Nicaragua Network

1. Two dead, 41 injured is toll of a series of earthquakes in Nicaragua
2. Assembly elects 54 high level officials
3. US science journal publishes article on Chronic Renal Failure epidemic
4. More details on resolution of property claims emerge
5. Nicaragua ranks well in UN corruption and security study
6. Economic briefs
 

1. Two dead, 41 injured is toll of a series of earthquakes in Nicaragua

Army Civil Defense officials reported on April 14 that there have been two deaths, 41 people injured, 1,585 people evacuated, 32 hospitals and health centers damaged and more than 3,700 houses damaged by a series of earthquakes that have shaken the western part of Nicaragua around Lake Xolotlan (Lake Managua) since April 10. The deaths were not from collapsed buildings but rather from heart failure. On Thursday, April 10, the city of Nagarote was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale destroying numerous houses and injuring a number of people.  That was followed by a quake of 6.7 on Friday, another of 5.6 on Sunday, and one of 4.2 on Monday night. There was damage from these quakes in Managua, Mateare, Ciudad Sandino and Tipitapa and they were felt throughout the country and as far away as El Salvador.  The departments of Managua and Leon have been under red alert since Thursday.

Government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said that 67 afterquakes have been measured in the area of Lake Xolotlan and the Chiltepe peninsula ranging between 1.1 and 5.3 on the Richter scale at a depth of between one and 16 kilometers.  She said experts from Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, and the United States have arrived in Nicaragua with experts from Japan and Ecuador expected to arrive soon.  “To all these sister governments we express our profound thanks,” Murillo said.  She added that the visitors and local experts have formed a Council of Specialists that is on the ground observing the measurements made by the seismographs placed around the country to obtain more specific information about the epicenters of the quakes. Murillo also announced that the government has set up several tent hospitals and would build 587 new houses and repair 560 damaged houses in the city of Nagarote and help repair the thousands of damaged homes in other towns.

In a radio and television address on Sunday night, Apr. 13, President Daniel Ortega called on Nicaraguans to continue to take precautions.  He said that that preliminary studies by seismologists indicated that several of the fault lines that cross the city of Managua have been activated and that has provoked quakes close to the surface.  He said, “I call on all citizens to take extreme measures of prevention; sleep in open places, outside your houses.  Keep a flashlight handy; store water and whatever else you will need in an emergency.”  And, in fact, throughout Managua and nearby cities families were sleeping in patios and on sidewalks outside their houses, or in most cases not sleeping as each night seemed to be interrupted by at least one strong trembler.  

Wilfred Straus of the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER) said on Channel 4 news on the morning of Apr. 14 that the Apr. 10 and 11 quakes were strong but deep and therefore not terribly destructive.  However, the quakes the following days were closer to the surface and closer to the capital with epicenters in Lake Xolotlan under the Apoyeque volcano on the Chiltepe peninsula.  There were also small quakes under the city of Managua itself in the area of the Ruben Dario Theater.  Straus said that it is likely that the epicenter of the quakes will continue to be the Apoyeque volcano, “but the possibility exists that they could be under Managua…and if that small possibility exists we have to take measures.  We can’t prevent a quake and we always need to be prepared and now perhaps a little more prepared.” He also warned that, with seismic activity near the massive Momotombo volcano, it could erupt as it last did in 1905.

Managua has been destroyed several times by earthquakes.  In March 1931, a magnitude 6.0 quake caused 1,500 deaths and 3,500 injured, destroying 75% of the city which at the time had 90,000 inhabitants.  In December 1972, a 6.2 magnitude quake caused 10,000 deaths and destroyed 75% of the city including all of the hospitals and fire and police stations. At that time the city had approximately half a million people. There were a number of quakes in the nineteenth century, including a particularly destructive one in April of 1881, possibly leading to the fears that the city will suffer a big earthquake every 40 to 50 years.

The Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) has promised that businesses will not raise prices to take advantage of the crisis situation while banks promised to speed up attention to people who need to withdraw money. Since many workers are now on vacation for Holy Week, there is less movement on the streets and highways.  (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 14; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 14, 15; Informe Pastran, Apr. 14; La Prensa, Apr. 13)

2. Assembly elects 54 high level officials

On April 8, 9, and 10, the National Assembly elected the officials to fill the 54 high level positions in the state where the terms of office had run out.  Officials had remained at their posts for several years based on a presidential decree. With 61 votes in the National Assembly, the Sandinista Party had the super-majority necessary to approve the nominations without any opposition support but the candidates were approved in most cases with 63 to 65 votes, including the two votes of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). Members of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) abstained on the first day of voting, voted against the nominations on the second day and were absent on the third day to protest the reelection of Roberto Rivas as president of the Supreme Electoral Council. 

