Nicaragua Network

1. Canal briefs: aerial study of route planned; Bloomberg article skeptical; review of enviro study nearly complete
2. Nicaragua’s Naval Force to expand
3. News flash: Texas appeals court suspends Tercero execution
4. Police tracking criminal band that killed five officers
5. CSE opening voter registration offices in all municipalities
6. Nicaragua signs satellite agreement with Russia
7. Building of Larreynaga hydroelectric plant completed
8. Obesity rises along with standard of living

1. Canal briefs: aerial study of route planned; Bloomberg article skeptical; review of enviro study nearly complete

On Aug. 19, the HKND Group, which holds the concession for the planned shipping canal across Nicaragua, signed an agreement in Hong Kong with the International Geology and Resources Consulting Firm CSA Global of Australia to conduct an aerial geological survey of the selected canal route. Scheduled to begin in September 2015 and be completed in March 2016, the study will cover a ten kilometer wide area along the route of the canal and a two kilometers wide radius of the Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) coastline. The 3D high resolution data will be obtained by fixed wing aircraft flying in grid patterns over the route. The study will use LiDAR technology [which, according to Wikipedia, is a remote sensing technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser and analyzing the reflected light].With the results, maps will be prepared that will show the surface and sub-surface of the area that, as reported in the Informe Pastran, will permit designs that will mitigate environmental damage, protect groundwater and archeological sites, and locate mineral deposits.  (Nicaragua News, Aug. 20; Informe Pastran, Aug. 19, 20, 21; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 20; http://hknd-group.com/portal.php?mod=view&aid=227)

Meanwhile, on Aug. 19 Bloomberg Business published in its on-line edition an article entitled “China's Building a Huge Canal in Nicaragua, But We Couldn't Find It,” in which author Michael McDonald visited the tiny town of El Tule on the east side of Lake Nicaragua to find that “the townspeople haven’t seen any signs of canal workers in months.” [Note: According to La Prensa (Jan. 11, 2015), the canal route was changed slightly and will no longer go through El Tule.] The article goes on to quote Sverre Svenning, a shipping expert at Oslo-based Fearnley Consultants AS, as saying that “Panama’s current $5 billion canal expansion will allow it to better accommodate today’s bigger tankers.” Overall traffic, he says, “isn’t strong enough to sustain a second route.” The article notes that while Wang Jing, HKND president, “hasn’t received official public backing from Beijing, China watchers say it’s unlikely he’d have signed such a deal without getting the green light at first from home.” But the writer maintains that “China’s record on these mega projects is spotty. Several have been put on hold long after companies began the work, like a $3.5 billion resort in the Bahamas and a $1.3 billion refinery upgrade in Costa Rica.” A map of Latin America included in the article shows a US$3.75 billion high-speed rail project that was canceled by the Mexican government in January and a project signed in Brazil this year for a US$50 billion Peru to Brazil railway. [The projected cost of the Nicaraguan canal is also US$50 billion.] (Informe Pastran, Aug. 20; http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-19/china-s-building-a-huge-canal-in-nicaragua-but-we-couldn-t-it)

In related news, Telemaco Talavera, spokesperson for the Nicaraguan Canal Commission, speaking at a conference in El Salvador, said that the review of the environmental and social impact study by the commission and the Ministry of the Environment is nearly complete. He said that while any project of this size will have an environmental impact, “we are convinced that the net balance will be highly positive.” He noted that Nicaragua had a high growth rate with low inflation, had doubled exports and quintupled national and foreign investment, lowered poverty and increased formal sector employment while making advances in health, education, energy, and security. But, he added, the country would make a needed great leap in growth with the inter-oceanic canal which would also benefit the region and the world. (Informe Pastran, Aug. 21)

2. Nicaragua’s Naval Force to expand

President Daniel Ortega, speaking at a rally on Aug. 19 marking the 35^th anniversary of the founding of the Nicaraguan Naval Force, said that efforts were being made to provide better equipment for the Navy to defend national sovereignty in the additional territory it now patrols since the 2012 ruling of the World Court extended the country’s territorial waters in the Caribbean. Ortega said, “We have to fulfill three objectives: The first is the defense of life; the second is to accompany our fishing boats; and the third is to fight drug trafficking and organized crime. The latter is what most keeps us occupied and where we have to be ready to act.” Armed forces leaders have estimated that the Naval Force needs eight more patrol vessels.

