TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011
Nicaragua News Bulletin (August 23, 2011)
1. Electoral Council releases observation rules2. Election campaign officially opens
3. Monkey Point port again moves forward
4. Accessibility an issue in Managua
5. Preserving the Mayangna language
6. Government stabilizes price of corn
7. News about exports
1. Electoral Council releases observation rules
On August 16, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) approved the rules for national and international observation of the upcoming Nov. 6 presidential elections. However, the CSE continued to refer to the process as “accompaniment” rather than observation, a term also used in Venezuela which has been denounced by Nicaragua's opposition parties and groups.
The CSE set out four categories of accompaniers: international organizations, foreign visitors, national accompaniers, and official invitees. The official CSE publication stated that any “multi-national organism interested in accompanying and learning about the development of Nicaragua's electoral process with the goal of strengthening and modernizing the electoral system” could participate. National observers were defined as Nicaraguan citizens interested in accompanying, learning about and contributing to the process.
The regulations stated that accompaniers “will be able to communicate their observations in writing to the CSE when they have completed their designated route” but must obtain the approval of the CSE before releasing those observations to the media. Requests for observer accreditation should be submitted by Sept. 15 to the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry.
Jennifer McCoy, Latin America director at the Carter Center, said, “We are concerned about the lack of freedom of the observers or accompaniers to go to any part of the country to observe the electoral process; another [problem] is the restriction on public announcements… there are several things that we will have to talk to the CSE about.” She said that the restrictions violated a declaration of principles for international election observation that the Center had signed with the United Nations and the Organization of American States. She added that to be effective, the observation should have begun in March of this year. Vice- Minister of Foreign Affairs Valdrack Jaentschke replied saying, “We are not in agreement with elections under super vigilance; that was in 1930 when there were US Marines in every polling place.”
Vilma Nuñez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, said that the rules were written to benefit the party in power and that the term “accompaniment” had no accepted definition in international law. Former President Arnoldo Aleman, candidate of the Constitutional Liberal Party, rejected the rules saying “any decree that violates the constitution is not valid.”
On Aug. 19, President Daniel Ortega called on all citizens to vote on Nov. 6 and clarified some of the provisions of the observation rules. He said “the doors are open to all who want to come as observers, accompaniers, watchers or whatever they wanted to call themselves.” He said that some would not come with good will and added, “We are not worried about those who come to slander us and expect us to expel them in order to gain notoriety; we are not going to expel anyone.” He said that observers could go wherever they wanted in the country but had to coordinate their movements with the CSE. He said that the media would not be censured and observers could say “whatever they pleased; in the end it will be the people who will decide.” He also said that national observer groups would be allowed to operate, evidently including those that had made statements against the current government or had received money from foreign funders opposed to his policies. Ortega reiterated a previous announcement that expired voter identification cards could be used to vote in November.
Meanwhile, CSE President Roberto Rivas met with two staff members from US Congressional committees that deal with Latin America: Fulton Armstrong, advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Peter Quilter, advisor to the Democratic members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Rivas told them that the observation of the elections “would proceed as in the past and that use of the term accompaniment” was a “question of semantics,” according to Lillian Nigaglioni, press officer at the US Embassy. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 16, 18; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 18, 20; La Prensa, Aug. 18, 19)
2. Election campaign officially opens
Aug. 20 marked the official beginning of the 2011 presidential election campaign and the candidates were off to a running start. Sandinista President Daniel Ortega is running for reelection (the opposition says illegally) and four other parties or alliances of parties are running candidates. The other two principal candidates are former President Arnoldo Aleman, the candidate of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) Alliance, and radio broadcaster Fabio Gadea of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) Alliance. About 3.3 million Nicaraguans are expected to vote for president, vice-president, National Assembly deputies, and members of the Central American Parliament on Nov. 6.
