Nicaragua Network

1. Tech work for USAID Cuba destabilization program done in Nicaragua
2. Two Central American presidents-elect promise differing relationships with Nicaragua
3. Political news briefs
4. New Jersey Peaceworks founder Jim Burchell dies at 59
5. Nicaragua seeks final resolution of 1980s property controversy
6. Mayangnas demand faster action on colonizers of nature reserve
7. Nicaragua fighting human trafficking
8. Housing amendment could produce 1,000 more affordable houses
9. More social services being provided
 

1. Tech work for USAID Cuba destabilization program done in Nicaragua

On Apr. 4, an Associated Press story revealed a program financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) that was intended to undermine the Cuban government or, as one USAID document put it, “renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society.”  According to the AP story, high-tech contractors from Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the US launched a messaging network that eventually reached over 40,000 Cubans.  To hide it from the Cuban government, they set up a system of front companies with Cayman Islands bank accounts and recruited executives who were not told of the company’s ties to the US government.  The money for the project came from a fund publicly earmarked for a project in Pakistan.

The project was carried out by Joe McSpedon, a USAID official based in Costa Rica, and a Nicaraguan sister and brother, Noy Villalobos and Mario Bernheim, and their firm, Creative Associates, plus other technology experts. The text network was called ZunZuneo after the song of a Cuban hummingbird. In Managua, Bernheim has long been considered a tech wiz.  In 2001 he was one of those responsible for thousands of text messages that appeared on cell phones and recorded messages left on land line phones telling people to vote against Daniel Ortega and for the Liberal Party candidate Enrique Bolaños.

By early 2011, according to the AP, “Creative Associates grew exasperated with [associate company] Mobile Accord's failure to make ZunZuneo self-sustaining and independent of the U.S. government. The operation had run into an unsolvable problem. USAID was paying tens of thousands of dollars in text messaging fees to Cuba's communist telecommunications monopoly routed through a secret bank account and front companies. It was not a situation that it could either afford or justify — and if exposed it would be embarrassing, or worse.”  One former ZunZuneo worker said that the Cubans were catching on and had tried to block the site.  By the middle of 2012 the service worked only sporadically and then not at all.  It had only lasted two years. (Informe Pastran, Apr. 4; AP Apr. 4 http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-secretly-created-cuban-twitter-stir-unrest)

2. Two Central American presidents-elect promise differing relationships with Nicaragua

On Apr. 2, El Salvador’s president-elect, Salvador Sanchez Ceren met with President Daniel Ortega in Managua, one stop on a trip around the region to invite leaders to his inauguration on June 1 in San Salvador.  Sanchez Ceren, who was accompanied by Hugo Martinez, his future foreign minister, said that he and Ortega discussed economic development and ways to increase investment and fight drug trafficking. Sanchez Ceren, of the revolutionary FMLN Party, promised that after his inauguration he would be working closely with the other Central American presidents in the consolidation of peace in the region.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica’s president-elect Luis Guillermo Solis, of the center-left Citizen Action Party (PAC), said that, while he would invite Nicaragua’s president to his May 8 inauguration “through normal diplomatic channels,” Nicaragua would be the only country in the region that he would not personally visit to convey the invitation. In an interview on a Colombian radio station, Solis said, “We have to be careful with an uncomfortable neighbor that we both have.”  He also said, “I hope that our differences, which are many, will not affect the lives of the citizens who use the border.”  And he added, “As president I will not move closer to the government of Daniel Ortega but relations are not broken and I don’t believe that it would be good to break them.” And, finally, he stated, “Nicaragua invaded Costa Rican territory and we asked at the international level for Nicaragua to be punished.”  The border dispute between the two countries over a small triangle of swampland at the mouth of the San Juan River is before the World Court at The Hague. (La Prensa, Apr. 2; Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 2; Informe Pastran, Apr. 7)

3. Political news briefs

The special committee of the National Assembly formed to consider the nominations for the high level posts whose terms have run out reported back on Apr. 7 with a list of 59 names to be voted on by the Assembly to fill 29 positions, including the justices of the Supreme Court but not the Supreme Electoral Council the nominations for which were selected by a previous committee.  The final list was whittled down from 69 names, with ten nominations not fulfilling the qualifications for the offices for which they were proposed.  Among the names are members of the Sandinista Party, the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). The vote in the National Assembly for all the positions is expected for Apr. 10.  (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 7; Informe Pastran, Apr. 7; Radio La Primerisima, Apr.7)

