TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2009
Nicaragua Network Hotline (June 23, 2009)
1. UN declares Nicaragua free of illiteracy!2. CENIs cases go to court… or not
3. Pearl Lagoon communities ask for removal of Bluefield judges over Peter Tsokos land cases
4. Indigenous receive communal property titles to 1,307 square kilometers.
5. Squatters removed from Indio Maiz Biological Reserve
6. Fumigation and abatement efforts have decreased cases of dengue
Topic 1: UN declares Nicaragua free of illiteracy!
An independent commission created by the UN Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) declared on June 22 that Nicaragua has achieved a nationwide illiteracy level of 4.73%, qualifying it as a country free of illiteracy and making it the fourth country in Latin America to achieve this distinction. The others are Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, all members of the Bolivarian Alternative for Our Americas (ALBA) cooperative trade group. Five per cent illiteracy is the global standard for full literacy. Juan Bautista Arrien, UNESCO representative, said that the commission was composed of members of the Ibero-American Education Organization, universities and other academic and research centers.
The process included randomly surveying 12,538 people in 22 municipalities. The survey had a margin of error of 3%. Arrien said that Monday was a significant day because the independent commission certified as successful the efforts of President Daniel Ortega and the Ministry of Education. Minister of Education Miguel de Castilla, said the literacy campaign will continue for another 30 days and then the results, including reports on Cuban and Venezuelan assistance, will be submitted to President Ortega. De Castilla added that the next goal for 2015 will be to have all Nicaraguan students complete at least the sixth grade.
Castillo said that President Ortega can already declare the country illiteracy free even though 18 municipalities still have illiteracy rates above 5%. The last month of the campaign will concentrate on those municipalities so that they can be brought below 5% as well.
Topic 2: CENIs cases go to court… or not
Lawyers representing 33 of the men accused of fraud when government bonds were issued to cover the private debt of four failed banks in 2000 asked the judge in the case not to proceed with the cases against them until the principal actors could be tried as well. Judge Julio Cesar Arias suspended the June 22 hearing on the strength of that argument. Chief among those who cannot be tried due to legislative immunity is Eduardo Montealegre, the US-backed candidate for president in 2006 who also lost the race for mayor of Managua last year. He was Minister of the Treasury and later an officer of the Central Bank during that period and is accused of “reengineering” the negotiable investment certificates (CENIs), magnifying government loses to an estimated US$600 million. Noel Ramirez, who was president of the Central Bank also enjoys legislative immunity as a delegate to the Central American Parliament. Others among the indicted are former Superintendent of Banks Noel Sacasa, former general manager of the Central Bank Mario Flores, and former Treasury Minister Esteban Duquestrada, who is a fugitive living in Panama and inaccessible to the court.
The CENIs scandal is complex involving the government taking over the debt of banks which themselves failed due to fraud. The Aleman government issued bonds, the CENIs, paying over 21% interest, which were gobbled up by other banks and wealthy elites, including those like Montealegre who were in charge of the process. Public outcry at the creation of some US$400 million in public debt, forced Aleman to put Montealegre in charge of reissuing the CENIs and liquidating the residual assets of the banks such as artwork and valuable urban and rural properties. These assets and the new CENIs were sold at fire sale prices, including to Montealegre's own bank, Bancentro, and the government's debt was actually increased to US$600 million in the process.
Independent economist Adolfo Acevedo said that the “a spectacular elevation in Nicaragua's internal debt” added USD$200 million per year cost in interest payments causing an enormous drop in the country's international reserves and a crisis in its financial system. The CENIs debt meant cutbacks in needed investment in human capital, according to Acevedo, and even meant that the financial resources freed up by debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative which were supposed to go toward increased social spending, had to be used to pay interest on the CENIs.
Montealegre called the prosecution “a political circus to divert attention from the [Nov. 2008] electoral fraud, and to hide the fact that the country is headed toward an economic and social abyss.” Edmundo Jarquin, a leader in the Sandinista Renovation Movement which has increasingly allied itself with Montealegre's right-wing allies, called the current judicial proceedings a “circus” held by the government of President Daniel Ortega and called for a professional and independent investigation rather than a “judicial ‘persecution' that opens, is frozen, and opens again according to the political winds.” Despite the fact that the judicial investigation began long before allegations of electoral fraud were made with regard to the 2008 municipal elections, Jarquin said, “There is no doubt that the current judicial ‘persecution' is a reprisal for the cancellation of the Millennium Challenge Account funds by the United States against those whom the government believes were responsible for the cancellation.” Montealegre and others were accused of asking the US to cancel the MCA funds because of alleged electoral fraud last November.
