TUESDAY, MARCH 01, 2011
Nicaragua News Bulletin (March 1, 2011)
1. Parties finalizing alliances and candidates2. Ortega expresses solidarity with Gaddafi
3. U.S. Chamber of Commerce works to unite opposition
4. Assembly investigates death of Yajob
5. Foundations document African palm threat
6. Nicaragua honored for sea turtle conservation
7. Gulf overfishing issues confronted
8. Migration issues discussed
1. Parties finalizing alliances and candidates
With the deadline for registering political alliances on March 1, political forces were finalizing their candidates and lining up supporters last week. The Sandinista Party (FSLN) held its party congress on Feb. 26 in Managua and proclaimed President Daniel Ortega the party's candidate for another term. Just over 1,000 delegates participated in the IV Extraordinary Congress. Supporters of Ortega said his reelection was the only way to continue the social programs put in place by his government since 2007. FSLN founder Tomas Borge, who nominated Ortega, said that a recent Supreme Court decision, which declared articles prohibiting consecutive reelection in violation of citizens' rights, legalized his candidacy. The congress gave Ortega the power to finalize the FSLN-led alliance for the elections but it is anticipated that the Nicaraguan Resistance, the Christian Democratic Party, the indigenous party YATAMA, and the Nationalist Liberal Party will run with the FSLN.
Opposition figures denounced the selection of Ortega as a violation of the constitution. Auxiliary Bishop of Managua Silvio Baez said in his Sunday sermon, “The rule of law has been torn to pieces, smashed to smithereens.” Dissident Sandinistas, including Henry Ruiz, Monica Baltodano, Victor Hugo Tinoco and Dora Maria Tellez, gathered to read a statement denouncing the congress, saying it was an attempt to “make us forget the principle of no-reelection which was a conquest of the Nicaraguan people after much sacrifice and shedding of blood.”
Meanwhile, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) held its national convention and named Fabio Gadea and Edmundo Jarquin as its candidates for president and vice-president. Political groupings in alliance with the PLI are the Nicaraguan Union for Hope, the coalition supporting Gadea, which includes the “Let's Go with Eduardo” Movement and the Sandinista Renovation Movement. The Constitutional Liberal Party, whose candidate for president is former holder of that office Arnoldo Aleman, has formed an alliance with the Conservative Party and is expected to be joined also by the Nicaraguan Democratic Alliance and the Multiethnic Indigenous Party. Most of the junior partners in the alliances have a negligible electoral base. Enrique Quiñonez is the presidential candidate of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance and Guillermo Osorno of the Christian Way Party.
In other election related news, El Nuevo Diario reported allegations that, between 2004 and 2008, Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) President Roberto Rivas took US$18.5 million from the funds of the CSE in checks that were then supported by false documents. The newspaper claimed that the office of the Comptroller General of the Republic detected the irregularities in 2008 but the comptrollers decided not to sanction the CSE or Rivas. (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 28; La Prensa, Feb. 28; El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 28; 26)
2. Ortega expresses solidarity with Gaddafi
Speaking on Feb. 21 at a commemoration of the 77th anniversary of the assassination of Augusto Sandino, President Daniel Ortega expressed his solidarity with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He said that he had spoken with Gaddafi and “I transmitted to him the solidarity of the Nicaraguan people, the solidarity of Nicaraguan Sandinistas, to all the Libyan people… and [told him] that we are confident that this problem can be resolved.” Ortega repeated his solidarity with Gaddafi in speeches on Feb. 24 and 26. Gaddafi aided the Nicaraguan government in the 1980s and the Sandinista Party in the 1990s, according to reports. A statement read by the Nicaraguan representative to the United Nations at a Feb. 25 meeting of the UN Human Rights Council said, “We do not accept the condemnation of those countries that have been complicit in barbarous invasions based on false pretexts, complicit in massive bombing and torture in illegal jails. We do not accept the voices of condemnation from those countries that have benefited economically, commercially and financially from relations with Libya, who have received President Gaddafi in their countries with honors and now turn their backs on him accusing him of being a tyrant.”
