TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2010
Nicaragua News Bulletin (May 11, 2010)
1. Political sides lining up with an eye toward Nov. 2011 elections2. Montealegre and Aleman want to vote first on Electoral Council magistrates
3. Francisco Campbell named ambassador to the US
4. Liberals retain control of the RAAS
5. IMF suspends board meeting on Nicaragua over US$25 monthly payment to state workers
6. Nicaragua hopes to run on 100% clean energy in six years
7. Literacy museum inaugurated
1. Political sides lining up with an eye toward Nov. 2011 elections
With no other candidates signing up to run against former President Arnoldo Aleman in the primary election of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), Aleman was named the party's candidate for the November 2011 presidential elections by the party's electoral commission. Leaders of other parties, including Eduardo Montealegre of the “Let's Go with Eduardo” Movement (MVE) had wanted a multi-party primary but Aleman vetoed that idea and urged any other interested candidates to register to compete in the PLC contest. No one signed up. Aleman's candidacy is expected to be ratified at the PLC Congress on July 11. He is expected to confront current President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista Party (FSLN) who is running for another term after an Oct. 2009 Supreme Court decision allowing consecutive reelection.
Meanwhile, a group of dissident Sandinistas has announced that they will oppose in a civic fashion, not as a political party, Ortega's reelection plans. Among the members of the group are former commanders of the revolution Henry Ruiz and Victor Tirado, as well as Monica Baltodano and Victor Hugo Tinoco (both currently National Assembly deputies) and Hugo Torres (now a retired Army general). Veteran journalist Onofre Guevara, president of the Movement against Reelection and Fraud (MCRF), said that the Movement was officially launched on April 29, and added that the MCRF would be holding meetings in Ocotal, Granada and Esteli in the near future. He noted that, “There are people within the Front (FSLN), including historic militants, who disagree or are not entirely convinced by the reasoning of Ortega to want to remain in power.”
A number of opposition political parties, with the exception of the PLC, met in Masaya on May 8 in an attempt to form an alliance for the 2011 elections. Among them were representatives of the “Let's Go with Eduardo” Movement (MVE), the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), the Nicaraguan Resistance Party (PRN), the Conservative Party (PC), and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS). Attendees spoke out against the reelection of President Daniel Ortega and of former President Arnoldo Aleman and considered the idea of holding a multi-party primary to select a candidate for president.
The Sandinista Party was also working to consolidate alliances with an eye to the 2011 elections. Members of the Alternative for Change Party (AC) confirmed their party's alliance with the FSLN. Party president Orlando Tardencilla noting, “We have to support the Sandinista Front in its popular struggle…. We have criticisms of the government, but we cannot be blind and refuse to recognize its achievements.” Also Commander Jose Benito Bravo, vice-president of the Nicaraguan Resistance Party (PRN) [a different wing of the party from the one that opposes the government] confirmed his group's support for the alliance led by the Sandinistas. He said that the FSLN had fulfilled its commitment to reconcile all Nicaraguans noting that now former contra peasants and Sandinista peasants are working their land side by side. He added, “Also, there are places where there was not a single electric light bulb and now there are 500 light bulbs burning; there are remote places where it gives pleasure to see how the work gangs are putting in the polls and extending the wires and behind that comes the electricity.” (Radio La Primerisima, May 7, 8; La Prensa, May 9)
2. Aleman and Montealegre want to vote first on Electoral Council magistrates
After a working breakfast to discuss the on-going crisis over the selection of 25 top government officials by the National Assembly, leaders of two of Nicaragua's Liberal parties, Arnoldo Aleman of the Constitutional Liberal Party and Eduardo Montealegre of the Nicaraguan Democratic Bench (BDN) announced that they both support electing first the ten magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE). They promised to block the selection of comptrollers, Supreme Court justices, the human rights ombudsman and superintendent of banks if the CSE magistrates were not confirmed first. They repeated that they reject the reelection of any of the current CSE magistrates.
Montealegre said that President Daniel Ortega should designate his negotiating team to begin talks with a team of two PLC and two BDN delegates. Ortega has insisted that at least some of the CSE magistrates should be reelected which, when contrasted with the Liberal parties' position that none should be reelected, appears to leave little room for negotiation. Rumors had it that Montealegre and Aleman had agreed on the individuals who they would like to see occupy the open positions. Any agreement on candidates would leave to one side the work of the Special Commission on Nominations of the National Assembly.
