TUESDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2011
Nicaragua News Bulletin (October 4, 2011)
1. New poll released and Insulza visits2. UN recognizes Maternity Waiting Homes
3. Poll shows majority support therapeutic abortion
4. US provides “drug war” money to Nicaragua
5. Trafficked parakeets confiscated
6. Peasant farmers defend seeds
7. Costa Rica to “restore” Harbour Head
1. New poll and Insulza visits
CID-Gallup released a new poll last week which showed a widened lead for President Daniel Ortega. The survey was carried out between Sept. 10 and 16. According to the poll, Ortega was the choice of 45.8% of those who intended to vote, up from 44%. Fabio Gadea of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) Alliance received 33.5%, up by 1.5 points from the previous poll in August. Former President Arnoldo Aleman of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) Alliance dropped 2.9 points to 10.1%. When asked “How much confidence do you have that these elections will be honest?” 37.3% said “a great deal,” 22% said “some,” 20.8% said “little,” and 12.5% said “none.” In answer to another question, 63% said that the current government of President Ortega “favors the people” while 31.1% said that it favored only the Sandinista Party. Over 64% agreed with the statement that assistance from Venezuela “benefits Nicaraguans” while only 25.2% agreed with the statement that the aid “benefits Daniel Ortega.” Sixty-two percent agreed with the statement that Ortega “is a president for all.”
This week's kerfuffle happened when Leonel Teller of the PLC Alliance said that the PLI Alliance had paid CID-Gallup a substantial amount of money for Gadea to appear in second place in the poll. Eliseo Nuñez, campaign chief for the PLI, responded by saying, “I'm going to pay twenty thousand dollars to come out in second place? If I pay twenty thousand dollars it's to make a poll to come out first!” Cid-Gallup stated through a representative that the PLI Alliance had only paid for the complete results of the poll.
Meanwhile, Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, signed an accord with the government to send 80 observers for the elections. The observer mission will be led by Dante Caputo, head of OAS observer operations. Insulza said the team would observe the voting throughout the country but “there will be no interference on our part” in Nicaragua's internal affairs. He said he was confident that the elections would proceed tranquilly. Supreme Electoral Council President Roberto Rivas said that the observation could be carried out without restrictions or limitations. While in Nicaragua, Insulza met with President Ortega and with Fabio Gadea and Arnoldo Aleman as well as with representatives of a number of non-governmental organizations including Hagamos Democracia, the National Council of Universities, and others. In response to Aleman's assertion that Ortega was prohibited by two clauses in the constitution from running again, Insulza said that all these concerns would be reflected in the OAS report. Insulza also said that, “It is basic that the observers or accompaniers be present when the votes are counted; generally the counting of the votes is public.”
There was pressure from several sides on the CSE to accredit more national groups to observe the elections. Currently only the National Council of Universities is accredited. The Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) said that the Institute for Development and Democracy (IPADE), an organization that receives US “democracy promotion” funding, should be accredited. Former education minister Carlos Tunnermann said that “even sectors allied with ‘orteguismo' consider that electoral observation is good to legitimate the electoral process and in consequence we don't see the reason why the CSE is making it so difficult for the national organizations to be accredited.”
In other election news, CSE President Rivas announced on Sept. 29 that, in contrast to previous elections, voters will be given only one ballot on which will appear the candidates for president and vice-president, National Assembly, and Central American Parliament. He also clarified that “Accompaniers have full freedom to be present at the vote count. They can stay throughout. But, if they come in to the count they cannot leave until it is finished. We can't have people going out with information.” As for the single ballot, analysts agreed that it would save money but were concerned that voters were accustomed to several ballots and might not understand if they were required to vote a single slate or whether they could split their vote among the different parties. Others, including Arnoldo Aleman, thought encouraging single slate voting was a good idea. (El Nuevo Diario, Sept. 27, 29, Oct. 1; Radio La Primerisima, Sept. 27, 29, 30; La Prensa, Sept. 27, 28, 29)
2. UN recognizes Maternity Waiting Homes
The United Nations has awarded Nicaragua's Minister of Health Sonia Castro with the America Prize for her work in promoting the Maternity Waiting Home (Casa Materna) program to provide rural pregnant women a place to wait for delivery and to recover afterward. The 89 maternity waiting homes, particularly in the rural zones, have been a strong contributor to the reduction in maternal mortality. Also, according to government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo, maternal mortality during the Ortega administration, has decreased by almost 40%. The America Prizes are given by the United Nations International Center for the Formation of Authorities and Leaders and honor public officials for their efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. Sonia Castro will receive the prize on Oct. 6 in the Dominican Republic.
