TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010
Nicaragua News Bulletin ( January 26, 2010)
1. Struggle over appointments to expiring posts continues2. Minimum wage agreement signed for the free trade zones
3. Campaign begins in Caribbean Coast elections
4. RAAS mestizo peasant farmers demand annulment of indigenous communal titles
5. Minimum school enrollment 1,600,000 and the sky is the limit
6. Channel 8 purchased by Sandinista group
7. Environmental groups call for suspending relations with Costa Rica over gold mine
1. Struggle over appointments to expiring posts continues
The National Assembly's Special Committee on appointments met for the first time on Jan. 22 and agreed to meet again on Feb. 4, the deadline for the presentation by the President and National Assembly of candidates for numerous expiring government posts. Each candidate chosen by the committee must then be approved by the Assembly by a super majority of at least 56 votes. The terms of the Human Rights Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman and the Superintendent of Banks expired in December. The terms of two magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) and eight members and alternates of the Comptrollers' Office expire in February. In April, four Supreme Court justices' terms run out and, in June, eight magistrates and alternates of the CSE complete their terms.
Sandinista Deputy Alba Palacios said her party would support the candidates scheduled to be presented by President Daniel Ortega. Liberal parties with representation in the Assembly have been in on-again, off-again negotiations to decide on a slate of candidates. Bishop of Esteli Juan Abelardo Mata, who has been hosting talks between the different Liberal leaders, lamented the inability of the Liberal blocks to agree. He said, “The unity that should now be showing itself in the Liberal [dominated] Assembly, proposing [legislation] or stopping certain processes, is not being achieved and instead we are left with empty hands.” Mata said he had proposed a renewal of unity talks for Jan. 25 but while Eduardo Montealegre was willing to meet, former President Arnoldo Aleman said his schedule was full.
Members of the various Liberal parties in the National Assembly were trying unsuccessfully to overturn President Ortega's decree of Jan 9 that allowed office holders to remain in their posts after their terms expired until the Assembly approved their successors. National Assembly President Rene Nuñez, a Sandinista, left open the possibility of appealing to the Supreme Court for a resolution of what he said was a conflict over the respective powers of two branches of government. He said that that was the solution recommended by legal counsel of the Assembly. Opposition parties had not even taken the first steps to propose candidates for the soon to be vacant positions until President Ortega issued his decree to extend the terms until the National Assembly voted on their replacements. This would seem to indicate that the opposition strategy was to leave the positions empty in an effort to cripple the Ortega government. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 23; Radio La Primerisima, Jan 23, 25; La Prensa, Jan. 19)
2. Minimum wage agreement signed for the free trade zones
Unions and corporations in the Free Trade Zones signed a comprehensive minimum wage agreement for 2010-2013 that will provide workers with an 8-10% per year increase over the current US$146.85 monthly base salary. Both workers and employers were happy with the agreement which promises investment and job stability. The agreement covers 152 companies employing 72,000 workers.
The nine point agreement also includes construction of 1,000 houses for sale to workers in the range of US$6,000-$10,000 over the period of the agreement with financing making them affordable to workers earning US$180 per month or more. Other points in the agreement include the installation of commissaries in factories where they do not currently exist and the guarantee of 40,000 low cost food packages per month this year. Technical training, family recreation centers and savings and loan cooperatives are also included in the agreement.
Dean Garcia, Director of the Nicaraguan Association of the Textile and Clothing Industry, said that thanks to this type of agreement, eleven projects with the investment of US$50 million and creation of 5,000 new jobs were approved for 2010 between June and December of 2009. He said, “The message we are giving the international community with this type of salary agreement is having positive effects.” He noted that the goal is to create 15,000 new jobs between 2011 and 2013.
