TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2012
Nicaragua News Bulletin (May 29, 2012)
1. State Department releases human rights report2. Waiver issue continues in the news
3. Eight deaths and 4,400 affected by first heavy rains
4. Costa Rican President Chinchilla admits damage from river road
5. Conflict over prices for meat and milk
6. South-South health network meets on HIV cooperation
7. Waste pickers create jobs and help environment
8. Somoza's moon rocks surface
1. State Department releases human rights report
On May 24, the US State Department released its annual report on human rights in countries around the world (including allies such as the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia) begging the question “Where is the report on the United States itself?” Go here for a link to the whole report: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/05/190826.htm and here for the report on Nicaragua:
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?dynamic_load_id=186529. In general, the report on Nicaragua used information from opposition political parties and non-governmental organizations, including the Permanent Committee on Human Rights (CPDH) and the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), the Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM), Ethics and Transparency, Hagamos Democracia, and others. Possibly because of political objections in the US to social and economic rights as outlined in the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Articles 25 and 26), the government's anti-poverty programs are not mentioned except in order to repeat opposition allegations that they are distributed only to government supporters.
The executive summary of the Report states, “Nicaragua is a multiparty constitutional republic by law, but in recent years political power has been concentrated in a single party, with an increasingly authoritarian executive exercising significant control over the legislative, judicial, and electoral branches. On November 6, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) announced that Daniel Ortega Saavedra of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) had been reelected as president in elections that international and domestic observers characterized as seriously flawed. International and domestic organizations also raised concerns regarding the constitutional legitimacy of Ortega's reelection.” The report goes on to say that there is “widespread corruption and politicization of the membership and actions of the CSE, the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), and other government organs.”
However, along with the politically motivated denunciations, there are serious findings in areas where the government admits improvements are needed and where officials are working to make those improvements. The report notes, “Violence against women remained high during the year, according to domestic and international NGO reports. … The Ministry of Health (MINSA) reported that in Managua cases of violence against women tripled from 110 in 2010 to 338 in 2011. On December 1, the National Assembly approved legislation to combat violence against women and increase sentences for convictions.” The report also states that “During the year 54 Nicaraguan National Police women's commissariats [police stations] operated in the country, 16 more than in 2010” but the report noted that they suffered from low levels of funding. In the case of government prisons and jails, the report said, “Minor renovations to prison facilities were reported during the year, but prison conditions continued to deteriorate due to antiquated infrastructure and increasing inmate populations.”
Clarissa Ibarra, head of the Public Defender's Office, called on all officials of the judicial system to take up the challenge presented by the new law against violence toward women and “offer adequate and appropriate protection to women who are victims of domestic violence.” She said that Nicaragua had not previously taken into account international norms for the defense of women's rights and she called on prosecutors and judges to consider the problems faced by women and children with relation to domestic and sexual violence and “do away with our attitudes, obstacles and ‘buts' that we use” to avoid taking up this challenge.
Human Rights Ombudsman Omar Cabezas said that Nicaragua is a country with few resources but it is making efforts to fulfill its obligations to the citizenry and approving laws and social programs to benefit a large part of the neediest among the population. He said, “The United States does not have the moral stature to assign itself the rule of vigilante over human rights at a global level.” He went on to say, “A state that invades other states, that holds prisoners in inhuman conditions at Guantanamo, and that is capable of judging or killing anybody, anywhere, and is delighted by the deaths of those who don't agree with its politics, doesn't have the moral stature to criticize others.” He added that the State Department had asked him for information but he did not bother to answer because, he said, if Nicaragua were to ask the State Department for information, he is sure that they would turn over nothing about human rights conditions in the US.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International also released its annual report in which it again called on Nicaragua to reinstitute a woman's right to an abortion when her life or health are in danger. [Therapeutic abortion was criminalized in 2006 after more than a century of acceptance under the law.] Amnesty also called on Nicaragua to reduce the levels of violence against women. (El Nuevo Diario, May 26, 28; Informe Pastran, May 24; State Department Human Rights Report; Radio La Primerisima, May 26; La Prensa, May 23)
2. Waiver issue continues in the news
Bayardo Arce, economic policy advisor to President Daniel Ortega, said last week that the waiver was a “political invention” of the United States which declares itself to be a “supreme judge who goes around saying who in the world is transparent, who is efficient, who fights adequately against drug trafficking and who respects people's property.” By US law, the US must certify with a waiver that Nicaragua has resolved a certain number of property claims by US citizens in order to receive assistance from the US and from international financial institutions where the US has a veto. A newer law mandates a waiver in order for countries whose national budgets are not public to receive US aid.
