TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010

Nicaragua News Bulletin (March 30, 2010)

1. Leon declares U.S. Ambassador Callahan persona non grata
2. Supreme Electoral Council releases final results of Atlantic Coast elections
3. Committee recommends reappointment of Omar Cabezas as Human Rights Ombudsman
4. Nicaragua achieves record coffee harvest
5. Poll gives government high marks for health care and education
6. Bill to decriminalize therapeutic abortion introduced in National Assembly
7. Central Nicaraguan indigenous groups demand autonomy
8. Account opened in sucres to facilitate ALBA trade

1. Leon declares U.S. Ambassador Callahan persona non grata

On Mar. 26, the mayor's office and city council of the city of Leon declared U.S. Ambassador Robert Callahan persona non grata, citing his “frequent interventions in Nicaragua's internal affairs.” The immediate cause of the declaration was Callahan's decision to cancel the inauguration of a highway between Leon and Poneloya and Las Peñitas, which was funded by the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account, after the Nicaraguan Ministry of Transportation insisted on the presence at the event of Leon Mayor Manuel Calderon, considered by the U.S. government to have been elected fraudulently in 2008. The declaration, signed by Sandinista members of the city council, thanked the people of the United States for the highway while at the same time noting that the U.S. government owed Nicaragua much more for the damages caused to the nation in the 1980s. The Millennium Challenge funding was cancelled when fraud was alleged after the Nov. 2008 municipal elections but projects under construction were finished, including the Leon-Poneloya-Las Peñitas highway.

Liberal party member of the Leon city council Mainor Tercero said that members of his party disagreed with the position of the Sandinistas and would challenge the declaration of persona non grata in the Council. But Eden Pastora, who supports the current government of President Daniel Ortega, said that the U.S. supports the elections results in Nicaragua when the Sandinistas lose but says they are fraudulent when the FSLN wins. Pastora went on to say: “This [interventionism] was reflected clearly when they recognized the elections of Honduras held under the coup. …[I]t is the classic and obvious imperialist policy, interventionist, where they believe they are the lords.” (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 25, 26; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 24, 28)

2. Supreme Electoral Council releases final results of Atlantic Coast elections

The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) on Mar. 26 released the final results of the Mar. 7 elections for the regional councils of the North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions (RAAN and RAAS) after having declared the challenges by the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) in four districts of the RAAS “outside the time period.” In the RAAN, the Sandinista Party (FSLN) won 22 seats, YATAMA (Children of the Mother Earth in the Miskito language) won 13, and the PLC won 10. In alliance with YATAMA, the Sandinistas will have enough seats to form the regional government and elect the governor.

In the RAAS, the PLC won 20 seats, the Sandinista Party 19, YATAMA three, the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) two, and the Alliance for the Republic (APRE) one. Analysts predict that the alliance between the Sandinistas and YATAMA will allow the Sandinistas to form the government in the RAAS as well.

PLC official Alejandro Samaniego denied that his party's challenges were presented after the allotted time period. He showed documentation of the appeal from the Regional Electoral Council dated the morning of Mar. 12 and accused the CSE of moving the deadline dates forward. According to the PLC, the tallies of its party poll watchers indicated that the results should have been: PLC 24, FSLN 17, YATAMA two, ALN one, and APRE one. PLC spokesman Leonel Teller accused an electoral official of the ALN of conspiring with the FSLN to take control of the RAAS from the PLC. But Eduardo Montealegre, whose “Let's Go with Eduardo” Movement participated in the elections as part of the ALN, denied the charges saying, “The one who is responsible is Roberto Rivas [CSE President] and the eight shameless members of the CSE. They're the ones who named the local officials.” (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 26; La Prensa, Mar. 27)

3. Committee recommends reappointment of Omar Cabezas as Human Rights Ombudsman

The Special Committee on Nominations of the National Assembly announced on Mar. 23 that its members had agreed to recommend the reappointment of Omar Cabezas to the post of Human Rights Ombudsman and of Victor Urcuyo as Superintendent of Banks. Committee chair Ramiro Silva said that there were no votes against Cabezas although some Liberals had questioned him about possible war crimes when he served with the Sandinista government in the 1980s.

Silva said that the committee's report on nominations to fill the posts in the office of the Comptrollers General will be completed after the Holy Week vacation. It appeared that Guillermo Argüello Poessy and Luis Angel Montenegro were likely to be recommended for reappointment. Silva said that interviews of candidates for the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) and the Supreme Court would continue.

