TUESDAY, MARCH 08, 2011

Nicaragua News Bulletin (March 8, 2011)

1. Callahan denies intervention
2. Nicaragua supports proposal for Libya mediation
3. IMF team visits Nicaragua
4. Firewood cooking has many consequences
5. School repairs advance
6. Trying to solve the garbage problem

1. Callahan denies intervention

At a meeting with members of the Sandinista bench in the National Assembly, including Assembly President Rene Nuñez, United States Ambassador to Nicaragua Robert Callahan assured the legislators that the U.S. would not interfere in Nicaragua's internal affairs. Edwin Castro, head of the Sandinista bench, said that they asked Callahan about U.S. actions in light of recent Wikileaks revelations about maneuvers by the Embassy and U.S.-affiliated groups to unite opposition to the reelection of President Daniel Ortega.

Earlier in the week, Callahan had said that, “What is important to us is that it [the election] be a transparent process, an observed process, a just process. And, if this process produces another Sandinista government, we will be the first in extending our congratulations.” He also said, referring to Ortega's reelection bid based on a Supreme Court ruling that the constitutional prohibition on consecutive reelection violated a citizen's rights, “We believe that, of course, Nicaragua can change its constitution … but the constitution says that to be amended it has to pass through the Assembly; that is very important to us.” He denied that the United States was aiding any political parties.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, speaking before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, singled out Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as “notable exceptions” to the current of “sustainable democracy and economic growth” in Latin America. She said that the United States was proud of the free trade agreements that have been signed with Colombia and Panama [both of which have substantial bipartisan opposition in Congress] and of the fight against drug trafficking in alliance with the Colombian government. (El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 3, 7; La Prensa, Mar. 1, 2, 7; Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 3)

2. Nicaragua supports Venezuela's proposal for mediation in Libya

The week began with a report that Nicaragua might give asylum to Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi and ended with a meeting of the ALBA nations in which there was support for a mediation proposal by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The web page of the Jerusalem Post caused a commotion on Mar. 2 by publishing a report from Israeli Army radio that Gadaffi's sons had urged their father to give up the leadership of his country and seek asylum in Nicaragua. The report added that associates of the Gadaffi family living outside Libya had stated that the brothers had received the consent of Nicaragua and the support of the United States. The report was denied by Central American Parliament member Jacinto Suarez, a Sandinista. He said, “Gadaffi is not going to ask for asylum and I don't believe that Nicaragua is the right place.” He added, “I am sure that it is part of the campaign to justify an invasion of Libya.” Tne Foreign Ministry said it had no information about the issue and the US Embassy said the same..

In the National Assembly, opposition party deputies denounced the possibility that President Daniel Ortega might grant political asylum to the Libyan leader, saying that Ortega could be condemned by the United Nations or the World Court. Vilma Nuñez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, said, “Political asylum is in the constitution but it is for politically persecuted people and it is humanitarian, not designed to offer shelter to human rights violators who would come with their repressive guards.” The Nicaragua Network notes that Nicaraguans must remember well that in order to convince a dictator to leave he must have a place to go. In the case of Anastasio Somoza that was the United States and then Paraguay. But Paraguayans may have been unhappy with the decision of Alfredo Stroessner to grant asylum to Somoza!

On Mar. 1, Ortega released a letter to Gadaffi in which he reiterated his solidarity: “In these transcendental moments for the Libyan nation, to you as the leader who represents the unity and dignity of each of the social groups that form it, I send you the fraternal greeting and embrace of the Nicaraguan people.” Dora Maria Tellez, a leader in the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), reacted by saying that Ortega could not express solidarity with Gadaffi in the name of the Nicaraguan people. She stated, “What Ortega is doing is identifying himself with Somoza and with genocide which is extremely grave.” She added, “[O]ur people suffered massacres to get rid of a dictatorship that had the same number of years as Gadaffi in power.”

Speaking on Mar. 4 in Caracas at a meeting of foreign ministers from the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), Nicaraguan Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Valdrack Jaentschke said that the Nicaraguan government supported the peace proposal offered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to resolve the crisis in Libya. Chavez had proposed an international commission that would mediate the Libyan crisis. Jaentschke said, “We demand respect for the [territorial] integrity of Libya and we denounce the interventionism that is developing with the one goal of taking over the petroleum resources of Libya.” (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 1, 3, 4; La Prensa, Mar. 2, 4; Jerusalem Post, Mar. 2; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 1, 3)

3. IMF team visits Nicaragua

Representatives of the International Monetary Fund sat down on Mar. 2 in Managua with members of the government's economic team to work on what they said was the sixth revision of Nicaragua's program with the Fund's Extended Credit Facility. [According to the IMF's web page, the ECF provides financing “with more flexible program design features” than past programs.] According to Central Bank President Antenor Rosales, the government is presenting reports on the situation of the country's microfinance sector, on state employees and their salaries, and on foreign assistance, including funds entering from Venezuela under special oil agreements. Rosales said that the reports will be published this month. He added that he was optimistic about the results of the meeting on which depends the release of a final US$16 million under this program with the IMF which will end in December. Under the current program, the IMF has loaned Nicaragua US$18.6 million in 2007; US$28.9 million in 2008; US$35 million in 2009; and US$20 million in 2010.

