TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2010
Nicaragua News Bulletin ( November 2, 2010)
1. Supreme Electoral Council releases election calendar2. Costa Rica asks for special OAS session to consider dredging question
3. Arturo Valenzuela visits Nicaragua
4. Nicaraguan exporters want FTA with Venezuela
5. Community betters its life after organizing CPC
6. Pine forests of Prinzapolka threatened
7. Census of Nicaraguans with disabilities completed
1. Supreme Electoral Council releases election calendar
On Oct. 28, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) formally announced the date of next year's presidential and legislative elections along with the calendar for the registration of candidates and the campaign. CSE President Roberto Rivas said that, on Sunday Nov. 6, the country will elect the president and vice-president, 70 National Assembly deputies elected from departmental slates, 20 National Assembly deputies elected from national slates, and 20 members of the Central American Parliament. Parties must notify the CSE of their intention to participate by Nov. 15 and have four months to form political alliances for the races. Names of presidential candidates must be presented to the CSE in March and names of candidates for the National Assembly in May.
Earlier in the week, Rivas was involved in a virulent interchange with Auxiliary Bishop of Managua Silvio Baez. On Oct. 24, Baez demanded in La Prensa and on the TV program “This Week” that none of the magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council be reappointed, including most especially Rivas whom he accused of allowing fraud in the municipal elections of 2008. Baez also said that President Daniel Ortega should drop his intention of running for reelection in respect for the constitution. Rivas reacted by praising Ortega and saying that he knew secrets about members of the Church hierarchy some of which he proceeded to lay out. Charge and countercharge filled the media for several days.
Leonel Teller, spokesman for the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), called the announcement of the dates for the elections illegal because the terms of the CSE magistrates have ended and they only continue in office based on a presidential decree which the opposition considers illegal. However, Teller said the party's leader, former President Arnoldo Aleman, was ready to register as the PLC candidate. Leaders of other parties said that they would also participate but under protest.
The CSE announcement made no reference to national or international election observers. However, business leaders Jose Adan Aguerri of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) and Roger Arteaga of the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua (AMCHAM) said that their presence was necessary for the results to be considered valid. Eija Rotinen, Finland's ambassador to Nicaragua, said that her country hoped that national organizations would be approved for electoral observation. She spoke at the inauguration of a new office for Ethics and Transparency, a national observation group. The new building was constructed with support from Finland, Japan, Germany, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark and the National Democratic Institute of the United States [a core group of the National Endowment for Democracy]. “We believe in electoral observation,” Rotinen said.
Efforts continued to bring together the opposition parties behind one candidate to challenge Daniel Ortega. Fabio Gadea Mantilla, owner of the conservative station Radio La Corporacion and inventor of the well-known radio character Pancho Madrigal, is supported by several Liberal factions and other political groupings as a “consensus” candidate. In a visit to the Department of Chontales, Gadea said that he would not offer the people of Nicaragua “water, light or roads,” but rather “honesty and acceptance by Nicaraguans and by other countries in order to get aid.” He added that “poverty is not fought by giving out food but rather by generating jobs.”
Pressure is increasing on Arnoldo Aleman to drop out of the race. Maximino Rodriguez, a PLC deputy in the National Assembly, said, “Time has run out for Arnoldo Aleman and he now has no possibility of winning another election… and for that reason we ask him to decline [the candidacy].” Rodriguez said that those at the base felt that party leaders needed to tell the former president “the truth.” (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 28, 29, Nov. 1; La Prensa, Oct. 25; 28; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 29, 31)
2. Costa Rica asks for special OAS session to consider dredging question
On Nov. 1, the government of Costa Rica called for a special session of the Organization of American States (OAS) to consider what it said was the presence of Nicaraguan troops in its country. Security Minister Jose Maria Tijerino said, “This morning there was a flight over Isla Calero and it was determined that Nicaraguan troops were present in Costa Rican territory.” Foreign Minister Rene Castro stated, “In the face of these proven facts, I have communicated with the Secretary General of the OAS and we have asked him to convoke the Permanent Council of the OAS.
