Nicaragua Network Hotline (December 29, 2009)
This is the last edition of the long running Nicaragua Network Hotline. It will be replaced beginning next week by the Nicaragua News Bulletin which will combine features of the Hotline and the Nicaragua News Service. We hope you will enjoy reading it!The origins of the Hotline are lost in the mists of time but it probably began around 1981. It was originally compiled from information from the Voz de Nicaragua short wave radio broadcasts, typed up and recorded so people could dial in on a special “Hotline” telephone line. The Hotline mobilized people to oppose aid to the contras, and to counter misinformation about the Nicaraguan Revolution. Later, the Hotline was prepared from the Central American Historical Institute’s “CAHI Memo,” which the Nicaragua Network took over and renamed the Nicaragua News Service in 1992. In the 1990’s we began posting the Hotline on the nascent internet to a site called reg.Nicaragua and sending it to a growing list of people who had e-mail addresses. The telephone “hotline” was retired in the mid-1990s but the Hotline lived on as a weekly e-mail and web update. Hotlines back to 2001 are archived at http://www.nicanet.org/?cat=15.
1. Nicaraguan government grants titles for indigenous communal lands
2. Aleman to run for president in 2011
3. Singer-songwriter Salvador Cardenal honored by Managua
4. Ometepe—refuge for migratory birds
5. Church leaders prepare for battle over therapeutic abortion
Topic 1: Nicaraguan government grants titles for indigenous communal lands
In accordance with Law 445 pertaining to Indigenous and Ethnic communal property rights, the National Committee of Demarcation and Titling (CONADETI) granted titles to Atlantic Coast groups in separate meetings in Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas) and in Bluefields. These communal land titles will insure the legal security of land that has belonged to them for generations.
During a ceremony in Bluefields, nearly 407,000 hectares were titled to six indigenous and three Creole groups. The beneficiary communities included Rama Cay, Sumu Kaat, Tiktik Kaanu, Wiring Cay, Monkey Point, Bang Ku kut, Caño Maíz, Río Indio, Grey Town and 23 cays. “This is another dream they are realizing in the South Atlantic. This has been a case in which the territories took the initiative to do their own self-diagnosis, gathered funds through foreign assistance, embassies, organizations and Coastal universities, and today (Dec. 20) it culminated with receiving titles,” said Maria Lourdes Aguilar Gibbs, Vice President of CONADETI, emphasizing the importance of the communities’ work.
Meanwhile, in Bilwi, CONADETI members approved the granting of communal titles to the indigenous communities of Mayangna Sauni Arungka (Matumbak), Sumu Mayangna Tuahka Takaln Balna and Rama-Kriol. Carlos Jose Aleman, president of CONADETI and of the Regional Council of the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN), said that “with the titling of the Mayangna Sauni Arungka (Matumbak) and Sumu Mayangna Tuahka, we are finishing completely the titling of the nine Mayangna territories.” He added that the titling of the Rama-Kriol land was the recognition of the demands of the Rama people of six communities who have conserved their culture and now have their land rights recognized.
Conadeti hopes to continue its work employing Law 445 as a tool to guarantee indigenous land control. In the first trimester of 2010, the commission aims to title four more indigenous territories.
Topic 2: Aleman to run for president in 2011
Former President Arnoldo Aleman, who leads the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), has declared that he expects to take first place in a Liberal Party presidential primary and be the Liberal candidate for president in 2011. Aleman, who served as President from 1997 to 2002, told La Prensa that he expects the various Liberal parties to unite and hold a single primary election which he intends to win. He said, “If someone wants to run in the primary but doesn’t think he can win, he shouldn’t run.” The PLC, the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), and the “Let’s Go with Eduardo” Movement (MVE) are holding unity negotiations under the auspices of Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata of Esteli.
Aleman served as mayor of Managua from 1990 to 1996. In the presidential elections of 1996, Aleman ran against Daniel Ortega whom he defeated. His years as president were marked by accusations of corruption and when he left office, his vice-president, Enrique Bolaños, who succeeded him as president, worked for his indictment and conviction for fraud against the state. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison of which he served several under house (and finally country-wide) arrest before being absolved by an act of the National Assembly early in January of 2009.
Aleman is also known for the pact that he signed with now-President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista Party (FSLN) in 1999 which assured the PLC and the FSLN of a certain number of government positions independent of which of the two parties held the presidency.
