Nicaragua Network

1. Police present eight men accused of July 19^th massacre
2. Tropical depressions bring some rain but drought continues
3. Regulations of Law 779 change parameters of “femicide”
4. Nicaragua benefits most from CAFTA
5. Juan Bautista Arrien, long-time UNESCO representative, dies at 83
6. PLI and PLC sign unity pact
7. United States donates rapid vessels to Nicaraguan navy
 

1. Police present eight men accused of July 19^th massacre

On Aug. 7, Aminta Granera, head of the National Police, presented to the press and public eight men accused of planning and carrying out the attacks on the buses carrying celebrants home from July 19^th festivities which resulted in the deaths of five people and the injuring of 19 at two different locations in the Department of Matagalpa. She explained that the men began meeting on June 20 to plan the attacks and she showed videos of several of the accused making confessions of their participation in the actions. The accused, most of whom are from the Ciudad Dario area, are Leonel Poveda, Rosendo Huerta, Wilfredo Balmaceda, Jose Ricardo Cortez, Eddy Gutierrez, Jairo Alberto Obando, Jose Oliver Meza, Zacarias Cano, and Pablo Martinez.  Martinez is still at large. Granera said that several of the accused were related as cousins and brothers-in-law.

When asked about possible political motives for the attacks, Granera said that the accused were individuals “with criminal backgrounds.” She added, “We have not encountered any indication that this was a political act; it was a common crime and that is how we are treating it and we are sending it to the proper court.” Leonel Poveda was indicted for homicide in Costa Rica; Eddy Gutierrez was deported from the United States for identity theft; and Jose Ricardo Cortez was linked to car theft, human trafficking and the Zetas drug cartel. Granera said that, contrary to accusations, there “have not been nor will there be deaths or disappearances as in the times of the dictatorship. What we have had are persons investigated for an abominable criminal act that was condemned by all sectors of our society. …. We can assure you that at all times we have acted within the law.”

However, politics were evidently involved. Poveda is a former contra and member of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) in Dario and Gutierrez is also a PLI member who was elected to the Dario municipal council in 2012 but did not take his seat in protest over the election results. Cano is also PLI member in the municipality of San Ramon, where the second attack took place. Boanerges Matus, national secretary of the PLI, told Channel 15 that there was resentment among PLI members in the Dario area because they believed that they had won the municipal elections in 2012 but the Supreme Electoral Council gave the victory to the Sandinista Party. He added that there were protests and even deaths in that municipality in November of 2012. PLI president Eduardo Montealegre admitted that some of the accused were members of the PLI and of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) but he insisted that they should be presumed innocent. “We are going to defend our people; we are going to support them, and we are going to continue to denounce the abuses committed against these members of the PLI and members of the PLC who were taken out of their houses, beaten and hidden for many days.” PLC president Maria Haydee Osuna also promised to support the accused and their families. Oscar Sobalvarro, known as Comandante Ruben from his days in the contra, demanded that the Police clarify the July 26 killing of former contra Carlos Garcia.

Family members of the accused said that it was a frame-up on the part of the National Police. Aura Reinosa, wife of Zacarias Cano, said, “That is pure lies because he has not left the house.” Sayda Cano, sister of Zacarias Cano and wife of Rodendo Huerta, said that the police must have tricked her husband to get his fingerprints on a liquor bottle since he cannot drink because of stomach ulcers. Yohania Gutierrez said that her brother Eddy must have been drugged to get him to confess on the video presented by the police.

Gonzalo Carrion of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said that there were still unresolved questions about the case. He said that Granera did not explain the relationship between the suspects accused several weeks ago of throwing rocks at the buses to slow them down and the accused of Aug. 7 and he said that the extended period of detention before the eight men were presented to the public amounted to a “disappearance” under international law.

Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo congratulated the Police and the Army for the joint effort to detain the suspects, saying, “Our congratulations to the National Police and the Army of Nicaragua for their presentation of a detailed report of their findings in the investigation which the Commissioner [Granera] says will continue to be open on this horrifying crime, this massacre that all Nicaragua has condemned.” (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 8; La Prensa, Aug. 8; Informe Pastran, Aug. 7; Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 7)

2. Tropical depressions bring some rain but drought continues

Tropical depressions brought some rain to much of Nicaragua last week and more was expected this week but this has done little to ameliorate the drought that has meant a 50% shortfall in rain for this year. Alvaro Fiallos, president of the Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG) said, however, “The deficit we are seeing in the first harvest we hope to make up in the second and third plantings.” The second planting grows during what are usually the rainiest months—September and October. From the first planting this year, the harvest of corn is estimated to be down by 1.1 million hundredweights; rice is down by 1.3 million hundredweights; and beans by 3.9 million hundredweights. Agriculture represents 18% of Nicaragua’s gross domestic product. The drought is blamed for an inflation rate this year of 4.69%, up from 3.46% last year due to the increase in the price of food. The Ministry of Agriculture has authorized the duty free importation of 97,000 metric tons of rice on top of 74,000 previously authorized. Even in good years, Nicaragua only produces about 75% of the rice it consumes. The government has also authorized the importation of 27,500 tons of corn. Agriculture Minister Eduard Centeno stated that 107 of Nicaragua’s 153 municipalities have been affected by the drought with 35 seriously affected. The government has been meeting with different economic sectors to evaluate response to the drought.

