Nicaragua Network

1. As new school year approaches in February, education is in the news
2. Police officers charged with homicide after Chichigalpa incidents
3. Replacement of high level officials on agenda after Caribbean Coast elections
4. New budget for 2014 combats poverty
5. Geothermal--the future of renewable energy; Tumarin hydro finally ready to go
6. Electrification continues to expand
7. New book educates about 40 endangered species
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1. As new school year approaches in February, education is in the news

With a total of nearly 1.7 million students, access to education in Nicaragua is improving but there is still a lot to do, according to expert Mario Quintana.  He noted that this is especially true at the secondary level where half of the country’s adolescents are not in school.  “We are talking about at least 200,000 young people… especially in rural zones.” He added that, of those who are able to enter high school, at least 40% do not finish.

To address this problem, government education officials announced that weekend classes in technical subjects will begin in March at 802 public schools in all of the country’s municipalities where young people and adults who have completed three years of secondary school (out of a total of five years) can study for a technical degree. The government expects that some 40,000 people will sign up for the program.  Government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said that municipal governments are examining which types of courses will best prepare students for jobs in their particular part of the country.  Among the technical areas under consideration are agronomy, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, electrical repair, and tourism services. Two thousand teachers are being prepared at the Agrarian University to teach the courses.

Murillo said that this year an estimated 100,000 adolescents, young people, and adults will be studying in the technical courses, in the rural technical secondary diploma courses, or in local occupational schools.  She added that the rural technical secondary diploma courses will be expanded from the 367 schools announced two weeks ago to 420 schools.  This expansion will allow more students who finish primary school in the departments of Matagalpa and Jinotega, in the mining communities, and in the central zone of the Caribbean region to pursue a high school diploma on the weekends. Of the 17,250 rural children who graduated from primary school in December, 10,444 have already signed up for the program, 60.54% of the goal. Registration ends Jan. 31 and classes will start in February.

While there is a demand for people with technical degrees and language certificates, the majority of those who complete high school want to attend one of the nation’s universities to obtain a professional degree.  Many fewer students apply for spots at the National Technological Institute (INATEC) than for spots at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) where 13,850 took the admissions examination last Friday.  The problem is that there are only 9,050 spots in the entering class at the various branches of the university in Managua, Leon, Esteli, Matagalpa, Carazo, and Chontales, including 1,150 more spots in teacher education that were added this year. There are seven applicants for each spot in the medical and dental schools while spots to prepare high school physics teachers go begging.  Exam results will be released to hopeful families on Jan. 31.

Eighty micro and small businesses opened a school fair in Managua on Jan. 24 to sell everything needed by families for the new school year.  Organizer Martha Briones said, “We have made an effort with the small businesses that produce the different products that students need: shoes, belts, uniforms, books, school supplies, back packs, even underwear; all will be for sale at the fair.” She emphasized that parents can save up to 10% off what they would have to pay at public markets and that fair organizers had negotiated special deals with local publishers for discounts on textbooks.  Mariela Rodriguez said she was offering small size uniform skirts at US$5.20 and larger ones at US$6.80.  Small trousers sell for US$9.60 and the larger ones at US$10.80. Blouses and shirts range from US$3.20 to US$5.20.

In related news, the Transit Division of the National Police announced that it was inspecting 931 school busses to make sure that they could safely carry the nation’s children to school next month.  Edgard Sanchez, chief of prevention in the Transit Division, said, “In Managua we are going to inspect 707 busses and 224 in the rest of the country.” The objective is to maintain the annual total of zero accidents involving school busses, he said.  (Informe Pastran, Jan. 21, 24, 27; El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 23, 25; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 24; La Prensa, Jan. 22, 24)

2. Police officers charged with homicide after Chichigalpa incidents

Chinandega Judge Angel Miranda ordered three police officers held on charges of homicide and attempted homicide in the death of one man and the serious wounding of an adolescent during the police response to a protest at the San Antonio sugar refinery on Jan. 18. Roberto Ney is accused of shooting into the demonstration, killing Juan de Dios Torres.  Freddy Largaespada and Jorge Medal were also accused of shooting into the crowd with their police issued firearms. The three, who were discharged from the police force, will have their first hearing on Feb. 14.