To confirm the officials in their posts, a super-majority of 56 votes is required which neither the governing Sandinista Party (FSLN) nor the opposition can bring together.
Meanwhile, on May 5, opposition deputies filed with the First Secretary of the Assembly a bill which they said would declare null and void a January decree by President Ortega that stated that officials whose terms had expired could remain in their posts until their successors were named. In action that the Sandinista Party did not recognize as legal, the Justice Committee (with the support of seven opposition deputies) reported out the bill and sent it to the First Secretary's office to be put on the schedule for debate by the full Assembly. A Managua appeals court had declared on Apr. 28 that the session held by opposition deputies in the Holiday Inn Hotel on Apr. 20, which approved the bill on first reading and sent it to committee, was not a valid session. Wilfredo Navarro, First Secretary of the Assembly, said that the Assembly leadership should be meeting the week of May 10 to vote to put it on the agenda. The opposition has a majority within the Assembly leadership (even though Assembly President Rene Nuñez is a Sandinista) and in the Assembly as a whole, so the bill could pass. However, Sandinista Deputy Alba Palacios said that, even if it were to pass, it would have no legal validity. (La Prensa, May 6; Radio La Primerisima, May 6)
3. Francisco Campbell named ambassador to the US
Francisco Campbell, who is well-known to the US Nicaragua solidarity movement due to his stint in the Nicaraguan embassy in Washington during the early 1980s, has been named by President Daniel Ortega as Nicaragua's ambassador to the United States. Campbell is currently an elected Sandinista member from Nicaragua in the Central America Parliament. He has previously served as Nicaragua's ambassador to Zimbabwe and Tanzania. He has a degree in Political Science and has done advanced studies in Japan and the US. Campbell will occupy the post previously held by Arturo Cruz who resigned as ambassador to return to teaching in Managua over a year ago.
On May 5, after it was unofficially reported that Campbell had received the customary “placet” or acceptance from the U.S. government, Congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (D-FL) called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to refuse to accept Campbell's credentials because he was not approved by the National Assembly “as the law requires.” “We cannot allow the United States to be used as a peon in the manipulations of Daniel Ortega to undermine democracy in Nicaragua,” Ros- Lehtinen stated. (Given the Republican legislator's long record of support for Latin American dictators, the contra war, the coups in Venezuela and Honduras, and counterrevolutionary Cuban terrorists in Miami, Ros-Lehtinen's own democratic credentials are suspect to say the least!)
In Nicaragua, former presidential candidate and Liberal Deputy Eduardo Montealegre said that it was not appropriate for a foreigner to say what Nicaraguans had to do, adding “We have the obligation to make the president do what he should do.” He said on May 10 that opposition deputies should send letters to the countries where Ortega has sent new ambassadors who have not been approved by the Assembly “as the constitution mandates.” Opposition deputies say there are as many as 20 officials, including ambassadors and ministers who have not been approved by the Assembly. In a May 9 editorial, the conservative daily La Prensa praised Ortega's choice of Campbell but agreed that he should not be accredited by the United States until his nomination had been approved by the Nicaraguan National Assembly. (La Prensa, May 6, 9, 10; Radio La Primerisima, May 10)
4. Liberals retain control of the RAAS
Against all predictions, the Constitutional Liberal Party and allies amassed the 23 votes needed to preserve their control the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) council which dates from 1990. After the Supreme Electoral Council rejected challenges from the PLC in four districts after the March 7 polling and awarded the seats to the Sandinista Party (FSLN) candidates, it was assumed that the FSLN had the votes to elect the regional governor and control the regional council.
However, barely an hour before the new regional government was to be installed on May 4, FSLN delegate Benjamin Moreno walked out of the session because the party failed to support his leadership bid. Then the single delegate who won for the Alliance for the Republic (APRE) and a PLC delegate who had been expected to vote with the FSLN, both switched to the PLC, which, with the votes of two Nicaragua Liberal Alliance delegates, suddenly had 23 votes. The absence of Moreno from the FSLN bloc gave the PLC enough votes to control the RAAS regional council for the next five years.
The FSLN subsequently expelled Moreno from the party for “treason” and, on May 7, he was removed from his Regional Council seat by the Supreme Electoral Council because he has a military rank of lieutenant as a delegate of the Ministry of Government in the RAAS and did not resign his military commission before running for office as required by law.
