TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2011

Nicaragua News Bulletin (March 15, 2011)

1. World Court issues preliminary ruling
2. Tsunami puts coast on alert
3. Women celebrate International Women's Day
4. Fuel prices rise; electricity subsidy to continue
5. 1980s World Court suit against US may be refiled
6. Employment in the free trade zones hits a record high
7. Fisherman propose prohibition of bottom trawling
8. Soybean production to increase
9. Charter seaplane service offered

1. World Court issues preliminary ruling

On Mar. 8, the International Court of Justice in The Hague (World Court) issued a preliminary ruling in the case brought by Costa Rica against Nicaragua over a boundary dispute at the mouth of the San Juan River. The Court asked both countries to abstain from sending any personnel (armed or unarmed) to the “territory in dispute, including the channel” that had been dredged by Nicaragua, “to avoid possible hostilities.” It noted that dredging in the zone of controversy, known as Harbour Head, had been completed. It failed to support Costa Rica's request that Nicaragua stop its dredging in several places in the river delta. The Court said that Costa Rica had the right to send civilian personnel “charged with the protection of the environment” to the zone of controversy but that Costa Rican officials had to notify Nicaragua of their presence and consult with representatives of the Ramsar Wetlands Convention.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said, “We are satisfied with this ruling and we are going to obey it.” He added that, “The ideal would be that we come to an agreement.” He said he had called Mexico and Guatemala to mediate again in the dispute. Representatives of the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican governments met with Mexican and Guatemalan mediators in January in an unsuccessful attempt to work out a solution.

Carlos Argüello, Nicaraguan representative to the Court, said, “Costa Rica was asking that they stop the dredging. For me the most important point is that the Court was forceful in its unanimous decision that Nicaragua has the right to continue dredging.”

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla said that a unit of sappers (mine removal experts) would be sent to the area to find out if Nicaragua had left any land mines near the zone in dispute. She said, “Costa Ricans know that the Isla Los Portillos [near Harbour Head] has always been ours and that is where the core of the dispute lies and it is on that issue that the Court at The Hague will rule.” She said she was willing to dialogue with Nicaragua but on issues such as drug trafficking and the environment, not on the case before the Court which she said Costa Rica would pursue until it is finished.

Costa Rican Ambassador to the Netherlands Jorge Urbina said that if Nicaraguan dredging of the San Juan River takes more than five percent of the water from the Rio Colorado which drains through Costa Rica, Costa Rica will file a further demand with the World Court. Dredging by Costa Rica in the 1960s took away much of the water that previously drained into the Caribbean via the San Juan River, leaving the San Juan to almost dry up in the dry season.

On the same day as the Court decision, Ramsar representatives arrived in Nicaragua and met in a closed meeting with officials of the Ministry of the Environment (MARENA) and others. The next day the Ramsar representatives flew over the San Juan River to view the area in dispute with Costa Rica accompanied by MARENA officials. They spent several days in the area to find out if there has been damage to wetlands under the protection of the Ramsar Convention. A report released on Jan 3 by Ramsar had been based solely on documents it was given by the Costa Rican government, without consulting with Nicaragua or visiting the region.

Army Head Julio Aviles said that the Ramsar representatives were able to see “the forests that Nicaragua has in the Indio Maiz Reserve and the deterioration of the forests on the Costa Rican side.” Lester Quinteros of the Nicaraguan Port Commission said that the sediment dredged from the river bottom is deposited at 23 predetermined sites chosen at the time of the environmental impact study. The Ramsar report will be presented to the World Court. The Court's preliminary ruling can be read at http://www.icj-cij.org. (La Prensa, Mar. 8, 9; Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 8, 9, 10; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 10)

2. Tsunami puts coast on alert

Civil Defense authorities, the Red Cross, the Fire Departments, and municipal committees all agreed that the country responded efficiently to the call for evacuations of coastal areas under possible threat from high waves and swells from the tsunami that crossed the Pacific after the earthquake in Japan. Although, as it turned out, the sea only rose half a meter, there had been concern that some coastal areas could see higher swells. Col. Rafael Ramirez of SINAPRED, the disaster prevention and mitigation department of the government, said, “Nicaragua has one of the most effective early alert systems in Central America which we have achieved through training and tools from Japan and thanks to that we had this phenomenon under control.”

