Nicaragua Network

1. Earthquake measuring 7.3 hits off coast of Central America
2. Judge finds twelve guilty of July 19th killings
3. Rains cause flooding, two deaths
4. New polls reveal views on canal, economic situation of Nicaraguans
5. Mayangna community says “We are in danger.”
6. Cacao may replace coffee in some areas affected by climate change
7. National Museum opens new exhibits with 700 indigenous pieces
8. Solution sought for problems with Customs

1. Earthquake measuring 7.3 hits off coast of Central America

An earthquake lasting 26 seconds and measured at 7.3 on the Richter scale was felt throughout Central America on Monday, Oct. 13, at 9:51 pm local time. The quake was located in the Pacific Ocean off the Gulf of Fonseca—which is shared by El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. One death was reported in El Salvador with some damage to houses, churches and other buildings reported in the affected countries. La Prensa reported that two houses had collapsed in Chinandega and that some 2,000 houses in Leon had light damage.  Radio La Primerisima, however, reported only ten houses damaged along with damage to the Catholic church in Quezalguaque, Leon.

Of particular concern was the threat of a tsunami. Sirens sounded at 9:59 pm in ocean front communities and residents headed for high ground. Many residents of the Port of Corinto took refuge with relatives in the city of Chinandega while residents of Potosi, on the Gulf of Fonseca, were evacuated to high ground and only returned to their homes at dawn on Tuesday. The government lifted the tsunami alert for all coastal regions except for the departments of Leon and Chinandega after monitoring stations in El Salvador and Hawaii discounted any threat of tsunami from this particular quake. Yellow alert was maintained, however, because of the threat of aftershocks.  Schools were closed and fishermen asked not to go out in their boats.

Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo said that Nicaragua’s entire disaster prevention system was immediately activated at the time of the quake, including the National System for Prevention and Attention to Disasters (SINAPRED), Civil Defense, the National Police, the Fire Departments, mayor’s offices and Family Cabinets throughout the nation. The United States Geodesic Survey (USGS) measured the quake at 7.3 on the Richter scale and located it 95 kilometers (59 miles) west of Corinto with its epicenter at a depth of 40 kilometers (25 miles). The quake was caused by the subduction of the Cocos plate under the Caribbean plate. (La Prensa, Oct. 14; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 14; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 14; http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000slwn#summary)

2. Judge finds twelve guilty of July 19th killings

At almost 9:00pm on Oct. 9, after six long days of testimony from over 100 witnesses, Judge Edgard Altamirano found guilty the 12 men accused of killing five and wounding many others on buses returning from celebrations of the 35^th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution on July 19. The four who threw rocks at the buses to slow them down were found guilty of causing serious harm. Seven other defendants were found guilty of organized crime, conspiracy, murder, and causing serious injury. One defendant was found guilty of trying to cover up the crimes. The prosecution asked for sentences of two years in prison for the rock throwers, and 15, 18, and 30 years for the various other defendants based on the level of their involvement in the crimes.

Prosecution witnesses included the coroner for Matagalpa, police officers who investigated the crimes, and experts on ballistics and other topics. Defense witnesses included family members who placed the accused at home at the time of the attacks on the buses. Emigdia Torrez, sister-in-law of Eddy Gutierrez, accused of being one of those who shot at the caravan of buses, brought three photographs that she said proved that her brother-in-law was at his mother’s house where they were praying a novena to the Christ Child that ended at about 9:40pm, the time of the shootings. Prosecution witnesses put Gutierrez, however, along with two others, at the location of the ambush near Ciudad Dario. (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 9; La Prensa, Oct. 8, 12; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 8, 10)

3. Rains cause flooding, two deaths

The continued heavy rains that fell on the Pacific and Caribbean regions of Nicaragua all last week left one dead, one disappeared, roads washed out, and 6,600 people affected by damages to their homes. A five year old girl on the island of Ometepe was carried away by a mudslide off the Concepcion volcano on Oct. 9 and an elderly man, who was trying to cross a river on horseback, was washed away by the current in Nueva Guinea. Twenty-two municipalities in the South Caribbean Region were the most affected by the rains which damaged 1,300 houses, more than 80 kilometers of roads, and washed away five bridges. Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo said that civil defense brigades were searching for the man who was washed away by the river. She said that rains of moderate intensity were likely to continue in the Pacific and Caribbean regions, according to the meteorologists and she recommended that people not attempt to cross rivers or storm drains or go into the ocean because of the possibility of two meter waves. The government had set up 20 shelters and was supplying food and blankets to the families who needed them, Murillo said. The municipalities that received the most rainfall were Nandaime, Altagracia, Quilali, Matagalpa, Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas), and Nueva Guinea.

