Nicaragua Network

1. El Limon Mine reopens after police clear barricades
2. M&R Consultores releases new poll
3. WikiLeaks book reveals magnitude of US funding of right-wing opposition
4. Budget for 2016 presented to National Assembly
5. Nicaraguan media outlet notes Sandinista mention in Democratic debate
6. Lake Cocibolca water quality improved by sixteen projects
7. AMNLAE teaches skills to at-risk youth in Granada

1. El Limon Mine reopens after police clear barricades

El Limon gold mine reopened on Sunday, Oct. 18, after the National Police cleared away the barricades that a group of workers had put up on Sept. 28 after three workers were fired by the B2Gold Company. The plant began working at 80% capacity with 120 of the 150 workers assigned to the shift. The remaining 30 workers belong to the union that continues protesting the detention of some its leaders.

Five people were indicted on Oct. 12 on charges of homicide, illegal use of arms, sexual assault against a police officer, and other charges for the violence on Oct. 6 that left one police officer dead, 31 people injured (including 8 civilians and 23 police), and the police station burned. Schools closed and stores ran out of food.

On Oct. 16, the Police released a communique saying that the community had a right to normalcy and that it would intervene to restore order. At 5:30am on Oct. 17, 300 riot police began to clear away the four blockades of stones and tree trunks that protestors had placed on the access roads to the community in order to stop work at the mine, which employs 800 local workers. Twenty-three people were detained but only three remained in custody. According to Marcos Alvarado, a member of the Pedro Roque Union which has promoted the protest, “The riot police came into our houses and violently carried out searches, telling women and children to go out while the men have had to flee to the hills for fear of being arrested.” Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said, “We lament the damage to the Santa Barbara Church in El Limon [where the police evidently damaged a door] and call on all parties to seek dialogue as the only way to achieve peace.”

Minister of Education Miriam Raudez, Minister of the Family Marcia Ramirez, and Minister of Health Sonia Castro traveled to El Limon on Sunday to dialogue with members of the community, especially with the women. Ramirez said, “Let’s all be calm; dialogue has been reestablished. That is why we are here. Please, no more cries of violence. Nicaragua is tired of violence in all its forms.” Women marched on Sunday demanding that riot police leave the zone, that union leaders be released and rehired, and that the five Peruvian managers of the Canadian B2Gold company leave the country. Later, thirty of the protesters met with the ministers to express their demands and notify them that they will not send their children to school until violence in the area ends.

The El Limon protests became a political issue and rumors flew. Organizations including the Civil Coordinator, the Movement for Nicaragua, and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) protested in front of the National Police Headquarters in Managua, demanding that the police leave El Limon and end “repression” against the population. A communique said, “The government has rejected all types of negotiation between B2Gold and the workers and has refused to listen to the population and its religious leaders.” Dora Maria Tellez of the MRS said, “We have been told by some people that the police had pitchers of gasoline and in photos on the social networks the police were [throwing the gasoline and] starting fires in homes,” actions which [strangely!] were never reported in the major news outlets.

President Daniel Ortega said on Oct. 13 that he lamented the violence in El Limon and understood the suffering of the family of the police officer who was killed as well as that of the families of those who have been jailed. He remembered that when the Sandinistas lost the 1990 elections, the mines were privatized and laid off 2,200 workers, dropping from 3,000 employees to the current 800. “So the fact that these protests could occur does not surprise me but we must condemn the violence,” he said. He rejected the proposal that the mine be nationalized saying that the government does not have the resources to run it and added, “In this country, where we had the reputation of being always at war and of confiscating businesses, we cannot go backwards.” He said that all foreign investment has its costs and benefits and it was normal for negotiations to take place seeking better conditions for workers. He noted that, at the Libertad mine in Chontales, workers and management have worked together to solve problems. He added that a concession for a new B2Gold mine at Rancho Grande in the Department of Matagalpa has been denied because the environmental damage would have been too great and local jobs too few. (Informe Pastran, Oct. 14, 19; El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 13, 17, 19; La Prensa, Oct. 17, 18, 19)

2. M&R Consultores releases new poll

Last week M&R Consultores released itslatest poll figures which showed continued support for the government of President Daniel Ortega with 77.8% saying that the country had improved with respect to six years ago and 77.1% stating that the country was headed in the right direction. The study was carried out between Sept. 1^st and Oct. 14^th, surveying 1,698 people over age 16 from the entire country. It has a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 2.43%.