President Daniel Ortega visited the Embassy of Japan in Nicaragua to express the condolences of the people and government of Nicaragua to “the emperor, the government and the people of Japan and the families of the victims.” He said that while “we lament the loss of life and those who have disappeared, we recognize the capacity of Japan to react rapidly with a system of defense against natural disasters.”

The Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER) released a statement saying that the tremblors felt on the morning of Mar. 12 were unrelated to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The INETER bulletin stated that “What happened was a normal process of subduction of the Coco and Caribbean plates which we Nicaraguans should be accustomed to since our country is highly seismically active.” An INETER spokesman said that Nicaragua experiences about 200 small quakes per month. (El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 12; Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 11)

3. Women celebrate International Women's Day

International Women's Day was celebrated on Mar. 8 by women of widely differing political views in separate gatherings. With support from COMMEMA (the Corporation of Municipal Markets of Managua), women who have stands in all the markets of the capital gathered at the wholesale market. Cristina Sanchez, a leader of the merchants in the market, said that women were little by little winning their rights. She said that women who had not opened their eyes should open them and recognize that only with the Sandinista government will they be able to move forward. Speaking at a program held at the Supreme Court to celebrate International Women's Day, Court President Alba Luz Ramos, a Sandinista appointment, said the judicial branch of the government has worked to improve women's access to justice. She added that the number of women judges has increased from 37% to 42%.

Members of the Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM) met to celebrate International Women's Day and the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the organization. In a proclamation read during a march that included several hundred women from different organizations, the MAM criticized all government figures and institutions, saying that the government “has accumulated negatives on the issue of fundamental rights of women” and that the president is the principal violator of the constitution, referring to his running for a third term of office. The MAM criticized the National Police, “formerly an admired and prestigeous force which now represses actions carried out by citizens in the exercise of their political rights while permitting the forces of the government to commit actions against the law,” referring to threats and harrassment by Sandinista groups against opposition political and media figures. (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 8; La Prensa, Mar. 8,)

4. Fuel prices rise; electricity subsidy to continue

Radio La Primerisima reported on Mar. 14 that the price of gasoline and diesel had risen for the third week in a row. Regular gas was at US$4.67 per gallon, while diesel cost US$4.43. Tanks of gas for cooking rose last week by 2% in Managua, with higher rises in the rest of the country. According to economist Adolfo Acevedo, with the rise in oil prices “the entire production chain is altered because these increases are passed on to the price of goods, products and services.” It can cause, he said, a wave of price hikes that if not controlled in time can lead to generalized inflation which results in a deterioration in the standard of living of the population.

On the night of Mar. 8, President Daniel Ortega announced that he would retain the government subsidy of electricity for as long as necessary this year and that he had found long term, no interest, funding for the subsidy within the framework of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). The government subsidy of families' electricity bills was supposed to end in March but had recently been extended to June because the rise in oil prices has meant that the cost of producing electricity at Nicaragua's oil powered generating plants has gone up as well. Ortega said that if the price of oil were to come down the funds could be used in the construction of more affordable housing units. He added that the subsidy benefits 638,000 families who use less than 150 kilowatts of electricity per month, with a smaller benefit for those homes and businesses that use more.