Arce said that, while aid directly from the United States was small [El Nuevo Diario reported that in 2011 the US donated US$21 million to the Nicaraguan government and US$30.5 to non-governmental sectors], a US veto in the multilateral financial institutions would have “a much greater impact.” He stated that if US aid were cut off, Nicaragua would have to readjust its budget and cut its spending on the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime. He said, “We wouldn't be able, while our people have needs in education, health, and food, to continue spending the same amounts to prevent the drugs that they [in the US] consume from getting to them.”
With relation to the property waiver, Attorney General Hernan Estrada said in March that 197 US citizens still maintained 377 property claims against the Nicaraguan government. Most of them were Nicaraguans at the time their property was confiscated and some of them were among the most noted human rights violators of the Somoza dictatorship.
Meanwhile, as last week, the rumors flew. A “European ambassador” who remained unnamed, told Informe Pastran that it would be incomprehensible for the United States to punish Nicaragua over the high level officials remaining in their posts after their terms have run out and over “institutionality” questions when before the eyes of the world Nicaragua is a star in the fight against drug trafficking and for regional stability, the best client of the International Monetary Fund with economic growth and social advances above the rest of the Central American countries. “It would be against all logic,” this official said, to weaken instead of strengthening Nicaragua's efforts.
Businessman Cesar Zamora told the Informe Pastran that he had “unofficial information” that the waiver on budgetary transparency would not be granted but that the property waiver would be granted because the Nicaraguan government has been resolving those claims. Zamora admitted that some Nicaraguans had travelled to Washington to ask that aid to Nicaragua be cut in order to damage the Sandinista government. He said that the business community was working in support of approval of the waivers.
Also working in support of approval of the waivers is a group of Nicaraguans in Los Angeles. Carlos Escorcia, one of the ALBA USA group's leaders, explains that the property waiver was part of the Helms-Gonzalez Amendment to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 1994-1995 and the transparency waiver was in the Foreign Operations and related agencies appropriations bill, 2008. (El Nuevo Diario, May 24; Radio La Primerisima, May 24; Informe Pastran, May 28)
3. Eight deaths and 4,400 affected by first heavy rains
Eight people have died and 4,400 people have suffered losses or severe damage to their homes as a result of severe rains during the last two weeks. Six people were carried away by rising rivers and two fishermen in Lake Xolotlan (Lake Managua) were lost when their boat was overturned. Seven departments have been affected. During a fierce rainstorm on May 25, in the San Sebastian neighborhood of Managua, people feared the end of the world when it began to rain frogs, birds, trees and pieces of houses on the population. At least 30 trees fell on houses or over streets in 20 neighborhoods; many houses lost their roofs. It was an unusual tornado that came in over the lake, twisting light posts and bending concrete pillars but causing no deaths. Also on May 25, a large part of the country was temporarily without electricity after lightening struck a major transmission line. (La Prensa, May 27; El Nuevo Diario, May 26; Radio La Primerisima, May 25)
4. Costa Rican President Chinchilla admits damage from river road
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla admitted in an interview last week while travelling in Europe that her government should make efforts to mitigate the environmental damage caused by the 160 kilometer road built along the southern banks of the San Juan River. She admitted that the road was built without plans and without any environmental impact study. Her justification was that it was an emergency because Nicaragua was dredging the river [which belongs in its entirety to Nicaragua] and had built an airport near the border between the two countries. She said that Costa Rica should work quickly before the rainy season washes the road away because the loss of the road would mean a loss of public funds and because “it is important for our sovereignty and development.” Meanwhile, a study by engineers at the University of Costa Rica concluded that “in its present condition, the border road presents a high risk of collapsing during the rainy season.” The report said the road lacked drains and included slopes that were dangerous for the passage of vehicles.
