TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012
Nicaragua News Bulletin (January 24, 2012)
1. Court orders Costa Rica to stop highway project2. Germany cuts most aid to Nicaragua; Finland continues aid
3. Nicaragua and Argentina sign accords
4. Nicaragua honors Ruben Dario
5. Plans revealed for new school year
6. Nicaragua leads in malaria eradication
7. Sign language interpreters in short supply
1. Court orders Costa Rica to stop highway project
On Jan. 17, the Central American Court of Justice (CCJ) ordered Costa Rica to “immediately” suspend building on a 160 kilometer long highway along the southern banks of the San Juan River, a river which is entirely within Nicaragua's borders. Court President Francisco Lobo read the ruling which said, “The Central American Court unanimously resolves to accept the claim for an injunction calling for the immediate suspension of construction work on the mentioned highway.” The CCJ is composed of six judges from Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. The other Central American countries have not ratified their countries' signatures to the protocol that set up the Court. The CCJ ruling went on to say that this provisional measure is an attempt to “prevent irreversible and irreparable damage” to the river. Lobo noted that when the six judges made an on-site inspection on Jan. 12, they were able to see “some indication” of the damage the highway is causing which could in the future have “a heavy environmental impact.”
The Court asked the Central American Commission on the Environment and Development to investigate and present a report to the Court about “the possible consequences and effects” on the environment caused by the highway and called on Nicaragua and Costa Rica to begin a bilateral dialogue “to guarantee the protection of natural resources and reserves” in the area around the river.
Costa Rican Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo responded that his country does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Court and he accused it of being biased in favor of the government of Nicaragua. Castillo said that Costa Rica had not contaminated the river (later amending that to say “maybe a little bit of sediment” had fallen in) and would not suspend the road-building project which he said his country has carried out in exercise of its sovereignty and for the benefit of its citizens. He said that he would visit the other countries of Central America to discuss putting limits on the actions of the Court. Costa Rican Trade Minister Anabel Gonzalez warned the Court against imposing any trade sanctions based on its ruling which she indicated could be in violation of regional agreements.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said, “Our position is to call on the sister republic of Costa Rica to converse, dialogue, and negotiate.” He added that he made the call “with all respect to [Costa Rican] President Laura Chinchilla.”
Meanwhile, Nicaraguan environmentalists applauded the Court's injunction and lamented the declarations from Costa Rica. Kamilo Lara, head of the National Forum on Recycling, one of the organizations that brought the suit, said that Costa Rica's response was “arrogant” and “a defense mechanism from people who know that they are not in the right.”
In related news, Japanese parliament member Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is visiting Nicaragua, said that he hoped that the Santa Fe Bridge over the San Juan River, financed by Japan, will serve to unify Costa Rica and Nicaragua. “I hope that it will promote reunification and peace in Central America,” Nishimura said. The bridge, the largest financed by Japan in Central America, will cross the river near where it begins its flow to the Atlantic at the southeast corner of Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) and will connect to the new highway going from San Carlos, on the Lake, to Acoyapa in the Department of Chontales (which highway then connects to the capital, Managua). The bridge site is just north of the border with Costa Rica where there are crossing posts on both sides. Ecologist Kamilo Lara said that, unlike the Costa Rican highway, the project was preceded by an environmental assessment. The bridge was first proposed under the regional development project known as Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) as an alternative international trade route. It is expected to be finished in 2014. (Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 17, 20; Informe Pastran, Jan.18; La Prensa, Jan. 18, 19, 20)
2. Germany cuts most aid to Nicaragua; Finland continues
The German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dirk Niebel, announced on Jan. 17 that Germany would be cutting much of the development assistance it provides to Nicaragua. Niebel, part of the conservative government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said, “The Nicaraguan regime must take the consequences of its ever more autocratic form of government.” Niebel expressed recently his goal of eliminating development aid and fusing his ministry with the Foreign Relations Ministry.
Not all German aid to Nicaragua will be cut. Water and sewer projects will be continued and good government and environmental projects will be extended until the end of 2013. Aid is expected to decline from US$30 million per year to US$10 million annually. Heike Hansel of the Left Party (PDS) called the cutting of aid “inconceivable” and accused Niebel of using Germany's foreign aid “to impose neo-liberal dogma.”
