TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2010
Nicaragua News Bulletin (October 19, 2010)
1. Solution to appointment deadlock sought; justices return to Court2. Government declares health emergency in fight against leptospirosis
3. Minimum wage raised for coffee harvest; growers protest Nestle's low quality coffee
4. Nicaragua vs. Colombia World Court Case: Costa Rica and Honduras want to take part
5. President Ortega halts Rio San Juan dam project
6. Polls continue to show favorable numbers for government
7. Nicaragua to count indigenous population
8. Catholic leaders, police chief meet on Caribbean Coast
1. Solution to appointment deadlock sought; justices return to Court
National Assembly Deputy Mario Valle Davila of the Nicaraguan Unity Bench (BUN) proposed on Oct. 16 that 25 high level officials (whose terms have expired and whose replacements have not been named) be voted on in groups based on an agreement between the governing Sandinista Party and the opposition. He justified his proposal by noting that for months the process of approving the officials (including justices of the Supreme Court, magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council and Comptrollers General of the Republic) has stalled because no party or coalition has the required supermajority of 56 votes. He said, “In the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) where they are seven, the Sandinistas would have the right to three, the opposition parties another three, and one would be chosen by consensus among all the parties.”
Deputy Jose Pallais of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) said that the proposal was a covert attempt to break the agreement known as Metrocentro II where opposition political parties agreed that they would oppose the reappointment of any members of the CSE, including especially its president, Roberto Rivas. The opposition accuses Rivas of allowing fraud in the 2008 municipal elections. “We know,” Pallais said, “that this would mean permitting the possibility that Roberto Rivas might be elected as a magistrate [of the CSE] although probably not as president. It would be very bad for us to fool ourselves and the citizens [about this].” Conservative Deputy Ramiro Silva said that the PLC, the Nicaraguan Democratic Bench (BDN), and the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) should decide together on the three opposition candidates rather than the choices being made only by the PLC as happened in the recent past based on the 1999 pact between then President Arnoldo Aleman of the PLC and Sandinista leader and current President Daniel Ortega.
Meanwhile, five of the six Liberal justices of the Supreme Court who had left their posts three months ago returned on Oct. 12. Returning were Manuel Martinez, Gabriel Rivera, Ivan Escobar Fornos, Edgar Navas and Antonio Aleman. Sergio Cuaresma did not return and was expected to resign. The return of the five justices was assumed to mean that they accepted the election of Sandinista Justice Alba Luz Ramos as president of the Court and the continuance on the Court of Justices Rafael Solis and Armengol Cuadra whose terms expired but who remained on the court under a presidential decree. The alternate justices who had been called by Ramos in August to substitute for the absent justices were sent home on Oct. 13. Ramos said that first on the agenda of the Court was the selection of ten judges to fill vacancies on the appeals courts and participation in consultations with the National Assembly and representatives of civil society on changes to the country's labor code. With regard to the possibility of revisiting decisions recently made by the Supreme Court allowing the consecutive reelection of the president and the continuation in their posts of the officials whose terms have ended, Ramos said that there was no recourse. Appeals for clarification would have had to have been made within 24 hours of the rulings, she said, and that was not done. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 16, 17; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 12, 18)
2. Government declares health emergency in fight against leptospirosis
The Ministry of Health reported last week that there were 16 confirmed deaths from leptospirosis in the country with five more unconfirmed cases. At least 115,000 people have received a preventive doxycycline treatment, according to President Daniel Ortega, who declared a health emergency. El Nuevo Diario said there have been more than 600 cases of the disease while the Health Ministry says 146 confirmed cases. Leptospirosis is caused by standing in water contaminated by animal (particularly rat) urine. The Cuban government has sent 12 tons of a biological rat control product known as Biorat to help in fighting the epidemic. The Army is installing a tent hospital in Achuapa in the Department of Leon, where the greatest number of deaths and confirmed cases have been found. Other headlines related to the record rains include: San Francisco Libre's Center to Be Moved; Prosecutor to Investigate Bean Shortage; Housing Complex Planned for 4,000 Families Who Lost Homes; Request for Funds to UNESCO for Damage to Site of Old Leon Ruins; Nine Foot Alligator from Xiloa Crater Lake Captured; and Rains Provoke Explosion of Plant Growth and Renewal of Aquifers. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 17, 18; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 12, 18; La Prensa, Oct. 16)
3. Minimum wage raised for coffee harvest; growers protest Nestle's low quality coffee
Sixty thousand coffee workers will receive higher pay and mandatory food allocations during the 2010-2011 harvest that begins Nov. 1 according to Minister of Labor Jeannette Chavez. Child labor will also be phased out according to the agreement reached between the government, growers, and unions.