Murillo announced the award at a celebration handing over 3,500 property titles to families in Villa el Carmen, San Rafael del Sur, Ciudad Sandino, and El Crucero by President Daniel Ortega on Sept. 28. Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo also participated. Murillo also praised MINSA for its work to support the Cuban-Nicaraguan Voice for Everyone Brigade which has attended to needs of 250,000 people with physical disabilities.
Last week the government also recognized the best primary and secondary students and teachers. President Ortega promised to continue scholarships at all levels as a right of citizenship, including access for low income youth to the universities. (Nueva Radio Ya, Sept. 28; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 1; KBNT News)
3. Poll shows majority support therapeutic abortion
The Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM) released a poll last week which indicated that 63% of the population believe that Nicaraguan law should be changed and therapeutic abortion should allowed when a woman's life or health are at risk. Therapeutic abortion was allowed for a century under Nicaraguan law until 2006. The poll was carried out by M&R Consultores which polled 1,600 people. According to Juana Jimenez of MAM, six out of ten polled said that a decision about therapeutic abortion was a health problem while a similar number said it was a question of principles and values.
Managua Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes said that he did not believe the poll was correct. He said, “I don't agree with those results because they are truly false. We know that the people of Nicaragua love life and we have the testimony of many girls, sometimes of young age between 15 and 17, to whom the doctors have proposed an abortion and those doctors have told me that it is interesting that the young women want to have their children.” He added that the chiefs of the political parties in the National Assembly have assured him that a bill to change the law on therapeutic abortion will not pass.
Meanwhile, on Sept. 28, women marched in Managua to mark the Day for the Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean. Maria Elena Dominguez of the Network of Women Against Violence said, “We demand the restitution of therapeutic abortion because the right to life of women is an inalienable right. But among the politicians there is no will; some are silent, other avoid the subject.” Magaly Quintana of Catholics for Choice said that there had been 30 maternal deaths in 2010 that might have been avoided if a therapeutic abortion had been carried out. She said she was surprised that the United Nations would give a prize related to maternal health to a government that supports the criminalization of therapeutic abortion. [See story above.] (La Prensa, Sept. 27; El Nuevo Diario, Sept. 29, Oct. 1)
4. US provides “drug war” money to Nicaragua
On Sept. 29 the US and Nicaragua signed an accord giving Nicaragua US$780,000 to “combat organized crime” and drug trafficking. The money is part of US funding for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARCI), a successor to the Merida Initiative through which the US militarized Mexico's “drug war.” Both Nicaragua and the US will monitor the program and will have a joint meeting every six months to “analyze the program qualitatively and quantitatively including its methods and goals.” Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Valdrak Jaentschke signed for Nicaragua and Robert Downs, chargés d'affaires of the US Embassy in Managua, for the United States. (Radio La Primerisima, Sept. 29; El Nuevo Diario, Sept. 29)
5. Trafficked parakeets confiscated
On Oct. 1, two animal traffickers were detained by Honduran customs officials as they tried to cross the border into El Salvador. The traffickers had 118 parakeets from Nicaragua with them. Border officials heard the birds and upon their discovery arrested two individuals. The suspects, one Nicaraguan and one Salvadoran, had intended to sell the parakeets in El Salvador for around $100 each. If convicted, the men could spend four to nine years in prison under Honduran law.
