TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2012
Nicaragua News Bulletin (January 3, 2012)
1. Talks begin on high-level appointments and other political news2. Nicaraguans ring in the New Year
3. Stunning export growth in 2011
4. Garment assembly jobs increase in 2011
5. New management at El Nuevo Diario
6. Costa Rican environmentalist in exile in Nicaragua
7. Reforestation continues
8. Fewer Turtles hatch at La Flor
1. Talks begin on high-level appointments and other political news
On Dec. 27, National Assembly deputies from the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) Alliance (in the minority) met with deputies from the majority Sandinista Party (FSLN) alliance to discuss leadership posts in the National Assembly and the nominations to a number of high level government posts that need to be approved by the Assembly this year. The holders of these offices, which include Supreme Court justices, magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council, comptrollers, and others whose terms have expired, remain in their posts based on a January 2011 presidential decree that allowed them to stay in office until their replacements were named. Last year no party or coalition could bring together the 56 votes required to confirm the nomination of any candidate. A source told El Nuevo Diario that the PLI wants three Supreme Court Justices, two magistrates and one alternate on the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), and two members of the Comptroller General's Office, among others. Luis Callejas, leader of the PLI bench in the Assembly, said, “We had an informal talk but we haven't come to any agreement.” However, a report on Dec. 31 said that an accord between the FSLN and the PLI to fill the posts was imminent.
Fabio Gadea, who as the PLI Alliance candidate for president lost to President Daniel Ortega in the Nov. 6 elections, said on Dec. 31 that in his opinion the PLI should not participate in the municipal elections scheduled for this year if there are not changes in the Supreme Electoral Council. He said, “With this Council, we shouldn't participate. If they are going to take away our legal recognition [as a political party], it would be better that they do it. [W]e would be playing the fool if we knew they were going to steal our votes.”
Edwin Castro, head of the Sandinista bench, has said that his party would like to reappoint all the members of the CSE but he has also insisted that decisions in the Assembly will be made by a process of “consensus.” The FSLN has 63 seats in the Assembly, more than enough to approve the nominations without opposition support. Business groups, which have been friendly to the Sandinista government, would like to see new faces. Jose Adan Aguerri, president of the Superior Council on Private Enterprise (COSEP), said, “We are demanding a change and we hope that pressure from the media and from different economic and social sectors of Nicaraguan society will produce a change in the response of the president to this proposal.”
In related news, several opposition groups held a rally on Dec. 30 in the outskirts of Managua protesting Ortega's reelection. The protesters said the Nov. 6 elections were fraudulent and demanded new elections supervised by new electoral officials. The rally was organized by Hijos de Nicaragua, Resistencia Juvenil por la Dignidad Nacional (REJUDIN), and others and blocked traffic on the Masaya highway for a period. A protester who had been launching homemade mortars was injured by motorcycle taxi drivers who were trying to bypass the blockade at the Ticuantepe traffic circle. There were no figures given in the media for the number of people attending the rally nor pictures published of the crowd.
Meanwhile, along with the presidents of Brazil, Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, and others, the Spanish government confirmed that Prince Felipe, the heir to the Spanish throne, will attend the inauguration of President Ortega on Jan. 10. The prince will also go to the inauguration a few days later of the new Guatemalan president, Otto Perez Molina. And the government of Iran announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend the inauguration as part of his tour of Latin America, set to include visits to Cuba, Venezuela, and Ecuador as well. US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) denounced Ahmadinejad's Latin American tour which she said would “increase the Iranian threat close to our coasts.” Meanwhile, the US State Department spokesperson said she hoped that the countries he visited would pressure Ahmadinejad to live up to his international obligations. (El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 27, 29, 31; Informe Pastran, Dec. 29, 31; La Prensa, Dec. 29, 30)
2. Nicaraguans ring in the New Year
In some parts of Nicaragua, including El Laborio neighborhood in Leon, Los Millonarios Street in Rivas, and around Santa Ana Church in Managua, the year that is ending is symbolically sent on its way by burning an effigy of the Old Year made with old clothing filled with stuffing and fireworks in front of the houses of the neighborhood. Some make their own “old men” and others buy them from families who make them to sell for less than US$10 each. They are lighted at midnight to brightly and noisily greet the New Year and burn away any bad vibrations from the old one.
The old year had actually been a very good year for most who responded to an informal poll by El Nuevo Diario. Six percent said their lives last year had been “excellent” while 56.9% said “very good” and 11.81% said “regular” which could be translated as “so so.” Only 11.08% said they had had a bad year.
