TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2011
Nicaragua News Bulletin (April 26, 2011)
1. Fewer Holy Week drownings this year2. Gaddafi nephew is Ortega's secretary
3. Poll results spark call for fast
4. Damaged buildings demolished
5. Tipitapa's flood victims get housing
6. Farmers taught not to burn fields
7. Small bakeries in crisis
1. Fewer Holy Week drownings this year
Some Nicaraguans stayed at home and attended the traditional religious services and processions of Holy Week while others engaged in the equally traditional trips to the beach (ocean, lake or river) with a result of 34 people drowned and another 51 deaths from other causes, including 22 homicides, and 12 dead as a result of traffic accidents. More people drowned on Good Friday than on any other day during the week, a total of nine. Francisco Diaz of the National Police said that homicides were down from 26 last year. No violent deaths were reported at the beaches. He said that 11,166 police officers were mobilized to assure a safe holiday week, including 300 officers who covered 12 beaches on the Caribbean Coast where only one drowning was reported, at Pearl Lagoon.
According to Dr. Edmundo Sanchez, director of epidemiology of the Health Ministry, the total number of drownings was down from last year, when 40 drowned. He said that 9,300 persons were seen at the health posts established at the nation's beaches, mainly for diarrhea and upper respiratory infections. He lamented the number of drownings, the majority of which he said resulted from entering the water after drinking too much alcohol or from not following warnings about water safety. He said that before Holy Week began, the Health Ministry removed from store shelves 70,500 units of expired or damaged canned food, thus preventing cases of food poisoning.
Earthquakes continued during the week. The most recent occurred on Apr. 25, the day after Easter, measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale and located in the Department of Rivas. Rivas had felt an earthquake on Good Friday of 4.2, while residents of Managua also felt a small trembler on that day. According to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER), Nicaragua in recent days has had 23 tremblers.
According to the Institute of Tourism (INTUR), 41, 934 people entered the country for Holy Week, compared to 32,863 last year. Of those, approximately half were foreign tourists and half were Nicaraguans returning home to spend the holidays with their families, including approximately 10,000 from Costa Rica. Three cruise ships with over 5,000 passengers visited the country during the week. The most popular beaches were Pochomil and La Boquita on the Pacific, Granada on Lake Cocibolca, El Trapiche on the Tipitapa River, and the crater lake of Xiloa near Managua. At several beaches, most notably El Trapiche, it was noted that there were volunteers picking up trash to keep the areas clean.
Thousands of Catholics participated in street processions of the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday in cities and towns across the country. In Managua, Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes asked the 20,000 people who walked the five kilometers of the procession to pray for a peaceful election campaign. Fr. Henry Moreno prayed at one of the stations, “We ask pardon for the abuse of the laws and of the constitution,” in a clear reference to President Daniel Ortega's run for reelection which the opposition says in unconstitutional. Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata of Esteli, known for his involvement in opposition politics, said in an interview after his Easter sermon, “There are people who abuse power and put themselves above the law.” He urged members of political parties to remain cordial and to think of the nation and not of the benefits that they can obtain as individuals. (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 23, 25; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 23, 25; La Prensa, Apr. 19, 22, 24)
2. Gaddafi nephew is Ortega's secretary
According to cables leaked by Wikileaks and published in the newspaper La Nacion of Costa Rica and in Nicaragua by an alliance of Confidencial, Esta Semana and El Nuevo Diario, United States officials expressed concern when, in 2007, in-coming President Daniel Ortega named Mohamed Lashtar, a nephew of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, as his private secretary for international affairs. In a cable dated Jan. 23, 2007, then U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli described Lashtar as one of the principal “figures of power in the shadows of Ortega's government” and said that he was part of Gaddafi's personal intelligence network.
Evidently Spain was also concerned about Lashtar. At Ortega's inauguration on Jan. 10, 2007, Spanish Ambassador Jaime de la Cadena told other diplomats that the security detail of Prince Felipe (who represented King Juan Carlos at the inauguration) was “very concerned” about Lashtar's presence because they had him registered as an agent of Gaddafi's.
El Nuevo Diario reports that Lashtar arrived in Nicaragua in the mid-1980s and worked at the Libyan-Arab Cultural Center, affiliated with the Embassy of Libya in Managua. He became a naturalized Nicaraguan citizen. In the 1990s, he managed Libyan agricultural investments in Nicaragua, including farms at San Francisco Libre and Tisma. He is also currently an alternate representative in the Central American Parliament and manager of the Nicaraguan-Libyan Agricultural Company (ANILIB).
The reactions to concerns about Lashtar's relationship to Gaddafi and closeness to Ortega by members of the Arab community in Managua, all of whom said they knew Lashtar, ranged from hilarity to skepticism, according to El Nuevo Diario. A businessman remarked, “He said he was Gaddafi's nephew but you'd have to ask him how many relatives Gaddafi has in his tribe.” A farmer who said he said he had done business with ANALIB for years said that Lashtar liked to boast about his contacts with powerful people, noting, “Mohamed bragged that on the same day he could breakfast with Ortega, lunch with Aleman and dine with Bolaños.”
