Nicaragua Network

1. Anniversary of assassination of Sandino commemorated
2. Continued Venezuela oil guaranteed
3. XI Poetry festival ends in Granada
4. Political shorts: PLI, Catholic bishops, Family Councils, voter ID cards
5. Program will improve Caribbean Coast food security and public investment
6. New study released on chronic kidney disease
7. Conservation paying off for Leatherback turtles

1. Anniversary of assassination of Sandino commemorated

On Feb. 21, the 81^st anniversary of his death, a new monument to national hero Augusto Sandino was unveiled in the park next to the Plaza of the Revolution in Managua. Buried there are Sandino's Col. Santos Lopez, who survived to found the modern Sandinista Front with Carlos Fonseca and Tomas Borge who are also buried there. Sandino was shot in 1934 by a firing squad of 13 men from the National Guard headed by Anastasio Somoza Garcia. His body was never found. Throughout the day organizations and families left flowers at the new memorial while in Ciudad Sandino commemorations began at 6:00 am. Sandinista Mayor Manuel Pinell said that Sandino dreamed of education, housing, and cooperatives for his people, dreams that they are now seeing realized.

In the evening, a formal ceremony was held in the plaza where President Daniel Ortega noted Nicaragua’s advances in security and defense of Nicaragua’s territory and insisted on the importance of continuing the struggle to eradicate poverty and guarantee the people’s rights to health care, work and education. He reiterated his support for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and his solidarity with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, threatened with right wing conspiracies supported by the United States. But, in something of an aside, Ortega said, “I have respect for President Obama; I would even say I esteem him. It’s true, I esteem him! When I have conversed with him I have found that we can talk…. But he is at the head of an instrument of power that he cannot change….” Then he added, “I don’t know. I give him, as they say, the benefit of the doubt.”

Ortega appointed General Julio Cesar Aviles to a second term as head of the Nicaraguan Army. In his speech, Aviles said, “They believed that by killing Sandino and hiding his body they would bury his example but they were mistaken. Today, 81 years later, Nicaragua and its Army continue to honor him.” Aviles reviewed the actions of the Army against organized crime and drug trafficking, of the Army’s Naval Force patrolling Nicaragua’s new territorial waters in the Caribbean, as well as in the San Juan River and the Gulf of Fonseca. He noted that the Army provides security for harvests in the rural zones, fights cattle thieves, and assists the population during natural disasters. The Corps of Engineers repairs roads; the Ecological Battalion works to protect the environment in the country’s nature reserves, while other members of the Army members fight disease-carrying mosquitos and patrol against poachers of endangered turtle eggs. Aviles said that the Nicaraguan Army would do everything possible to support strategic projects that will bring benefit to Nicaraguans: “The Great Inter-Oceanic Canal, Tumarin [dam], port development, airports, highways, and tourism are some of the clear routes to national development where businesspeople and workers join forces for a better Nicaragua.”

Opposition figures condemned the reappointment of Aviles to a second term which was made possible by changes to the Military Code which, among other things, eliminated the clause that said “The head of the Army may not be reelected.” Vilma Nuñez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, said, “To all intents and purposes, it is the public burial of the institutionality of the Army.” (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 21; Informe Pastran, Feb. 23; La Prensa, Feb. 22)

2. Continued Venezuela oil guaranteed

In a meeting with National Assembly deputies, Pedro Penso, chargé d'affaires of the Venezuelan Embassy, said that the sale of oil on concessionary terms to Nicaragua will continue unaltered. “The cooperation continues functioning,” he said. Penso said that a recent meeting of PETROCARIBE “ratified Venezuela’s promise to guarantee energy security in the region.”

Sandinista Deputy Jose Figueroa noted that Venezuelan Ambassador to Nicaragua Javier Arrue had said in a previous meeting that the political will to continue the cooperation between Nicaragua and Venezuela will be maintained and strengthened profoundly. Arrue explained that the flow of oil is secure because it is not based on the international price of oil but on availability and Venezuela continues to produce sufficient oil to provide 100,000 barrels a day to countries in the Caribbean region. He added that Nicaragua is up to date with payments on its oil debt to Venezuela. (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 18)

3. XI Poetry festival ends in Granada

On Feb. 21, the closing ceremony of the XI International Poetry Festival, which honored poets Enrique Fernandez Morales of Nicaragua and Eunice Odio of Costa Rica was held in Granada. The ceremony was presided over by Nicaraguan poets Francisco de Asis Fernandez and Luz Marina Acosta, Cuban-US Poet Ricardo Blanco, and others. Blanco read a document in which the poets attending the festival petitioned the United Nations Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) to declare Granada a world heritage site and also petitioned the government of Nicaragua to assign a permanent budget to the yearly festival, which they noted was the most prestigious in Latin America. Fernandez invited the world’s poets to attend the XII Festival next year which will mark the centennial of Rubén Darío’s death, honor Ernesto Mejia Sanchez, principal scholar of Darío’s work, and also honor Guatemalan poet Luis Cardoza y Aragon.