Meanwhile, the government of Finland said that its aid to Nicaragua was not in danger. Eero Heinaluoma, president of the Finnish Parliament who arrived in Nicaragua on Jan. 19, said that there was “no discussion” about Nicaraguan democratic development in Finland and that he expected “nothing negative” with relation to assistance from Finland. He said that while Finland concentrated its aid in Africa, it also provided assistance to Haiti and Nicaragua, the poorest countries in Latin America. He said that he would be travelling to the interior of Nicaragua to visit projects financed by Finland. Finnish aid amounts to about US$15 million each year.
Heinaluoma said his government (Social Democratic) would read with attention the report of the European Union electoral mission to Nicaragua when it comes out but that “We do not like that game of conditioning our aid to other countries; we don't like that type of extortion.” He added, “The people of Finland have given much support to Nicaragua and …we think that Nicaragua has the right to make its own decisions.” He said that, while he hoped Nicaragua would take to heart any recommendations from the EU about its electoral system, it seemed to him that the majority of the people of Nicaragua accepted the results of the elections and supported the government.
The EU postponed the release, scheduled for Jan. 25, of its report on the Nicaraguan presidential elections. A communiqué from observer mission head Luis Yanez-Barnuevo said that his visit to Nicaragua to issue the report had been delayed for family reasons. In statements right after the elections, Yanez-Barnuevo had said, “Without a doubt, the Sandinista Front and Mr. Ortega have won the elections,” but he also added that the elections were not transparent. The visit of Yanez-Barnuevo and the release of the report are expected in February. (Informe Pastran, Jan. 17, 19, 23; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 17, 19; La Prensa, Jan. 18; El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 23)
3. Nicaragua and Argentina sign accords
Nicaragua and Argentina signed accords and political agreements on Jan. 19 during a meeting between foreign ministers Samuel Santos of Nicaragua and Hector Timerman of Argentina. Over the next six months a mixed committee will follow up on the accords which include 20 bilateral projects involving cattle ranching, agriculture, and electricity generation among others. The two countries also agreed that Latin America should project unified positions before world bodies such as the United Nations and international financial institutions and strengthen South-South cooperation and bilateral relations. They also pledged to increase contacts between Mercosur and the Central America Integration System (SICA).
Timerman has been travelling in Central America and Panama to gain support for Argentina's claim of sovereignty over the Malvinas and other islands occupied by Great Britain since 1833. In 1982 the two countries fought a war over the Malvinas which Argentina lost. President Daniel Ortega and Santos both pledged support for Argentina's position with Ortega noting that not even the United States recognizes Great Britain's claim but rather calls for a peaceful solution through dialogue between the two countries. Timerman blasted the United Kingdom as the epitome of imperialism and colonialism. (Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 20; La Prensa, Jan. 20)
4. Nicaragua honors Ruben Dario
On Jan. 18, Nicaragua started its celebrations of the 145th anniversary of the birth of Ruben Dario (1867-1916) with an official ceremony, presentations on his legacy and cultural events lasting throughout the week. The event began solemnly, as National Assembly members laid flowers at Dario's final resting place in the Cathedral of Leon. The event also featured a night of poetry recitals and singing.
The tributes centered in Leon, where prominent national and foreign intellectuals spoke of his legacy and most famous writings, including Azul (1888), Prosas Profanas (1896), and Cantos de Vida y Esperanza (1905) as well as his political and social ideas. Dario defended the unity of Central America in his poem "Nicaragua and her Sisters" and in other writings he expressed a deep concern for his native land. [Dario is perhaps best known in the United States for his anti-imperialist poem “To Roosevelt” (1905)]
Former education minister and student of Dario's work, Carlos Tunnermann, said that Dario was a liberal man with progressive ideals. He began the entire movement toward the renewal of Spanish literature known as Modernism and dominated that movement. Born in 1867 in Metapa, an old Chocoyo indigenous town now called Ciudad Dario in the Department of Matagalpa, Dario lived in Leon until he was 15 and then moved to Managua. There he spent hours reading classic French works in the only library in the city at that time.