Negotiations for minimum wages in the other economic sectors are continuing. Luis Barbosa, a leader of the National Workers Front (FNT) said labor is looking for wage increases in the double digits, while Superior Council of Private Businesses (COSEP) President Jose Adan Aguerri wants increases in the 6-7% range. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 21)
3. Campaign begins in Caribbean Coast elections
The campaign for the March 7 election of the regional authorities of the North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions (RAAN and RAAS) began on Jan. 21. Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) Magistrate Jose Luis Villavicencio said that observers will monitor the election. He said, however, that international observer groups must be composed entirely of foreign citizens with no hiring of possibly politicized locals. Among the Nicaraguan groups that have applied for certification as observers are the Center for the Development of the Atlantic Coast (CEDECA), several universities, the Institute for Development and Democracy (IPADE), the group Forging Nicaragua Futures (FORFUNIC), and several religious groups. Villavicencio said that Roberto Courtney, director of Ethics and Transparency, would not be authorized as an election observer because “this gentleman has disqualified himself. He can't be a suitable election observer because he categorized the elections as fraudulent beforehand.”
CSE President Roberto Rivas said that an invitation had been extended to the President of the European Union [Commission] and that there was “complete openness” to the sending of observers by the Organization of American States and to observation by national groups. In the area of campaign financing, Rivas said that by law no candidate could receive funds from foreign institutions including those that receive money from a foreign government as is the case for the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, both of which are funded by the U.S. Congress. He said, “The parties …. can receive help for training and technical assistance although these funds must not come from a [foreign] State because that is also against the electoral law.
On Jan. 18, Roberto Courtney announced that Ethics and Transparency expected to observe the Atlantic Coast elections and said that he believed, “the first thing the country needs in terms of democracy is to change all the members of the Supreme Electoral Council.” He added that if the regional elections on Mar. 7 are transparent, “it will be only to legitimize the Electoral Council so they can steal the [2011] national elections.” Ethics and Transparency has received major funding from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy since the 1990 election.
The Sandinista Party is running in alliance with the Party of the Nicaraguan Resistance (PRN) of former Contras. President of the PRN Julio Cesar Blandon said, “We are working to win. The alliance has to take both regions because that will help the people of the Coast exercise their autonomy to a greater degree. ….[W]e, who yesterday confronted each other, today are together to move the country forward.”
Meanwhile, leaders of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), and the “Let's Go with Eduardo” Movement, and the Nicaraguan Democratic Bench (BDN) said that they were “smoothing over differences” over how their joint campaign should be run on the Coast. Arnoldo Aleman, leader of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), said he was confident that, in spite of the maneuvers of the Sandinistas, the results would be favorable for the PLC, which is not running in alliance with the other Liberal parties. (Radio La Primerisima, Jan. 21, 23; El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 19; La Prensa, Jan. 21)
4. RAAS mestizo peasant farmers demand annulment of indigenous communal titles
Fifteen hundred mestizo peasant farmers, many of them former Contras, living in the area southeast of Bluefields marched on Jan. 20 in that capital of the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS). They demanded that communal property titles granted to Rama indigenous and Afro-Nicaraguan Creole communities be annulled. Thirty-three communities in the RAAS are comprised of immigrants from the Pacific, Spanish-speaking side of the country. Many were encouraged to immigrate to indigenous land on the Caribbean Coast during the 1990s government of Arnoldo Aleman.
Pedro Sarantes, one of the peasant leaders from the region of Kukra River, claimed that “high level” government officials had promised individual land titles to 28,000 peasant families during a meeting on Sept. 13, 2009. It is unclear whether this alleged meeting was with Autonomous Regional government or national government officials. Another leader, Marcelino Andino, said that the mestizo farmers do not accept the communal form of property ownership traditional among the indigenous and Creole cultures. Marcos Hernandez threatened a boycott on supplying food to Bluefields if the government did not recognize the mestizos' right to individual land ownership.
