Nicaragua Network

1. Bishops hold four hour dialogue with Ortega
2. UN FAO issues report on Nicaragua’s Healthy Yard program
3. Climate Change Briefs
4. Solis vows to finish controversial road along San Juan River
5. Crime briefs
6. Government speeds up rebuilding of houses destroyed in April earthquakes
7. UNDP notes Nicaragua’s low crime rate
 

1. Bishops hold four hour dialogue with Ortega

President Daniel Ortega met for four hours with all of Nicaragua’s Catholic bishops on May 21 at the office of Papal Nuncio in Nicaragua Fortunatus Nwachukwu.  Government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said, “It was a meeting that meant a great deal to all, I understand to the bishops as well.  For us it was a privilege and we thank Archbishop Fortunatus, the Nuncio.  We were very happy to share for those hours [the bishops’] concerns, in the role that corresponds to a government that privileges the common good as well as listening to the opinions of all sectors of the population with the goal of converting them into proposals for action.”

Bishop Rene Sandigo, bishop of Juigalpa and president of the Nicaraguan Catholic Bishops Conference, told journalists that the bishops were “satisfied” with the meeting. Sandigo said the conversation “was at a high level, respectful, and with a great deal of receptiveness.” He said that the bishops proposed “2016 elections with the greatest transparency possible so that the Nicaraguan people end the doubt about whether they are honest or not honest … and so that we have the president that Nicaraguans want.”  Sandigo said that the bishops would meet again with the president, although he specified no date.

According to Nuncio Nwachukwu, the bishops spoke for an hour; then the president spoke for an hour and all exchanged views during the remaining two hours. The proposals and concerns that the bishops took to the meeting can be read at: http://curiamanagua.org/documentos/dialogocen.pdf  Besides electoral issues, areas that were covered included the Family Code, the Law to Stop Violence against Women, education, human rights, and problems on the Caribbean Coast.

The bishops’ statement said, “We recognize the efforts made by the government to express in international forums the respect for the life of the unborn and to recognize marriage as a union between a man and a woman. However, a motive for serious concern for us is the so-called Family Code, which we believe merits a discussion in more depth.” The bishops added, “We are aware that in some cases [the Family Cabinets] check on others’ lives and intrude into the privacy of the home. …. We have also heard of cases where women are sterilized against their will in health centers and abortive contraceptives are sold.”  And they expressed this concern: “From our faith, we consider grave and undue that in some educational institutions is taught the so-called ‘gender ideology’ which is opposed to the plan of God the Creator and the differences of human nature.”

The bishops urged greater attention to the environment, including the protection of the nation’s many nature reserves. And, noting that “more than 33,000 square kilometers have been recognized as indigenous territories,” the bishops urged the government “to carry out with urgency a census of the non-indigenous families that are located in those territories to learn about their legal situation” echoing the demand of the indigenous that a decision must be made about those to be removed and those that remain must pay rent to the indigenous.

Some members of the political opposition were happy with the statement that the bishops presented in their meeting with Ortega and with the possibility of a broader national dialogue. Former Liberal National Assembly Deputy Jose Pallais said, “The bishops went in good faith and based on that good faith they had to have confidence that their message would hit home; one must note that they were speaking not only to Ortega but to all Nicaraguans.  Even more than attempting to move the consciousness of Ortega, they hoped to move the consciousness of all Nicaraguans.” Former Christian Democratic Deputy Agustin Jarquin, who recently broke with the Sandinistas, said, “I have faith that we will achieve a major agreement but we have to work for it; these things don’t fall like manna from heaven.” However, dissident Sandinista Moises Hassan called the bishops naïve and said that the “dialogue” served only to give political space to Ortega.  (Radio La Primerisima, May 22; Informe Pastran, May 21, 26; La Prensa, May 25; http://curiamanagua.org/documentos/dialogocen.pdf)

2. UN FAO issues report on Nicaragua’s Healthy Yard program

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a report on the Sandinista government’s Healthy Yard program, the urban version of the Zero Hunger program which has brought food security and better nutrition to hundreds of thousands of poor rural families. Healthy Yard, which was launched in 2009, provides training and seeds to urban and semi-urban households to improve the diets of families and to provide income from production for local markets. The program also provides rainwater catchment and irrigation systems, develops community seed banks, and teaches families to reuse plastic containers and other household items that they would previously have thrown in the trash, for growing fruit and vegetables in their yards.  It also improves family health by removing trash and organic waste, replacing it with healthy plants and improving the quality of life. The program trained hundreds of families to produce vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, beets, carrots, spinach, basil, mint, among others, using discarded tires, bottles and various types of plastic containers, along with simple irrigation systems. Agronomists are also studying and experimenting with the plants in Managua’s hot climate which is dry half the year to improve the fruit and vegetable yields.

