TUESDAY, APRIL 07, 2009

Nicaragua Network Hotline (April 7, 2009)

1. Nicaragua walks out of trade talks with European Union
2. Assembly passes revised 2009 budget; Government meets with Budget Support Group
3. Daniel Ortega meets with Fidel Castro in Cuba
4. Prosecutor General Hernan Estrada wounded in attack
5. US Quixote Center helps put roofs over the heads of families

Topic 1: Nicaragua walks out of trade talks with European Union

On April 1, Nicaragua walked out of the trade talks between Central America and the European Union that were being held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Nicaraguan officials demanded a moratorium of six months when they were unable to get support for their proposal to establish a Common Fund which would address the economic asymmetries between the regions. A similar fund addresses disparities between Western and Eastern Europe.

Nicaraguan Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister Manuel Coronel said, if the EU and Costa Rica oppose a development fund to address asymmetries, that would change the negotiations to talks for a simple trade agreement and not an association accord as was promised at the beginning of the process. Coronel further noted that before the Central American countries entered into the agreement with the United States, known as DR-CAFTA, they had a trade surplus with the US of US$1 billion. Presently, after three years of CAFTA, they have a trade deficit with the US of US$1.5 billion.

President Daniel Ortega said, “The EU wants to impose a free trade agreement where the shark eats the sardines.” He added that he had instructed his delegation to abandon the talks because he wanted “just trade” not “free market trade that favors the big.”The Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), which represents Nicaraguan big business, agreed saying that “the lack of flexibility shown by the European Union on key issues can only produce unnecessary delays in the negotiation.”

Eduardo Calix, El Salvador's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, urged the Nicaraguans to return to the negotiating table but coalitions of NGOs and popular movements opposed to the agreement renewed their arguments. The Trade Group of International Cooperation Agencies said that the Association Agreement pushed by the European Union will not reduce poverty nor will it increase development in Central America. Sonia Cano of Oxfam International said, “As long as they continue along this same line of liberalizing markets without taking into account the disequilibrium [between the regions], this accord with the EU will not bring the most vulnerable out of poverty; those who most desperately need development will not see it and will not have their rights respected in the region.” She added, “It is of great concern that, after several rounds of negotiations, important questions such as the right to water, labor rights, and the right of stakeholders to participate in the talks have not been recognized.”

The social movement Via Campesina of Central America released a declaration on Mar. 30 which said that the coalition of peasant groups “rejects the trade negotiation between Central America and the European Union due to the fact that these treaties have deepened poverty, increased migration, increased unemployment in the countryside, increased violence and caused the dismantling of national production and because a free trade agreement is always an instrument of the neo-liberal model.” The declaration went on to say that Via Campesina “supports the initiative of some progressive governments in the region to overcome the asymmetries between Central America and the European Union as long as these do not put at risk our national sovereignty and promote food sovereignty, genuine agrarian reform and improvements in the life of those who live in the countryside.”

Topic 2: National Assembly passes budget changes; Government meets with Budget Support Group

On April 1, the National Assembly passed the revised 2009 national budget with 49 votes in favor (47 were necessary). Most of the support came from the Sandinista deputies with added votes from the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN); the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) deputies walked out of the session. Deputies of the Nicaraguan Democratic Bench (BDN) presented critiques of expenditures increases for items such as “renovations to presidential buildings” and “cell phone usage for the Supreme Electoral Council.” A statement from the BDN said that the budget was “fraudulent” because it was based on “false economic suppositions.”

According to Sandinista Deputy Wálmaro Gutierrez, President Daniel Ortega cut US$65.6 million from the draft he had sent to the Assembly in January in order to put the budget in line with expected revenues now that the international financial crisis has made itself felt. Gutierrez said that the government's intention was to maintain social sector spending [health and education] including salary raises for government employees which he said were still far from what was just but which were all the government could afford at this time. He said that the government might ask for further modifications halfway through the year.

Economist Adolfo Acevedo called for measures that would compensate for the contraction of credit by the banks by increasing government expenditures in vital areas. He bemoaned the fact that under the new budget there will be less money to buy medicines for the poor and there will be cuts in jobs in the National Police and other government agencies.

Central Bank President Antenor Rosales said that the government was now expecting an economic growth rate for this year of between zero and 1%. The Central Bank also announced a credit line from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration of US$200 million to help the national financial system confront any liquidity crisis.