Workers pay will rise from US$1.08 to US$1.35 per lata. The lata is a standardized box used to measure the harvested coffee fruit before the pulp is removed and the beans are dried. The regulations also dictate the food to be served to workers for breakfast and lunch, including meat three times a week. If growers do not feed the workers they must pay them an additional US$1.50 per day. The minimum wage for an 8 hour day, including food, will be US$6.00 according to the agreement. There is also a program to eliminate child labor in Jinotega that will be expanded to Matagalpa and Carazo. Children will not be allowed to accompany their parents to the fields but will instead receive day care from teachers.
In other coffee news, growers of Nicaragua's high quality arabica coffee are up in arms and demanding that the National Assembly forbid the cultivation of low quality robusta coffee in the country. The Swiss transnational Nestle is behind the push for robusta cultivation in Nicaragua and has financed growers to plant 500 hectares of the variety. Nicaragua is the only country in Central America where its cultivation is not forbidden. Arabica growers warn that the low-quality coffee which Nestle uses in its instant coffee and in blends for espresso, will hurt Nicaragua's reputation for high quality coffee. They warn that it will also cause environmental damage because robusta, unlike arabica, does not require shade and will therefore accelerate deforestation.
And finally, some 200,000 hundred-weights (100 lbs.) of coffee are at risk of being lost in Nicaragua due to a combination of the excessive rains that have fallen during this rainy season and an expected shortage of coffee pickers. According to Eduardo Rizo, president of the Coffee Growers Association of Jinotega, the expected harvest of more than a million hundred-weights could be reduced to 800,000 hundred-weights. He said that the rain may cause the coffee in the Jinotega highlands to mature early when the pickers are still picking the coffee in the lower regions of the country, leading to a loss of some of the harvest. He also noted that roads in poor state from the rains will make it more difficult to get the coffee out of the highlands. (Radio La Primerísima, Oct. 8, 13, 17; La Prensa, Oct. 14)
4. Nicaragua vs. Colombia World Court Case: Costa Rica and Honduras want to take part
On Oct. 18 Honduras formally presented its request to participate as a party to the case before the International Court of Justice (World Court) in The Hague which will establish the maritime border between Nicaragua and Colombia. According to the Spanish news agency EFE, this is the first time in the history of the Court that a state asks to be party to a case involving two other countries. Last week, the Court considered arguments from Costa Rica which is asking to participate, but not as a party to the case. Both countries believe that their interests could be affected by the Court's decision in the case.
Nicaragua is opposed to the participation of Honduras and Costa Rica. Paul Reichler, a member of Nicaragua's legal team, said, with relation to the latter, that “Costa Rica has not shown how a ruling could affect its interests” which he said had been defined by a 1977 treaty. He accused Costa Rica of “now wanting to define its interests beyond the line marked” by that agreement. In contrast, Rodman Bundy, of the Colombian legal team, denied Nicaragua's claim that the case will not affect Costa Rica's interests and urged the judges to accept Costa Rica's petition to be involved in the legal process.
In 1928 President Adolfo Diaz, under pressure from the United States which occupied Nicaragua, ceded to Colombia the archipelago of San Andres and Providencia. In 2001, Nicaragua went to court to get the islands back. The World Court, however, ruled in 2007 that the islands belonged to Colombia but also ruled (in support of Nicaragua's position) that the 82nd meridian west longitude is not the maritime border between the two countries. The court agreed to determine what that border is and the case is scheduled to conclude in 2012. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 12, 16, 18; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 13, 15; La Prensa, Oct. 13, 15)
5. President Ortega halts Rio San Juan dam project
President Daniel Ortega halted, at least temporarily, the Brito hydroelectric dam project on the Rio San Juan that would have produced 250 megawatts of electricity, but which environmentalists and the government of Costa Rica warned would cause irreparable environmental damage to the river, the Indio-Maiz nature reserve, and Lake Cocibolca (Nicaragua), the largest freshwater lake in Central America. Ortega ordered the project halted until a new environmental impact study is made of the Brazilian-financed US$600 million project.
“Our government has a coherent environmental policy and the president has reiterated that it is going to preserve the river basins feeding the lakes because that is the future of the country,” stated Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources Juana Argeñal. According to a document prepared by the Brazilian company, the dam would reduce the river's flow by 90%. Lake Cocibolca, which is an important water reserve, would also be affected. The dam would also affect vegetation in 33% of the Indio-Maiz nature preserve which is protected by law, as well as flora and fauna in the river and lake. Construction of the hydroelectric project would also make the river unnavigable. Costa Rican Deputy Claudio Monge recently criticized the project because it would affect wetlands and also economic productivity along the river's banks due to the reduced water flow.