The FAO paper called Managua one of the greenest cities in Latin America and the Caribbean with a great potential for urban gardening with support of the government. The report said from May 2012 to date, 76,000 households in Managua have planted vegetable gardens in their yards. The government plan is to create an additional 120,500 urban gardens throughout the country, 60,000 of them in Managua. The FAO report said, “Among the countries of Central America, Nicaragua has shown the most firm commitment to urban and semi-urban agriculture, which is a strategy in the National Plan for Human Development 2012-2016.” In Managua, the government program has concentrated on two of the most impoverished and most densely populated neighborhoods, Ciudad Sandino and Los Laureles Sur. Both areas were chosen for their high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. A census of first graders showed that 17% had moderate to severe growth retardation. Now the FAO study shows that households with vegetable gardens have improved vegetable consumption by 60% and have saved money on food purchases. (El Nuevo Diario, May 20)

3. Climate Change Briefs

Along with representatives of 60 organizations, the Forum of Presidents of Legislatures of Central America and the Caribbean (FOPREL) met in El Salvador to consider proposals for a Framework Bill for Prevention, Environmental Protection, Integral Management of and Adaptation to Climate Change. This framework bill will be approved in Mexico in June and afterward adopted by each national legislature.  Nicaragua proposed to pressure countries that are the major emitters of greenhouse gases to make binding commitments for their reduction, and have them assume the costs of the effects of climate change. Nicaragua further proposed epidemiological studies of diseases and illnesses exacerbated by climate change and to implement prevention and protection measures for the most vulnerable groups through a system of information sharing.  Honduras proposed a tax on products that contaminate the environment as a way to finance climate change measures. Its delegation also proposed a 2020 deadline for member countries to improve solid waste disposal so that it emits no methane into the atmosphere as well as that FOPREL countries achieve 80% clean energy production by that date.  Non-governmental organizations such as CARE-Nicaragua and OXFAM-UK as well as the European Union called the meeting “positive” and “helpful.” (El Nuevo Diario, May 25)

The Ministry of Energy and Mines awarded a 30 year license for the company Green Power, SA, to produce 38 megawatts of electricity from biomass left over from the sugarcane harvest at the Montelimar sugar refinery in the Department of Managua. This is one more advance in Nicaragua’s goal to eliminate electricity production by burning fossil fuels. (Informe Pastran, May 21)

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources is partnered for six months with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to conduct a study of the effects of climate change on the fish and shrimp industry in the coastal zone of Chinandega in order to help communities dependent on fishing and aquaculture to better adapt and protect their livelihoods. Scientists sampled sediment and water quality at different points along the coast during the study. (La Prensa, May 21)

The results of a pilot project to determine the carbon footprint of the coffee and cacao industries were presented by Roberto Brenes, general manager of the Center for Export and Investment (CEI), on May 20 to the ten Nicaraguan companies that participated. The project, carried out also in Colombia, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic, measured greenhouse gas produced at each stage of the process from planting to market so that companies can implement methods to reduce their carbon footprint.

For information on Nicaragua Network/Alliance for Global Justice’s Climate Change delegation to Nicaragua Aug. 3-12, send an email to Chuck@AFGJ.org. (El Nuevo Diario, May 20; www.nicanet.org)

4. Solis vows to finish controversial road along San Juan River

Luis Guillermo Solis, the newly inaugurated president of Costa Rica, flew over the controversial 154 kilometer long road that former President Laura Chinchilla built along the southern bank of the San Juan River which forms its border with Nicaragua. At the time it was built, the road aggravated what were already strained relations between Costa Rica and Nicaragua over Nicaragua’s dredging of the river, which it has longstanding treaty rights to do.  Solis vowed to complete the highway while a communique from his office noted that it had been initiated “with little or no planning” and that several sections had deteriorated seriously. Solis said that the highway gave him a bitter sweet feeling. “On the one hand I am happy because we are going to be able to use this and improve it but,” he said, “on the other hand I am concerned because there is a great deal of work still to be done.” He said that it would bring social and economic development to a previously abandoned region of Costa Rica. “I’m going to do all I can to finish it because if we don’t do it now, we won’t ever do it,” he said. A combined case before the World Court which would resolve Nicaragua’s claim of environmental damage from the highway and Costa Rica’s claim for a triangle of swampland at the mouth of the river where Nicaragua was dredging is expected to be resolved in 2015. (El Nuevo Diario, May 24; Informe Pastran, May 26)