On Aug. 20, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said that she understood that the projected growth of the Nicaraguan navy in the Caribbean was “part of their fight against drug trafficking” without any implications for the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries. She added that the government of Colombia continues to work with Nicaragua “to avoid any type of incident” in the waters around San Andres Archipelago. The islands of the archipelago belong to Colombia but the World Court in 2012 gave the surrounding waters to Nicaragua. Colombia has refused to accept that ruling.

Colombian political analyst Maria Isabel Rueda criticized Holguin for her casual dismissal of the increase in Nicaraguan forces. Rueda noted that Colombia has two cases before the World Court related to Nicaragua. In the first Nicaragua is accusing Colombia of failing to recognize the 2012 ruling and in the second Nicaragua is asking for a further expansion of its territorial waters based on the extension of its continental shelf. Rueda said, “If we lose the first, it could cost us a multi-million dollar damage compensation payment to Nicaragua. If we lose the second, Ortega will take from us waters that have valuable deposits of petroleum and natural gas.” She added that it was time for the Colombian government to tell the people what the government strategy is in these cases and which lawyers have been hired to handle the cases, things which Nicaragua has already done. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 20; Informe Pastran, Aug. 20; Nicaragua News, Aug. 21)

3. News flash: Texas appeals court suspends Tercero execution

NEWS FLASH: On Aug. 25, a Texas appeals court suspended the execution of Nicaraguan Bernardo Tercero, scheduled for Aug. 26 for a murder committed during a robbery in 1997. The execution is suspended until the Harris County Court can review the elements of the appeal introduced by Tercero’s pro bono lawyer Walter Long. The appeal stated that Tercero did not receive a fair trial and that a principal witness in the case, Sylvia Cotera, has admitted that she was coerced into giving false testimony at the trial

BACKGROUND: On Aug. 19, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission asked the United States to suspend Tercero’s execution. The note from the IACHR also asked for a retrial with due process in accord with the American Declaration of the Organization of American States in 1948 to which the United States subscribed in 1951. “The IACHR urges the United States and in particular the state of Texas to respect fully its international obligations in the area of human rights,” the message stated. Maria Isabel Rivero of the IACHR said that Tercero’s original defense lawyers committed serious errors. She said that he was not allowed assistance from the Nicaraguan Consul, a violation of international law which establishes that foreigners accused of a crime have the right to consular assistance. Rivero also noted that there has never been an instance when the US Supreme Court has respected the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. “In no case have they suspended an execution,” she said, adding, “There are no antecedents; we have made requests in five or six cases but they have not respected the recommendations of the Commission.”

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has the power to grant a stay of execution and his communications officer told El Nuevo Diario that the governor carefully reviews each case to be sure that due process has been followed. However, Mike Charlton, one of Tercero’s lawyers, said, “Texas has never respected consular rights” and he does not expect that recourse to international law will have any effect. [In 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that foreign nationals who were not notified of their right to consular notification and access under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 after an arrest may not use the treaty violation to raise legal challenges after the trial.] There are currently 21 foreigners on death row in Texas, the majority from Mexico and Central America with some from South America, Asia and the Caribbean.

President Daniel Ortega, the two Nicaraguan Catholic cardinals, Miguel Obando and Leopoldo Brenes, all petitioned for a stop to the execution. Nicaraguan human rights activist Bianca Jagger, a goodwill ambassador of the Council of Europe for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, arrived in Houston on Aug. 21 from England to try to intercede with the governor. On Aug. 24, a Texas State Court rejected Tercero’s plea which was then scheduled to go to a Texas Appeals Court which the next day ordered the suspension. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25)

4. Police tracking criminal band that killed five officers

Aminta Granera, head of the National Police, said on Aug. 20 that the search for the men who killed five police officers in the South Caribbean Autonomous Region was advancing at a good pace. She spoke at the inauguration of the Eleventh National Softball Championship. She stated that there were between four and six men involved and added that extra security has been added on the borders to make sure that the killers do not escape across the northern or southern frontier. In previous statements, Granera had said that the criminal band had attacked the police when they were returning from the inauguration of a school in the community of Pijibay. She said that the government would not abandon the families who depended on the officers for support. Santos Andres Sevilla left six children and the mother of Wilber and Jorge Gonzalez is a widow who depended on her two sons for support.