On Apr. 8, five of the magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) were reelected.  They were Roberto Rivas (as president), Emmet Lang, Luis Benavides, Jose Luis Villavicencio, and Jose Marenco Cardenal.  The new members of the CSE will be Johnny Torres, who has been the president of the Municipal Electoral Council of Managua, and Lumberto Campbell, formerly central government delegate for Caribbean Coast affairs. PLI deputies spared no words in condemning the five who were reelected, accusing them of being corrupt and cynical.  Eliseo Nuñez said, “[President Daniel] Ortega would have found more honest electoral magistrates than these in the Modelo Prison.”

On Apr. 9, other posts were filled. Former police commissioner and lawyer Ana Julia Guido was elected Prosecutor General of the Republic, Omar Cabezas was reelected to his post as Human Rights Ombudsman, Victor Manuel Urcuyo was reelected as Superintendent of Banks, and Maria Dolores Aleman elected as one of five members of the Office of the Comptroller.  The election of the daughter of former President Arnoldo Aleman was controversial with political analyst Danilo Aguirre Solis saying, “Favors continue to be paid from the pact [between Aleman and Ortega] of more than a decade ago.”

And, finally, on Apr. 10, ten of the 16 justices of the Supreme Court were reelected: Alba Luz Ramos, Rafael Solís, Francisco Rosales, Armengol Cuadra, Marvin Aguilar, Juana Méndez, Yadira Centeno, Ligia Molina, Antonio Alemán Lacayo, and Manuel Martínez. All but the last two are considered to be affiliated with the Sandinista Party.  Aleman and Martinez are members of the PLC. The new faces were Gerardo Arce Castaño (brother of presidential advisor Bayardo Arce), Ellen Joy Lewin (district criminal court judge in Bluefields), Jose Adan Guerra (former minister of defense, considered to represent the business community, proposed by the PLI), Virgilio Gurdian (former labor minister proposed by the PLI), Carlos Aguerri Hurtado (uncle of the president of COSEP), and Armando Juarez (a former prosecutor). (La Prensa, Apr. 13; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 10, 11; Informe Pastran, Apr. 8, 9)

3. US science journal publishes article on Chronic Renal Failure epidemic

El Nuevo Diario (END) summarized an English language article in the April 2014 issue of Science about the epidemic of Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) among Central American sugar workers. Science is the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. According to END, the Science article said the source of the illness is unknown but two theories are being studied. One is that the disease is caused by exposure to pesticides, and the other is that it is caused by prolonged exposure to heat and dehydration. A large study done in 2012 “found no conclusive evidence between the two hypotheses.” The article said there have been thousands of cases reported in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Southern Mexico. “It is difficult to distinguish this illness, which destroys the kidneys, from other chronic renal illnesses, and it has also been very difficult to define the cause,” according to END’s summary.

According to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), in 1992 in Latin America, there were 27.8 cases per million which grew to 188 cases per million in 2006. The article called the growth in number of cases “disconcerting” and cited El Salvador where between 2005 and 2012, hospitalizations for CRF grew by more than 50% and it is now the main cause of deaths in hospitals in the country. The rise in the number of people affected has driven an increasing number of rural worker protests and rising suspicion that the use of fertilizers and pesticides are affecting their health. It also appears to be getting increasing attention from researchers. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Boston University are launching three new studies.  Dr. Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, who specializes in tropical diseases, said, “The international global health community needs to take this very seriously. What we’re seeing is not business as usual. This is a serious outbreak and we need all hands on deck.”  (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 10; Science, Apr. 11, 2014, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6180/143.full )

4. More details on resolution of property claims emerge

Further news coverage of the government’s initiative to resolve the remaining claims by US citizens to property confiscated during the 1980s clarified that claimants will have the option of submitting their claims to international or national arbitration or to continue to negotiate directly with the government.  The US embassy issued a statement saying, “Arbitration is not obligatory. It is an alternative that the US claimants and the Nicaraguan government are able to choose to resolve pending cases.” Attorney General Hernan Estrada stated, “We are open. If they want to go to The Hague, we will go to The Hague.” Estrada also met with Rosendo Mayorga, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce and Services (CCNS) and said that he hoped claimants would avail themselves of arbitration by CCNS’s Center of Mediation and Arbitration (CMA) in search of a rapid resolution of the claims. Estrada also met with Alfredo Artiles, president of the Nicaraguan American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM). Artiles also encouraged claimants to submit to arbitration by the CMA. He said AMCHAM wants the cases resolved “so we never again have to live through something like this and that people are secure in the ownership of their property.”