Oscar Rufino Gonzalez, vice-president of the Granada Chamber of Commerce, said that economically the festival had been a success with hotels, restaurants, and stores seeing significant increases in sales. Margarita Jarquin, president of the Merchants Association and restaurant owner, said that last year’s sales had been better but Julie Vallejo, who runs the book store Literato, said sales this year surpassed those of last year, particularly of books by Nicaraguan authors. Sellers of handicrafts said that their sales dropped substantially this year because they were not allowed to set up their stalls in the Plaza Independencia as in the past but rather sent to another plaza farther from the festival center. There were other disagreements with the mayor’s office about events in the Plaza Independencia, some of which were resolved and other of which were not.

PEN International, a worldwide association of writers and editors, held a meeting during the festival entitled “The Canal and Communication Channels” organized by PEN Nicaragua. Dina Meza Elvir, president of PEN Honduras, said, “The situation of freedom of expression [in Honduras] is complicated. Repression against this freedom has become acute since the coup [of June 28, 2009, against President Manuel Zelaya].” She went on to say, “We have had more than 50 journalists murdered since the coup…. None of the cases has been fully investigated.” Poet Gioconda Belli, president of PEN Nicaragua, said, “In Nicaragua, we do not have freedom of expression.” She added, “While it is true that here we do not have what is happening in Honduras, where there are so many journalists murdered, there is a death of debate, of criticism, because people begin to self-censure … an example is the case of the [inter-oceanic shipping] canal.” Belli said that Nicaragua now has a duopoly of television ownership in which many stations are owned either by associates of President Daniel Ortega or Mexican businessman Angel Gonzalez. (El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 22; La Prensa, Feb. 19, 21, 23)

4. Political shorts: PLI, Catholic bishops, Family Councils, voter ID cards

The Independent Liberal Party (PLI) will be the principal vehicle for the unification of the Liberal parties and other opposition parties for the elections of 2016, according to Eduardo Montealegre, president of the PLI. Montealegre said PLI leaders are in talks with several Liberal groups adding, “What we are looking for is an alliance of all Liberals and all those who are opposed to Daniel Ortega.” Rumors were flying that Montealegre would be a candidate for president again in 2016, but he insisted that it was much too early to speak of candidates. Opposition groups said they will commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the electoral victory of the National Opposition Union (UNO), the coalition that elected Violeta Chamorro president on February 25, 1990. The Violeta Chamorro Foundation and Hagamos Democracia plan a forum to mark the date at which Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of the former president will be the major speaker and other events were planned. (Informe Pastran, Feb 23)

The Nicaraguan Catholic Bishops Conference is setting up a diploma-granting program at the John Paul II University in Managua on “Political Formation for Lay People.” Fr. Victor Rivas, president of the university said, “Political formation for lay people has as its objective the formation of political consciousness among the laity. Lay people have an obligation to take an active part in political life and those who do take part in politics should be men of God.” He stated that there are those who say that the Church should stay out of politics but that is wrong; rather Christians must participate in politics. Among the churchmen who will teach the courses in the program are Bishop Silvio Fonseca of the Managua Archdiocese Office of the Family, Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Alvarez, and Chontales Bishop Rene Sandigo.  (La Prensa, Feb. 20)

In related news, Bishop Silvio Fonseca of the Managua Archdiocese Office of the Family called the neighborhood family councils that are now functioning in the neighborhoods of Managua nothing more than “a mechanism of control by the government to keep families under its dominion.” He added, “That is an invasion of the privacy of the families. The state is obligated to guarantee the wellbeing of families but not to abuse or manipulate them, much less invade their privacy.” However, Rev. Augusto Marenco, an evangelical minister, said that, according to what he knows, participation is voluntary and people can decide if they want to accept the intervention of the Family Councils. “There are some good things,” he noted, “because families need advice about their rights. It does have its limits because the family is sacred and no one can invade its privacy.” On Feb. 19, a training program began in all regions of the country that will eventually train thirteen thousand Family Council leaders in subjects relevant to the new Family Code.  Minister of the Family Marcia Ramirez said, “It is a very modern code because it is focused on human rights, on promoting family unity… a model of welfare for all… beginning with the children, adolescents, couples, seniors, the disabled, not leaving anyone out.” (La Prensa, Feb. 21; El Digital, Feb. 20)