Ana Julia Guido, the country’s top prosecutor, said that two of the criminals had been identified and their names were Geronimo Aguilera Calero and Donald Diaz Torres. The latter had been arrested by the police and was freed by his fellow gang members when they attacked and killed the police officers. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 19, 20; Informe Pastran, Aug. 20)

5. Supreme Electoral Council opening voter registration offices in all municipalities

On August 1, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) began opening offices in all the municipalities of the country to issue voter registration cards with an eye to the elections in November of next year, according to alternate magistrate Miguel Angel Melendez. Last week, Melendez said, “It is a gradual process; we’ll be opening offices little by little until we have the whole country covered.” He added that for many prospective voters, a trip to the departmental capital was too distant.

Former Vice-President Jaime Morales applauded the measure and urged citizens to apply for the voter cards early and be sure to pick them up before the election. Maria Haydee Osuna, president of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), said that the effort was an important one if the voter cards are issued promptly and impartially without any political preference. She said that she had been told that those who held Sandinista Party cards received their voter identification cards rapidly in 48 hours and others were delayed. Eduardo Montealegre, president of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), said, “Sooner or later the CSE will have to change; they will have to cede [to pressure]. Apart from the problems that are there, they are now opening voter registration offices in the towns and what we want is for them to issue cards not only to Sandinistas but to all Nicaraguans.” (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 19; Informe Pastran, Aug. 19)

6. Nicaragua signs satellite agreement with Russia

The Nicaraguan Telecommunications Institute (TELCOR) signed an agreement with the Russian Space Agency to access continuous satellite data from 24 Glonass satellites. Part of the agreement is to build a receiving center on Nicaraguan soil similar to an existing one in Brazil. The space imaging of Nicaraguan territory will allow better weather forecasting, quicker response to natural disasters, monitoring of drug trafficking, human trafficking and illegal logging and deforestation, as well as agriculture, including the impact of drought and floods. According to Paul Oquist, public policy adviser to the president, the agreement will also revolutionize telecommunications in the nation, reducing telephone and internet costs by an estimated 40%. (Informe Pastran, Aug. 20; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 19; Nicaragua News, Aug. 20)

7. Building of Larreynaga hydroelectric plant completed

The construction of the Larreynaga Hydroelectric Plant in the north of Nicaragua has been completed and the plant is going through testing operations with the expectations that in the next few weeks it will enter into full operation. The project was built by the Spanish Grupo Cobra (a part of ACS Industrial) with financing from the Development Assistance Fund (FAD) of the Spanish government. The plant will produce 18 megawatts of electricity, enough to provide power to 40,000 Nicaraguan homes, from a dam on the El Cacao River. This will contribute to the process of changing Nicaragua’s energy matrix with the goal of producing 90% of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020. (Informe Pastran, Aug. 21)

8. Overweight and obesity rise along with standard of living

One of the consequences of Nicaragua’s rising standard of living is the increase in overweight and obesity in the population. The polling firm M&R Consultants surveyed 1,550 people in 50 municipalities in a recent poll. Among the findings: 25.5% of women and girls age 16-19 are overweight as are 11.8% of boys and men in the same age range. When all adults are counted the overweight percentage among men rises to 45.5% and among women is 35.9%. Body Mass Indices and a Waist-Height Index were used to determine obesity. Obesity increases risk from a host of health threats including cardio-vascular disease and diabetes. Of those surveyed 2.6% were morbidly obese. Endocrinologist Denis Omar Granados called the findings “alarming.” “They place us in the top ten countries in the world,” he said. Nutritionist Paula Andrea Arce de Chamorro called on civil society and the government to educate people about the dangers of obesity and to regulate the introduction of unhealthy foods. Other commentators blamed television, video games, and computer use for encouraging a more sedentary lifestyle. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 18)