TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2012

Nicaragua News Bulletin (August 21, 2012)

1. Cardinal denies reports he suffers malignant brain tumor
2. Economic outlook improves; future cloudy
3. US ambassador concerned about land occupations
4. Nicaragua's canal entwined with Colombia, Costa Rican border disputes
5. Nicaragua supports Ecuador; condemns Britain over Assange
6. Small businesses improve competitiveness through technology assistance project
7. Caribbean Coast graduates 43 water and sewer technicians
8. Road to connect Caribbean and Pacific coasts
9. Ninety-three former gang members receive skills training
10. Electricity access significantly expanded

1. Cardinal denies reports he suffers malignant brain tumor

Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo (86), out of public sight for several months, on Aug. 18 denied reports first aired Aug. 17 by Radio Corporacion, the Catholic-owned radio station, that he is suffering from a malignant brain tumor. Reports repeated by El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa said that the Cardinal reportedly had not slept for 72 hours due to severe headaches. He is being treated in the tony suburb of Villa Real in San Jose, Costa Rica in a home owned by Nicaragua Supreme Electoral Council President Roberto Rivas. Doctors supposedly had put a valve in his head to reduce swelling. Msg. Silvio Antonio Selva, vicar of the Diocese of Leon and Chinandega, had confirmed the reports at first and then later backed off. The Managua Archbishop, Monseñor Leopoldo Brenes, asked the population not to speculate but to pray for the ill Catholic cardinal. Only Sandinista-leaning Radio La Primerisima did not run with the cancer story.

Obando was a fierce critic of the Sandinista Revolution but reconciled with now-President Daniel Ortega in the mid-2000s and officiated at the wedding ceremony of Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo. After Obando retired from active church duties as bishop of Managua at age 80, Ortega appointed him head of the Commission of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace where he has spent the last few years serving the needs of demobilized combatants from the Contra War period. From Costa Rica, Obando said he was in good health and only having a “routine medical exam.” He thanked the people of Nicaragua “for always keeping me in your prayers.” On Sunday, the Cardinal announced in a telephone interview that he was recuperating just fine from an operation and would return to Nicaragua this week. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 17, 18, 19, 20; La Prensa, Aug. 17, 18; Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 18, 20)

2. Economic outlook improves; future cloudy

Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES) Executive Director Carlos Muñiz gave a presentation in which he raised FUNIDES' projection for Nicaragua's economic growth for 2012 from 3.3%, projected in January, to 3.6% based on “more dynamism” in the fishing, commercial, financial, and industrial sectors. That is still a decrease from 2011's 4.7% growth rate. Muñiz continued to project economic growth for 2013 and 2014 at 4.3% and 3.7% respectively, but said uncertainty over Europe's economic crisis, the weak US economy, and possible fall-out from Nicaragua's upcoming municipal elections could lower actual growth to 2.1% for 2013-2014. Venezuela and El Salvador's economies will also affect Nicaragua's economic growth. Nevertheless, he said exports and investment were “growing vigorously.” While construction, energy and water sectors have seen reduced growth, Muñiz noted that inflation has decreased with June seeing only 6.5% compared to 9% in June 2011. He said exports through Aug. 14 were 14.3% higher than the same period last year. Molina also noted that international currency reserves in the Central Bank are solid and called on the government to continue to manage them prudently.

FUNIDES' poll of consumer and business confidence in the economy showed that 48.8% of households in the hemisphere's second poorest country remain vulnerable to food, transportation and energy cost increases. Muñiz said, “The people begin to note decreased economic growth because employment opportunities for the year have diminished.” The poll indicated that 43.3% of households believe that employment prospects will improve in the coming months, 36.7% said that situation would remain unchanged, and 14.9% believed employment prospects will worsen. Also, 28.2% of households say their buying power has increased over last year while 23.3% said it has diminished.