5. Crime briefs

Businessman Alvaro Montealegre, indicted for fraud, on May 20 turned over to the prosecutor’s office two checks that totaled US$526,433.18, the amount that owed the nuns of the Order of St. Teresa in Managua.  The sisters were the first to bring accusations of fraud against Montealegre (brother of the politician Eduardo Montealegre) and his co-conspirators Roberto Bendaña and Hugo Paguaga. Subsequently, 17 others also filed charges against the three and their company, International Investments Financial Services, Inc., for a total of US$5 million.  Montealegre said that the others would be paid what they were owed, one by one toward the end of each month. Then, on May 23, the case against Montealegre and Paguaga was postponed.  This was the second time the judge had postponed the court hearing and the delay angered the complainants who had not been notified. (El Nuevo Diario, May 20, 24)

On May 20 the police announced that they were investigating six young people as suspects in the case of the killing of eight pet dogs with crossbow arrows. Commissioner General Ramon Avellan said that the young people were not being charged but were “simply under investigation.” He said that the police, in searching several houses, had found four crossbows, two bows, and a number of arrows of different sizes. On May 21, the police released the names of the boys and young men who were being investigated, all from well-known, well-to-do families, and brought some of them out in front of reporters.  However, shortly thereafter it was revealed that several do not live in Nicaragua and the police did not present documentation that they had been in the country when the dogs were killed. On May 25, two of those under suspicion and the parents of others demanded that Police Chief Aminta Granera apologize to them. Meanwhile, animal lovers, led by Dr. Enrique Rimbaud, president of Fundacion Amarte, set up a twitter account with the hashtag #justiciaparalosperros saying their goal was 5,000 signatures which they would use to pressure the police and prosecutors to find out who is behind the animal deaths. Rimbaud said that the police know who is responsible for the killings, adding that they all live in the same neighborhood and have the money to buy expensive crossbows.  (Radio La Primerisima, May 20, 22; El Nuevo Diario, May 20; La Prensa, May 21, 25)

The chiefs of police of Nicaragua and Honduras agreed to strengthen security on both sides of their common border in order to fight trafficking in drugs, arms, vehicles, cattle, endangered species, and human trafficking. Nicaraguan First Police Commissioner Aminta Granera and Ramon Sabillon, director general of the Honduran police, met in Managua and agreed to hold periodic meetings of police officials at all levels, including at local levels “to resolve the real problems that we have on both sides of the border,” according to Granera. (Informe Pastran, May 22; El Nuevo Diario, May 22)

6. Government speeds up rebuilding of houses destroyed in April earthquakes

Government spokesperson Rosario Murillo reported that the Sandinista government had finished the building of some of the new houses planned for those families who lost their homes in Nagarote, Mateara, Managua, Ciudad Sandino and La Paz Centro, the areas hardest hit by April’s succession of earthquakes. Some homes that were destroyed or damaged by the quakes have already been completed and the families, who had been staying in shelters, were able to move back in. Meanwhile, tremblers continued with the latest reported on May 25 southeast of the Momotombo volcano in the department of Leon. It measured 4.7 on the Richter scale. Residents reported it to be “quite strong” but there were no injuries or property damage reported. (Informe Pastran, May 23, 26; Radio La Primerisima, May 23; La Prensa, May 25)

7. UNDP notes Nicaragua’s low crime rate

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) presented in Nicaragua on May 19 its Regional Report on Human Development for 2013-2014 on security matters and classified Nicaragua as “atypical” because of its low rates of homicide and robbery.  Juan Pablo Gordillo, adviser on security at the Latin American Regional Services Center of the UNDP, said that, “The case of Nicaragua is an important achievement at the regional level,” adding that because Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, it breaks the myth that poverty causes violence. Nicaragua’s homicide rate dropped to 8.7 per 100,000 inhabitants and its robbery rate was at 71.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. Honduras, with 92 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, has the highest murder rate in the world. El Salvador has 69, Guatemala 39, Panama 14.9 and Costa Rica 10.3 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. UN official Pablo Mandeville noted that in Costa Rica and Honduras, Nicaragua’s neighbors to the south and north, at least 50% of the population replies in surveys that they believe in being “hard on crime” while in Nicaragua only 17.1% hold that opinion.  Mandeville did point out that Nicaragua can improve in some areas, such as domestic violence and violence against women. (Radio La Primerisima, May 26)