Nicaragua Network

1. Heavy rains leave six dead and 35,000 people affected
2. Discussions continue around canal environmental and social impact study
3. Canal briefs: Costa Rica, financial study, McClatchy articles, Juigalpa protest, compensation
4. CSE Magistrate Marenco dies; parties discuss participation in 2016 elections
5. US funds opposition coalition

1. Heavy rains leave six dead and 35,000 people affected

The government reported on June 14 that the heavy rains that had fallen on Nicaragua in the first half of June had left a total of six people dead and 7,041 homes damaged or destroyed. Affected were 7,070 families with a total of over 35,000 people in 329 communities and neighborhoods in 45 municipalities in eleven departments of the country. The departments affected were Managua, Madriz, Carazo, Nueva Segovia, Leon, Matagalpa, Masaya, Chinandega, Esteli, Granada, and the North Caribbean Autonomous Region.

Experts in hydrology from Cuba, along with specialists from the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER), and officials from the Managua mayor’s office visited neighborhoods in the southern part of Managua to evaluate the true dimensions of the storm drainage problems that the city confronts in the rainy season. Cuban hydrologist Jose Antonio Hernandez said that the solutions would include small dams, channels, and other measures but that none of these would help if the giant storm sewers that carry the rains from the Sierras de Managua through the city to Lake Xolotlan (Lake Managua) continue to be used as places to throw garbage. The Managua mayor’s office has identified 44 places that are in the greatest danger of flooding and where 10,000 people live. Melida Schliz of the Geological and Geophysics Institute of the National Autonomous University said that many new “spontaneous” barrios have grown up over natural streams on soils that are not compact and this has led to flooding in these areas.

Government communications coordinator Rosario Murillo said on June 22 that the Managua mayor’s office will carry out 274 mitigation projects of various kinds in the most affected neighborhoods for a cost of US$4 million. Projects include repair of storm sewers, bridges, and streets. As reported on the news outlet Sputnik, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised assistance to confront the emergency.  (El Nuevo Diario, June 15; Informe Pastran, June 16, 18, 22)

2. Discussions continue around canal environmental and social impact study

Reactions have continued to the release to the Canal Commission on May 31of the Environmental and Social Impact Study of the proposed shipping canal across Nicaragua by the British firm Environmental Resources Management (ERM). (The study will not be released to the public until the end of June.) Eduardo Montealegre, president of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), questioned the short time that ERM had taken to prepare the study “and for that reason it seems to me that it lacks seriousness, above all because it all continues to be handled in secrecy.” He added, “I don’t believe in the canal; I don’t believe that the development of a country can be based on one project.” But international law specialist Manuel Madriz Fornos said, “This is a study of international importance put together by an international company of first rank which has high level experts.”

Meanwhile, Circle of Blue, a non-profit journalism organization concerned with water issues, published an article on June 5 which, while critical in general of the canal’s environmental impact, included links to the reports from the March 2015 forum of experts called together by ERM at Florida International University to review its preliminary findings. There are two reports, one from the panel [http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Nicaragau-FIU-Panel-Summary.13-April-2015-Final.pdf]and the other the response from ERM [http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ERM-respnse-to-Nicaragua-Canal-International-Expert-Panel-Comment-Response_Master-5.13.2015_English.pdf].  

The panel noted, “The very short (i.e., 1.5 years) period that was approved by HKND for this environmental study was insufficient given the magnitude of the proposed projects associated with the canal construction.” ERM responded, “ERM has been previously quoted in the media as saying the ESIA [Environmental and Social Impact Assessment] schedule was aggressive. The lack of a final detailed Feasibility Study hampered our analysis. ERM recommends in the ESAP [Environmental and Social Action Plan] that several additional studies be completed to confirm key design assumptions ‘before a final decision is made by the Government of Nicaragua.’” The response added, “ERM only reached conclusions where we believed we had sufficient data to support those conclusions.”

Informe Pastran reported that ERM recommends that the project affect in the most minimum way possible the six Rama communities (Suma Kaat, Tiktik Kaanu, Rama Cay, Wiring Cay, Indian River, and Bangkukuk) and three Kriol communities (Graytown, Corn River, and Monkey Point) in the region. ERM met with the communities last year and the report includes information about their socio-economic situation, their culture (including sacred sites and archeological sites), the places where they hunt and fish and how the different populations relate to each other. ERM recommends that, if the community of Bangkukuk is to be moved, it be done with the complete agreement of the members of that community.

In the first installment of a long El Nuevo Diario interview with Bill Wild, chief project adviser of HKND, the company that holds the concession for the canal, Wild said that Route 4 was chosen because it would cause the least damage to the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve and less disruption to indigenous communities because of a low population in the area. He said, “We have to clarify that in the area [of the Caribbean terminus of the canal] there are some 300 families of which only 25% belong to the Rama Kriol ethnic group and the rest are settlers who have come to live in that indigenous territory.”