The birds were being transported in poor conditions, in fruit boxes. Many suffered from severe dehydration. Unfortunately, ten were found to have suffocated. Many were just chicks. The surviving birds were transported to the El Picacho Zoo in Tegucigalpa where they are receiving veterinary attention.
This is not the first such trafficking incident. Last September, three Nicaraguan women were detained by Honduran authorities for trying to transport 75 parrots. The women had attempted to sedate the parrots by giving them alcohol. Since 2007, the government of Honduras has had a campaign against illegal animal trafficking, but they have not been completely successful.
On October 4th, the world will celebrate International Animal Day. A Nicaraguan activist group, Fundacion Amarte, announced that on that day it will give to National Assembly Deputy Edwin Castro a proposal to declare as national patrimony many Nicaraguan species that are threatened, including a number of species of parakeets and parrots, jaguars, tapirs, turtles, lizards, and sharks. (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 1; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 3)
6. Peasant farmers defend seeds
Hundreds of peasant farmers, many of them members of the National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG), travelled to Managua last week to present to the government a petition laying out the necessity of rescuing, conserving, and planting local seeds of Nicaragua's food crops as a way to achieve food sovereignty and food security and prevent the introduction of genetically modified seeds. The petitions were given on Sept. 29 to representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Environment and the Office of Agricultural Sanitation. The petition asks for changes to legislation on seeds to “promote the conservation, use, management and interchange” of local seeds and forbid the introduction of genetically modified organisms “for production, research, reproduction, or commercialization in national territory.” It also supported municipalities declaring themselves “Free of Transgenics;” there are five such municipalities now in Nicaragua.
There are already 250 seed banks in Nicaragua. By the end of 2010 UNAG and the Campesino to Campesino Program had classified 127 species of corn, 141 species of beans, and 38 of millet and sorghum, among others. Mayra Rodriguez of Campesino to Campesino said, “We need the support and participation of the authorities because it is their duty to protect the genetic patrimony of the country.” Francisco Gutierrez said that native seeds were of good quality and resistant. He added, “We don't want the transgenic seeds to affect our genetic patrimony and our culture or for us to become dependent on the big transnational seed companies. They only think of their earnings and not of the consequences and damage they do, especially to small and medium scale farmers.”
Gutierrez said that they would continue to push for the rescue of seeds and exchange native seeds “from below, from the communities, from peasant families who produce food and defend our knowledge.” The petition also demanded the implementation of programs to promote organic agriculture. (Radio La Primerisima, Sept. 29, 30)
7. Costa Rica to “restore” Harbour Head
Rene Castro, Costa Rica's former Minister of Foreign Affairs and currently Environment Minister, announced last week that Costa Rica would “restore” the area in dispute between his country and Nicaragua which was affected by the dredging of the San Juan River by Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa said that this would mean closing off the dredged channel. The 2.5 kilometer piece of swamp, which Costa Ricans call Isla Calero and Nicaraguans call Harbour Head, is in dispute between the two countries and the case is before the International Court of Justice (World Court) at The Hague.
“We are going to assist nature… and plant some of the species that take longer to regenerate naturally,” Castro said. He added that he is looking for approval of the project from officials of the Ramsar Convention on the Preservation of Wetlands. Provisional measures issued by the World Court in March asked both countries to agree on any environmental efforts. Nicaraguan environmentalists have visited the area and done restoration work also but the Costa Ricans protested their presence.
According to most maps, Isla Calero is a much larger area between the San Juan and Colorado Rivers which both Nicaragua and Costa Rica agree belongs to the latter. The San Juan River itself belongs to Nicaragua but the devil has always been in the details, most particularly at the delta where the river breaks into channels and winds into the sea. Nicaragua maintained that there was a channel at Harbour Head which it had a right to dredge according to 19th century arbitration decisions. Costa Rica at first approved the project saying that it was Nicaragua's right and would do no damage but officials later changed their minds. (La Prensa, Sept. 28, Oct. 1; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 1)
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