In related news, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in Uruguay, one of his stops on a visit to several Latin American countries, that “The IMF has changed greatly and it will surprise you especially here in Latin America where the memories of the IMF are not so good.” He said things had changed because what he called the “emerging” nations had acquired more power based in part on the fact that they are leading the world economically at a time of world crisis. He said that when structural changes are complete in the IMF, “It will not be possible for a group of countries, the advanced economies, to impose their opinions on the rest of the world.” He added that cooperation at a global level was one of the lessons learned in the attempt to deal with the current crisis. (La Prensa, Mar. 2; Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 2)

4. Firewood cooking has many consequences

The Nicaraguan Foundation for Sustainable Development (FUNDENIC SOS) released a study finding that in 2005 Nicaraguans on the Pacific side of the country used 2.5 times as much wood for cooking as for furniture and housing construction. The study showed that 42% of Nicaraguans used wood for cooking as opposed to only 26% who used propane gas. According to one furniture manufacturer, over the past two years it has become more difficult to buy precious hardwoods. Those types also are best for cooking because they produce less smoke, burn longer and hotter, etc. Now though, the better woods have become too expensive for poor families and tortilla makers to afford, leading to the use of smokier woods and attendant health and pollution problems. Each Nicaraguan burns on average 1.8 kilograms of wood each day, 98% of which is illegally cut. This contributes to deforestation as well.

Cooking smoke is the second highest cause of lung disease after cigarette smoking. Rural studies in Leon, Matagalpa and Jinotega have shown that 70% of women 60 and older, who cook with firewood, have chronic pulmonary obstruction disease. Medical professionals urge the use of more efficient wood stoves if it is not possible to abandon cooking with firewood.

The relationship of tortilla sales to sediment in the rivers probably doesn't make sense to some. Even more difficult to conceive is the connection between a tortilla served and the floods in Managua when it rains or the drought in some municipalities of the Pacific or deadly landslides when a hurricane hits. But the connection exists. Deforestation caused by what La Prensa describes as the “irrational” use of firewood in Nicaragua is a source of all three. Urbanization has only increased the use of firewood for cooking. The Young Environmentalist Club stated that the firewood problem is a reflection of two things: the underdevelopment of the country, and the difficulty in accessing alternative technologies. Firewood isn't bad in and of itself they say, but a new culture of firewood is needed using better stoves that use less wood and produce less smoke. FUDENIC SOS has a project to produce firewood under ideal conditions. The project started with 342 growers in 2007 on more than 740 acres. Today though, after the drought of 2009, they only have 115 growers on fewer than 300 acres. (La Prensa, Mar. 1, 3, 5)

5. School repairs advance

The Ministry of Education will begin repairing 12 schools in Managua next week as part of a crash rehabilitation project that aims to renovate 40 schools by the end of March and another 40 in April with an investment of about US$18 million. Materials are in place and solidarity youth brigades will do much of the work. The Ministry also announced that the Rigoberto Lopez Perez High School in Managua will be completely rebuilt. At the national level, the Education Ministry has repaired about 1,000 classrooms this year.

In Esteli, the Institute for Human Promotion (INPRHU), with the help of the municipal government, built 12 rural schools, reconditioned 13 others, and gave packets of school materials to about 10,000 impoverished children. The project was funded by groups from the European Union and Canada. Also in the Department of Esteli, the Ministry of Education announced that 35,000 children between four and twelve in the municipalities of Condega, San Nicolas, La Trinidad, San Juan de Limay, Pueblo Nuevo and Esteli are receiving free meals to improve their nutrition. The food is prepared by rotating committees of parents and delivered to the schools where the students are enrolled. (Radio La Primerísima, Mar. 2; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 3)

6. Trying to solve the garbage problem
The Nature Fund, along with organizers from a variety of other civil society groups, is sponsoring a massive cleaning project for Managua's Lake Xiloa. The lake's health is deteriorating due to littering and the area is strewn with plastic bottles, and beer and soda pop cans. On April 30th, an estimated five hundred supporters will work together to clean the lake, which is formed by a volcanic crater. Additionally, organizers plan to hold educational seminars in the area and work to advocate for the issue on the national level as well. A cleanup project two years ago filled 16 trucks with garbage.

Workers and travelers have also complained about the appearance of bus terminals. The terminals in the city's markets have very few trash receptacles, so many travelers litter. "We pay COMMEMA [the Municipal Corporation for Managua Markets], but they have never put trash containers out here. Trash trucks come by in the morning and afternoon, but on Sunday they don't come and by Monday it's a pig's pen because people always litter," complained Maria Hernandez, who works at the bus terminal at the Israel Lewites Market.

The news about trash may not all be negative, however. Grupo L is signing a 25 year contract with the Rivas municipal government in which they will generate 9 megawatts of renewable energy from the garbage in the city's landfill. With an initial investment of US$15 million, the group plans to install a processing plant that will use combustible biogas derived from solid waste. This will be produced through pyrolysis, a chemical process of decomposition of organic materials through heating without oxygen or water. After the approval by the mayor and city council of Rivas, the project still needs the approval of the Ministries of the Environment and of Energy. (La Prensa, Mar. 5; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 5)
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