A former collaborator of the president, according to El Nuevo Diario, said that Lashtar was a key person for Ortega especially during the years when he was in the opposition (1990-2006). This anonymous source said Lashtar helped channel money from Libya to support Ortega's international trips and those of FSLN staff as well as political campaigns. “Only in this way can we explain the support extended by Ortega to Gaddafi during the present crisis in that country,” he added. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 25)
3. Poll results spark call for fast
Monsignor Rene Sandigo, secretary general of the Nicaraguan Catholic Bishops Conference, called on all Nicaraguan Catholics to fast on July 1 of this year. A few days later the Bishops Conference widened the invitation to all Nicaraguans. Sandigo said in announcing the fast, “This fast cannot be blocked; you can impede a march or a demonstration, but not a fast. You can't require that the people eat that day.” (On Apr. 2, Sandinistas called a march on a similar route as a scheduled opposition march and opposition marchers were not allowed by police to carry out their march as planned.)
According to La Prensa, the call for a fast arose after the results of a poll by M&R Consultores were released [see last week's Bulletin] that showed that almost 48% of Nicaraguans were ready to vote for the reelection of President Daniel Ortega in November's elections, four times the percentage that said they would vote for the top opposition candidate. Sandigo explained, in what appeared to be a reference to the government's Zero Hunger Program and other anti-poverty efforts, “You can say that when the stomach is full, the head does not function. So let us have the stomach allow the head to work and have Nicaraguans reflect and think and not let themselves be manipulated and be drawn onto bad pathways.” (La Prensa, Apr. 19)
4. Damaged buildings demolished
People who haven't visited old Managua for a long time will be surprised next time to find four large building severely damaged in the 1972 earthquake have finally been demolished. Over the years the buildings, which are dangerously unstable with holes in the roofs, missing facades and other dangers, were inhabited by 320 poor families. The entire area was condemned after the 1972 quake as too unstable for construction. The demolition, which started April 18, is a joint effort by several municipal and national government agencies including the national fire department. The project is employing 195 men, 83 of whom were living in the buildings. The latter will receive as payment for their work all the iron rebars from the destroyed buildings. Javier Amaya, Director General of the Fire Department emphasized that all workers have been issued safety gear to prevent accidents.
Despite precautions, dust from the demolition has made the environment unhealthy for those still living in the area. Neighbors also complained that the walls around the project made from galvanized metal roofing sheets are scant protection against the pieces of concrete and metal that are falling through their roofs. Authorities estimate that the demolition will be complete within 45 days except for removal of the foundations. An alert was issued when workers discovered two AK 47 magazines and five new projectiles in the ceiling of one room. The police and army are investigating. (La Prensa, Apr. 19)
5. Tipitapa's flood victims get housing
On Apr. 23, the municipal government of Tipitapa began the relocation of 381 families living in the Solidarity Shelter since the floods of last year's rainy season. Ines Diaz, who lived in the shelter for eight months, said that during that time the group organized a Committee of Citizen Power and a Sandinista Leadership Committee to make living in the shelter easier. She said the families, all of modest backgrounds, were thankful to the government that they each would soon have a free plot of land and a roof over their heads. The government purchased approximately 39 acres of land at a cost of US$150,000 for the relocation, all of which is located on higher ground to avoid the risk of future flooding, according to Cesar Vasquez, the mayor of Tipitapa. (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 23)
6. Farmers taught not to burn fields
The Ministry of Forestry is leading a multi-agency campaign in the Department of Chontales to reduce the number of fires caused by farmers burning their fields in preparation for planting and ranchers burning pastures and weeds. The goal is to reduce the amount of land burned around Lake Cocibolca (Nicaragua) below the 13% of coastal areas affected in 2010. According to Delver Baez, of the Ministry of Agriculture in Chontales, the majority of Nicaragua's farmers are still accustomed to burning their fields before planting. This contributes to contamination and sedimentation of the lake. The multi-agency campaign has sought to train farmers about the damage caused by burning and alternative methods they can use. They will have trained 400 farmers in new methods by May when the trainings end and the planting season begins. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 20)
7. Small bakeries in crisis
Over the past two or three years, one-third of small and medium bakeries in Nicaragua have been forced out of business due to the skyrocketing cost of basic ingredients and competition from the big supermarkets. The result has been as many as 7,000 people added to the unemployment rolls, according to Ermis Morales, a leader in the bakers' organization. Costs have been driven up, he said, by the massive conversion of food crops, such as sugar cane, African palm, and others to biofuel by the rich countries of the world and the expansion of biofuel crops into farmland previously used for other food crops. In addition, Morales decried a lack of government support for training and credit for the small and medium businesses that have neither the knowledge nor the skills needed to survive the changes in their industry. Six hundred bakeries are estimated to have closed in the country leaving about 1,200 small and medium bakeries struggling to survive. Basic ingredients have more than doubled in cost. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 25)
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