Jose Adan Aguerri, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise, called the announcement “good news” and said that he would be asking for further details about the extention. Aguerri said, “This is very good news from the point of view of not increasing the cost of production in this situation [the rise in oil prices] that we Nicaraguans are confronting.” More cynical was the newspaper La Prensa, which headlined, “Ortega guarantees energy subsidy through the electoral year.” (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 8, 9, 14; El Nuevo Diario, Mar. 10, 14; La Prensa, Mar. 8,)

5. 1980s World Court suit against US may be refiled

President Daniel Ortega stated on March 10 that Nicaragua reserves the right to reopen its 1980s lawsuit against the United States before the International Court of Justice at The Hague (World Court). The US did not recognize and never complied with the Court's 1986 ruling that it was illegal for the US to mine the harbor at the Port of Corinto and to prosecute the Contra War to overthrow the Sandinista Revolution. The World Court ordered the US to pay reparations, estimated at that time to be US$17 billion. Ortega said that in today's dollars that would be US$58 billion. The administration of President Violeta Chamorro said it was withdrawing any claim to compensation in order to receive foreign assistance from the United States, but never officially informed the Court of that decision. Ortega said the lawsuit could be refiled if US President Barack Obama wins a second term. (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 10; Inside Costa Rica, Mar. 13)

6. Employment in the free trade zones hits a record high

The 26,000 jobs that were lost in free trade zones between 2008 and 2009 have now been recovered, officials say. According to a Central Bank of Nicaragua report released in December, 89,927 are currently employed by the 148 registered businesses operating in the free trade zones. This is the highest number on record.The executive director of the Nicaraguan Textile and Garment Industry Association (ANITEC), Dean Garcia, said that major growth seen in his sector (which is a major portion of business within the free trade zones) was due to two factors. First, there is the tri-party labor agreements. Signed in March 2009, the agreement established a minimum salary percentage increase independent of the yearly minimum wage negotiations. Businesses, the government, and labor agreed to adjustments upward in wages each year for a period of five years, until 2013. Second, the return of the US market, Nicaragua's largest business partner, increased the demand for Nicaraguan goods. (La Prensa, March 8,)

7. Fisherman propose prohibition of bottom trawling

A group of fisherman from Nicaragua and Ecuador proposed that industrial bottom trawling be made illegal by their governments in their waters. They also met with spokesman from the Venezuelan Simon Bolivar National Front for Peasants and Fisherman, and plan to meet with additional groups to study laws and regulations regarding fishing. In both countries, fisherman hope to organize those in their industry to present a strong front against industrial bottom trawling and protect their natural resources and fishing industry.

Bottom trawlers use enormous bag-shaped nets which are pulled along the ocean floor, catching everything in their paths. Large metal plates at each end of the net drag along the ground, literally scraping the ocean floor clean of life, It is considered by some to be the underwater equivalent of clear-cutting forests. The practice was eliminated two years ago in Venezuelan waters. (Radio La Primerisima, Mar. 14)

8. Soybean production to increase

Members of the Nicaraguan Union of Agricultural Producers (UPANIC) are looking for land to double or triple the production of soybeans in the next agricultural cycle which begins in May. Soybeans are currently harvested on 5,220 acres although five years ago Nicaraguan farmers planted nearly 9,600 acres. Based on high prices and high demand on the international commodities exchanges, UPANIC proposes to plant between 10,400 and 17,400 acres in the 2011-2012 agricultural year. During the 1980s Nicaragua raised soy on nearly 70,000 acres, but the acreage planted diminished due to lack of a formal buyer and low international prices. Last year, however, the price rose by 46%. The company Agricorp is in conversations with UPANIC about buying the Nicaraguan crop. (La Prensa, Mar. 12)

9. Charter seaplane service offered

A new airline, Nicawings, with a US$14 million investment in Nicaragua's tourist industry, is offering charter flights to 12 destinations with water landings at Ometepe and Solentiname in Lake Cocibolca, Corn Island in the Caribbean, and several places in the Department of Rio San Juan along the border with Costa Rica, including San Carlos and El Castillo. Most destinations will only take an hour or so to reach compared to many hours by conventional land or water travel. The airline, affiliated with the Canadian firm Alliance Air Support, has one 9 passenger plane in service now which will be joined soon by an 18 passenger plane. The airline hopes to offer regularly scheduled services in the future but is limited to charter flights for the present. Flights will depart from docks in Managua and Granada. (La Prensa, Mar. 12)
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