TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2009

Nicaragua Network Hotline (June 16, 2009)

1. Budget Support Funds on Hold; MCC Canceled
2. Government projects benefit 30,000 small producers
3. Three wounded in confrontation over lobster prices in Bilwi
4. Issue of Nicaraguan-U.S. citizen property compensation arises again
5. Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador initiate “Mangrove Corridor”

Topic 1: Budget Support Funds on Hold; MCC Canceled

Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos said on June 10 that the government's dialogue with the group of donors known as the Budget Support Group had had “no results,” leaving up in the air US$60 million in support for Nicaragua's budget for fiscal 2008 and an unspecified amount for fiscal 2009 which begins July 1. The Budget Support Group is composed of the European Commission of the EU, the United Kingdom, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. Budget support funds are important to a country's budget because they can be used wherever they are needed.

On June 10 the US government's Millennium Challenge Corporation cancelled its program in Nicaragua. Projects already contracted will continue but US$62 million for new projects was cut. President Daniel Ortega responded to the announcement by saying that the aid was canceled because “we don't do what the yanqui wants; the yanqui wanted for mayor of Managua someone who had stolen from the people [Eduardo Montealegre] and the people chose Alexis Argüello.” On June 12, Ortega announced the creation of the ALBA-Solidaria Program as a mechanism to use US$50 million from the cooperative trade association ALBA to complete the programs that will not be carried out because of the cancellation of the MCC funds.

Montealegre answered saying, “We all know that it is a lie that the funds from Hugo Chavez are going to arrive to benefit the people. They are going to finance the give-aways to Ortega supporters and businesses close to the presidential family.” The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recently affirmed Ortega government programs had reduced malnutrition from 52% to 22% in its two years in office calling it the greatest increase in food security in Central America.

The Nicaragua Network rejects US and other foreign interference in Nicaragua's sovereign affairs. Claims of fraud, except in a handful of precincts, were not submitted through legal channels by which a determination of their merits could have been adjudicated. That makes it impossible for outside observers to make a judgment about whether a significant level of fraud existed. Opponents of the Ortega government instead “tried” their claims in the media and foreign capitals, in some cases calling for aid to be cut to their own country which remains the second poorest in Latin America.

The Nicaragua Network mobilized grassroots actions focused on the Millennium Challenge board, unsuccessfully making the argument that cutting development aid would only hurt the poor. Other U.S. assistance, which does not have the political conditions that the Bush administration put on the Millennium Challenge funds, has continued to Ortega government anti-poverty programs.

Topic 2: Government projects benefit 30,000 small producers

The Ortega government has invested more than US$6 million to increase the productive capacity of more than 30,000 small farmers in the Departments of Leon and Chinandega, the same region where the now-cancelled US Millennium Challenge grants were expended. From 2007-2009, the Program of Rural Productive Reactivation has carried out projects worth US$2.008 million from which 4,236 producers have benefitted directly and another 8,400 indirectly. Josefa Torres, executive director of the Rural Development Institute (IDR) said that from the beginning of the Ortega government, they have implemented 210 productivity projects, under a host of program names, at a cost of US$6 million and another US$3 million in upgrading farm-to-market roads in Leon and Chinandega.

IDR has constructed two collection centers, one for fish in Corinto and the other for shellfish in Realejo, directly benefitting 60 producers and indirectly benefitting 3,000 people. IDR also made grants to eight projects to increase competitiveness totaling US$225,000. The projects for small and medium producers included black shells El Realejo, fish of Corinto, better seeds in the municipality of Chichigalpa, wine processing in Chinantlan, dairy projects in El Sauce and Achuapa, yucca in Chacra Seca, and “Fruticola” in Telica and Quezalguaque. The IDR's development projects benefit poor families, especially the women and children. It has provided funding for the production of sorghum in Chinandega for which the IDR spent US$500,000 for infrastructure improvement and another US$400,000 for fine salt in El Tamarindo.

Topic 3: Three wounded in confrontation over lobster prices in Bilwi

On June 9, three protestors were wounded in Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas) and two vehicles belonging to lobster companies were damaged in a confrontation over the price of lobster which dropped from US$4 to US$2 because of lowered demand on the world market. The protesters were wounded when the crowd tried to enter the offices of the Copescharle lobster company. The Miskito Council of Elders supported the lobster divers and fishers who carried out the protest. The protesters overturned two company vehicles but were prevented from pushing them into the sea by police.