Of the 59 companies FUNIDES surveyed, 20% thought the economy had deteriorated over last year while 6.4% said it had improved. They responded as to whether their own business was up or down with 34.3% saying down and 8% responding that it had improved. Asked about negative factors affecting the business sector, 89.2% said corruption, 81.3% said cost of electricity, 70.4% responded with inflation, and 68% said the political environment. Concerning positive factors, 67.4% cited growth of demand in Nicaragua, 66% said access to credit, 62.8% said demand growth in Central America, 57.4% cited international market growth, and 55.2% noted their access to skilled labor. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 16, 17; Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 17)

3. US ambassador concerned about land occupations

US Ambassador Phyllis Powers, in an interview with El Nuevo Diario, expressed concern about peasant land invasions of property owned by United States citizens. She said there have been 15 such occupations since 2007 and five just since the beginning of 2011, “... five new cases in the year of the 2011 waiver!” Powers was referring to the required annual waiver to a US law that the US must cut off aid to countries that confiscate the property of US citizens. There have been no confiscations of property since the 1980s so Powers is apparently alleging that there have been encroachments by peasant groups on land unused by its US citizen owners. Powers also rejected a declaration by the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) which labeled the US Agency for International Development “interventionist.” In the interview she did acknowledge that the US has some responsibility, as the largest consumer of illegal drugs, for narcotrafficking, but said the US has considerably increased its aid to the struggle against drugs in Central America, and that she opposes “decriminalization” as a solution. Finally she said that the US would be “very attentive” to the municipal elections which the newspaper described as being held under the same scenario as those in 2008 after which the US cut off Millennium Challenge Fund grants to Nicaragua. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 20)

4. Nicaragua's canal entwined with Colombia, Costa Rican border disputes

Nicaragua's plan to build a US$30 billion deep water canal connecting the Caribbean and Pacific, has gotten entwined in its territorial disputes with Colombia and Costa Rica. Nicaragua's lawyer before the World Court, Carlos Arguello, accused those two countries of trying to “take control” of the canal project. At least one of the proposed routes for the canal use some portion of the Rio San Juan which forms the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, although Costa Rica's territory, by treaty, only includes the south bank of the river, not the river itself. In response to dredging by Nicaragua last year, Costa Rica filed suit in the World Court against Nicaragua and then hurriedly constructed a 160 kilometer road along the banks, much of which has washed out during the rainy season causing great environmental damage and sedimentation of the river. Nicaragua has sued Costa Rica over the construction of the road.

In addition, Nicaragua and Colombia have a dispute before the World Court over ownership of several islands, the largest of which is San Andres. Nicaragua lost the issue of sovereignty over the islands in a suit it brought in 2001, but the court has yet to rule on the actual maritime boundaries saying only that it did not accept Colombia's claim over most of Nicaragua's Caribbean coastal waters. Arguello said that the court ruling on that is likely in November. Meanwhile, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla is on an official tour of Asia where she is telling China and other countries interested in Nicaragua's canal that it is legally impossible. She is seeking funding from the Asian countries for a highway through Costa Rica to truck containers between ships on the two coasts, posing it as an alternative to the canal. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 15; La Prensa, Aug. 15, 16, 17, El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 15, 16)

5. Nicaragua supports Ecuador; condemns Britain over Assange

Nicaragua joined most of Latin America and the Caribbean in supporting Ecuador against threats by the United Kingdom to revoke diplomatic inviolability for Ecuador's embassy in the UK. The colonial power made the threat for the purpose of taking into custody Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa granted Assange's appeal for asylum last week. Denis Moncada, Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), stated during an extraordinary meeting of the OAS last Friday that diplomatic relations in the Western Hemisphere are based on the 1961 Vienna Convention which applies to Great Britain's dispute with Ecuador. He said that signatories to the Convention are obligated to recognize the inviolability of diplomatic missions and all of the privileges and immunities spelled out in the Convention. Nicaragua voted with all but the United States, Canada, and Trinadad and Tobago to call an extraordinary session of the OAS for Friday, August 24th. Nicaragua also joined the other countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) in signing a declaration condemning the UK's threat against Ecuador and pledging their support for Ecuador. The meeting was held in Guayaquil on Aug. 18. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) also adopted a resolution calling on the UK to respect international law. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 17, 18, 20; La Prensa, Aug. 17)

6. Small businesses improve competitiveness through technology assistance project

Several small and medium size businesses have benefited this year from the technical assistance they've received through the Technological Innovation Project. This project was implemented under the Support Program for the Improvement of Business Environment and Investment in Nicaragua (PRAMECLIN). It is funded with US$6.67 million by the European Union and promoted by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade (MIFIC). Francisco Bonilla, the director of MIFIC's Department of Industry and Technology says the project aims to bring together 250 small and medium entrepreneurs in Nicaragua, to match with national universities that offer technological support and assistance. “The goal is to improve the competitiveness of businesses and increase their access to markets," he adds.