On Oct. 31, Nicaraguan Army head General Julio Cesar Aviles called on all Nicaraguans to unite against those who were promoting the falsity that Nicaragua was violating international law and invading territory that did not belong to Nicaragua. Referring to operations near the Costa Rican border where Nicaragua is dredging a portion of the San Juan River, he said, “We are certain that where the Army has carried out its operations is the territory of our country.” There is a tongue of land at the border, the above-mentioned Isla Calero, which both countries are claiming.
The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry on Oct. 26 issued a communiqué expressing its “most energetic protest against the repeated violations by troops of the Costa Rican armed forces of Nicaraguan territory.” The Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion reported that President Laura Chinchilla reacted by saying that Nicaraguans had “forgotten where the border is, who their neighbor is, and where the San Juan River is.” This caused a stir which Chinchilla partially resolved by clarifying that she had actually said that the Nicaraguans “forgot who was on the other side of the border…. Costa Rica abolished its army 60 years ago and here military troops do not exist.” Nicaraguan media noted that, while Costa Rica may have abolished its army in 1948, it had sent troops in fatigue uniforms with high caliber weapons to the border.
On Oct. 29, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega proposed that the dispute be resolved by dialogue. The two presidents have a meeting scheduled for the third week in November in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, to discuss bi-national matters. (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 27, Nov. 1; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 28, 31, Nov. 1; La Prensa, Nov. 1)
3. Arturo Valenzuela visits Nicaragua
President Daniel Ortega called his meeting with Arturo Valenzuela, U.S Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, “very good, frank, respectful, friendly,” adding that they spoke of matters of common interest including drug trafficking, organized crime, public safety, trade, and other matters. Ortega said he emphasized the need for a regional plan to hit the drug trafficking networks. “It is important to establish relations apart from Plan Merida [focused primarily on Mexico], with the Central American region… for the Central American region to really be an armored corridor that will not permit this epidemic to continue advancing in our region.”
Valenzuela met with government officials (including Foreign Ministry officials, Police Chief Aminta Granera and others), business representatives, civil society groups, and political parties. Bayardo Izabá of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) met with Valenzuela along with Violeta Granera of the Movement for Nicaragua (MPN), Mauricio Zuniga of the Institute for Democracy (IPADE), Roberto Courtney of Ethics and Transparency (E&T), Marcos Carmona of the Permanent Commission for Human Rights (CPDH), and journalist Sofia Montenegro. [MPN, IPADE, E&T, and CPDH have received funds from the US National Endowment for Democracy.] Izaba said that the groups expressed their “concern about the upcoming electoral process” and noted that, while Valenzuela was “receptive,” he reminded them that “we had to find a solution ourselves, not them.”
Valenzuela also gave an interview to La Prensa newspaper. When the interviewer asked what the U.S. was asking Nicaragua to do with relation to Honduras, Valenzuela replied, “I think that this is the moment to try in a constructive and positive way for Honduras to return to the Organization of American States.” With relation to Nicaragua's internal politics, he said, “This is an internal debate; you have to resolve these questions.” He said that the United States and European countries believe that national electoral observation is important to give the international community a basis on which to decide if elections are legitimate.
