Nicaragua Network

1. Trial of accused July 19 killers begins in Managua
2. Canal census proceeds; Cocibolca Group holds forum; Danish NGO opposes canal
3. Coffee fund to begin functioning; Rainforest Alliance funds green coffee
4. Foreign debt hits US$9.8 billion
5. Government to spend US$300 million on roads in Caribbean Regions
6. Nicaragua to coordinate regional tsunami alert system

1. Trial of accused July 19 killers begins in Managua

On Oct. 4, the second day of the trial of the twelve men accused of the July 19^th murder of five people and wounding of 19 others, the coroner of the Department of Matagalpa, Dr. Juroj Bartoz Blandon, described in detail the fatal injuries sustained by those who died. All the victims were passengers on buses returning from celebrating the 35^th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. The coroner said that Esther Lidia Vasquez was hit by a bullet at the base of her skull.  The bullet that hit German Adrian Martinez severed the iliac artery in his right leg causing him to bleed to death. Dr. Bartoz said he would have had to have been wounded at the door of a hospital for his life to have been saved with such an injury. Vilma Argentina Gomez was hit on the right side of the head as was Yader Francisco Saenz.  The other death was that of Deyling Talavera. The twelve accused are being tried for conspiracy, murder, organized crime, assault, and other crimes.  A total of twenty witnesses that day included the police officers first at the scene, specialists in ballistics and chemistry (including the use of a Vapor Tracer), and experts in the use of tracking dogs among others.

The previous day, Judge Edgard Altamirano of the Ninth District Criminal Court decided that trial would take place before a technical judge rather than a jury because among the accusations against the men was that of organized crime which he said should be heard before a judge. He recognized that this was the first time he had officiated at a trial which included charges of organized crime that were not linked to drug trafficking. The defense was not able to convince the judge to exclude the video made by a police officer of one of the accused in Matagalpa where he admitted having thrown rocks at the busses to slow them down before the shootings. The judge also denied a petition from the defense to exclude testimony about an inspection of the site near Ciudad Dario where, as part of an “experiment,” the accused voluntarily explained how the crime “could have been” carried out. In one case the defense won a point when the judge denied a prosecution request to exclude some defense materials. The prosecution programmed 65 witnesses and the defense 54. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 4, 6; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 3; La Prensa, Oct. 3)

2. Canal census proceeds; Cocibolca Group holds forum; Danish NGO opposes canal

The census of properties and homes along the route of the proposed shipping canal across Nicaragua is proceeding according to schedule on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the country, according to government officials. Communities along the route of the canal are being visited by groups composed of representatives from the Chinese HKND Group (which holds the canal concession), the Office of the Attorney General (which oversees property rights), the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI), and the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER). The group is accompanied by members of the National Police and Army but these personnel do not enter the homes nor are they involved in the compilation of information. According to a spokesperson, the census is simple and is only carried out with the permission of the home or property owner. In the community of Tola, Rivas, Belkis Gonzalez, a 32 year old homemaker, knowing that her home was in the route of the proposed canal, received the census takers into her home, answered the questions to fill out the form, and allowed the workers to measure her property. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, where the Caño Chiquito River joins the Punta Gorda River before it reaches the Caribbean Sea, member of the census group travel by boat from early morning to visit locals who, while allowing the census workers to compile their data, take advantage of the opportunity to ask questions about the impact that the canal will have on their lives. (Informe Pastran, Oct. 2, 6; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 2, 6)

Other property owners protested the canal census in El Tule, Department of Rio San Juan, and in San Jorge, Department of Rivas.  La Prensa reported that two thousand people protested in El Tule with signs that said, “We demand respect for private property! No to the canal!” “In San Miguelito we will not sell our land!” and “What do the farmers want? For the Chinese to go!” [¿Que quieren los campesinos? ¡Que se vayan los chinos!] Some of the protesters said that they took up arms against the Sandinista government in the 1980s and would now defend their properties at any cost. The protesters, some of whom were on foot and others on horseback, continued their march throughout a downpour of rain. (La Prensa, Sept. 29, Oct. 3)

On Sept. 29, the Cocibolca Group, composed of environmental and other civil society organizations, held a forum in Managua where they presented the results of their independent study of the social, environmental, and legal impacts of the canal. The study reported that 109,000 people will be displaced by the canal which will also affect 193,000 hectares of forest, more than 40 species of animals, as well as nature preserves that include protected wetlands. Maura Madriz of the Humboldt Center said, “Almost 60% of the area affected by the canal is covered in forests, including broad-leafed forests, mangroves, and palm. It is not true that all of the territory which the canal will go through is destroyed and, even if it were, that is not justification for a project of this type.”  The study examined the territory ten kilometers on each side of the chosen 278 kilometer route of the canal.