In related news, in the past 5 years Nicaragua has created 23 community-based forest enterprises, a model that combines economic and environmental interest with the restoration of rights for indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants. The government estimates that these new businesses have generated 846 jobs directly and more than 7,600 indirectly. "Indigenous communities have given us an example of how to conserve forests, as well as a model for sustainable and environmentally friendly development," stated a recent report by the Council of Communication and Citizenship. From 2007 to date, Nicaragua reforested over 82,300 hectares, which is 41 times more than the combined total from 1990 to 2006, due to broad based social activism and mass mobilization of young students. (Radio La Primerísima, Aug 18; El Nuevo Diario, Aug 17)

7. Caribbean Coast graduates 43 water and sewer technicians

Forty-three technicians from 19 municipalities of the North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions have graduated from a two-year training program for municipal water and sewage management. They will serve in their respective communities. While Caribbean Coast communities typically have no shortage of water, access to clean water is another matter. The area is rainforest and there are abundant rivers and streams, but mining and agricultural chemicals, human waste and sewage from upstream communities, have polluted most people's water sources. Unlike Pacific Coast communities which more often rely on wells for potable water, Caribbean Coast communities are more likely to draw their drinking water from surface sources. In addition, most of the communities in the region have very poor access to piped water. For example, less that 15% of the population of the municipality of Prinzapolka has access to piped water. Most people draw their water with buckets. The 43 new technicians will bring new ideas and skills to their communities such as water catchment which is already used in Palmera, Eden and Barra. They will also be able to develop water and sewer projects and educate their communities about the importance of clean water and proper disposal of waste. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 18)

8. Road to connect Caribbean and Pacific coasts

The first phase of a new road that will unite the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is ready with the completion of the first seven kilometers between Bluefields and Nueva Guinea. The two sides of Nicaragua have been isolated from each other by overland transit since Nicaragua became a nation, making this is an historic project. This phase includes gutters and sewers and is financed by the World Bank, the Nicaraguan government, and Japan. The first phase of the 72 kilometer highway will include 25 kilometers from Nueva Guinea to United Nations, from where the road will continue on to Bluefields. Grading and drainage are underway now. The project has generated 300 jobs and will improve Caribbean communities' ability to get products to market, access health care, and other services from this long isolated region. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug 16)

9. Ninety-three former gang members receive skills training

National Police Commissioner Pedro Rodriguez, head of the Directorate of Youth Affairs, announced that 93 young people will graduate next month from the Center for Training and Youth Development administered by the police. “These 93 young people have been linked to drugs, gangs and other crimes, but thanks to the educational process used at the training center, they will leave next month with a trade,” Rodriguez said. He reported that there are 48 youth gangs nationwide with 800 members and 186 at-risk groups consisting of about 2,200 young people, many of them teenagers. The police are planning new training centers in the Caribbean autonomous regions. Francisco Diaz, the National Police deputy director, said that the Nicaraguan police have adopted a community model of social prevention to combat youth crime and gangs, in stark contrast to the repressive measures used in neighboring El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Diaz said that this approach is responsible for reducing juvenile delinquency in Nicaragua. On Aug. 19, national police officers and officials from the Juvenile Affairs and Women and Children departments went door-to-door in the Jorge Dimitrov neighborhood of Managua to educate households about new Law 779 criminalizing violence against women. The community suffers from street violence between gangs and the intervention by police was in the hope of decreasing both domestic and street violence. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 15, 20; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 15; La Prensa, Aug. 20)

10. Electricity access significantly expanded

The government of President Daniel Ortega has overseen a significant expansion electricity access. Since taking office in 2007, 72% or Nicaraguans have access to electricity compared to 54% when he took office. In addition to lighting households the government has made a major effort in Managua and other cities to install street lighting as well as park and bus stop lighting. Sixty neighborhoods in Managua have been electrified in the last six years. In addition, 159 small generating plants have brought electricity to rural communities never before served by an electric light or power outlet. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 14)
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