As reported last week, an on-going protest of former cane workers suffering from kidney disease and their supporters turned violent when no representative of the Pellas Group which owns the refinery would meet with the workers.  The protesters took over the entrance to the refinery and when police attempted to open passage to the plant, they were attacked with homemade weapons and responded with live fire.  Thousands of workers in the western part of Nicaragua suffer from chronic kidney disease which is widely believed to be caused by working in the cane fields.

Human Rights Ombudsman Omar Cabezas said, “We applaud the quick action of the National Police in finding those responsible for shooting against civilians and for the measures they adopted.  But it is not just a simple matter of blaming them.  We want to know where their superior officers were” and why the action turned out the way it did. He emphasized that police shooting at citizens should be a thing of the distant past in Nicaragua and his demand for further investigation has as its goal the prevention of any similar incidents in the future.

Former vice-presidential candidate Edmundo Jarquin criticized the police officers but saved his harshest criticism for the Pellas Group and the government.  He said he disbelieved the company arguments that the workers were not affected by working in the sugar harvests and that he sees the problem as one of public health that neither this nor previous governments have taken sufficient note of, seeing it rather as an issue between management and workers.  He said, “The San Antonio refinery is not the only, but it is the largest, [sugar] producer and if the government had seen this as a public health problem, it could have formulated a public policy to confront it, at least do a study of the causes, lay out prevention measures, medical treatments, financial assistance for those treatments and if appropriate, compensation along with delineating responsibility.”

The answer to why this has not happened may lie partly in the difficulty epidemiologists have had in determining the exact cause of the epidemic of kidney disease in the cane-growing areas of Central America and partly in the press statement released last week by the National Commission of Sugar Producers (CNPA).  According to the CNPA, Nicaragua exported a record of 400,000 tons of sugar in 2013, exceeding by 16,000 tons the amount exported in 2012. While the price on the international market was down, the crop brought US$210 million in foreign exchange into the country, a figure similar to the value of last year’s smaller export total.  (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 25; Informe Pastran, Jan. 27; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 22)

3. Replacement of high level officials on agenda after Caribbean Coast elections

Alba Palacios, first secretary of the National Assembly, said on Jan. 21 that a special committee of the Assembly would meet after the March 2 regional elections on the Caribbean Coast to work on the list of possible candidates to occupy the posts of the more than 30 high level officials whose terms have run out.  The committee will receive proposals from the executive branch and the political parties for the offices of justices of the Supreme Court, magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council, comptrollers general, superintendent of banks, human rights ombudsperson, and others.  The special committee formed in 2012 already has a list but Palacios clarified that names could be added or subtracted before the officials are elected.

Wilber Lopez, leader of the Independent Liberal Party in the Assembly, said, “It’s high time that the election of these officials is put on the agenda.” Lopez would like to see a new committee formed rather than just have more names added to the old list although he noted that the Sandinistas have enough votes in the Assembly to choose the candidates they want and it will be up to them to decide if there will be new faces.  He added that he was not sure that the minority opposition deputies will be able to come to a consensus with the majority on the appropriate candidates for the posts.

In 2010, the Liberal parties refused to negotiate with the Sandinistas to select the new officials and President Daniel Ortega issued a decree allowing officials to remain in their posts even after their terms had expired until their replacements were named.  That decree is being formalized in amendments to the constitution that will come up for their mandated second vote in the Assembly next month.  (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 21; La Prensa, Jan. 22; Informe Pastran, Jan 21)

4. New budget for 2014 combats poverty

The executive branch released the national budget for 2014 on Jan. 24 saying that it was designed to move forward with President Daniel Ortega’s policies and strategies to “combat poverty and malnutrition, generate employment and improve the living conditions of the Nicaraguan people” as well as to “guarantee macroeconomic stability and the development of the economy, especially family, community, cooperative and associative businesses, without ignoring large businesses.” Revenues are expected to total US$2.08 billion, an increase of 18.4% over 2013 based on a predicted growth in GDP of 4.5%. Expenditures are expected to total US$2.23 billion with the deficit covered by the emission of bonds and foreign assistance. Expenditures on education for 2014 will increase by 26.5% over 2013, while those for health care will increase by 22.8%. Expenditures on housing and community services are projected to increase by 16.3%.  Social services and assistance will increase by 13.4%.  (Informe Pastran, Jan. 24)