The migrants from the Pacific side of the country filed a demand for annulment of the Rama and Creole communal property titles before the Civil District Court in Bluefields and demanded that the Commission of Demarcation and Land Titles suspend its work. The protestors rejected an offer to negotiate from RAAS Councilman Jimmy Henriquez and regional Attorney General Antonio Ortiz. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 21)
5. Minimum school enrollment 1,600,000 and the sky is the limit
At the start of the school enrollment process for 2010, the floor for enrollment is 1.6 million students (the number already in the school system), said Minister of Education Miguel De Castilla, but the sky is the limit. Enrollment is open to all children, youth and adults who wish to get an education, he said. In this campaign for universal school enrollment, there are to be no barriers to education. De Castilla joked that everyone is welcome to enroll, even if they come naked. Enrollment is now open to regular and special education students. The period for enrollment has been extended. Moreover, as part of the government's Zero Hunger program, students will be guaranteed a meal of cereal, milk, beans and rice each day.
Since 2001, the Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights (PDDH) has been working to provide oversight for education in order to comply with the constitutional right to access free education. Special Ombudswoman for Children and Adolescents Norma Moreno said, "We are going to develop this oversight process beyond just free education. We are going to make sure that there isn't a single public school that denies the right to register. That is to say that no school will deny enrollment to any child or adolescent for not presenting a birth certificate, a photo, or for having a physical disability or hearing problem, now that special schools are only for children with advanced Down's syndrome." (Radio La Primerisima, January 19, 2010)
6. Channel 8 purchased by Sandinista group
The owner of Managua's Channel 8 television (Telenica), Carlos Briceño, sold the station to an owner connected to the Sandinista Party reportedly for the amount of US$10 million. It was rumored that the purchase was made with money from the firm ALBANISA, which invests funds from the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA) in anti-poverty and other projects. The new heads of the station appeared to be Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo, son of President Daniel Ortega, and Alberto Mora whose program “En Vivo” is aired by Channel 4 Television.
On Jan. 18, workers were called to a meeting at Daniel Ortega's home/office and were told by Ortega Murillo and Mora that no one would be laid off nor would there be radical change. Mora also denied that the Sandinistas were trying to get a monopoly of the communications media. He said that of 20 VHF and UHF television stations in Nicaragua, the Sandinistas only controlled two.
One change, however, occurred soon after the sale was certain. Carlos Fernando Chamorro, whose programs “Esta Semana” and “Esta Noche” aired on the station, announced that he would be leaving. Chamorro said, “I don't want to be a partner or a collaborator of Mr. Ortega, neither directly nor indirectly; neither in his economic businesses, nor in his political businesses which he tries to use to help clean his authoritarian image.” (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 19, 21, 24; La Prensa, Jan. 19)
7. Environmental groups call for suspending relations with Costa Rica over gold mine
The environmental organization Children of the River called on the Nicaraguan government to “suspend diplomatic relations” with Costa Rica over the expected approval of a gold mining concession, Las Crucitas, near the San Juan River, the border between the two countries. The group said that the project would poison the river and underground aquifers with cyanide and that it violates international law and United Nations accords for environmental protection. The group also called on President Daniel Ortega to sue Costa Rica under the Rio Charter and other agreements. Las Crucitas is a project of a subsidiary, Industrias Infinito, S.A., of a Canadian mining company [Vanessa Ventures].
The Costa Rican concession authorizes the removal of 192 hectares of forest which the group says will negatively impact biodiversity and the subsistence of Nicaraguan communities that live along the river. The open pit mine would be the largest gold mine in Central America, located in Cutris de San Carlos, just three kilometers from the river. The mining company expects to extract 650,000 ounces of gold over 12 years.
Angelica Alfaro, spokeswoman for the Nicaraguan environmental Humboldt Center, stated that Costa Rica's highest court had been expected to announce the concession last Friday but that opposition from the Catholic hierarchy and Costa Rican environmental groups had delayed the announcement. She denounced what she described as the tepid opposition voiced by the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of the Environment, the Fisheries Institute, and the Tourism Institute given that contamination of this important water resource would be against the Nicaraguan national interest. Unlike most international river borders, the Costa Rica border ends at the edge of the river meaning that the entire river is Nicaraguan national territory. She said that, in addition to threatening the river, the mine would endanger the important Indio Maiz Biosphere Reserve. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 21)
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