Rosario Saenz, representative of the Nicaraguan environmental organizations which brought a case before the Central American Court of Justice about the environmental damage caused by the road, said that they had asked for compensation three times the cost of the road to use in repair of the damage caused. She said that Costa Rican environmental organizations should demand that their government return the road to its natural state. (El Nuevo Diario, May 26; La Prensa, May 27, 28)
5. Conflict over prices for meat and milk
Cattle ranchers and dairy farmers are in a serious dispute with slaughterhouses and milk processors over the lowering of the prices they receive for their meat and milk. The Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG) joined the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPANIC) and the Federation of Cattle Ranching Associations (FAGANIC) in the protests and was expected to join a negotiating session on May 28. Solon Guerrero, president of FAGANIC, welcomed UNAG's participation and said that the small and medium sized producers are very concerned because the prices dropped without any explanation as to whether the reasons were because of the international market or for fitosanitary reasons. Ranchers and farmers have rejected the offer of the Superior Council on Private Enterprise (COSEP) to mediate and have asked the government to step in. However, government officials have said that they wish to give the parties time to negotiate a deal. Producers say that they will block major highways to keep cattle and milk from reaching the markets if an agreement is not reached by June 1. (Informe Pastran, May 24, 25; El Nuevo Diario, May 24, 28)
6. South-South health network meets on HIV cooperation
Ministry of Health General Secretary Enrique Beteta informed a conference of public health officials that Nicaragua guarantees treatment and medications to 1,700 people with Human Immune Deficiency (HIV). He said that 92% of HIV transmission is through sexual contact and 2% “vertical” from mother to child. He made the statements during the sixth meeting of the South-South Network in Managua. The Network includes Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Santo Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and East Timor. Massimo Ghidinelli, regional coordinator of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), said that in Latin America 600,000 people are receiving treatment for HIV. He called that “a good start” estimating that there are 1.5 million people in the continent with HIV. Countries in the network discussed new ways they can cooperate with each other and ways to prevent transmission of the disease. Roy Burgos, Brazil's director of the Department of Sexually Transmitted Infections, AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, said that in some countries vertically transmitted HIV has fallen from 37% to 5%. The number of people in Nicaragua living with HIV is expected to total 7,000 this year. (Radio La Primerisima, May 23; Informe Pastran, May 24)
7. Waste pickers create jobs and help environment
For some people in Matagalpa and other Nicaraguan towns, collecting and recycling materials such as iron, glass, paper and plastic guarantees at least a minimal income. The Matagalpa mayor's office is preparing to set up a recycling plant to adequately handle recyclables and provide opportunities for waste pickers already working in the area. Currently, there are two trash collection companies in town and they are private. Ricardo Orozco Flores owns a recycling center. He started collecting all kinds of materials years ago. Today he has the capacity to sell recycled material, in particular cardboard, to companies that export it. “I started this by myself and now I have three employees that help with collection and preparation of the cardboard packs, each one weighing 100 pounds.” Orozco recommends that people not burn paper or any other type of material that can instead be recycled.
Juan Francisco Centeno collects the trash and debris that is thrown in the Rio Grande of Matagalpa and uses it for a small income. He explains, “I am unemployed and I have found a means of survival in the collection of recyclable materials, primarily plastic bottles. Right now, I'm coming from Guanuca where I collected all the bottles people threw in the river. It'll only earn me around one dollar but that's enough to buy tortillas.” (El Nuevo Diario, May 22)
8. Somoza's moon rocks surface
Moon rocks given by US President Richard Nixon to the dictator Anastasio Somoza recently surfaced. The .05 grams of grey, rice kernal sized rocks, were found with a Nicaraguan flag in a casino strong box owned by professional gambler and Las Vegas casino owner Joe Stepak who died two years ago. Stepak got them from a Baptist pastor who got them from a Costa Rican mercenary who had fought for Somoza. NASA scientists are currently verifying the authenticity of the rocks which were collected on the first moon walk of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. NASA distributed 270 small moon rocks to nations and organizations as tokens of “good will” in the 1970s. Stepak's lawyer said that, if the rocks turn out to be real, they should be returned to the people of Nicaragua. (Radio La Primerisima, May 23; Informe Pastran, May 24)
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