There were some questions on the poll that had not been asked in previous surveys and which brought out interesting information. For example, 75.7% of those polled classed the Zero Hunger program as positive but only 11.1% said they had benefitted from it. Zero Usury was classed as positive by 74.4% but only 12.6% had benefitted. These may seem to be discouraging figures until they are compared to the statistics on poverty released last week which indicated that moderate poverty had declined from 42.5% to 29.6% of the population and extreme poverty from 14.6% to 8.5% with partial credit for the declines being given to these very programs. Plan Roof has benefitted 31.5% of the population, which is similar to the percentage that remains poor (29.6%).

This survey included questions about the current drought that has been especially felt along what is known as the Dry Corridor down the west-central part of the country. While nearly half of those polled said that the drought had had no effect in their region, another 29.6% said they had lost their harvests.  In the Dry Corridor itself, 56% said that they had lost harvests. Meanwhile, 54.3% of respondents living in urban areas said that they had noticed scarcity of some food products.

Ninety percent of those questioned supported the statement that the government should invite international election observation groups to observe the November 2016 elections. That included 94% of Sandinistas, 95% of supporters of opposition parties and 83% of independents. Ninety-one percent of those polled said that they had a voter identification card. Of those 45% said their card had expired but had been automatically renewed at the time of the last elections while 55.1% said their cards were up to date. Of the card holders, 91.6% said that they had gotten them at their local election offices while only 3.5% said they had obtained them through the Sandinista Party and 4.7% through the neighborhood Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs). The political opposition has claimed that only those members of the CPCs or the Sandinista Party can get cards.

With relation to the proposed inter-oceanic shipping canal, 74.7% said that they hope that the canal can be built with 85.6% of Sandinista sympathizers holding that view along with 62.7% of independents and 52.6% of sympathizers with the political opposition parties. In answer to another question about a subject currently in the news, 77.1% said they viewed the performance of the National Police as positive while only 21.8% classed it as negative. This was down from 80.1% approval in June. Those polled said that the limited presence of police was the principal cause of insecurity in their neighborhoods with 48.5% expressing that view. Seventeen percent blamed drug and alcohol consumption while 11.4% blamed poverty. Highly rated by poll respondents were the Women’s and Children’s Police Stations, actions against drug trafficking, and police work with youth to keep them out of gangs. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 14, 15, 16; Informe Pastran, Oct. 14, 15, 16)

3. WikiLeaks book reveals magnitude of US funding of right-wing opposition

The Ecuadoran newspaper El Telegrafo printed an excerpt from the recently published book, “The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to U.S. Empire” revealing cables from US Ambassador Paul Trivelli to the State Department. Trivelli was US ambassador to Nicaragua from 2005 to 2008 whose main charge was to unite Nicaragua’s fractious right-wing parties to prevent the election of FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega who, in spite of those efforts, won in November of 2006. The cables reveal that Trivelli directed the spending of more than US$60 million during those three years to right-wing political parties and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).  [Trivelli told a Nicaragua Network pre-election delegation in mid-2006 that he had “between $12 and $13 million to spend on the election.”]

Another cable details a meeting in the US embassy in December 2006 that Trivelli held with the leaders of the Nicaragua Liberal Alliance (ALN). ALN presidential candidate Eduardo Montielegre was freshly defeated by Ortega when the meeting was held. According to the cable, the group decided that rather than violate Nicaragua’s electoral laws which banned foreign donations to parties, that the US would funnel its money through civil society NGOs. The ALN provided Trivelli with a list of NGOs to launder the money. The money was to be disbursed by the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, both core groups of the National Endowment for Democracy. Trivelli asked the State Department to allocate US$65 million for Nicaraguan NGOs between then and 2011, which was the next election year, to finance “the strengthening of political parties.”