There were a few, however, for whom the year ended badly. One person drowned and six died in traffic accidents while four children suffered burns from firecrackers over the holiday weekend.
In Chinandega, 21 couples started the year off by getting married at midnight in three different churches in the city. While some were young couples, others were formalizing unions of many years with several children.
Rosario Murillo, national communications coordinator and First Lady, read a New Year's statement from President Daniel Ortega which promised “work without rest for you to build all our new relationships of liberty, dignity, equality, and fraternity that Nicaraguans want.” Speaking for them both, Murillo said that they were “proud that you approve of what we all have done” and added, “All of you have our love and our disposition to serve you … because you merit it.” She promised, “We will continue to seek consensus…. Creating contented majorities… proud to live in a Nicaragua of all and for all.” Murillo then read a letter from Ortega congratulating Cuban leaders on another anniversary of the Cuban revolution. She also made a promise to build a monument to honor Roberto Clemente to be inaugurated next Dec. 23, the 40th anniversary of the Managua earthquake, the victims of which the legendary baseball player died trying to help. (El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 31, Jan. 2; Radio La Primerisima, Dec. 31, Jan. 2; La Prensa, Jan. 1)
3. Stunning export growth in 2011
Nicaragua closed out 2011 with an astounding 23.37% growth in export sales totaling US2.346 billion according to the government's export agency CENTREX. This is on top of a 27.7% increase in 2010. While the volume of agricultural exports fell by 1.28%, a 25% increase in international prices sustained the increase. Beef, coffee, sugar, peanuts, farmed shrimp, cheese, milk, lobsters, vegetable oil, and grains were the principle agricultural exports. Beef outpaced coffee, which has historically been Nicaragua's largest export, US$432.08 million to US$426.43 million. Gold was the third largest export, earning US$364.11 million, followed by sugar at US$157.71 million. The US remained the largest market for Nicaraguan goods importing 28.09%, followed by Venezuela at 13.09%. Canada, Mexico, and Central America were the next largest importers.
Alvaro Fiallos, president of the Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG), explained that the coffee harvest began late this season resulting in lower exports for 2011. He predicted that this coffee season (2011-2012) will see a production of two million hundredweights of coffee of which 1.5-1.7 million hundredweights will be exported and the rest consumed by the domestic market. Jorge Molina, director of CENTREX believes that 2012 will be a good year for Nicaraguan exports despite the economic crisis in Europe and the US. “I think we will do well despite the dark clouds in the world economy because we are exporting the same products,” he said. Nicaragua still has a substantial trade deficit, however, as imports last year totaled US$4.75 billion. (El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 28; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 2)
4. Garment assembly jobs increase in 2011
Nicaragua's garment industry added 13,000 new jobs in 2011, for a total recovery of 26,000 jobs since the loss of jobs during the 2008 global financial crisis, according to Pedro Ortega, general secretary of the Confederation of Free Trade Zone Labor Unions. Textile assembly plants in the Free Trade Zones (FTZ) now employ 95,000 workers. Exports grew 25% in 2011 exceeding US$1.2 billion in sales. At least eight new FTZs were created in 2011 for South Korean and US companies. Growth in the sector is expected to continue in 2012 including the opening of a Brazilian company that will employ 5,000 workers and a Taiwanese company that will employ 3,000.
Adidas is also looking to complement its Chinese production with sports clothing production in Central America, including Nicaragua. Much of Adidas' Chinese production is now being sold in China to meet growing demand from the rising Chinese middle class. US imports of goods from the six countries in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) grew 2.6% in fiscal 2011 compared to a drop of 3% in US imports from China according the US Commerce Department. Garments shipped from China take two weeks to reach the US compared to three days from Central America. (Radio La Primerisima, Dec. 28; La Prensa, Dec. 29)
5. New management at El Nuevo Diario
“This newspaper will not be the voice of the government or of the opposition, which does not mean that it won't reflect all opinions.” This was the statement of Leon Nuñez, new publisher of the Managua newspaper El Nuevo Diario. Nuñez, attorney, judge, writer, and university professor, was named by the new management of the paper to replace Francisco Chamorro by the new owners headed by Leon banker Ramiro Ortiz, president of the Production Bank (BANPRO). Ortiz purchased 61% interest in the newspaper in May of 2011.
The Informe Pastran commented that “The biggest losers [from the change in editorial policy] will be the opposition political parties, civil society organizations and NGOs who pressure the government.” The bulletin adds, “There will be winners, such as the daily La Prensa which will be the only daily newspaper in opposition to the [governing] FSLN in the country.”