Ortega launched his campaign the night of the 19th in a Managua speech in which he urged the population to vote and promised no limits on international observation of the elections (see above). Aleman, who began his campaign with a rally in Matiguas, challenged his opponents to a public debate of the issues. “From these mountains,” he said, “I challenge Daniel Ortega to discuss and debate!” To Fabio Gadea, he said, “Don't be afraid; come, let's debate.” There is little chance that his opponents will take him up, however, since he runs third in the polls. Running second in the opinion surveys after Ortega, Gadea promised a government focused on the country's youth “with benefits justly distributed among the population … without political distinctions and with full exercise of democratic liberties.” He also promised that “What the current government is doing well, we will continue to do.”
Calm returned to the mining town of Siuna in the center of the country where opposition forces had blocked the major roads of the region for nine days to protest slow delivery of voter identification cards to opposition sympathizers. The Supreme Electoral Council promised to immediately send to Siuna the materials to process the cards. Opposition leaders threatened to take over the local electoral council offices if the cards were not issued quickly.
Protests by young people continued in other towns, including Matagalpa and Nagarote, some of them organized by Youth Resistance for National Dignity (REJUDIN). In Nuevo Segovia, the police took a homemade mortar launcher and 45 eggs from a group of young people who said that they had “the right to rebel.” National Police Chief Aminta Granera said that the police will not permit the takeover of government offices like the local and departmental electoral councils. “Let's be responsible,… defending our rights without stepping on the rights of others and without being violent or taking over sensitive installations.” While there has been no official announcement, it appears that Granera will be appointed to another five year term as head of the Police.
Meanwhile, El Nuevo Diario published the dialogue and posted a recording of what it said were telephone conversations in 2009 between CSE President Roberto Rivas and another government functionary in which they appear to discuss misuse of government funds. Rivas also is quoted as saying that the elections of 2011 would be held under the same rules of the game as the municipal elections of 2008, which the opposition alleged were fraudulent, and “they [the opposition] will have to swallow it.” When questioned about the recording, Rivas said that the charge of misuse of funds was in the hands of the comptrollers and he would not comment further. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 16, 18, 20; La Prensa, Aug. 19, 21; Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 17, 19)
3. Monkey Point port again moves forward
Since early in the Spanish colonial period, long before Nicaragua became a nation, there have been ambitious plans to join the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through its territory. In recent decades plans have centered on constructing a Caribbean port at the Rama community of Monkey Point, south of Bluefields in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS). Plans have been to join that port to the Pacific at a variety of alternate points either by a water canal or a railroad, called in Nicaragua a “dry canal.” Each proposal has failed to come to fruition due to world economic factors or failure to agree on financing arrangements.
Last week President Daniel Ortega signed a new letter of intent for a two-year feasibility study with the Brazilian consortium, Andrade-Gutiérrez, the same company that may build the hydroelectric Brito megaproject in Rio San Juan. Nicaraguan authorities said the US$250-$300 million project was a much better deal for the country than a recent South Korean proposal for a US$500 million project that suffered from high interest and a short pay-back period.
Affected residents of Monkey Point stated that they have not been consulted about the current proposal. “They [the government] have not called us, have not informed us, nor asked anything of us on the matter. All we know is what the mass media says about the feasibility study,” said Pearl Watson, first secretary of the Rama and Creole territorial government (GTRK) of the RAAS. She said the people of the region are not opposed to development that will be beneficial to them, but that the Caribbean Autonomy Law is being violated because development and resource extraction projects require regional council and indigenous community approval.
In his announcement to the press of the signing of the letter of intent, President Daniel Ortega explicitly stated that the agreement must be ratified by Caribbean authorities. Mario Macedo, Jr., manager of Andrade-Gutierrez said that the original people of the Caribbean Coast will be the first to be consulted on the feasibility study which will look at the environmental, economic and social impact to determine the viability of building the port. Residents of the autonomous region are understandably skeptical given the history of past governments ignoring the 1987 Autonomy Law.
Currently Nicaraguan exports to Europe, Venezuela and the East Coast of the US must go out of ports in Honduras and Costa Rica increasing their transportation costs. So far this year, 20.66% of Nicaragua's exports have been shipped out of Puerto Limon in Costa Rica and 12.5% out of Puerto Cortes of Honduras. Nicaraguan exporters are enthusiastic about the construction of a Caribbean coast port in Nicaragua.
