuela (2004), Argentina (2006), Uruguay (2006), Costa Rica (2007) and Bolivia (2008)), and that a vote on closing the SOA will be taken by Congress this summer. A change of six votes the last time it was voted on by the House of Representatives would have closed the military training school.
Radio La Primerisima published the link for individuals and organizations to sign onto the letter to President Ortega at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NicaraguaCloseSOA/.
Topic 2: Ortega will not meet with Biden but will attend Summit of the Americas
Foreign Minister Samuel Santos announced that President Daniel Ortega will not attend the meeting of Central American presidents with US Vice-President Joseph Biden scheduled for March 30 in Costa Rica but will attend the Summit of the Americas to be held in Trinidad and Tobago on April 17-19. Manuel Coronel, vice-minister for Foreign Affairs, will attend the meeting with Biden. Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago was in Nicaragua and met with Ortega on Mar. 21 to extend a formal invitation to the summit in his country. US President Barack Obama and most of the other 34 presidents and heads of state of the hemisphere are expected to attend.
On Mar. 17, Bolivia's Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca and Santos announced a joint proposal to invite Cuba to join the Summit of the Americas. Choquehuanca said that President Evo Morales would attend the Summit and make that proposal. He said, “We want not only the inclusion of Cuba in these spaces but we also are going to propose, at the proper time, that the Organization of American States lift sanctions that have been applied unjustly against Cuba.” President Ortega said that it was “hard to attend a Summit that calls itself ‘of the Americas' when Cuba is absent.” Ortega said that his government will also propose more aid to Central America to fight drug trafficking and to reduce poverty. He said that the present economic crisis should be discussed and that the position of his government was that foreign assistance should not be used as method of political coercion against any state.
Ortega said that the Nicaraguan government would share its agenda with the other Central American governments on Mar. 25 at a meeting in Managua of the Central American Integration System (SICA). He also announced that an extraordinary meeting of the countries in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) will be held on April 16 in Caracas where member nations will work on united positions for the Summit.
Topic 3: World Bank grant enables funding of 31,620 small producers
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAGFOR) is preparing to begin the Agro-Food Emergency Program which will provide financing to 31,620 small farmers of basic grains in four departments with a grant of US$7 million from the World Bank. MAGFOR Minister Ariel Bucardo said on March 21 that the government solicited international cooperation in May 2008 to respond to the food emergency and the increasing price internationally of food.
The program has two parts, the Integral Program for School Nutrition (PINE) for US$4 million under the Ministry of Education and Plan Seeds for US$3 million administered by MAGFOR. Rocha said, “The objective of Plan Seeds is to contribute to food security of the country and to provide opportunities for a generation of rural families by providing financing for a production package of certified seeds, fertilizer, training and technical assistance. Small farmers in Nueva Segovia, Matagalpa, Jinotega, and Boaco will benefit. Plan Seeds will spend half of the US$3 million for 130.5 tons of seed corn, 858.5 tons of beans and 30.3 tons of sorghum. Fertilizer purchases will cost US$1.1, and the remaining US$370, 000 of the World Bank grant will be spent on training and logistics.
Topic 4: Constitutional Liberal Party loses members to PLI
Enrique Quiñonez and Allan Rivera Siles switched their party designation from the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) to the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) following former Nicaragua Liberal Alliance (ALN) leader Eduardo Montealegre. Prior to the reshuffling of right-wing delegates in the National Assembly, the PLI had no representation in the legislature. The newly minted PLI delegates will vote as part of the Nicaraguan Democratic Bench. They said that the PLC has maintained what they called “an eternal pact” with the Sandinista Party (FSLN) and thus was not a true opposition party. Bluefields Mayor Harold Bacon Brokamp and several city officials embarrassed PLC leader Arnoldo Aleman by switching to the PLI after the former president announced that there would be no more desertions. A former PLC member who did not wish to give her name said, “There is a lot of unhappiness in the PLC because it is so close to the Sandinistas; that's why we are going over to the PLI.”
Last week, Deputy Guillermo Osorno of the Christian Path Party which was allied with the PLC, and PLC Deputy Carlos Olivas both left the PLC and declared themselves independent. They have been voting recently with the FSLN. Thus, the never ending saga of shifting alliances among Nicaragua's political class continues.
Topic 5: Rama seek UNESCO cultural heritage designation
The 2,000 indigenous Rama people of the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) are seeking to have their language and culture designated a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They have already received that designation from the RAAS Council. The Rama live in isolated communities centered around Rama Cay and they represent .17% of Nicaragua's population. Vice Foreign Minister Joel Dixon visited Rama Cay last week to promote the candidacy of the Rama people before UNESCO.
Rama leader Santiago Thomas explained that the Rama are descended from the Chibcha Indians of South America and that their language of more than 5,000 words is loaded with onomatopoeia which is why some people call it “tiger language.” Thomas lamented that the majority of Rama have adopted Creole English as their common language and only a few old people use the ancestral language. “It is precisely for that reason that we seek the Cultural Heritage of Humanity designation,” said RAAS Council President Lourdes Aguilar. Aguilar explained that on March 25, 2006, the RAAS Council declared the Rama people a Cultural Heritage of Humanity in conformity with the definition established by the Convention for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
Since 1984 French linguist Colette Grinevald, of the Center for the Investigation and Documentation of the Atlantic Coast (CIDCA), has been working to rescue the Rama language. “We have published a dictionary, a calendar, and narrative of the effects of Hurricane Joan on Rama territory. They will be published on the Internet in an effort to spread the cultural legacy of the Rama people,” she said. Thomas said they will also promote the artisanry, food, and dress of the Rama. “Our traditions of respect and coexistence with nature are values that we must preserve and bequeath to future generations,” he said.
Topic 6: Carazo free of illiteracy
President Daniel Ortega announced on Saturday that the Department of Carazo is now “free of illiteracy,” meaning that literacy now exceeds 95%. Ortega thanked Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for their help in the new campaign at the celebration of the 29th anniversary of the 1980 Literacy Crusade which won a UNESCO award. To eradicate illiteracy the Ortega government has used the Cuban methodology “Yes, I Can” that teaches a person to read in only 65 days. Eighty Cubans and 33 Venezuelans who had helped in the Bolivian literacy campaign also worked with Nicaraguans in the Nicaraguan campaign. The “Yes, I Can” methodology enabled Bolivia to become the third state in the Bolivarian Alternative for Our Americas (ALBA) to eliminate illiteracy.
Ortega said that Carazo is the first department to become free of illiteracy under his government. Carazo includes the municipalities of Diriamba, Dolores, El Rosario, Jinotepe, La Conquista, La Paz, San Marcos and Santa Teresa. Council of Citizen Communication Coordinator Rosario Murillo said, “Today we are lifting up the banner of light, hope, and the future.” Minister of Education Miguel de Castilla, the elected mayors of Carazo, and Cuban Ambassador Luis Hernandez and Cuban literacy volunteer Alberto Salas participated in the ceremony.
Ortega noted, “In January of 2007, when we returned to government after 17 years of neoliberal governments, illiteracy had risen to 35%,” from the 13% achieved by the revolutionary government. The goal is to reduce illiteracy below 5% in all departments by the July 19, the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista victory. Presently 56 of the 153 municipalities have been declared illiteracy free and the hope is that by June 30, all the rest will have completed the literacy campaign.
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