PLC member Rayfield Hodgson was elected president of the RAAS council. The new council will elect the governor of the region. The North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) is controlled by an alliance including the FSLN and the indigenous party YATAMA. (La Prensa, May 4, 6; Radio La Primerisima, May 4, 7; El Nuevo Diario, May 9)
5. IMF suspends meeting of board on Nicaragua over US$25 monthly payment to state workers
Presidential economic advisor Bayardo Arce confirmed on May 4 that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had suspended the meeting that its board had scheduled with the government of Nicaragua because of delays with two laws and over concerns about the US$25 monthly payment to over 100,000 low salary government employees that President Daniel Ortega announced at a celebration of international workers' day. Arce said that the regulations implementing the new law on microfinance institutions were scheduled to be published shortly, as indeed they were, and that the Economics Committee of the National Assembly was debating the law to regulate credit cards and was expected to send the bill to the full Assembly this week.
Central Bank President Antenor Rosales said that Nicaraguan officials would be meeting with the IMF to explain that the US$25 payment will not come from the coffers of the government but rather from Venezuela through the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA) and will “not form part of the registry of Nicaragua's debt.” He added that the Ministry of the Treasury would not be involved in the distribution of the payment because the money was not from state resources.
The postponement of the meeting means a delay in Nicaragua's receiving a disbursement of US$18 million now and a further delivery of US$18 million plus US$42.5 million in budget support funds from the Inter-American Development Bank which is dependent on an agreement with the IMF. (Radio La Primerisima, May 5; La Prensa, May 9)
6. Nicaragua hopes to run on 100% clean energy in six years
In an effort to reduce dependency on petroleum, Nicaragua's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) has set the goal of running entirely on renewable energy by 2016. Today, approximately 30% of Nicaragua's energy comes from renewable sources (including geothermal, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass) while the other 70% comes from oil.
A number of projects (both public and private) are helping to change these percentages and make the Ministry's goal a reality. Iceland's International Development Agency will support growth within the geothermal sector with over US$4 million. Director Gil Paison said that the objective was to strengthen the capacity of Nicaragua's central government and the ministries and agencies involved in the geo-thermal energy field.
Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli recently visited the geothermal project ran by Polaris Energy and Queiroz Galvao, a Brazilian company, at San Jacinto-Tizate. The companies are currently expanding the capacity of the plant and installing new technology. They hope that by next April it will be producing 36 megawatts (up from 10 megawatts), enough energy to supply the departments of Chinandega and Leon. Tom Ogryzlo, head of Polaris Energy Nicaragua, said, “I have worked in many countries around the world and in only a few places have I seen the support from a government similar to that which has been offered by this government.” A total of US$151 million has been invested in this phase of the operation.
Rappaccioli said that by 2012, the geothermal plants at San Jacinto-Tizata and Momotombo will be producing between them 72 megawatts of electricity. Polaris Energy already has a contract to sell energy to Union Fenosa (the Spanish-owned electricity company which runs Nicaragua's energy distribution network) at US$92 per megawatt hour. (La Prensa, May 6; Radio La Primerísima, May 7, 8,)
7. Literacy museum inaugurated
A museum marking the Literacy Crusade of 1980 was inaugurated May 4 by the Carlos Fonseca Amador Popular Education Association (AEPCFA). August will mark the 30th anniversary of the completion of the campaign by the revolutionary Sandinista government to end illiteracy in Nicaragua. During the literacy campaign, 115,000 mostly young people taught 450,000 mostly rural peasants how to read and write. The United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) recognized the effort with an award in 1981. The goal of the museum is to educate young people about the rich history of combating illiteracy in Nicaragua. Inmanuel Urbina, a member of the AEPCFA board, said board members are evaluating the possibility of turning the museum into a traveling exhibit that can be set up in municipalities and government institutions.
Dr. Juan Bautista Arrien, UNESCO's representative in Nicaragua, recognized the continuing effort of the Sandinista government to combat illiteracy and announced that records from the countries illiteracy combating efforts will be sent to UNESCO. In 2009 Nicaragua achieved the UN's “illiteracy free” level of better than 95% literacy. Bautista emphasized the importance of continued literacy efforts in a country where only 60% of children finish the sixth grade, entering the work force without the skills needed to get out of poverty. (Radio La Primerísima, May 5, 8,)
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