The Sandinista Party is supporting the reappointment of all the current magistrates of the CSE and the Liberal parties have vowed to support the reappointment of none of them. Former Comptroller General and current Deputy Agustin Jarquin Anaya said last week that while he would not vote for CSE President Roberto Rivas, whose actions in office have been deficient, he would vote to retain Jose Luis Villavicencio whose work has been exactly the opposite of that of Rivas. Jarquin is a member of a party in alliance with the Sandinistas.

Then, on Mar. 29, La Prensa said that three deputies on the Special Committee were promoting a committee report that would rule out the reappointment of three of the Comptrollers (including Argüello and Montenegro) because they have remained in their offices after their terms expired in accord with President Daniel Ortega's decree of Jan. 9 allowing officials to continue functioning until their successors were named. The opposition parties in the Assembly are pushing to have that decree declared unconstitutional. (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 23; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 24; La Prensa, Mar. 29)

4. Nicaragua achieves record coffee harvest

With a coffee harvest already exceeding 1.9 million hundredweights with 80,000 hundredweights more expected to be harvested, the 2009-2010 Nicaraguan coffee harvest will exceed the previous year by 25%. With good prices currently on the world commodities markets, the National Coffee Commission (CONACAFE) anticipates export sales will exceed US$250 million. Nicaragua is the largest producer of coffee in Central America. Luis Osorio, technical sector coordinator of CONACAFE said, “This is a good year for the coffee sector because, according to information from the coffee processing plants, 96% of the coffee is export grade.” He attributed the high percentage to El Niño which caused dry weather late in the season which reduced spoilage and plant diseases.

Nicaraguan growers sell most of their coffee during the first six months of the year, after which Brazil's coffee harvest hits the world market. This year Colombia had a poor harvest which helped keep market prices high and reduced Nicaragua's competition. Coffee has been selling on the New York commodities market for between US$134 and US$145 per hundredweight. (La Prensa, Mar. 27)

5. Poll gives government high marks for health care and education

Nicaraguans approve of the Ortega government's health care and education programs according to a March poll by independent pollster M&R Consultants. Access to free basic health care and education were promises that President Daniel Ortega made when he assumed office. M&R reported that the survey indicated the public notes a significant improvement from previous administrations.

Poll takers reported that 54.8% of respondents said that they had been a patient or accompanied a patient to a public health center or public hospital within the past 18 months. Of those, 48% received an exam and medicine, 34.5% received medicine, 11% received only an exam, and 6.5% received neither an exam nor medicine. Of the total number of patients polled, 68.6% said their examinations were free, 15.3% said some exams were free and others they had to pay for, and 16.1% said they had to pay for the exams. Similar percentages were reported concerning access to medicine. “Excellent or good” care was reported by 51.8%; 29.4% characterized care as “adequate” and only 18.9% responded that the public health care they received was “bad or awful.”

Although basic education is free, 49.3% of parents of students said that they made a financial contribution to the school. Of those, 82.5% said the contributions were voluntary. Nearly 50% of respondents said the condition of classrooms and desks have improved over the three years of the Ortega government, but 14.22% said they were “worse” and 1.1% said they were “much worse.” Nevertheless, 62.1% of those polled had a positive opinion about the quality of education.

The national budget for health and education remained stable in 2010 compared to 2009. Education is budgeted to spend US$225.55 million in 2010 and US$262.05 million is appropriated for public health care.

Distribution of textbooks has improved and school infrastructure is being upgraded, although funds for repairing schools are lower this year due to budget constraints. In 2009, 788 classrooms were repaired compared to 650 funded in the 2010 budget; this out of 10,000 classrooms in need of improvement. Textbook printing and distribution is also suffering due to lower tax revenues resulting from the global financial crisis. Whereas in 2009, 1.2 million textbooks were printed and distributed, there is money in the budget for only 366,636 in 2010. The government is scheduled to distribute 25,000 desks this year, 34,000 fewer than last year.