Meanwhile, farmers in many parts of the country were expressing hopes that the drought was over. In the Department of Esteli, the rains have been moderate and the ground has soaked up water and farmers have even been able to fill their water tanks in case of another dry spell. The rains have been especially good for basic crops such as corn and beans as well as for vegetables. Another beneficiary of the rains has been Lake Apanas which has seen its water level rise by almost a meter thus assuring the continued generation of electricity at the Apanas hydroelectric dam. Energy Minister Ernesto Martinez said on Oct. 10 that only at the time of Hurricane Mitch had he seen the lake rise as much in 24 hours as it had in the previous few hours.  (La Prensa, Oct. 12; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 11, 12, 13; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 10)

4. New polls reveal views on canal, economic situation of Nicaraguans

New polls from the Costa Rican firm Borge & Asociados and M&R Consultores confirmed the high ratings of other recent polls for the government of President Daniel Ortega and also provided interesting insight into the economic situation of Nicaraguans. Victor Borge said that 75.3% of those polled classified as good or very good the job that Ortega has done as president while 12.8% classed his job performance as “average,” 2.3% said it was “average leaning toward bad” and 9.1% called his performance bad or very bad. Of those polled, 75.8% said the country was on the right track while 18.2% said it was on the wrong track. Borge said that the positive impact of the government’s social programs was one of the important factors that explained the favorable ratings.

Borge also said, “The announcement of the interoceanic canal has captured the dreams of the majority of the people. It is a foundation narrative of Nicaraguan national identity” and symbolizes a hope for a better future. According to the M&R poll, the belief that the proposed canal across Nicaragua will become a reality has increased to 73.1% from 59.7% in 2012, according to the survey, with 56.4% saying that the canal will bring many benefits and only 10.9% saying that it will bring no benefits.

The polls showed interesting results in the economic arena. In the Borge & Asociados poll, 38.6% said that they were self-employed; 11.3% were employed in the private sector; 5.7% in the public sector; 23.8% said they were homemakers; 4.2% retired; 7.9% students; and 8.5% unemployed. The M&R poll indicated that the rise in the price of basic goods and services was the major economic problem for most Nicaraguans.  Thirty percent of those surveyed said that those price hikes were their major problem compared to 18.4% last year. According to the Central Bank, the cost of the basic basket of 53 consumer goods has risen from US$423 per month in 2013 to US$470 today.

At the same time, 47.2% of those surveyed by M&R said the economic situation of the country was “in between” with 11.3% saying it was good or very good. Twenty-five percent said it was bad and 14.4% said it was very bad. Of those who said that the country’s economy was headed down the wrong road 33.3% were of the upper middle class while 27.6% were of the middle class. The percentage of Nicaraguans who would like to emigrate declined to 46.9% from 56.9% in 2013. Only 13% of the population receives money from relatives living abroad, according to the poll, down from 19.7% in June.  The M&R poll was taken between Sept. 10 – 23, of 1,721 people over age 16 in all regions of the country. The poll had a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 2.41%. (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 7, 8; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 8)

5. Mayangna community says “We are in danger.”

Macario Diaz, president of the Indigenous Territorial Government of the Mayangna Sauni Bas in Sikilta in the North Caribbean Autonomous Region, said that the principal problem that his people confront is the colonizers who have moved into indigenous territory, converting the forest into pastures with grave consequences for local families. He said that they have lost more than 25,000 hectares of forest in the nucleus of the Bosawas Reserve to the invaders. “We have our land title from the government,” Diaz said. “For that we thank President Ortega, but just as he gave us the title, we want him to support us in this conflict we have with the colonizers and make them respect the laws that favor us,” he continued. Diaz said that the clear cutting of the forest has affected the water supply for the city of Siuna and lowered the level of the rivers to such a degree that members of the indigenous communities cannot travel the rivers in their canoes during the dry season.