Topic 3: Singer-songwriter Salvador Cardenal honored by Managua
Singer-songwriter Salvador Cardenal was honored last week by the city of Managua with the Salvador Cardenal Cultural Medal, coincidently named after his grandfather, Salvador Cardenal Argüello. Mayor Daysi Torres said, “This is in recognition of your music, your work in defense of the environment, your dedication to making Nicaragua better each day.” Environmentalist Kamilo Lara, head of the National Recycling Forum, had recommended Cardenal for the award.
Cardenal has composed 400 songs. He has recorded one record alone and seven as the Duo Guardabarranco with his sister Katia Cardenal. Cardenal who suffers from the disease crioglobulinemia that affects the blood cells and received the award in a Managua hospital, said, “I am going to continue to love Nicaragua which is the greatest thing I have, above all asking that we do not destroy the planet so that our children can enjoy what our grandparents enjoyed—the clean rivers, the mountains full of deer….We have to defend this.”
Cardenal thanked the government for paying for his hospitalization and medicines. “No other government has loved me like this,” he said. He added that the government has not asked him for anything in particular. Laughing, he added, “I don’t belong to any party, but to one whole thing called Nicaragua.”
Topic 4: Ometepe—refuge for migratory birds
The island of Ometepe, in the middle of Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua), attracts not only 40,000 human tourists per year, but also numerous migratory birds that fly down from Canada and the United States to spend almost seven months in warm Nicaragua. Salvadora Morales, coordinator of Fauna and Flora International in Nicaragua, said that the privileged geographical position of the island brings around 52 species to the island every year.
One of the attractions of the island is the fact that it has eight separate ecosystems, from dry tropical forest to high elevation cloud forest. Fauna and Flora International, working with the Nicaraguan Minister of the Environment, established in 2007 a station that is part of the network of the Monitoring Avian Winter Survival Project of the Institute for Bird Populations. The monitoring began with funds from the U.S. Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA), passed in 2000 to sponsor projects in the Americas to help conserve declining populations of migratory birds.
On Ometepe, young park rangers working with the Two Volcanoes organization help with the capture of birds and the recording of data about them. The birds are captured with special nets strung between the immense trees in the island’s forests. Before the birds are set free they are banded so that their migration routes can be tracked, explained Morales. Among the birds that are regular visitors are the Yellow, Prothonotary, and Tennessee Warblers, and the Painted Bunting. In the last two years, the Wood and Swainson’s Thrushes and the Chestnut-sided Warbler have been sighted.
However, the bird refuge is being threatened by the increased human population on the island. In the last half century, 16,000 hectares of forest have been lost. Morales said that the monitoring system has permitted the collaboration among countries and international organizations to conserve the island. She said that further funding is necessary, however, and the municipal authorities of the island are preparing plans to raise money for preservation through a possible fee of one and five dollars respectively for national and international tourists that visit the island. She also commented that Nicaragua is one of the countries that spends the least on its protected areas with relation to total environmental spending. She said that between 2002 and 2005 the expenditures dropped sharply and now the challenge is to increase those expenditures.
Topic 5: Church leaders prepare for battle over therapeutic abortion
As religious leaders gave their last sermons of the decade on Sunday, they said they were poised to fight to prevent the overturning of a ban on therapeutic abortion. Since 2006 all abortions have been illegal in Nicaragua, but there are rumors that this may soon change. Women’s and human rights groups have challenged the penalization of therapeutic abortion, claiming that it is unconstitutional. While the Supreme Court is yet to rule on the case, rumors have circulated that the Court may rule in the groups’ favor early in the New Year. Alarmed about this possibility, the Catholic Church has begun to mobilize its followers against any form of abortion. The Church has declared national days of prayer for the family, lasting from Dec. 27 until Jan. 3.
Leaders said the Catholic Church views the possibility of again allowing therapeutic abortion as an unjust redefinition of the “family.” Managua Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes warned the congregation in a sermon at the Managua cathedral on Dec. 27 that “Because the family is so beautiful, it has its enemies.” He urged people to be aware of “organizations that invest great quantities of money to destroy the base of this society, to destroy the family.” Papal Nuncio Fr. Henry Josef Nowacki said during that same Mass that Nicaraguans should “commit themselves with all their strength to defend the family and respect for human life from the moment of conception.”
When asked about the grave situation in which the mother’s life is at risk—a situation that sometimes calls for therapeutic abortion—Monsignor Silvio Fonseca of the Office of the Family responded that the doctor must do his best to save both lives.
This hotline was prepared from the Nicaragua News Service. Our web site is: www.nicanet.org. To subscribe to the new Nicaragua Network News Bulletin, send an e-mail to nicanet@afgj.org.