Wild went on to say, “The EIAS determined that the canal will fulfill the international standards included in the international agreement known as the Ecuador Principles and also determined that if we are able to mitigate, control, and compensate for the impacts, then the canal in the end will have a net positive impact; that is to say that in the end the positive environmental and social impact will be greater than the negative impact.” Wild also said that earth excavated for the canal will be placed “in areas converted or rehabilitated into fertile lands for agriculture.” In the case of most of the material from the dredging of the canal’s passage through Lake Nicaragua, there will be “two large islands with walls of rock and the material extracted from the depths of the lake will be deposited in those sites.” Wild noted that Lake Nicaragua “is one of the greatest concerns of the people” and added that HKND is committed to protecting it. He added, “We will create a massive reforestation program in the zones of the watersheds of the rivers all along the route of the canal to protect the Indio Maiz and Punta Gorda Reserves and the Meso-American Biological Corridor.” (Informe Pastran, June 2; Circle of Blue, June 5; El Nuevo Diario, June 22)

3. Canal briefs: Costa Rica, financial study, McClatchy articles, Juigalpa protest, compensation

After a flurry of news stories beginning with one on June 4 in the Russian outlet Sputnik asserting that Costa Rica was trying to pit China and the United States against each other over the Nicaraguan canal, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis said at a Brussels summit meeting of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), “We have not asked the United States to pressure Nicaragua not to build [the canal]. That is a sovereign decision of Nicaragua and the only thing that we want is information about the possible environmental impact on Costa Rica; apart from that, we wish them well.” But later, in an interview with Radio France International, he said that Costa Rica was a victim of Nicaraguan aggression in the case of a disputed triangle of land at the mouth of the San Juan River. That case is currently before the World Court. Nicaraguan National Assembly Deputy Edwin Castro, a Sandinista, said that the environmental study will be made public when the Canal Commission has finished reviewing it, adding, “I don’t see how it would cause any damage to them on the route that was chosen [which is considerably north of the border].” He added that the Nicaraguan government had received no request from the government of Costa Rica for information about the study. (Informe Pastran, June 4, 9; El Nuevo Diario, June 10)

Former Foreign Minister Francisco Aguirre Sacasa was quoted in Informe Pastran as saying on June 16 that HKND Chief Project Advisor Bill Wild had said over the previous weekend that the final design of the canal would not be completed until mid-2016. Aguirre said, “This gives it a political dimension because the issue will still be alive for the campaign leading up to the 2016 elections.” He added that Wild also revealed that the economic feasibility study done by McKinsey and Company has been finished since July of 2014. He asked why the study has not been made public and wondered if it has been taken to financial markets and institutions in search of investors. Such news, he said, would help to dissipate the doubts that exist around the canal. Presidential economic advisor Bayardo Arce said on June 4, “I don’t know what is happening with the canal because there still is no money deposited for it.” Presidential public policy advisor Paul Oquist has been travelling around the world presenting the canal project to possible investors. In London, he spoke at Guildhall at an investment forum organized by the Latin American Trade and Investment Association and, in St. Petersburg, Russia, he talked about the canal at an International Economic Forum. Before those visits, he was in China where he reported that investors there had shown a great deal of interest in investing in the canal. (Informe Pastran, June 4, 5, 15, 16, 18, 22)

On June 19, Informe Pastran reported on a series of articles on the McClatchy DC web page by Tim Johnson on the Nicaraguan canal. In the first of the series, Manuel Coronel Kautz, head of the Nicaraguan Canal Authority, said that, on a trade mission to China, Laureano Ortega of ProNicaragua was invited to meet with Chinese government and Bank of China officials after he brought up the subject of a possible interoceanic canal across Nicaragua. He was told that private sector investors would take the initiative and was given a list which included Wang Jing, whom Johnson calls “a billionaire telecom tycoon with powerful ties within China’s long–ruling Communist Party and reputed ties to the People’s Liberation Army.”  Two years later the concession for Wang’s HKND Group was approved by the Nicaraguan National Assembly. The McClatchy articles quote Michael Healy Lacayo, president of the Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua (UPANIC), as saying, “At this time we have a stable growth rate of 4 or 4.5% per year. After building the canal, we could reach 9 or 10% each year.” The article adds that “Nicaragua is believed to be losing 270 square miles of woodland a year” and asks “So, which is worse, the helter-skelter, slow-motion destruction by settlers or the gashing of a massive canal across the isthmus” [which would involve reforestation to provide the necessary water]? (Informe Pastran, June 19, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/static/features/NicaCanal/)