The Humboldt study indicated that during the rainy season the canal will need 7.5 million cubic meters of water each day and during the dry season 8.4 million cubic meters while the current supply is 14.7 million cubic meters. However, Victor Campos, deputy director of the Humboldt Center, said, “Due to climate change, between 2015 and 2039, we expect a reduction during critical years of up to 35%, which would leave available only 8.45 million cubic meters of water daily, meaning that the canal would be operating with all the water available and by 2039 with a deficit of three to four percent.” Campos said that, in order to fill the planned Atlanta artificial lake, 7.4 billion cubic meters of water would be needed from the watershed of the Punta Gorda River. This would take three consecutive rainy seasons making it unlikely that the canal could begin operations in 2019 as proposed, Campos said.

Monica Lopez, director of the Popul Na Foundatiion, said that the fact that the concession to the HKND Group was “negotiated in the most complete secrecy makes it a questionable and illegitimate concession and the fact that it was approved without citizen consultation, without input from the indigenous or from municipalities, with no bidding procedure, and approved in an accelerated seven day process in the National Assembly makes it an unconstitutional law from all legal viewpoints.” She went on to say that while the government has said that the canal will generate 1.2 million jobs, the HKND Group has only promised 50,000. And, she insisted, rights are given the investor to exploit Nicaragua’s natural resources above and below ground and water.

Also on the panel were representatives of the affected indigenous groups. Carlos Wilson of the Bang Kuku Taik Rama community said, “The indigenous peoples should not live through this type of situation because we have our ancestral rights. This has concerned me greatly. There, where we live, is where we have our culture. If the canal passes through there it will affect us. Where are we going to live?” Members of the Cocibolca Group include the Humboldt Center, the Foundation for the River, the Nicaraguan Foundation for Sustainable Development (Fundenic SOS), Local Network (Red Local), and the Popul Na Foundation. (El Nuevo Diario, Sept. 30; La Prensa, Sept. 29)

Meanwhile, the Danish environmental organization Forests of the World said last week that shipping firms should pressure the Nicaraguan government and the Chinese canal company “to ensure that the project does not force indigenous people off their land and inflict massive environmental damage on the country’s ecosystem,” according to the British newspaper The Guardian. Central America representative Claus Kjaerby said, “The list of potential environmental threats is long and includes negative impact on protected wetlands vital to migratory birds, the Central American biological corridor, destruction of freshwater habitat, deterioration of drinking water reserves and the inevitable pollution of Lake Nicaragua.” He added: “Maersk’s interests are being used as an argument for building the canal. This gives Maersk a unique opportunity to ensure that the project is not implemented at the expense of indigenous peoples’ rights and unique natural habitat.” Maersk replied that the project could have economic benefits for Nicaragua and that in principle the company was positive toward infrastructure developments such as the Nicaragua canal adding, however, that it did not have enough information to evaluate the specific Nicaragua canal project. (Informe Pastran, Sept. 30; The Guardian, Sept. 30)

3. Coffee fund to begin functioning; Rainforest Alliance funds green coffee

Central Bank President Ovidio Reyes said last week that the Fund for the Transformation and Development of Coffee will soon begin to carry out the several aspects of its program for 34,000 farmers too small to get credit from the banks and whose coffee groves suffered disproportionately from the coffee rust plague that affected Central America. The program includes providing funds for: 1) seeds for replanting coffee groves, 2) technical assistance; and 3) setting up of laboratories to certify seeds and study soils. The fund began collecting one dollar for each hundredweight exported and, beginning in 2015 with the price on the international market exceeding US$160 per hundredweight, it will collect two dollars per hundredweight exported. Reyes said that the Fund currently holds US$2 million in trust but in 2015 that amount is expected to reach US$6 million. The Bank for the Promotion of Production (Banco Produzcamos) will back up loans which small farmers will be able to access under flexible terms from the private banking system. While 34,000 farmers will benefit from these loans for renovation of their farms, another 10,500 large coffee plantation owners will be able to borrow under the usual terms. Law 853, passed in 2013, empowered the National Commission for the Transformation and Development of Coffee (CONATRADEC) to set up this trust fund for the improvement of coffee groves of small farmers. The commission, chaired by Agriculture Minister Edward Centeno, met on Oct. 4 to set up the mechanism for the use of the funds. Thirty-five percent of Nicaragua’s coffee groves were affected by coffee rust last season according to figures from the National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG).