According to President Ortega, the project assumes that the port at Monkey Point will be connected to the Port of Corinto on the Pacific Coast, both by asphalt highway and the construction of a railroad on the same route except that the railroad would border Lake Managua. He said the highway route is 510 kilometers long of which 440 kilometers of paved highway already exist. The route would utilize the Corinto-Managua highway and the Managua-Nueva Guinea highway requiring only about 70 kilometers of new highway construction to link Nueva Guinea to Monkey Point. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 17, 18, 21; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 16, 18; La Prensa, Aug. 16)
4. Accessibility an issue in Managua
Despite Law 202 passed in 1995 and Law 763 passed more recently, physically disabled people in Nicaragua continue to confront severe difficulty gaining access to government buildings, parks, and other public spaces, as well as banks and other businesses in Managua, according to a study by the Managua-based Association of Physically Disabled (ADIFIM). Research for the study sampled 1,053 Managua neighborhoods, buses, and public spaces such as schools and the National Palace of Culture. The study found that while many buildings have the required ramp for wheelchair access, once inside the buildings it is impossible for the wheelchair bound to move around. The study says that only 38% of Managua's public spaces are handicapped accessible compared to the international norm of 75%. Half a million Nicaraguans have physical disabilities. (La Prensa, Aug. 16, 18)
5. Preserving the Mayangna language
Eighteen indigenous Mayangna leaders in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) have graduated from a program to become proficient in their ancestral tongue offered by the Autonomous Regional University of the Nicaragua Caribbean Coast (URACCAN). The Mayangna are the smaller native group in the region dominated by the Miskito people. Indeed, one of the reasons the language is in danger of extinction in some Mayangna communities is that the Moravian Church conducts services in Miskito. As a result of work by the Institute for the Promotion and Investigation of Language and Culture (IPILC), of URACCAN, some Moravian churches are now offering church services in the Mayangna language. Music and storytelling in the Mayangna language are also being revived. Orlando Salomon said that it is now the responsibility of the leaders of the communities of Fruto de Pan, Dibakil, Kalmata, Musawas and others, who graduated from the program to see that the language does not disappear but rather that its use increases among the population. (La Prensa, Aug. 21)
6. Government stabilizes price of corn
The price of corn in Managua markets fell 25-40% last week as a result of the imminent arrival of domestic harvests from the West and Autonomous Regions and the Sandinista government's authorization of the importation of 2,000 metric tons of non-transgenic white corn from Mexico and Honduras. Half of the corn was imported by the government agency ENABAS serving Nicaragua's poorest families and the other half by private businesses. Trade Minister Orlando Solorzano said that Nicaragua's corn and bean production will have risen 15% over last year.
The Sandinista government authorized the tariff free importation of 8,000 metric tons of yellow corn for the poultry industry due to insufficient domestic supply. Solorzano said, “It is the policy of the government to keep the cost of poultry production down because it is one of the basic foods of our population.” [This also protects the domestic industry which is endangered by tariff elimination under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)]. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 21, 22; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 22)
7. News about exports
The Tropical Agro-Economic Center for Research and Education (CATIE), based in Costa Rica, has conducted a study of the effects of climate change on Nicaragua's coffee production. The study concluded that a temperature increase of between 1.5-3 degrees Celsius would destroy 40-60% of Nicaragua's coffee production, especially the high quality coffee produced for the gourmet market. Norwin Sepulveda of CATIE said, “For that reason, it is important to design a strategy for the coffee industry in the face of climate change.” Coffee is Nicaragua's most valuable export.
Speaking of valuable exports, gold is Nicaragua's third most important export. Gold prices have been setting new highs, surpassing US$1,800 per ounce on international markets, based on worries about the global economy and strong demand from India and China. The Canadian company B2Gold, which operates two mines in Nicaragua, projects that its production will increase from 135,000 in 2010 to 145,000 troy ounces in 2011. Gold exports to Canada have grown by 129.8% making Canada one of the few countries with which Nicaragua has a positive trade balance. Overall, the Central Bank reports a trade deficit of US$1.229 billion in the first half of 2011. (La Prensa, Aug. 18, 21; Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 22)
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