Dario led literary movements in Chile and Argentina as well as Nicaragua and Spain. In 1912 the French poet Paul Fort called him the "prince of Spanish letters” and Tunnermann noted that “Jorge Luis Borges called him the Liberator because he freed Spanish from its tethers to classical poetry.” (Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 18)
5. Plans revealed for new school year
The 2012 school year will begin on Feb. 13 and the Ministry of Education expects 1.7 million students to enroll in kindergarten through secondary school. Vice-Minister of Education Jose Treminio said that the goal of the government this year is to improve students' academic performance, especially students who live in rural areas. Treminio said that review courses have already begun to help the 137,000 students who failed to pass their exams last year. He said he hopes that at least 60% will pass when they retake the exams. Students who are involved in harvesting crops in February will be able to begin school in March and receive special help to catch up with their fellow students. Treminio said that 250,000 backpacks loaded with school supplies as well as 200,000 pairs of shoes will be distributed to needy children. School meals will begin the first week of classes for more than one million children in pre-school and primary school.
On Jan. 17, the World Bank approved a US$25 million loan to Nicaragua to benefit rural education, including especially areas on the Caribbean Coast. Education Minister Miriam Raudez said that the funds would support training for 8,700 bilingual education teachers and teachers of multi-grade schools in selected municipalities in the North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions and in the departments of Rio San Juan, Chontales, Jinotega, Madriz, Nueva Segovia, and Matagalpa. The money will also help pay for 50,000 students to receive backpacks, shoes, and textbooks as well as to establish school libraries in rural schools. The funds will be released over four years and be repaid over 40 years with a grace period of 10 years. World Bank representative Camille Nuamah said that the funds will also help develop a new system of planning, monitoring and capturing statistics within the Education Ministry.
In other education news, National Technology Institute (INATEC) announced that 200,000 students, mainly young people, will be able to study technical subjects tuition free at 34 centers around Nicaragua administered by INATEC. Jairo Espinoza, assistant director of the Institute, said 100,000 students will study for technical careers, 100,000 will take continuing education courses, and 55,000 workers from local companies will be able to obtain further training by paying 2% of tuition costs. Espinoza said that the project is an effort to “cover the principal skill needs of the national economy.” Included will be studies in the areas of manufacturing, services, commerce, construction, agriculture and forestry.
One of the problems confronting the Education Ministry is the deteriorated conditions of many school buildings and furnishings. The Ministry announced that it will spend US$26 million on school infrastructure this year. Seventeen million dollars will come from the Ministry of Education, US$6.5 million from the localities, and US$2 million from foreign assistance. Education official Marlon Siu said that this year 30,000 children's desks will be repaired, 20,000 new desks will be built, and 10,000 new desks plus teachers' desks will come from foreign aid. (Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 17, 18; Informe Pastran, Jan. 17; La Prensa, Jan. 18, 20, 21)
6. Nicaragua leads in malaria eradication
Nicaragua has been recognized by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), as a champion in the battle to eradicate malaria for its program of community vigilance against malaria in 2011. The Ministry of Health received the letter of tribute from Dr. Mirta Roses, director of PAHO, on Jan. 17. The Health Ministry coordinates volunteer health brigades that go door-to-door in communities educating residents about eliminating standing water and other mosquito abatement measures. That resulted in a decrease in malaria cases over five years from 6,659 in 2006 to 664 in 2010. In 2011 there were no reported cases in 90 of Nicaragua's 153 municipalities. Health Minister Dr. Sonia Castro said that the Nicaraguan model can be reproduced effectively in other countries. (Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 18, 19)
7. Sign language interpreters in short supply
Nicaragua is known in the deaf world because deaf Nicaraguans developed their own sign language. Currently there are only 23 certified interpreters in the entire country with another 11 in training. Sign language interpreter certification takes a full two years beyond a teaching degree making it a degree that takes a significant commitment to complete, especially since certified interpreters earn the same salary as uncertified teachers. Certification is granted by the Nicaraguan National Association of the Deaf (ANSNIC) and taught at the Christian School of the Deaf where three students are in the program and the Martin Luther University where eight students are working toward certification. There are an estimated 12,000 deaf people in Nicaragua.
Deaf students are mainstreamed in the school system under the government's Inclusive Education policies, although the Bello Horizonte Public School does have 55 students in a program of studies for the deaf. Javier Lopez Gomez, president of ANSNIC asks that more schools integrate interpreters into their staffing so that Inclusive Education moves from a promise on paper to reality. In 2009 the National Assembly appropriated US$12,500 per year for teacher training in sign language. Since then 185 teachers have received some instruction. As of yet though, if a deaf student wants to go on to the university level, the family must pay for an interpreter. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 23)
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