The political opposition condemn Ortega's statements. The Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) called on the government to immediately break diplomatic relations with “the genocidal dictatorship of Gaddafi." The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) expressed “indignation” that “Ortega would express solidarity with a human rights violator and condemn those who have been attacked.” Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, locked in a controversy with Nicaragua over the dredging of the San Juan River by Nicaragua, said that support for Gaddafi “puts into context the decisions that the government of Nicaragua took when it refused to recognize the norms of civilized coexistence by invading Costa Rica.” [Nicaraguan authorities say that their armed forces have never crossed into Costa Rica. The border dispute case is before the World Court.] (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 21, 24, 25; La Prensa, Feb. 25; El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 24, 26)
3. U.S. Chamber of Commerce works to unite opposition
An article published on Feb. 23 by The New York Times said that the foreign affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Nicaragua, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), and most particularly its president Roger Arteaga, had been working to unite the political opposition to President Daniel Ortega, “organizing secret meetings with opposition party leaders in an effort to oust [Ortega] in an election this year.” Cables released by WikiLeaks, show that AmCham affiliates, of which there are more than 100 around the world, sometimes play what the Times called a “remarkable role” in the politics of their host nations. The Times quoted Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States Francisco Campbell as saying with relation to the revelations in the cables, “Every time outside forces have sought to interfere in Nicaraguan internal affairs, the result has been harmful to the Nicaraguan people.”
A Dec. 2009 Embassy cable said, “The group [AmCham] has been working for the last several months to bring opposition groups, civil society, and the business community together to confront President Daniel Ortega, preserve democratic space, and form a united bloc to challenge Ortega and/or the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the 2011 elections.”
Arteaga completed his term and has been succeeded by Yali Molina, an international lawyer. Molina said that AmCham's efforts to unite the opposition had failed and he would “curtail” them. The Times said that Molina “pointed out that Nicaragua's economy appeared to be growing and that foreign investment was on the rise. And Mr. Ortega is likely to win re-election in November.” The Times said Molina advised, “Don't get enemies; get friends.”
The Center for International Private Enterprise, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is a core group of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), founded in the 1980s to perform overtly many of the same actions previously carried out covertly by the CIA. The Nicaragua Network is not entirely sure if funding for the 100 AmChams around the world is routed through the NED or is a separate effort by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (The New York Times, Feb. 23; Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 23)
4. Assembly investigates death of Yajob
Head of the Nicaraguan Army General Julio Aviles told a National Assembly committee on Feb. 23 that the Army was not involved in the death on Feb. 14 of Jose Garmendia, also known as “Yajob.” Garmendia, who fought with the Contras in the 1980s, maintained he had taken up arms again in a political struggle while Nicaraguan authorities said he was a common criminal leading a band of delinquents. Glenda Zavala of the National Police, speaking before the same committee, said that Garmendia died as a result of firearm wounds on a farm in the Department of Jinotega. She said that the police were carrying out a complete investigation. National Assembly Deputies protested that police could not even tell them what caliber weapon had fired the shots that killed “Yajob.” Zavala said that Police were looking for the owner of the farm, Jose Luis Davila. (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 18, 23; La Prensa, Feb. 22, 23)
5. Foundations document African palm threat
Three environmental groups, the Humboldt Center, the Del Rio Foundation, and the Luciernaga Foundation, have released a documentary film about serious environmental damage, habitat loss, shrinking biodiversity, public health risks and worker exploitation in African palm cultivation in El Castillo in the Department of Rio San Juan. The film is entitled “Pirates of El Castillo.”
African palm cultivation was begun in the 1980s on about 2,500 acres in El Castillo to provide economic opportunities for a cooperative which sold its product to the State. After the Sandinista electoral defeat of 1990, the operation was privatized and today belongs to Palmares de El Castillo SA (PALCASA). According to the documentary, in 2007 the company began expanding cultivation in El Castillo, near Indio Maiz, one of the country's three nature preserves, with investments from the German Society for Investment and Development and the German Development Bank. Nearly 15,000 acres have been planted in African palm, less than half of which has been subject to an environmental impact study. Peasant farmers who once grew food crops have had their land taken by the company which now employs them at a miserable wage. Basic food products in the area have become scarce.
