TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2009

Nicaragua Network Hotline (October 27, 2009)

1. Nicaraguans react to Supreme Court decision on consecutive reelection
2. Miskito Council of Elders asks for dialogue
3. Will family remittances and small businesses be taxed or not?
4. Environmental briefs: US judge rules for Dole and endangered sea turtles lay eggs successfully

Topic 1: Nicaraguans react to Supreme Court decision on consecutive reelection

As reported in last week's Hotline, On Oct. 19, the Constitutional Panel of Nicaragua's Supreme Court ruled in favor of a petition by President Daniel Ortega and 105 Sandinista mayors that a constitutional provision banning consecutive reelection violates their rights. Reports noted that Ortega was following in the steps of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias who also successfully appealed to the Constitutional Panel of his country's Supreme Court to allow him to run for reelection on the same grounds that the constitution could not “limit fundamental rights.” On Oct. 16, the Supreme Electoral Council had denied Ortega's appeal and it was then introduced at the Managua Appeals Court where Judge Gerardo Rodriguez accepted it and sent it to the Constitutional Panel of the Supreme Court.

Justice Francisco Rosales, who presides over the Constitutional Panel, said that the Liberal justices were notified two hours before the panel was scheduled to meet and when they did not appear, were replaced by alternate Sandinista justices. Rosales and Justice Rafael Solis said that the ruling is final for the appellants but will be submitted to the full court so it will apply to all office holders. Roberto Rivas, president of the Supreme Electoral Council, said the Council would follow the Court's ruling and that there was no further appeal possible.

As reported last week, protest from the opposition was immediate and loud. Ortega told a television audience on Oct. 20, “I will say to those people that they should calm down and not drown in a glass of water. To solve this we have the 2011 elections. What are they afraid of?” On Oct. 24 at a gathering in Chinandega, Ortega said that the Sandinista program cannot be carried out in five years and the people should have the right to decide if they want it to continue for another period. He said, “They were in power for 16 years and imposed their system of savage capitalism so the people have even more of a right to have continuity in a government that defends and promotes solidarity.” Minister of Education Miguel de Castilla said of the Court's ruling, “I am satisfied because we feel that the plans of the Ministry of Education are not just for five years. We are working on a ten year plan and we will fight for there to be ten years of Sandinista government to rebuild the whole field of education.”

About eight opposition youth hit Supreme Court Justice Francisco Rosales in the face with eggs as he entered a local television station. Young opposition activists brought a toilet to the sidewalk in front of the Court to show their “repudiation” of the ruling. Luisa Molina of the Civil Coordinator said that member organizations are meeting with the diplomatic corps and analyzing all avenues available “to reject this ignominious decision.” She said that after analyzing the situation, “We will call on the people of Nicaragua to take to the streets, which belong to the people; we cannot be the prisoners of one political class.” She said that the Supreme Court Justices should be removed from office.

Deputy Agustin Jarquin, representing a party allied with the Sandinistas, said, “At the beginning of the year we had something similar, but the reverse, when a Liberal group [of Justices] produced a ruling dropping charges against Arnoldo Aleman and there was a great commotion. Now the Sandinista side produces this situation.” He added, “We need to get to the bottom of this and bring Nicaraguans together again to strengthen the country's institutions. We (the deputies) are partly responsible because we elected these justices based on party affiliation.”

A new M&R poll, taken in urban areas on Oct. 21 and 22, revealed that 39.2% of those polled would “mobilize against the reelection of Ortega,” 56.4% would not, while 4.5% did not respond. M&R general manager Raul Obregon showed his bias when he stated that the results were “encouraging” even though, he said, many of those polled await the opposition to show “clear signals of unity and that the leaders will put aside individual and party interests.”

Foreign reaction was mixed. A US State Department spokesperson said, “We are concerned about reports from Nicaragua that there have been legal maneuvers that could make it more difficult for the Nicaraguan population to consider in an open and transparent manner the possibility of presidential reelection.” Sen. John Kerry, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, “The manipulation by the president of Nicaragua of the Supreme Court this week to avoid constitutional limitations on his government has an air of the authoritarianism of the past.” Director of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs Larry Birns said that international concern tended to be “selective” depending on who was seeking reelection, noting that there would likely be little noise if President Lula da Silva of Brazil would want to run for a third term. (The US has not criticized Arias nor Colombian President Alvaro Uribe who is changing the constitution for a second time to allow him to run for a third term.) The nine governments of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) gave their “total” support to the “democratic institutions of the sister republic of Nicaragua” in a statement released on Oct. 20.

Topic 2: Miskito Council of Elders asks for dialogue

Mateo Collins, of the Indigenous Committee for Caribbean Coast Defense, said that the Wihta Tara (leader) of the independence movement in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN), Hector Williams, wants a dialogue with President Daniel Ortega and not with local governor Reynaldo Francis, National Assembly Deputy Brooklyn Rivera, or with Fisheries Institute director Steadman Fagoth, all of whom they view as corrupt. Collins said that the region's Ecumenical Council, with members from the Catholic and Moravian Churches among others, could serve as a mediator.