A substantial crowd marched against the canal and what they believe will be confiscations of their land in Juigalpa on June 13 with figures varying between 8,000 and 30,000 marchers. At the front of the march was a banner reading “Daniel Vende Patria” accusing President Daniel Ortega of selling out his country, followed by another saying “Here the Chinese will not enter.” Participating were farmers and the opposition political parties and opposition environmental and human rights organizations. Francisca Ramirez Torres said that the day before the march the organizers had their cell phone calls blocked. Police had put up traffic stops along the roads to Juigalpa but buses of protesters were allowed through with the required permits from the Ministry of Transportation. Esteli Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata, an ardent foe of the Sandinista government, said, “The people are waking up, thank God! …. There are very just demands such as those from peasant farmers who are saying that they are not in favor of the canal and will not sell their land.” (La Prensa, June 13; Informe Pastran, June 16))

Meanwhile, in response to the protests, President Daniel Ortega, speaking at a ceremony at which he received the diplomatic credentials from the new ambassadors to Nicaragua from Panama, Honduras, Ecuador and Peru, said that “No one will be trampled on but rather all will benefit from the canal.” To the new Panamanian ambassador, he said that the Nicaraguan canal would be complementary to the existing canal in Panama.  Vice-President Omar Hallesleven said that “When work begins and the first farmers negotiate with the company…, then this will all collapse like a house of cards just as has happened with Tumarin.” He explained that the hydroelectric company paid millions of dollars to displaced farmers for their land; they ended up better than before in a new town with all the necessities, and the protests ended. Telemaco Talavera, spokesperson for the Canal Commission, said that there will be no confiscation and several methods of compensation have been designed, including new homes, payment for land at rates above the estimated property tax value, construction of schools, health centers, and Catholic and Protestant churches in the new communities. He added that farmers who have no legal title to their land will be given titles and will then be compensated.  He noted that 7,000 families with a total of about 30,000 people are expected to be affected. (Informe Pastran, June 11, 16, 17)

4. CSE Magistrate Marenco dies; parties discuss participation in 2016 elections

On June 11, Jose Marenco Cardenal, one of the magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), died of a heart attack while vacationing with his family at San Juan del Sur. Marenco was a member of the Constitutional Liberal Party of former President Arnoldo Aleman but broke with the party over political differences. His death opened up a seat on the Electoral Council for which proposals of candidates immediately began. On June 16, the National Assembly approved the creation of a special committee to review candidates’ qualifications. The committee is chaired by Alba Palacios of the Sandinista Party; other members include Wilber Lopez of the Independent Liberal Party Alliance and Edwin Castro, also of the Sandinista Party. On June 19, the committee announced that six names had been submitted. President Daniel Ortega proposed Judith Silva, former head of the Urban and Rural Housing Institute (INVUR). Assembly Deputy Wilfredo Navarro of the Constitutional Liberal Party proposed current alternate CSE Magistrate Miguel Angel Melendez, former Minister of Health Martha McCoy, former National Assembly Deputy Yamileth Bonilla, former CSE magistrate Silvio Calderon, and attorney Jimmy Blandon. As of June 22, the Independent Liberal Party had not yet submitted any candidates. The CSE has been the object of much criticism in recent years. Francisco Aguirre Sacasa, who served as Foreign Minister under Aleman, was quoted in Informe Pastran as saying that, with the election of a new magistrate to the CSE, President Ortega has the opportunity to give a needed independent voice to that body before the country’s 2016 presidential elections. (El Nuevo Diario, June 12, 16, 20; Informe Pastran, June 16)

In related news, National Assembly Deputy Wilfredo Navarro of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) said that all Liberals should unite, asserting that Liberals “are prisoners of two pseudo-leaders, Arnoldo Aleman and Eduardo Montealegre and the people surely want a new vision of liberalism.” Montealegre, head of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), meanwhile, said in a statement that caused tremblers among politicians that he did not believe that the opposition parties should participate in the 2016 elections without key changes in the Supreme Electoral Council. He did say, however, that he was open to the possibility of dialogue with President Daniel Ortega. In a recent CID Gallup poll, 52% of those interviewed said they sympathized with the Sandinista Party; 39% declared themselves independents while only 4% sympathized with the PLC and 3% with the PLI. (Informe Pastran, June 19, 22)

5. US funds opposition coalition

Meanwhile, as the country’s political parties were discussing their participation in the 2016 elections, the United States appeared poised to intervene as it has in the past. Informe Pastran reported on June 19 that on June 25 a new political coalition called Democratic Unity would be launched. The coalition is organized by the group Hagamos Democracia “and sponsored by none other than two political organizations of the United States,” according to Informe Pastran which did not name the two groups. The Nicaragua Network speculates that one of them is likely to be the International Republican Institute (IRI), which has funded Hagamos Democracia in the past, and the other could be its parent organization, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Informe Pastran added that “this will be the coalition that will have the approval of Washington.” The US groups are providing the funding for internal primary elections among the member of the coalition which so far include the Conservative Party, the Citizen Action Party, the historic Independent Liberal Party and the Christian Socialist Party along with a movement that organizers said represented independents. The coalition will pressure in Nicaragua and abroad for the government to allow national and international electoral observation among other measures. (Informe Pastran, June 19)