US Ambassador Phyllis Powers, who served in Nicaragua from 2012 until recently, publicly revealed that during the three years of her mission, the US “invested” more than US$40 million in support of civil society organizations to “strengthen democracy, training, coaching, among other things.” Informe Pastran asks, “Who were the beneficiaries? On what did they spend that money?” [Apparently, despite the US seeming acceptance of the presidency of Daniel Ortega, it is still working to return neoliberal governance to Nicaragua.] (Informe Pastran, Oct. 14)

4. Budget for 2016 presented to National Assembly

Treasury Minister Ivan Acosta presented to the National Assembly on Oct. 19 the government’s budget proposal for the year 2016. He said, “The proposed budget for 2016 retains as its central element the economic policy that we have been carrying out throughout this period of government of Comandante Daniel Ortega which is a budget that contributes to macroeconomic stability, to attracting investment, and to the generation of jobs, along with greater social spending.” The budget estimates that revenues will total 63.3 billion cordobas or US$2.3 billion and expenditures that will total 71.9 billion cordobas or US$2.6 billion. Fifty-seven percent of the budget is dedicated to social spending with education spending rising to US$436 million from US$109 million in 2015. Important infrastructure projects will include the completion of the paved road to Bluefields and construction of new hospitals in Managua and Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas.  

Acosta said the budget is based on a projected economic growth rate of 4.5%. He said that the expected growth rate of 2.3% of the United States is a factor of stability for Nicaragua as one third of the country’s exports go to the US. He noted that factors such as the 30% growth in construction as well as growth in service industries have compensated for a decline in the prices on the world commodities markets for Nicaragua’s exports. (Informe Pastran, Oct. 19; Radio La Primerisima, Oct. 20)

5. Nicaraguan media outlet notes Sandinista mention in Democratic debate

Informe Pastran noted the reference to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ support for the Sandinista revolution in the Democratic debate on Oct. 14 when Anderson Cooper said to Sanders: “The question is really about electability here, and that’s what I’m trying to get at. You — the — the Republican attack ad against you in a general election — it writes itself. You supported the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. You honeymooned in the Soviet Union. And just this weekend, you said you’re not a capitalist. Doesn’t — doesn’t that ad write itself?” In his reply Sanders answered the question about electability (saying that his candidacy would produce the large turnout that would mean Democratic Party victories) and avoided mention of Nicaragua or the Soviet Union. But Sanders did visit Nicaragua twice during the 1980s. The first time was in 1985 when, as mayor of Burlington he visited Puerto Cabezas to set up the sister city relationship between those two towns that persists to this day. The second was in 1986 when he came as part of the international campaign against Reagan administration policies of aggression against Nicaragua. (Informe Pastran, Oct. 14; New York Times, Oct. 14)

6. Lake Cocibolca water quality improved by sixteen projects

Liquid and solid sewage that used to flow unrestricted into Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) is no longer a threat to the largest body of fresh water between the US Great Lakes and Peru/Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca. This is thanks to sixteen environmental and socioeconomic projects the government has implemented in the Department of Rio San Juan and the municipality of Rivas, funded by the European Union and local governments. An important part of the project was the installation of 10 hazardous waste collection centers and a plastic recycling center employing 28 women on Ometepe Island and in the municipalities of San Miguelito and Morrito. Local initiatives have included the installation of water and sewer projects, tourist circuits, eco schools, and family gardens between 2012 and 2015. Other project included 130 efficient wood burning stoves (cutting wood use by 42% and improving family health), water filters, and grey water irrigation. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 15)

7. AMNLAE teaches skills to at-risk youth in Granada

El Nuevo Diario featured the social inclusion technical school in Granada at the Women’s House operated by the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Nicaraguan Women’s Association (AMNLAE). There are currently 239 young people from the community taking courses in cosmetology, sewing, baking, and computer literacy. Indira Morales, coordinator of projects, said they prioritize education in labor skills because that is the “key to success.” She said the programs don’t only reach young women but also young men at risk of violence, pointing to a construction training program in the Pantanal neighborhood, one of Granada’s most dangerous, where 20 young men are learning the skill of making adobe bricks, which gives them a marketable skill and “turns them away from the gangs.” Students pay a symbolic 70 cordobas (~US$2.50) per month for the classes. (El Nuevo Diario, Oct. 19)