There are 178 remaining claims from 107 individuals, 80 of whom have failed to pursue their claims and for whom the Nicaraguan government has no contact information. Most claimants were Nicaraguan citizens at the time of the confiscations. They were members of the Somoza government or feared National Guard, or they mortgaged their properties and abandoned them, moving to the United States along with the mortgage money. Those claimants later became US citizens.  The Nicaraguan government wants 2014 to be the last year that it must submit itself to the US property waiver law which requires that it “show progress” in resolving claims or suffer the loss of US aid and international loans. The Attorney General’s Office is making a big push to resolve all remaining claims before July 2015. (La Prensa, Apr. 11; Informe Pastran, Apr. 9)

5. Nicaragua ranks well in UN corruption and security study

The opposition newspaper La Prensa published a brief report on a 2013-2014 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) survey of corruption and violence in Latin America although the story barely cited the comparative chart accompanying the article because it shows Nicaragua ranking high in citizen security and low in corruption. La Prensa focused on the statistic that 5.1% of Nicaraguan respondents have had police ask for bribes. Of the 15 mainland countries surveyed, Nicaraguan police corruption is lower than all but Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Panama. When it comes to corruption in the form of other public officials asking for bribes, Nicaragua is actually the least corrupt country with only 1.5% of respondents stating that government officials have asked for bribes.

The other questions on the survey related to citizen security and La Prensa did not reveal Nicaragua’s ranking, presumably because Nicaragua is considered one of the safest countries in the Americas. La Prensa reported that 11 of 18 countries in Latin America have homicide rates above 10 per 100,000 residents. Ten homicides is considered an “epidemic” by the World Health Organization. On the question of whether the respondents had been the victim of a crime in the last 12 months, responses ranged from a low of 6.9% in Panama to a high of 28.1% in Ecuador.  When crime with a weapon was the issue, responses ranged from a low of 8.1% in Chile to a high of 50.5% in Honduras. La Prensa did not saywhere Nicaragua ranked but the head of Nicaragua’s National Police, Aminta Granera, said that 13.5% of Nicaraguans reported having been a crime victim in the past year. She also revealed that, in 2013, Nicaragua’s homicide rate had dropped to nine per 100,000 inhabitants. (La Prensa, Apr. 11; Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 8)

6. Economic briefs

The National Association of Reforesters (CONFOR) said that its goal is to expand from a current 24,000 hectares of tree farms to 100,000 in 20 years.  That would establish a solid wood products industry in the country and generate US$300 million in timber exports, according to CONFOR president Salvador Mayorga.  Mayorga said that tree farms lower the pressure on the country’s natural forests.  “For example,” he said, “85% of the timber that the company Simplemente Madera will log this year is cultivated but when they began it was 0%.” (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 8)

Nicaragua’s microfinance sector will continue its process of consolidation in 2014 after being severely affected between 2008 and 2011 by the international financial crisis and a movement of creditors who protested treatment by lenders and refused to repay their loans. The 21 members of the Nicaraguan Association of Microfinance Institutions (ASOMIF) lent US$182.5 million to 268,881 borrowers in 2013, up from US$154.4 million to 218,000 clients the previous year.  According to its managing director Gloria Ruiz, the microfinance group Pro Mujer Nicaragua, which lends to women, has grown by 6% in the first quarter of 2014, lending last year US$17 million to 56,000 women. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 10)

In the months of February and March, the 197 beekeepers of Rivas, owners of approximately 600 hives, produce 160 barrels of honey.  There are seven cooperatives of beekeepers in the department and more are beginning to organize.  The honey they produce is currently for domestic consumption, including a local hotel.  The cooperative members are receiving training through a government program that is receiving assistance from Germany so that they can improve sanitation and add value to their product.  The training for 73 women, 84 men, and 40 young people will last 18 months.  (El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 8)