TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2009

Nicaragua Network Hotline (August 11, 2009)

1. Both support and rejection of President Zelaya expressed in Nicaragua
2. Sandinistas attack demonstration organized by Civil Coordinator
3. Former cane workers protest mistreatment by police
4. Organic Coffee Demands More Support
5. Archeologists discover indigenous settlement from 1,000 years ago

Topic 1: Both support and rejection of President Zelaya expressed in Nicaragua

Union leaders from the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, Uruguay and Nicaragua, who were gathered at a meeting on August 10 in Managua, expressed their solidarity with the struggle of Honduras to regain constitutional government. The representatives of the Continental Social Alliance joined the National Front against the Coup to repeat the demand that Manuel Zelaya be returned to the presidency of Honduras. Union leaders Adam Fisher from California and Miguel Luna from Rhode Island said that US President Barack Obama should use more effective measures against the coup if he wants to be seen as a defender of democracy.

On the other hand, Liberal National Assembly Deputy Eduardo Montealegre said on August 7 that what occurred in Honduras was a constitutional succession, not a coup. He did admit that the Army had acted wrongly in expelling Zelaya from Honduras but he absurdly asserted that Zelaya was outside his country of his own choice and asked why he didn't cross the border and confront Honduran justice. Montealegre claimed President Daniel Ortega had violated the Central American peace accords by permitting Zelaya to create a base of operations in Ocotal and call for insurrection against the coup government. He criticized Secretary General of the Organization of American States Jose Miguel Insulza because, Montealegre said, while Insulza has forcefully spoken out against the Honduran coup, he did not come out strongly when fraud was alleged in the Nov. 2008 municipal elections in Nicaragua. National Assembly Deputy Carlos Garcia said on August 6 that the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) would support a legislative resolution “condemning the irregular actions” of President Zelaya.

Meanwhile, President Ortega criticized groups in Nicaragua who defend the Honduran coup: “This coup d'état has been condemned by everyone from the United States to Haiti but these people come out and shout slogans in favor of the coup.” On August 5, the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office released a list of seven Nicaraguans who have been detained in El Paraiso and Los Limonales, Honduras. The office urged the Honduran government to release them immediately.

The daily La Prensa reported that the majority of Hondurans who had crossed into Nicaragua to support President Zelaya had returned to Honduras. Only about 350 spent the night of August 1 in the Ocotal sports stadium which is where they had been housed and on August 3 the stadium was closed and locked. La Prensa speculated that exhaustion, frustration, or a desire to join the internal organization in support of Zelaya's return could have been reasons for the decrease. La Prensa reported that Zelaya's followers who remain in Nicaragua would be moved to the privately-owned El Paraiso Recreation Center outside Ocotal.

Topic 2: Sandinistas attack demonstration organized by Civil Coordinator

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) and the Catholic Church condemned August 8 attacks on a demonstration organized by the Civil Coordinator (CC), a coalition of non-governmental organizations. Among those who were injured in the attacks were CC spokesperson Luisa Molina, economist Adolfo Acevedo, NGO Federation President Irving Larios, and journalist Mario Sanchez. The CC has just completed its annual general meeting and was planning an outdoor program at the Managua cathedral with musicians and folk dancing. A CENIDH statement said that a group of followers of President Daniel Ortega had attacked the demonstrators with fists, stones and sticks after they read a pronouncement about the situation in the country. Fr. Bismark Conde, spokesman for the Archbishop of Managua, condemned the attacks saying, “Everyone has the right to express themselves.”

President Ortega, referring to the incident, said that the “young people” who attacked the members of the CC were celebrating the International Day of Indigenous Peoples near the Managua Cathedral when “these people arrived to confront them and shout slogans in favor of the coup in Honduras.” CC leaders denied that they had confronted the group and also denied that they supported the June 28 military coup against President Manuel Zelaya.

The youth reportedly shouted, “The streets are ours; you are the rich and don't have the right to be here.” The CC, however, includes some peasant and community groups around the country. Eight vehicles were vandalized that the youth later beat up Larios, Acevedo, Molina, Sanchez and others. When the police appeared they took no action. A torrential rainstorm finally disbursed the groups and the cultural program was not held.

Topic 3: Former cane workers protest mistreatment by police

On August 5, members of the Nicaraguan Association of Those Affected by Chronic Renal Insufficiency (ANAIRC) announced their formal protest to several government officials over the treatment by the police in Managua of Carmen Rios, the association president, and of former workers in the sugar cane fields of the Pellas family. ANAIRC leaders sent letters of complaint to National Police Commissioner Aminta Granera, President Daniel Ortega, and Deputy Gustavo Porras, chair of the Health Committee in the National Assembly asking for an official explication of police actions of July 31.