Nuñez explained his position further, “The population in general is tired of politics; perhaps because of the abundance of false personalities, true professionals of the lie. Nicaraguans are more interested in issues related to the economics of their households, their growth and their perspectives.”
Reactions to the naming of Nuñez, who spent the years of the Sandinista revolution in exile in Costa Rica, were positive from people of different political perspectives. Writer and former Vice-President Sergio Ramirez, considered a dissident Sandinista, said, “I know that Dr. Nuñez will be a defender and promoter of the independence of El Nuevo Diario and will know how to support his reporters in producing creative journalism.” Economist Alejandro Martinez Cuenca, a supporter of the Ortega administration, said that with this new leadership, El Nuevo Diario will become the top newspaper in Nicaragua.
Meanwhile, it is expected that El Nuevo Diario will provide coverage of the conflict with Costa Rica over the San Juan River that is less slanted in favor of Nicaragua. Luis Rivas, general manager of BANPRO, said that the paper will have an independent position on the conflict “without fighting with anyone” because the BANPRO Group has substantial investments in Costa Rica. (Informe Pastran, Dec. 29, 30; El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 29)
6. Costa Rican environmentalist in exile in Nicaragua
Alberto Cabezas is a Costa Rican environmentalist who now finds himself in exile in Nicaragua.
Cabezas is president of a Costa Rican environmental group that asked its country's Supreme Court to issue an injunction against the highway being built next to the San Juan River for 120 kilometers [or 160 kilometers, depending on the source]. He was told not to return to his homeland after arriving in Nicaragua to spend Christmas and New Years with friends. Cabezas said he was confident that his petition to the Constitutional Panel of the Court would be heard sympathetically because one of the members has a doctorate in environmental law.
He received messages on Facebook, however, telling him that it would be better for him to remain in Nicaragua because he was not seen as a true Costa Rican in his homeland. He has been denounced in his country's newspapers and called a traitor on his Facebook page. He didn't want to talk to reporters about death threats he has reportedly received. “What really motivated me,” he said, “was when our president said to Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, that she was not going to give him any information about the highway. She didn't open up channels for peace. How can it be that our country, which talks so much about peace, acts that way?” (La Prensa, Dec. 29; El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 27)
7. Reforestation continues
The Nicaraguan government reforested 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land in 2011 thanks to the participation of civic organizations, 350,000 student volunteers, and special units of the Army. There are 71 protected areas in the country, 20% of the total land area, in which efforts are made to protect the environment though sustainable human development. Government national policy advisor Paul Oquist told Prensa Latina that in the past five years more than 82,300 hectares (203,000 acres) have been replanted. Oquist credited the reforestation with reducing temperatures in the Bosawas and Rio San Juan biological reserves. Managing the forests including promoting forest friendly perennial crops such as cacao are part of the Sandinista government's strategy to moderate the effects of climate change. Oquist also noted that the government's efforts have significantly reduced number and extent of forest fires. Nicaragua is subject to extreme weather such as El Niño and La Niña systems, hurricanes and drought. In response, the government is introducing drought and flood-resistant seed for food crops. From 2005-2010 natural disasters cost the country US$206.3 million yearly, equivalent to 3.52% of the country's Gross Domestic Product. (Radio La Primerisima, Dec. 31; La Prensa, Jan. 1)
8. Fewer Turtles hatch at La Flor
Thousands of Olive Ridley sea turtles will not be born this year in the La Flor Wildlife Refuge, 22 kilometers south of San Juan del Sur on Nicaragua's Pacific Coast. This time, however, the problem is not a result of poaching, but instead to high tides at the refuge that have destroyed thousands of nests.
According to the refuge authorities, the most destructive tides were during the month of October. Between July and November, they calculate that nearly 34,000 nests were lost to the tides, whereas a still significant but much smaller number felt the effects of poachers (1,684 destroyed and 768 impacted). As a result, experts expect to see far fewer turtles than hatched last season when 1.32 million baby turtles emerged from the sand and headed toward the Pacific. Turtles continued to lay eggs at La Flor beach, however. By the end of November 172,640 female turtles had deposited their eggs in nests in the sand at the reserve and more came in December. However, authorities said that no more than 200,000 have hatched.
In related news, the Los Guatuzos Wildlife Refuge in southern Nicaragua received a number of new reptile and turtle species that are in danger of extinction. With the help of Friends of the Earth, the Papaturro River will now be home to young alligators, an adult crocodile and 272 small turtles. They were hatched and raised by the Los Guatuzos Cooperative in the municipality of San Carlos. (El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 29, Radio La Primerisima, Dec. 30)
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