The interviewer, saying that Ortega's candidacy was “illegal,” asked Valenzuela if his government would recognize an Ortega government if he were reelected. Valenzuela expressed his hope that efforts would be made to carry out a legitimate, constitutional electoral process. He said that it was not the right of the U.S. or any other country to decide who should win elections; that was a sovereign issue for each country. He added that the U.S. was “ready to work with whoever is elected in conditions that achieve a standard level of transparency and follow the law.” (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 29; La Prensa, Oct. 28; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 28)
4. Nicaraguan exporters want FTA with Venezuela
Nicaraguan exporters are pressuring the government to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Venezuela, claiming that normalization of relations between Venezuela and Colombia will disadvantage Nicaraguan exporters without it. The Association of Producers and Exporters (APEN), called on the government of President Daniel Ortega to negotiate a free trade agreement, along the model of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, so that Nicaraguan exporters have “clear rules” for trade with Venezuela. Exporters apparently mistrust the cooperative trade with Venezuela negotiated under the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). Azucena Castillo, general manager of APEN said about the new political scenario between Venezuela and Colombia, “How competitive are we going to be [compared to Colombians]?” Roberto Brenes, general manager of the Center for Exports and Investments, added his voice, acknowledging the good relations and high level of trade between Nicaragua and Venezuela, but calling for clear regulations because “no government is eternal.” The Ortega government has not responded. (La Prensa, Oct. 30)
5. Community betters its life after organizing CPC
On October 28, El Nuevo Diario published an article that is noteworthy less because of the fact that it reports how a community in Ocotal came together to improve conditions for a more dignified life, than the fact that the opposition newspaper noted a successful project organized by a Council for Citizen Power (CPC). The CPCs are a mechanism for popular democracy created by the Ortega government, but virulently opposed by the political opposition and press.
The article tells the story of how 211 heads of household in the CPC of the marginalized Jose Santos Rodriguez neighborhood in the city of Ocotal organized to bring electricity and municipal water to their neighborhood and to repair the impassible road giving access to the community. By organizing a CPC they were able to meet with the mayor, Carlos Gomez, who worked with them to find solutions to their problems. Gomez said that success was due to the people's willingness to do communal work on the road. “We were able to use the ‘work for food' program to benefit 12 families, but the women, men, and children of the community turned out to work for nothing because they recognized the importance of the street.”
The community and municipality cooperated on financing and installation of electricity. The community dug ditches for the water installation even before submitting the request to the mayor. The city supplied the PVC pipe for the water. Many in the community previously barely survived by cutting and selling firewood. Now they are exploring the possibility of family orchards, raising poultry, and producing vegetables to better their quality of life. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 28)
6. Pine forests of Prinzapolka threatened
Only sparse trees remain of what was one of the largest and densest pine forests in Nicaragua, located in Prinzapolka, North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). The local population has chopped down some of the trees to sell to buyers from the Pacific and north of the country, as a means of subsistence for themselves and their families. This unsustainable exploitation of the forest has resulted in the loss of a valuable resource. Despite the fact that the forest is on the verge of disappearing, there are only limited efforts by authorities to provide income producing alternatives for the local people and to curb extraction of timber.
By decree of the RAAN government, the rational use of the forest's resources should be only by the region's residents. But, concessions are also given out to companies and three of six current forest management concessions have been given by local leaders to people who are not from Prinzapolka. Forest management concessions are documents for sustainable use, but in this case they have become tools for over-exploitation. Adrián Gutiérrez Ponce, who is forest manager of two concessions, claims to be one of the few forest managers who actually follows the regulations. He says he has overseen the reforestation of some areas and expects to plant 60,000 pine seedlings in 2011.
Once the management concessions are approved, the authorities lack the resources to monitor compliance. The Nicaraguan army, in coordination with the national and local police, has installed six posts to control the long highway in the area. But, the stations only control external trafficking, not trafficking within the region and as posts close at 6pm, traffickers can simply wait until night to transport their goods.
According to experts, the environmental impact of the conversion of pine forest to pastureland is severe because the soil is not appropriate for pasture or crop cultivation. Erosion and loss of soil fertility are the result. The challenge is to put in place projects of community forestry which would provide income from processing sustainable quantities of harvested timber . (La Prensa, Oct. 28)
7. Census of Nicaraguans with disabilities completed
A Cuban-Nicaragua medical brigade has completed a year-long study of disabilities in Nicaragua in order to enable the Ortega government to initiate programs to integrate into society those with physical and mental disabilities who were forgotten during the decades of neoliberal governments. The brigade, which completed a census in every part of the country, recorded 126,308 people with disabilities, about 2.2 percent of the population. The doctors also examined 203,536 family members, many of whom had never seen a doctor and live in areas remote from a health center. This was the first census of disabilities in any Central American country. Cuban medical brigades have also carried out similar surveys in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador as part of their contribution within the ALBA cooperative trade agreement. (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 30)
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