5. Geothermal--the future of renewable energy; Tumarin hydro finally ready to go

Geothermal energy production provided 16.7% of Nicaragua’s total electricity in 2013, 51% of which was generated from renewable sources. (Wind produced 14.87%; hydro 12.16%; and biomass 7.25%) According to the Nicaraguan Energy Institute, Nicaragua has an installed capacity of 164.5 megawatts out of a potential of 1,500 megawatts of electricity from geothermal sources. Both Costa Rica (217.5 mw) and El Salvador (204.4mw) exceed Nicaragua in the exploitation of geothermal energy, although Nicaragua more than doubled its geothermal energy production from 2002-2012 from 77.5 mw. Central American countries have inaugurated a Regional Office Geothermal Production, headquartered in El Salvador, to promote research and development. The World Bank estimates that Central America has the potential to produce between 3,000 and 13,000 mw in total.

Nicaragua’s current electricity production comes from two geothermal plants: Ormat Momotombo Power Co. with an installed capacity of 77.5 mw, and San Jacinto Tizate, run by the Canadian company Polaris Energy with a capacity of 87 mw. Neither plant is currently producing at capacity. San Jacinto Tizate has two wells out of production for maintenance since the end of 2013, and Ormat Momotombo is suffering from decreasing heat generation in its reservoir. The government estimates it will stabilize in 2015 at 15 mw production. Plans for an additional 17 geothermal projects are in various stages of development with projects planned for the Cosiguina, Casita-San Cristobal, Telica-El Najo, Managua-Chiltepe, Apoyo, and Mombacho volcanoes. Geothermal energy production has the advantage of providing a permanent source of energy 365 days a year. However, the initial cost of drilling wells into the hot interior of volcanoes is quite high.

In other renewable energy news, the Brazilian company Central Hydroelectric of Nicaragua (CHN), announced that is prepared “technically and financially” to begin construction of the Tumarin hydroelectric project first announced in 2011.  The Tumarin dam and generator are expected to cost US$1.1 billion and will produce 253 mw of electricity, half of the national consumption according to CHN. The project has been delayed because the estimated cost rose from an initial figure of US$800 million and due to problems acquiring the land needed for the project. Jenny Martinez, chair of the National Assembly Infrastructure and Public Services Committee, said that it is hoped that construction will begin in the first half of 2014. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 23, 2014; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 26)

6. Electrification continues to expand

The National Electricity Transmission Co. has signed a loan agreement with South Korea for US$48 million enabling it to sign a construction contract with Hyundai Engineering and Daewoo Corp, Int’l to construct electrical substations in Ocotal, Nueva Segovia, and El Sauce as well as to upgrade substations in Matagalpa and Esteli. This is part of the national plan to expand electricity access to 87% of the population by 2016. While much of the expansion of electrification has been focused on rural areas, urban neighborhoods have not been left out. Recent investments of over US$607,500 have brought legal electrical hook-ups and street lights to Managua’s Sol de Libertad, 25^th de Febrero, Carlos Nuñez, Villa Canada, and 30^th de Mayo neighborhoods. Electrification also includes the elimination of illegal hook-ups which are often dangerous and subject to wind damage and overloads. Electrifying communities improves the local and family economies enabling businesses and households to have a reliable energy source and refrigeration. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 25; La Prensa, Jan. 24)

7. New book educates about 40 endangered species

The Mombacho salamander, which lives only in the forest of the Mombacho volcano in the department of Granada, heads the list of 40 endangered species in Nicaragua. Its habitat is increasingly threatened by illegal logging. The National Assembly has just published a book, Red List: Species at High Risk (Lista Roja: Especies en Alto Riesgo), enumerating the 40 species for the purpose of raising public consciousness of the need to maintain Nicaragua’s biodiversity which includes 60% of Central America’s ecosystems, 74 protected areas, and more than 12,000 species of fauna, according to Edwin Castro, president of the National Earth Fair. National Earth Fair, together with the Young Environmentalists Association and private businesses, investigated 100 threatened species to create its list of the 40 most endangered.  Among them are amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, including the quetzal, the jaguar, and the tapir. German Areas, director of the Center for Investigation and Environmental Training, said that habitat destruction and hunting for pelts and meat were the main causes of threats to species survival.  The first edition of Red List had a print run of 2,000 copies. The National Earth Fair and Young Environmentalists have also collaborated to make the book available on the web at www.bibliotecavirtualelmalinche.info. (La Prensa, Jan. 24; Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 23)