The documentary by the environmental organizations reports a serious loss of biodiversity, deforestation and water contamination as well as the “irrational” use of pesticides, some of which are banned in Europe. Nearby organic cacao cultivation has been affected. According to the film, workers spread massive amounts of the dangerous chemicals without any training or protective gear. The result has had a serious effect on their health, the quality of the ground water, and air quality. The report described horrific working conditions in which the workers are not allowed to unionize. When the municipality refused to allow further expansion, the company reacted with threats and a law suit. Many workers have left the area seeking work in Costa Rica or moving deeper into the nature preserve and thus damaging it further.
The documentary can be viewed at: http://www.rel-uita.org/agricultura/palma_africana/mision_bajo_aguan/video_los_piratas_de_el_castillo.htm (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 25)
6. Nicaragua honored for sea turtle conservation
Not only did the efforts to protect sea turtles at Chacocente yield fruits this year in term of a record number of hatchlings reaching the sea (1.8 million, up from the usual 600,000), but those efforts were recognized by the Inter-American Convention on the Protection and Conservation of Marine Turtles (IAC). The IAC extended its congratulations to Nicaraguans "for the valiant conservation efforts regarding the Olive Ridley turtle promoted by the Ministry of the Environment in El Astillero and Chacocente."
The Wildlife Refuge of Chacocente was, in the past, the stage for clashes between the police and residents who stole turtle eggs from the beaches, not allowing them to hatch. The situation came to head in 2003, when it became known that some of the caretakers were selling the eggs. Today, the situation is much different. Now, some of those who used to take the eggs for commercial use care for them at the reserve. Others have left businesses that exploit nature to dedicate themselves to tourist services and honey production. (La Prensa, Feb. 22)
7. Gulf overfishing issues confronted
Small commercial fishers and the governments of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, all of which border on the Pacific's Gulf of Fonseca, are working together to insure sustainable fishing in the Gulf. Problems identified include polluted water entering the Gulf, warming water temperatures, indiscriminant destruction of mangrove swamps, use of illegal fishing methods, and maritime border conflicts. In 2010 income from fishing surpassed US$8 million, the only source of income for most of the fishers. The three governments and fishers identified the need to regulate the catch of most commercial fish species and shellfish in order to insure reproduction and population replacement. The unified fishers proposed a tri-national structure to coordinate fishing policies among fishers' organizations and the governments involved. Also proposed are measures to reduce pollution and restore mangrove swamps as well as the creation of economic alternatives to fishing during the closed season. The three national groups of fishers met in Chinandega in early February and are continuing to meet in Honduras to elaborate proposals to regulate sustainable times and methods of fishing. (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 25, 28)
8. Migration issues discussed
A delegation of the International Migration Organization met with Nicaraguan officials over the subject of improving public policies and the struggle against poverty which causes migration. Also discussed were difficulties Nicaraguan migrants are having due to new Panamanian immigration laws and Costa Rica's refusal to allow Nicaraguans deported by Panama to traverse Costa Rica. IMO representative Bertha Fernandez said, “Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua… are all members of the Regional Conference on Migration and should be able to arrive at a bilateral solution to the problems of Nicaraguan migrants. Panamanian representatives were in Nicaragua last week and discussed commercial ties and immigration questions as well with Nicaraguan officials.
In other immigration news, the Beta Group of Mexico's National Migration Institute rescued 133 migrants in the Sonoran Desert near the US border who were unable to continue North and wished to return home. Six of those rescued were Central Americans and at least one of those was Nicaraguan. Nicaraguans have been among the Central Americans who have been kidnapped and even murdered while transiting Mexico to reach the United States. (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 26)
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