The poll was conducted between March 10-18 in face-to-face interviews with 1,600 people in urban, rural, and semi-rural areas covering the entire country. The margin of error is 2.5% with a 95.5% confidence level. (La Prensa, Mar.25)

6. Bill to decriminalize therapeutic abortion introduced in National Assembly

Twenty deputies from the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), the “Let's Go with Eduardo” Movement and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) have introduced a bill to legalize therapeutic abortion in the National Assembly. But the bill faces a substantial challenge from religious groups. While Catholic bishops reminded legislators that they would be held accountable for their decisions, supporters claimed that the law was based on standards similar to Catholic doctrine. In an attempt to convince the Church that the bill was also in the spirit of preserving life, Deputies José Pallais and Jamileth Bonilla have announced that they will be meeting with leaders of the Nicaraguan Catholic Bishops Conference (CEN).

The religious community seems unlikely to alter its position. The vicar of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Father Bismarck Conde, explained, "As the church, we will always maintain our position against abortion and for life. I believe that in this sense, the Catholic Church and the evangelical churches, will maintain the same language, because we love a God that gave us life and created us in love."

The representatives backing the bill, however, argue that the bill is also based on the fundamental principle of valuing and supporting life. "It's a bill for life," Pallais remarked, adding however, that "there is a lot of disinformation and a disproportionate reaction" to the bill. He said that, like the Catholic Church's doctrine of protecting and valuing life from birth to death, the bill seeks to defend life--the life of the mother as well as the life of the child. He said that the bill only legalizes therapeutic abortion in cases where there is no chance of saving both lives and it increases the penalty for falsifying documents to support an illegal abortion while requiring that three doctors approve any therapeutic abortion.

The Nicaraguan Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians and the Society of General Practitioners announced that they back the bill in order to avoid, "running the risk of being imprisoned for fulfilling our duty to preserve the health and lives of women." In that regard, Enrique Beteta, General Secretary of the Minister of Health (MINSA), said that laws and protocols already exist indicating how doctors should act in the case of complications. He assured doctors that as long as they follow the rules, they have nothing to fear. (La Prensa Mar. 27; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 26; Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 25)

7. Central Nicaraguan indigenous groups demand autonomy

Indigenous peoples in the Departments of Matagalpa and Jinotega are demanding autonomy over their territories and a form of organization to interact and coordinate efforts with the central government, municipalities and governmental agencies. The demand came out of the first Congress of Indigenous Matagalpas and Chorotegas. One of their demands was that the mayor's office of Muy Muy not intervene in internal community matters, impose alternative governing bodies, or fire the members of the Council of Elders.

They also called on the government of President Daniel Ortega to fulfill the terms of the Las Tunas Accords, negotiated with coffee workers, the majority of whom were indigenous Matagalpas. They claim the lands of Yasica Sur which were taken from their ancestors by the State a century ago. They called on Ortega to reestablish a dialogue of mutual respect with the indigenous governments before taking any action regarding the lands as established in Article 5 of the Constitution.

An important part of their claim was raised by the indigenous community of Uluse in Matagalpa. The communal property of 42 families was seized in 1907. The community called on President Ortega, now that the property is in the hands of the State, to return it to the descendents of the families who lived in the area rather than give it to demobilized members of the Contras and the Army. The area claimed is a little over 2,600 acres. They also asked President Ortega to force the state hydroelectric company to pay the indigenous of Jinotega and Sebaco 1% of its annual sales.

In a related story, Juan Alberto Vilchez, president of the indigenous people of Matagalpa met with the National Assembly Committee on Ethnic Affairs where he claimed that 70% of their communal property is in the hands of third parties while those who own the land are working as grounds keepers on the estates or selling ice water in the cities. He called for a law to end alienation of the people from their land and for fair treatment. Brooklyn Rivera, chair of the committee said the Law of Just Treatment of Indigenous Peoples and Afro Descendants would open spaces within the government for the indigenous. Rivera said that the indigenous population of Nicaragua is calculated to be 10%, but that doesn't include indigenous from the Pacific side of Nicaragua who have reclaimed their cultural identity. (El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 26, Mar. 27)

8. Account opened in sucres to facilitate ALBA trade

The Nicaraguan Central Bank announced the opening of a US$24 million account in the new currency “sucres” [named after South American independence fighter Antonio Jose de Sucre] that will be available for exporters and importers to facilitate trade with Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and the Caribbean countries that form the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA) without using U.S. dollars. Nicaragua is the fourth country to adopt the ALBA currency. In 2009 Venezuela became Nicaragua's third largest trading partner buying US$160 million in Nicaraguan products. That amount is expected to grow to US$200 million in 2010. Antenor Rosales, president of the Central Bank said transactions in sucres will simplify trade between member countries and that Nicaraguan exporters will be paid with Nicaraguan cordobas. (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 25)
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