A government commission immediately traveled to Bilwi to investigate and attempt to resolve the conflict. At the meeting were representatives of the companies, the lobster divers' unions, regional authorities of the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN), director of the Nicaraguan Fishing Institute Steadman Fagoth, Police Commissioner Horacio Rocha, Naval Captain Roger Gonzalez, among others. RAAN Council President Carlos Aleman said that the majority of those who damaged property were not divers but followers of Hector Williams, the Wihta Tara or leader of the Miskito movement that in April declared independence of the region of Moskitia from Nicaragua. That afternoon, when boats tried to weigh anchor to go out to sea to fish, 200 men led by Council of Elders legal advisor Oscar Hodgson gathered at the foot of the dock and prevented the boats from leaving.

Rev. Ismael Ramirez of the Council of Elders said that the protesters are not delinquents or gang members as some have called them. Rather they are demanding recognition of their labor rights because the situation of families on the Coast is getting worse each day. He went on to say, “The companies sign agreements and commitments on safety for the divers and they never follow through. Some 150 people in recent years have been injured and a number have died, affected by the depth and by the lack of equipment, but no institution looks out for them.”

Later that same day, protesters took prisoner the mayor of Bilwi, Guillermo Espinoza, and held him for 18 hours until he was rescued by members of the Moravian Church led by Rev. Cora Antonio. There was reportedly substantial damage to the city offices and warehouses. Five people were reported arrested from the violence of June 9.

Commenting on the news that the Nicaraguan government had given political asylum to Peruvian indigenous leader Alberto Pizango after numerous indigenous protesters were killed in that nation, Wihta Tara Williams said, “It seems to me very good; the indigenous have rights under several treaties that Peru has signed. But I ask myself what Daniel Ortega will respond about the police shooting three of the indigenous of our Miskito Communitarian Nation, three of our own.”

Topic 4: Issue of Nicaraguan-U.S. citizen property compensation arises again

President Daniel Ortega said on June 13 that continuing to pay property claims to Somocistas who became U.S. citizens is unacceptable. “I spoke with the Prosecutor General about forming a commission to travel to the United States and meet with members of the U.S. Congress and explain to them that this is illegal,” Ortega said. He noted that many of the claimants were members of the National Guard of Somoza who became US citizens when they fled to the United States and now use that citizenship to make claims for confiscation of their properties by the revolutionary government in the 1980s. “It would make some sense if they really were US citizens, but they were serving the Somoza tyranny,” Ortega said. Nicaragua has paid US$1.228 billion in claims, much of it in fraudulent claims, Ortega said, because some people have been paid for their property more than once and then even had it returned to them. “We could have used that money in social programs,” he said. The property, he said, was given out to peasant farmers under land reform.

Most of the money was paid out during the administrations of Violeta Chamorro and Arnoldo Aleman. Under the presidency of Enrique Bolaños, only US$104 million was paid and under the current Ortega administration, US$24.5 million. “It's like having a pistol at our heads,” Ortega said. “If we don't pay all assistance from the US to Nicaragua will disappear; it's a threat,” he added. He noted that the U.S. had a moral debt to Nicaragua based on the World Court decision of 1986 for damages from the U.S. financed contra war.

Topic 5: Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador initiate “Mangrove Corridor”

With Spanish assistance, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador have initiated the “Mangrove Corridor” as part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor to protect the environment and enable sustainable development in an area of the Pacific Coast dominated by poverty. The project incorporates the Jiquilisco-Xiriualtique Biosphere in El Salvador, the wetland systems of Honduras, and the deltas of the Estero Real and the Apacunca plains in Nicaragua. Most of the mangrove swamp areas are along the shores of the Gulf of Fonseca shared by the three countries. Rich in mollusks and crustaceans, they provide significant livelihoods for small scale fishers.

Thousands of poor families depend on the swamps for subsistence and the area is attractive to investors in harbors and in tourism and other commercial enterprises which represent both a threat and an opportunity depending on how the natural resources are managed. “What we are looking for is to give the population alternatives that permit a reduction in extractive activities,” said Roberto Rodriguez, representative of the Central American Commission on the Environment and Development (CCAD).

Rodriguez said it is clearly not possible to “prohibit” the community activities that “put pressure” on the health of the mangrove swamps when those activities represent subsistence for thousands of families. With an initial investment of US$1.7 million from Spain, they are looking to reorient productive activity. With the endorsement of governments and private entities, CCAD is stimulating the production of organic honey, ecotourism, better fishing techniques and the design of a better seafood market.

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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