Eduardo Montealegre was elected president of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) at a party convention on Apr. 6 in Managua.  He won with 290 votes to 22 for Adolfo Martinez Cole. Montealegre said that his first task would be to unify the Liberal parties of Nicaragua before attempting to unite all the non-Sandinista forces. However, on the same day, PLI dissidents held a gathering to launch the “Liberals with Dignity Movement.” Informe Pastran noted that while Montealegre has received low favorable ratings in recent polls, he feels that he has time to recover popularity before the 2016 elections.  Montealegre has run for president several times and, according to Informe Pastran, “There is nothing to stop him from becoming the private sector’s candidate in 2016.”   (La Prensa, Apr. 6; Informe Pastran, Apr. 7)

President Daniel Ortega sent a bill to the National Assembly on Apr. 3 that would amend the law governing the National Police, extending the period of service for officers and stabilizing the National Police pension plan.  The measure would allow officers to serve for 40 years or until reaching 60 or 65 years of age (depending on the news source), would allow police officers to hold other offices when that is in the national interest, and would allow the president to extend the term of the head of the Police.  The bill also legalizes a number of offices created or expanded since 2006, including the Women’s and Children’s Police Stations and the directorates of Juvenile Affairs, Port Security, Tourism Police, and Police Counter-Intelligence.   (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 3; Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 3)

Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said last week that the Catholic Bishops Conference is compiling the suggestions of the people for the upcoming dialogue that the bishops expect to hold with President Daniel Ortega after the Easter holidays.  When asked about the proposal of candidates’ names for the upcoming election of government officials made by Bishop Abelardo Mata of Esteli, known for his ultra-conservative views, Brenes said that each bishop had a right to express his views but he emphasized that the Bishops Conference “as a body is not supporting any candidate in particular.”  (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 1; La Prensa, Apr. 2)

4. New Jersey Peaceworks founder Jim Burchell dies at 59

The Nicaragua solidarity movement mourns the death of Jim Burchell, who died on Mar. 24 at his Madison, NJ, home of a heart condition.  He was only 59. He leaves behind his wife of 30 years, Roxanne Friedenfels, and three children Robin, Jesse and Brandon.  Burchell served in the New Hampshire state legislature in the 1970s and worked with Central America solidarity in the 1980s, with a special focus on stopping US aid to the contras and on the Plainfield, NJ-Masaya, Nicaragua, sister city project. In 1990, he co-founded the non-profit Peaceworks which carried on the relationship with Masaya through exchanges and numerous on-the-ground projects.   Burchell also served as a regional coordinator for Quest for Peace, a project of the Quixote Center in the Washington, DC, area.  "He loved his Nicaragua trips. They energized him," Friedenfels said. "He loved helping people and he has helped so many."

The Peaceworks Community will hold a celebration of Burchell’s life on Apr. 12 at 5:00 pm at the Chatham-Summit Friends Meeting House in Chatham Township, NJ. (Newark Star Ledger, Apr. 2, 4; http://peaceworks.ning.com/)

5. Nicaragua seeks final resolution of 1980s property controversy

Attorney General Hernan Estrada announced that there remain only 178 unresolved property confiscation cases with 107 claimants who are natural or naturalized US citizens. [The cases arise from a US law which denies US aid and US votes for loans in international lending institutions to countries which have confiscated the property of US citizens. Each year in July the US Secretary of State must certify that Nicaragua is “making progress” in resolving the claims.] Estrada said that Nicaragua is searching for 80 of the 107 claimants “because we don’t know where they are.” Estrada said Nicaragua will publish announcements in the US asking those missing claimants to come forward “for a rapid resolution of their claims.” Nicaragua has agreed that remaining claims will be submitted to arbitration.