In other coffee news, the Bank of Production (BANPRO) announced that it is carrying out a program to support eco-friendly coffee sponsored by the Rainforest Alliance. Erick Leiva, manager of the Jinotega branch of BANPRO, said that through its “Green Line” of credit the program has provided US$4.5 million in green financing, including forest friendly renovation of coffee groves, energy saving coffee drying processes, generation of electricity by burning the shell of the coffee bean, and other projects. One coffee plantation benefitting from the program in San Pedro de Bucumay employs 900 workers at harvest time and provides a school and a health center.  Of the farm’s 1,500 acres, over 700 are planted to environmentally friendly coffee, certified by the Rainforest Alliance. (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 2; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 3, 4, 5)

4. Foreign debt hits US$9.8 billion

The Central Bank announced last week that Nicaragua’s foreign debt had reached US$9.8 billion in the second quarter of 2014. The report said that US$4.6 billion of that total was public debt and US$5.2 was private debt. The foreign debt to GDP ratio stands at 83.2%, with the ratio for public debt being 38.9% and for private debt 44.3%.  Nicaragua’s GDP grew to US$11.25 billion last year and has a projected growth rate of between 4.5% and 5% for 2014.

Economist and former Central Bank president Mario Arana said that the country’s public foreign debt was reasonable with a downward trend but he recommended placing more attention on private debt which he said was linked to the special-terms loans the country has used to buy petroleum from Venezuela under Petrocaribe. He emphasized that the country is working to decrease its dependence on petroleum but he said what is lacking are greater efforts to achieve energy efficiency to reduce the payments for petroleum and thus the private foreign debt. He noted that short term foreign debt dropped by 6.2% while medium and long term debt grew by 2.9%. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 2)

5. Government to spend US$300 million on roads in Caribbean Regions  

Pablo Martinez, minister of transportation and infrastructure, said last week that his ministry has US$300 million allocated for projects to build 300 kilometers of concrete highway in the country’s North and South Autonomous Caribbean Regions. He explained that hydraulic concrete will be used instead of asphalt because the climate on the Coast, which includes high rainfall and hot sun, quickly deteriorates asphalt roads. “We have achieved agreements with international financial institutions and formed a good alliance to build more durable roads,” he stated. The Transportation and Infrastructure Ministry (MTI) is currently receiving bids for the road from Rio Blanco to Mulukuku and Martinez said that the stretch from Mulukuku to Siuna is guaranteed as well. That will be followed by the road from Naciones Unidas to Bluefields and then from El Rama to Kukra Hill. After that will be other sections such as Rio Blanco to Bocana de Paiwas and Santo Domingo to El Ayote, Martinez said. He noted that while an asphalt highway can last 15 years, hydraulic concrete has a useful life that is double that figure. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 3)

6. Nicaragua to coordinate regional tsunami alert system

Regional specialists meeting in Managua have agreed to a proposal for a Central American tsunami alert center that will be presented to a meeting next month of the Central American Integration System (SICA). Costa Rican Roy Barboza, executive secretary of the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC), said, “All we are missing is the agreement of the countries so that there can be a fluid interchange of information to get to the public.” Representing Nicaragua at the meeting was Yadira Meza of the National System for Prevention of Disasters (SINAPRED).

Wilfried Strauch, advisor to the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER), said that INETER has been proposing such a center since 2003 but not even the Asian tsunami of 2004 convinced the governments of the region to install the needed system. Strauch said that not all the Central American countries measure earthquakes the same and not all have a system to notify their populations. Nicaragua and to a lesser degree El Salvador are the only countries with experience with alert systems. A tsunami off the coast of Central America could hit in 45 minutes, according to Barboza. He said, “We need a call for inhabitants to evacuate at the right moment to secure places.”

Nicaragua has been proposed as the country that would coordinate a regional center for tsunami alerts because it is a step ahead of the other nations after suffering the most destructive tsunami in Central American history in September 1992. [The Nicaragua Monitor for September 1992 reported that the tsunami from the 7.2 earthquake left 118 dead, 63 missing, and over 13,000 homeless.] After that tsumani, Nicaragua increased the study of its geology, installed the most extensive earthquake measuring system in the region, set up an alert system, and carries out periodic preparedness drills in coastal towns. (La Prensa, Oct. 5; Informe Pastran, Oct. 2)