Ortega ordered the project halted indefinitely and ordered the Ministry of the Environment not to authorize a feasibility study until the Brazilian company updates its project data which is based on 35 year old information. At the same time state officials opened the issue to debate by scientific and environmental experts to determine “any threat to the country's bodies of water.” (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 13: La Prensa, Oct. 13; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 16)
6. Polls continue to show favorable numbers for government
A poll by Borge y Asociados released on Oct. 13 indicated that if the elections were held today President Daniel Ortega would receive 42.1% of the vote, followed by Fabio Gadea, who is being promoted by former presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre as a consensus opposition candidate, with 25.1%. “None of the above” comes in third with 20.7% and former President Arnoldo Aleman garners only 7.7%. Confidence in the governing Sandinistas was at 49.1% while only 16.2% had confidence in the parties in opposition. Only 25% expressed confidence in the National Assembly. At the same time, 57% classified the political situation as negative while only 39.7% thought it was OK or positive. However, 47.6% of those polled had hopes that the elections of November of next year would reflect the will of the majority while 30.8% said they had no such hopes and 21.7% either were in the middle or had no opinion. While 52.3% said they were satisfied with democracy in Nicaragua, 42.4% said they were not satisfied. On the other hand, only 34.8% thought that the high-level officials whose terms of office had expired should remain in office; while 56.9% thought they should not. When asked if they planned to vote in the 2011 elections, 53.4% said that they had a high possibility that they would vote, 32.1% had some possibility of voting while 10.7% said there was no possibility of them voting. (La Prensa, Oct. 13, 14; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 13)
7. Nicaragua to count indigenous population
On the "Day of the Encounter of the Two Worlds” as La Prensa said Sandinista government officials prefer to call it [Oct. 12], officials lamented the “abandonment” of Nicaragua's indigenous population. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Indigenous and Afro-descendent Issues Joel Dixon said that the primary problem is that the population suffers from a serious disparity in work opportunities and fair wages. A recent Inter-American Development Bank report found that indigenous and afro-descendant women earn less than workers of other races.
"The reality in Nicaragua is that there is an imbalance and you can see this most profoundly among the indigenous populations. Currently, the government has a bill promoting dignified treatment of original peoples," Dixon said. He announced that the country will carry out a census of the indigenous population, with the financial support of the Mexican government. The indigenous population makes up around 10 percent of the total Nicaraguan population, which is approximately 6 million. The government has not yet announced if this census will be part of the national census or if this will be a special side project involving only the indigenous population.
Also on Oct. 12, the Nicaraguan Cultural Institute (INC) presented a report on the most recent archeological finds and on the situation of the country's indigenous cultural patrimony. INC has reported six large finds of human foot prints (with those at Quezalguaque estimated to be over 2,000 years old) but they all require substantial funding in order to be properly studied and preserved. Clemente Guido, Co-Director of INC complained about the lack of government funding available for uncovering “the histories of our ancestors.”
"The cultural heritage of Nicaragua is vulnerable. The State is definitely not prepared to attend to all of the grand challenges of cultural heritage. It requires economic resources..." Guido said. He added that next year he would be asking for a higher budget. (La Prensa, Oct. 13)
8. Catholic leaders, police chief meet on Caribbean Coast
National Police Chief Aminta Granera met with Catholic Church leaders of the North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions (RAAN and RAAS) on Oct. 16 to discuss citizen security issues. They discussed how the police and Church could combine efforts to reduce violence, illegal possession of firearms, liquor and drug abuse, and cattle rustling. The priests recognized the role of the police in preserving citizen security and promised to help strengthen that role and encouraging citizen participation. Thirty-two priests attended the meeting. A recent M&R Associates poll showed that Granera is the Nicaraguan with the most positive rating among the public with 82.8% holding a positive opinion of her and only 10% having a negative view.
Meanwhile, Marvin Aleman, police chief of the RAAS announced in Bluefields that over the past year, 25 police officers were fired for facilitating cell phone communication, giving unauthorized food, or dereliction of duty with regard to Colombian and Honduran drug traffickers held in detention. Aleman himself is being transferred from his post to be in charge of security for the new Tumarin hydroelectric project in Awapas. He said that, because the project will provide energy independence for Nicaragua, it will be essential to guarantee its security. (La Prensa, Oct. 13; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 16)
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