On that day, Rios and other ANAIRC leaders held a news conference in front of Pellas Group headquarters, at which they denounced the lack of interest of the company in the health of its former workers. A police patrol arrived at the scene, evidently at the request of the company. When the news conference was over, the officers ordered the ANAIRC members to immediately leave the area and, Rios said, “They began to hit me. I tried to defend myself but the officers, among them a woman, threw themselves at me and I even got a kick in the abdomen.” She added that they were given no explanation for the actions of the police, noting that “people who were very sick were thrown down to the ground and then I, along with three others, was taken to the police station.”

At the station, the abuse continued as the woman officer continued to hit Rios and when she refused to disrobe for a strip search and put a pistol to her head. Finally an officer appeared saying that there had been “an error.” Someone had reported that homemade mortars were being shot off in front of the Pellas Building. Police spokeswoman Vilma Reyes admitted that the woman officer had used “excessive force.”

The members of ANAIRC have been camped in Managua for five months demanding that executives of Nicaragua Sugar Estates, Ltd. (part of the Pellas Group) begin discussions with its former workers about compensation for damage to their health resulting from their years working in the cane fields. The incident on July 31 was only the most recent in a series of violent and threatening incidents. Rios said that, while local media is mostly silent, the international campaign in support of their struggle has continued with letters from around the world to distributors of Flor de Caña Rum. For information about how you can join the campaign, visit here. Members of the association continue to die. Rios said that they buried 19 in a period of three days the previous week.

Topic 4: Organic Coffee Demands More Support

Nicaragua is the fifth largest organic coffee producer globally, with some of the world's highest quality beans. Despite this fact, the future of the sector is threatened by insufficient support, according to Jeremy Hagger, director of the coffee program at the Center for Tropical Agronomy Research and Teaching (CATIE), an international group headquartered in Costa Rica. One of the most pressing issues facing this sector now is the change in the certification process for organic coffee imposed by the European Union. "Every year organic coffee certifiers put more restrictions on the products that can be used. There was a change made regarding the chicken manure growers were using. They can't use it anymore because it is not acceptable for European certification. That was a change from last year," he explained.

Such changes require additional investments for organic coffee producers, who will be utilizing their own resources, now that sources of funding for this sector have become so scarce. "What has happened is that most growers are financing their own production as there is little possibility of credit from the banking system," explained Martha Estela Gutiérrez, executive director of CAFINIC, the largest producer and exporter of organic coffee in the country. She said that one of the largest problems for the industry is the lack of a government policy, defined specifically for the organic coffee sector. Nevertheless, she said that CAFINIC is working in conjunction with CATIE "on an integral strategy for organic coffee, including production of organic [fertilizer] from materials that the farmers have."

Fair trade organic coffee production in the country has registered substantial growth in the last decade, with the price on the international market almost US$40 per hundredweight more than ordinary coffee. Yearly Nicaraguan production of organic coffee is about 5,000 tons which brings in US$160 million. Nicaraguan growers, however, have low yields, producing only seven to nine hundredweights of coffee per manazana (1.7 acres) whereas growers in other countries obtain yields of 10 to 15 hundredweights per manzana. There are 4,500 national producers of organic coffee. Gutierrez said that they are working on legislation that would support and promote organic agriculture at the national level.

Topic 5: Archeologists discover indigenous settlement from 1,000 years ago

An international team of archeologists recently discovered an indigenous settlement a few kilometers from the Mombacho Volcano in a rural zone of the Department of Granada. They were buried near the banks of Lake Cocibolca (Nicaragua). The exact location of the site is being kept secret to avoid looters and treasure hunters.

Geoffrey McCafferty, professor of Archeology at the University of Calgary, Canada, and head of the project, said that “of the 20 individuals that we have found, almost half are without a body [just the skulls] and a simple interpretation of this would be that it is evidence of war or sacrifice but for the moment we do not want to confirm anything because we are still processing data.” The people involved may have migrated to Central America from the central and southern parts of Mexico between 800 and 1350 CE or they could be Chibcha who came from the south between 300 and 800 CE.

More than 20 Nicaraguan, Canadian, Salvadoran and Costa Rican archeologists began to dig in several parts of the area four weeks ago. They found a stone wall, ceramics, tools for hunting and fishing as well as the remains of dwelling huts. Some of the remains will be sent to the University of Calgary to determine their exact age; others will be sent to Costa Rica to carry out DNA tests and compare the results with the DNA of other bones found in the Central American region to determine ethnicity.

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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