Presidential economic advisor Bayardo Arce announced that on April 2, government officials had met with representatives of the countries that are members of the Budget Support Group (Germany, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Japan, the European Union and multilateral financial institutions) and agreed that on June 12 they would decide whether or not to resume budgetary support for Nicaragua. The funds that the Budget Support Group usually lends Nicaragua each year to reduce its fiscal deficit were frozen at the end of last year due to opposition allegations of fraud in the November municipal elections.

Topic 3: Daniel Ortega meets with Fidel Castro in Cuba

President Daniel Ortega met twice with President Raul Castro, and met for two hours with his brother former President Fidel Castro during an April 2-3 visit to Cuba. Ortega also met with other ministers and leaders and also had a medical checkup which he often does when he is in Cuba. In the letter that Fidel gave to Ortega he wrote that he remembered “the old times when the revolution arose in your country.” He added that he “was saddened to learn about the cadres who have fallen away and gladdened by news of the many comrades like Tomas [Borge], Bayardo [Arce], [Jaime] Wheelock and [Miguel] D'Escoto who have stayed faithful to the dreams of Sandino and the ideas that the Sandinista Front brought to Nicaragua.”

In his regular column published on April 5 in Juventud Rebelde, Fidel Castro wrote that he had conversed extensively with Ortega about the Summit of the Americas scheduled for April 17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago. “Who will now demand our exclusion?” he wrote, “Don't they understand that the times of the accords that excluded our people are long gone?” In recent weeks Cuba has been visited by eight other Latin American presidents (from Panama, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Venezuela, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic).

Topic 4: Prosecutor General Hernan Estrada wounded in attack

On the morning of April 6 Hernan Estrada, Prosecutor General of the Republic, was wounded in the neck when a man on a motorcycle shot at him three or four times. Estrada said the man got off the motorcycle and began to insult him. He fired off several shots and when he saw Estrada bleeding from the neck, thought he had completed his mission and rode away. National Police Commissioner Aminta Rivera said that the police were investigating the case and that the Prosecutor General would have added security. She said that she hoped “to bring to justice those responsible for this crime in the shortest time possible.”

Estrada blamed the Catholic hierarchy and right wing media outlets for provoking the attack with recent discussion of supposed armed groups in the country. He specifically blamed Managua Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes and Esteli Bishop Abelardo Mata for “seeing uprisings where they don't exist.” He said that he would not be intimidated from carrying out his work, adding “Rather, it makes me reaffirm that we have to continue working for the stability that our country needs so badly.”

Archbishop Brenes said that not only the Bishop of Esteli, Abelardo Mata, but also the bishops of Matagalpa (Jorge Solorzano) and Jinotega (Enrique Herrera) had confirmed to him that there are groups in the mountains that are arming themselves because of the lack of transparency in the recent municipal elections.

Topic 5: US Quixote Center helps put roofs over the heads of families

To have a proper house and a dignified roof over their head is the dream of many families and 24 of them realized their dream in the Managua neighborhood of Villa El Carmen thanks to help from the Institute of John XXIII Program of Housing and Social Infrastructure. “We are inaugurating the second stage of the Hills of Villa El Carmen development with the completion of these 24 homes thanks to funds from the Spanish Agency Amycos and the US Quixote Center,” said program director Julio Ayala.

Ayala said that each house cost about US$3,700 and that they were constructed with the help of the recipient families. Since no one knew which house would be theirs, they worked equally on all the houses. The houses are being assigned by raffle. Families will pay for their houses over ten years with no interest. The plan of the Institute is to construct 70 more houses in Ciudad Dario, and 90 in Sebaco and San Isidro, Matagalpa. In the period 2005-2007 it built 360 houses benefitting 1,611 people.

Meanwhile, more than 200 university students spent their Holy Week vacation building 25 houses in three Managua neighborhoods. The benefitting families in the neighborhoods of Milagro de Dios, Los Martinez and Treinta de Mayo will be able to have a roof over their heads valued at about US$1,700.
Carlos Aguilar, a student at the American University (UAM), said, “We are privileged to have access to an education, but it is also necessary that we youth look for ways to contribute some of the benefits that we have had in life.” Participating students were from several Managua universities.

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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