In other news, National Assembly Deputy Brooklyn Rivera of the Yatama Party of the North Caribbean Autonomous Region said last week that few citizens on the Caribbean Coast were renewing their voter identification cards. He said that the cost and difficulty of traveling to the regional capitals of Bilwi or Bluefields was one factor keeping people from obtaining the document which is needed for many official acts besides voting. For the 2014 regional elections, 347,584 citizens had their cards but at least half will have expired in Dec. 2014 and the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) has said it will not recognize expired cards as it has done for numerous elections in the past. Rivera said that the CSE should send teams to isolated communities so that new voters and those with expired cards can obtain their cards. New voters can get the new digitized format card without charge but the CSE has not finalized the amount that will be charged for the digitized card for other voters. More than a million cards in the entire country expired on Dec. 31. (El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 18)

5. Program will improve Caribbean Coast food security and public investment

The World Bank and the Nicaraguan government signed an agreement on Feb. 23 to implement a project to strengthen food and nutritional security in 15 municipalities of the Caribbean Coast. The project will improve the capacity of small farmers and fishers as well as rural businesses to produce and sell their production.  Minister of the Treasury and Public Credit Ivan Acosta said, “The project will help low income families, improve productive capacity and nutritional education through technical assistance, technology transfer, partnerships with private actors, and support for the institutions of production, consumption, and trade." The project will include some 246 indigenous, African-descended, and mestizo communities in the 15 municipalities in both the South and North autonomous regions.  The project will be implemented by the Ministry of the Family, Community, Cooperative, and Associative Economy (MEFCCA) as part of a plan to improve public investment on the Caribbean Coast. The project will improve both the quantity and the quality of products by small-scale rural producers, building on programs begun in 2007 with the return of the Sandinista Party to government leadership. The US$42 million project is being funded with US$33.9 million grant from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) of the World Bank, US$5.84 million from the government of President Daniel Ortega, and US$2.26 million from the beneficiaries. (El Nuevo Diario, Feb. 23)

6. New study released on chronic kidney disease

Earlier this month, Boston University’s School of Public Health released the results of its latest study of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Central America. Agricultural workers are two to three times more likely to suffer from the disease than other workers and workers in Nicaragua and Honduras “appear to be the most affected,” according to Daniel Brooks, a professor of epidemiology at the school. Environmental health professor Michael McClean said that the study indicated that heat stress and dehydration have a probable role in combination with other factors in causing the disease. He added that new studies are necessary to measure the effects of exposure to heat and dehydration combined with agrochemicals and other possible agents on agricultural workers.

Some other (somewhat contradictory) findings of the study: 1) cane workers were the most affected; 2) kidney function declined over the six month cane harvest in cane cutters; 3) those who applied agrochemicals were less affected than cane cutters; 4) cane cutters who drank an electrolyte solution (e.g. gator aide) appeared to get some protection; and 5) adolescents in Nicaragua’s sugar cane region who had not yet joined the cane cutting crews showed incipient kidney damage. The study was funded in part by the Nicaraguan sugar industry as part of an agreement signed by growers with ASOCHIVIDA, a group of 2,000 former cane workers suffering from kidney failure and their widows. (Radio La Primerisima, Feb. 23; NPR, Feb. 4; BU School of Public Health, Feb. 2)

7. Conservation paying off for Leatherback turtles

Eighteen Leatherback turtle nests are being protected on the Veracruz de Acayo beach on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. Most years only two to three Leatherbacks come back and lay their eggs between September and February on that beach. Each Leatherback nest holds an average of 60 eggs. Leatherbacks are the world’s largest sea turtles and can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and grow to two meters in length. Their natural life span is 130-150 years but they are among the most endangered species of sea turtle because they easily become entangled in fishing nets. Fauna and Flora International (FFI) has been working for 12 years to protect Leatherback turtle nests at Veracruz de Acayo, part of the Chacocente nature reserve in the department of Carazo, and Salamina beach in Villa El Carmen in the department of Managua. Leatherbacks lay their eggs in solitary nests which are more vulnerable to poachers than other endangered sea turtles. FFI, in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA), have created a nursery to which only scientists have access as an influx of tourists would further affect the nesting grounds. (La Prensa, Feb. 17)