In the past 23 years, 4,844 claims by 1,949 individuals have been resolved. [Many of these US citizens were Nicaraguan at the time their property was confiscated after the triumph over the Somoza dictatorship.] Jose Aguerri, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), which has joined the Sandinista government’s efforts over the past couple of years to get Nicaragua out from under the US waiver regime said, “This is the last year that the number of cases resolved during the year has relevance.” He noted that 32 claims have been resolved since the last waiver in July 2013. He estimated that the cost of resolving those final claims will be between US$15-30 million.

The US embassy contested published claims that Nicaragua has shelled out over US$1 billion to resolved cases so far, putting the figure at US$441 million. The embassy said that the larger figure represents all settlements and the smaller figure only those of US citizens. (La Prensa, Apr. 4; Informe Pastran, Apr. 1, 2)

6. Mayangnas demand faster action on colonizers of nature reserve

According to Emiliano Comejo Dixon, president of the Mayangna Young Environmentalists, “If the government institutions do not act firmly, soon the Bosawas Nature Reserve will be one big cattle ranch.” Comejo said that, in 2008, 11 mestizo colonizing families lived within the Mayangnas’ land in the Bosawas. Today there are 103 families. The colonizers clear protected forest for crops and grazing. While the Sandinista government is responding – two colonizers were recently found guilty of land usurpation – insufficient resources have been allocated to patrol the 21,000 sq. km. territory (14% of Nicaragua’s land area) and new colonizers are arriving at a faster pace than the government is removing them.

On Feb. 13 representatives of the Mayangnas territorial government petitioned the national government demanding that colonizers be removed and asking for a dialogue with the government. There has been no response yet from the Ortega government. In addition to demanding expulsion of colonists, the Young Environmentalists demanded an urgent reforestation plan from the government.  (La Prensa, Apr. 2; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 1)

7. Nicaragua fighting human trafficking

Nicaragua is the Central American country that has indicted and convicted the greatest number of persons for the crime of human trafficking, according to Javier Morazan, prosecutor in the Special Unit against Corruption and Organized Crime.  So far this year eight people have been arrested for that crime, he said.  In 2013, 65 victims, mainly women and girls, were rescued in Nicaragua with the majority of crimes taking place in the departments of Managua, Chinandega and Rivas.  A bill introduced in the National Assembly would increase the penalties for the crime of human trafficking and impose a two dollar tax on all tourists who enter the country to fund enforcement of the law. 

Save the Children project director Mary McInerney said that traffickers use the internet and social networks to contact victims.  “It is a challenge,” she said, “because one doesn’t know who is behind the computer, the cell phone, the text message.”  She added that children, young people, and adults must learn how far they can trust people that they do not know. She explained that Save the Children is beginning a project to strengthen regional and national organisms for prevention of trafficking and attention to victims.  It will be focused on the departments of Granada, Rivas, and Chinandega with a two year investment of €600, of which €400 is from the European Union.  (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 1; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 1)

8. Housing amendment could produce 1,000 more affordable houses

Developers are lobbying the National Assembly in favor of an amendment to the low income housing law 677 submitted by the government of President Daniel Ortega. The amendment would increase subsides for mortgages from the current ceiling for houses valued up to US$19,000 to houses selling for up to US$32,000. According to Nicaraguan Chamber of Developers President Ricardo Melendez, that would enable developers to construct as many as 1,000 more low-cost houses above the 4,000 projected for this year.

The government subsidy, funded by the Social Security Institute, shaves off 2% – 3.5% of the interest charged by banks, with the greater reduction going to the most affordable homes. Superior Council of Private Enterprise President Jose Adan Aguerri said that expanding the subsidy would create more demand and more demand would create more jobs, further invigorating the housing industry which last year grew by 4%. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 3)

9. More social services being provided

Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo announced that more than 1,876,626 people had been vaccinated against tetanus, polio and other diseases between Mar. 24 and 30, exceeding the goal of 1.8 million. She also said that a new Women’s and Children’s Police Station will be inaugurated in a few days in Corinto by Police Commissioner Francisco Diaz and the Ministry of the Family.  At the same time, she announced that registration for rural weekend secondary classes has reached 14, 911 students at 445 schools.  Thanks to funding from Luxembourg, the community of El Plantel near San Rafael del Norte now has a new health center.  Luxembourg is also funding three health centers in communities in the municipality of San Sebastian de Yali.  (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 1; Radio La Primerisima, April 1)