Justo Taylor, also a member of the Indigenous Government, said that of 80 cases they have reported to the police, only two have been taken up by prosecutors. (When trying to pursue these cases in Siuna, the reporter from El Nuevo Diario was told that the prosecutor was out of the office while the court official whose job it was to handle the news media was in Managua.) Taylor said that the invaders commit two crimes: The first is the trafficking in indigenous land and the second is the clear cut logging in the reserve for intensive cattle ranching that destroys the land. He said that, “The government’s plan was that Bosawas would be run under co-management which meant that we and the government should be involved in its protection. But we are now in danger; the situation is serious…. They have taken the fruit trees. Our people cannot no longer hunt or pick fruit because we find armed guards there.” He added, “Our culture is in danger…. Each weekend we would hunt the forest animals such as deer and peccaries, but now where those animals used to be you only find cattle; we are truly in danger.”

The territory of the Mayangna Sauni Bas is 110,000 acres and includes four communities, Sililta, Yuluwas, Awas, and Kihulwas. The Sauni Bas population is estimated to be 220 families with a total of 800 people while the colonizers are estimated to number 345 families. The Sauni Bas have 17 indigenous volunteer forest rangers along with one ranger from the Ministry of the Environment who patrol the zone accompanied by members of the Ecological Battalion of the Army.  (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 12)

6. Cacao may replace coffee in some areas affected by climate change

Some Nicaraguan farmers are looking to cacao as a possible substitute crop for coffee as climate change causes temperatures to rise in the cool highlands of the country. The National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG) has been working for ten years with the Farmer to Farmer Program organizing farmers to plant cocoa. UNAG President Alvaro Fiallos said that “The farmers have gotten organized and have now planted around 1200 acres of cacao” in the Mining Triangle area. He added, “With the help of Lutheran World Relief we have organized the chain of production from the planting to the harvesting and the processing. We have small scale operations with two collection stations, one in Siuna and the other in Rosita to help the growers with marketing.”

Lars Saquero, manager of the Ingemann company which recently won first prize in the “Cacao of Excellence—Nicaragua 2014” competition, said that Nicaragua has great potential for the crop because of its soil and the genetic characteristics of its cacao. The Ingemann company buys cacao from more than 350 growers on 3,700 acres in Nueva Segovia, El Cua, Bocay, Matagalpa, and Nueva Guinea. Saquero said that cacao has “a perfect future” in Nicaragua but farmers should begin to plant now because the cacao tree does not produce fruit until after its eighth year. He said that the principal purchaser of Nicaraguan cacao is the German company Ritter Sport which pays US$3,200 per ton. Ritter Sport manager Jaume Martorell said that in 2013 his company exported 804 tons of Nicaraguan cacao grown by 4,000 small growers. In 2015, three samples of Nicaraguan cacao will compete for the first time in the international Cacao of Excellence competition which is held every two years at the Salon du Chocolat in Paris. (Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 13; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 11)

7. National Museum opens new exhibits with 700 indigenous pieces

The National Museum of Nicaragua, located in the National Palace of Culture in Managua, opened three new rooms of indigenous exhibits on Oct. 12, in commemoration of Indigenous Resistance Day. Javiera Perez, director of the Museum, said that the new exhibits hold hundreds of archeological pieces including some that are believed to date from the Orosi period between 1200 and 1500 BCE. While many of the pieces exhibited are extremely old, some are from the period of the indigenous struggle against the Spanish conquest after 1492. Two years of work on the part of restorers, archeologists, historians, geographers, and architects went into the mounting of the exhibits. Luis Morales Alonso, director of the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture, said, “The National Museum is celebrating 117 years and this is its best moment. The [prehistoric] collection before was small with only 81 pieces on exhibit and the rest in storage” and now there are more than 700 on exhibit. The Palace of Culture (the old National Palace) is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:00am to 5:00pm, and on Sunday from 9:00am to 4:00pm. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 12)

8. Solution sought for problems with Customs

Business leaders are meeting this week with government representatives to try to establish new mechanisms to resolve recurring problems with the General Directorate of Customs which importers, whether in the business sector or non-profit sector, have complained about for a long time. Jose Adan Aguerri, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) said that Customs continues with its “bureaucratic processes” and retention of merchandise that businesses are trying to import into Nicaragua. In September, COSEP gave the government a list of 22 companies that have merchandise retained in Customs after orders for release of the goods from the Customs Tribunal, the Administrative Tax Tribunal and the Supreme Court. “This affects widely the formal and informal private sector of this country and we need an answer from Customs,” Aguerri said. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 9)