Topic 3: Communities of Pearl Lagoon ask for removal of Bluefield judges over Peter Tsokos land cases
The indigenous and Creole communities of Pearl Lagoon in Nicaragua's South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) asked for the removal of two judges who sit on the Bluefields Appeals Tribunal, accusing them of favoring Peter Tsokos who has taken over land which should belong to the local ethnic communities. Both judges belong to the Liberal Party. On April 20, 2008, the tribunal gave US citizen Tsokos, ownership rights over seven of the 18 cays that form the archipelago known as the Pearl Cays, located off the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. The cays in question are Crawl, Baboon, Grape, Water, Vincent, Wild Cane and Lime. Tsokos acquired the islands cheaply through contested methods and has sold them on the internet for millions of dollars.
At the end of April of last year, the residents of Pearl Lagoon held a protest against the ruling which included interrupting a session of the Regional Autonomous Council of the RAAS where the president of the Council, Lourdes Aguilar, promised to support the protestors. One of the commitments made by the Council was to achieve the demarcation and titling of the cays as part of the territorial patrimony of the Pearl Lagoon community, however, this has not happened.
According to attorney Maria Luisa Acosta, the “ruling by Alarcon and Martinez favoring Tsokos put in evidence their ignorance of the constitution and the Autonomy Statute by which a special regime was set up for the ethnic communities and indigenous peoples of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua in 1987 that recognized the ancestral and historic property rights of these peoples over their communal lands.” She added, “The office of the Prosecutor General asked the Bluefields Tribunal to annul Tsokos' titles to the cays but up until now only the Sandinista judge, Luis Flores, has said that the islands cannot be bought or sold, but his colleagues do not share his opinion.”
Topic 4: Indigenous receive communal property titles to 1,307 square kilometers
The government of President Daniel Ortega, on June 19, granted communal property titles to the indigenous territories of Wangki Lì Aubra y Mayangnina Sauni Bas (Sikilta) in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). The titles were given in response to demands by the indigenous communities for legal ownership of their lands to insure that they can work them for the benefit of their communities. Wangki Li Aubra is in the municipality of Waspan and Mayangnina Sauni Bas is in Siuna. A total of 19 communities received title in the two areas. A total of 1,307.89 sq. km. have been demarcated and titled to the benefit of 8,470 inhabitants.
Prosecutor General Hernán Estrada, who handed out the titles, said, “This is justice for the indigenous and Afro-descended people. They clamored for respect for their principles and forms of organization, and for vindication of their property rights, and today we complied.” Francisco Caceres Fidencio, representing the communities, thanked the government for “this valuable delivery that makes us legal owners of the land which we will now defend with greater zeal so we can enjoy its benefits.” The land demarcation and titling was carried out under supervision of the Board of Directors of the National Commission of Titling and Demarcation of Indigenous Territories (CONADETI). The timing of the titling may indicate that this is the beginning of the government's response to the recent declaration of independence by the Miskito Council of Elders. The land that was titled is the historical home of the Mayagna, but within the borders claimed by the Miskito.
Topic 5: Squatters removed from Indio Maiz Biological Reserve
Government authorities removed a group of 70 squatters from the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve in Southeast Nicaragua where they had occupied over 1,000 acres. The Reserve, where no human inhabitants are permitted, is the largest remaining tropical rainforest in southern Mesoamerica and includes an extensive system of wetlands. Squatters have also occupied land in the Punta Gorda Nature Reserve in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS).
National Environmental Ombudsman Jose Luis Garcia said that the evicted group evaded the monitoring system and entered the zone of old growth and secondary growth trees where they cut nearly 300 acres of trees and burned hundreds of acres to plant crops in the Indio Maiz and Punta Gorda reserves. He estimated that it will take until next Friday to remove all the squatters due to the size of the area and the conditions they have to work in. Garcia said that 17 squatter leaders are being criminally charged with a number of environmental crimes such as cutting the trees, destroying watersheds, illegal use of natural resources, “and we know they have been hunting endangered species.”
Topic 6: Fumigation and abatement efforts have decreased cases of dengue
The Ministry of Health's (MINSA) mosquito abatement campaign has shown good results in Managua. As a result of the clean-up of the past weeks, only three positive cases of dengue have been reported compared to 104 in the first three months of the year. Dr. Maritza Cuan, director of MINSA's campaign in Managua, said that with the most recent campaign of mosquito abatement and fumigation, from April through the first week of June, MINSA visited 256,000 out of 318,000 homes, 81% of its goal. She said that in the other 19%, the owners refused to allow access to the health brigade members. The third phase of the campaign, from June 29-Aug. 14, will include visiting 318,000 homes with the help of 120 members of the army, 180 voluntary health brigade members, and 370 employees of MINSA.
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