Susan Marley, a resident of Waspam and a member of the Indigenous Committee, said that the reason for the social convulsion in Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas) is the looting of the natural resources of the region and the incapacity and corruption of the regional officials who have made the autonomy project fail. Berenice Sanders blamed government tear gas for the heart attack death of an elderly man during a protest march on Oct. 19. She said that Governor Francis had promised to give the government building keys to Whita Tara Williams but, when the crowd gathered there, they were received by riot police and gas. However, family members of Ornes Warman, 75, who died during the protests, blamed organizers of the separatist movement for his death. Daughter Maria Elena Warman said, “The Whita Tara promised my father to double his pension, and even give it to him in dollars,” if he would join the protests. Warman's niece, Karla Warman, said the leaders were taking advantage of the ignorance and humility of the elderly people, raising a false banner of independence that doesn't have support among the people of Bilwi.

On Oct. 23, the day before United Nations Day on October 24, separatist movement leaders appealed to the Nicaraguan representatives of the UN to mediate. According to Oscar Hodgson, legal advisor to the movement, the decision to declare independence was based on the UN declaration of indigenous rights. However, Walter Lacayo, spokesman for the UN office in Managua, said that the UN cannot mediate if it does not receive a request from both parties and it has received no request from the Ortega government.

Also on Oct. 23, there were celebrations in Bilwi and in Bluefields of the 22nd anniversary of the Atlantic Coast Autonomy Law. The Bilwi celebration, which was almost cancelled, included a program in the local gym attended by government officials and a parade with floats and marching bands. Carlos Aleman, president of the RAAN Regional Council, recognized that many young people on the Coast are unaware of the rights that they enjoy under the Law. He said that forums are planned in conjunction with the Education Ministry on land demarcation, the environment, health and education.

Topic 3: Will family remittances and small businesses be taxed or not?

The tax reform measure now under consideration by the National Assembly could tax remittances that Nicaraguans send home to the families in Nicaragua according to economist Adolfo Acevedo. He said that over the past decade, family remittances have totaled approximately US$800 million each year, which amounts to 50% of the total foreign exchange entering from Nicaragua's exports. According to the Central Bank, Nicaragua received US$390.2 million in the first half of 2009, a drop of 4.4% from last year.

Walmaro Gutierrez, Sandinista Deputy and chair of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly said, “We are not going to tax family remittances; we're not going to put even one cordoba of tax on family remittances;… It's the government's official position not to affect family remittances.” But he added there are businesses which make significant international financial transfers of several thousand dollars twice a month as if they were family remittances and these will be taxed. He stated that it was necessary to define what is meant by family remittances. When a worker sends US$400 each month to his or her family in Nicaragua, that is a family remittance. But, when someone sends several thousand dollars twice a month, that is a capital investment. In the case of pensions, Gutierrez said, only the 934 people (out of 115,000 Nicaraguan Social Security pensioners) who receive pensions over US$1,000 per month will have their pensions taxed.

At the same time Gilberto Alcocer, president of the Nicaraguan Council of Micro, Small and Medium Sized Businesses (Conimipyme), said that the tax reform bill as currently written would worsen the situation of the medium sized businesses in his organization at a time when the international economic crisis has caused sales to fall by an estimated 40%. He said that “If the tax reform is applied in its current form, it will have the direct result of reduced employment and some business will have to close temporarily or definitively.”

Gutierrez explained to a meeting of merchants' associations that neither small nor medium sized grocery stores would be affected by a tax increase under the reform measure. An owner of a small store or market stall has only to show that he or she has purchased from a wholesaler who has paid the required value added tax to be exonerated from that amount of their tax. The immense majority of small merchants who are under the simplified fixed quota regime will not be affected by the tax reform, he said, adding that the goal of the measure is to increase payments by the large importers who earn millions under the fixed quota system. And peddlers, small business owners over 60, and the owners of the smallest groceries will be exempt from the fixed quota payments altogether.

Topic 4: Environmental briefs: US judge rules for Dole and endangered sea turtles lay eggs successfully

A US federal judge ruled that Dole Foods does not have to pay a US$98 million judgment to 150 former banana workers suffering from being exposed to the pesticide Nemagon on Dole banana plantations in Nicaragua in the 1970s. Judge Paul Huck, in a Miami court, vacated a 2005 award by a Nicaraguan court, ruling that that court did not have jurisdiction and the law applied did not conform to international standards. Judge Hick accepted Dole's argument that the 2001 Nicaraguan law, under which the award was issued, was not impartial and favored the workers. Since 2002 Nicaraguan courts have issued judgments against Dole and the pesticide manufacturers totaling US$2 billion.

In other news, hundreds of volunteers, park rangers, police, soldiers, members of the Movement of Young Environmentalists, and the Environmental Cabinet of the Councils of Citizen Power watched over and protected the massive egg-laying of tens of thousands of endangered sea turtles on the beaches of La Flor Wildlife Refuge and at Chacocente in Carazo. The Ministry of Environment reported that it recorded the arrival of 31,000 turtles in the La Flor Refuge. Mario Rodriguez of MARENA-Rivas said, “All this is possible thanks to the volunteer work of the communities and different actors.” The government has worked to convince the population not to eat endangered turtle eggs, and they have seized eggs from those who have illegally harvested them.

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, 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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