The government’s plan for confronting the drought includes the distribution of food in what is being called the “dry corridor” where rainfall is down by 70%. Over 5,000 food packets were distributed in Madriz and health brigades visited homes weighing and measuring children to find where nutritional needs are not being met. Government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said that the majority of children weighed in 19 affected municipalities had normal weights. She said that the amount of food in the school meal will be increased in those areas. In the Department of Leon, the Health Ministry announced plans to visit 44,000 homes to survey the needs of families, especially children, the elderly, and pregnant women.

Cattle ranchers put out an SOS to the government to help resolve the problem of malnutrition among their dairy and beef cattle. Alvaro Vargas, vice-president of the Federation of Associations of Cattle Ranchers (FAGANIC), said that 700,000 heads of cattle are in danger and that figure could easily reach one million. He said that not only are cattle dying but cows are not getting pregnant which means that there is no milk for the farmer to sell, and when calves are born they are weak because of the malnutrition of the cows. There are an estimated 4.2 million cattle in Nicaragua and the industry generated US$650 million in export income in 2013.

Although Lake Apanas which supplies the water for the Centroamerica hydroelectric plant has seen its water levels drop by nearly 28 inches in the last two and one half months, Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli said that he does not believe that energy rationing will be necessary. He said the Ministry will be keeping track of the situation at the small hydro plants that serve one or two communities and which have seen water levels in their rivers and streams drop. On a national level, Rappaccioli said that the drop in electricity generation from the hydroelectric plants has been made up by increased generation principally from the nation’s wind farms but also from geothermal and biomass plants. He said that Nicaragua has a reserve potential of 27% beyond its normal demand and “there are few countries that have a reserve of that size.”

The Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER) reported the results of a comparative study that showed that this drought is similar to the historic droughts of 1976 and 1982 with El Niño-based deficits of precipitation in the Pacific and Central regions and normal rainfall on the Caribbean Coast. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 7. 9. 10, 11; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 9. 11; La Prensa, Aug. 8)

3. Regulations of Law 779 change parameters of “femicide”

On July 31, the executive branch published regulations for the Law against Violence toward Women, better known as Law 779 and also the State Policy for the Strengthening of the Nicaraguan Family and the Prevention of Violence. Marcia Ramirez, Minister of the Family, said that both were designed to strengthen Nicaraguan families and prevent violence by strengthening the nuclear family. She said, “We are speaking of a government policy that renews the focus of our model of Person, Family and Community in terms of which we are rescuing the formation of values.”

The regulations, among other things, clarified what constitutes a femicide. In the regulations, for the murder of a woman to be a femicide rather than a simple homicide, there must be a relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. This clarification could result in the reduction of sentences for some already convicted under the law. A homicide is punishable by imprisonment for 15 years, while femicide receives a sentence of 30 years.

Women’s organizations, human rights groups, and family members of victims protested. Brenda Rojas, an attorney at the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said that the law originally recognized that the crime can take place in the public realm or the private realm. While the law says that “a man commits the crime of femicide when, in the framework of the unequal power relations between men and woman, he kills a woman whether this be in the public or private sphere,” the regulations say that femicide is “a crime committed by a man against a woman in the framework of an interpersonal relationship of a couple … and that results in the death of the woman in circumstances established by the law.” Therefore, Rojas said, the change is unconstitutional. Wendy Flores, also of CENIDH, said that reduction in sentences was a possibility “but it will be the judges who are specialists in the subject who are competent to rule in each case.”

Supreme Court Justice Rafael Solis said that there are 2,890 men in jail in Nicaragua for violence against women, representing 36% of all those imprisoned. He added that the majority were convicted not of murder but of lesser offenses such as battery, intimidation and threats, psychological abuse, etc., where the sentences are lower, from one to two years. However, the regulations eliminate the jail time for some of these offenses, retaining it only where the safety of the woman and/or the children are in danger or in cases of recidivism. “We’re not giving a green light to men to intimidate women,” Solis said. However, legal experts consulted by El Nuevo Diario said that, in the case of those already serving jail time, the law establishes that changes in a law favoring those who have been convicted under that law can be applied retroactively.

National Assembly Deputy Maria Eugenia Sequeira said that the members of the committee that considered the law in the Assembly should review the regulations released by the executive branch carefully because regulations cannot change the spirit of a law. Deputy Wilber Lopez said that regulations establish parameters for the application of a law but should not change the spirit of the law. (Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 6; El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 7, 9; La Prensa, Aug. 6, 8; Informe Pastran, Aug. 11)

4. Nicaragua benefits most from DR-CAFTA

Nicaragua is the country that has benefited most from the trade agreement between the United States and the Dominican Republic and the Central American countries signed in 2004, followed by Costa Rica, according to economist David Lewis of the consulting firm Manchester Trade in an analysis of the first decade of the agreement. Lewis said that the country with the most problems has been Honduras with Guatemala, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic in the middle. “This is not done from one day to the next,” he said. He went on, “You have to have a ‘country project’ that includes international trade and that was the cause of the success of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A ‘country project’, independent of who is in the government, that links promotion of foreign trade and investment with the domestic market in terms of its economic policies… over the medium and long term creates that positive atmosphere to take advantage of [such an agreement].” (Informe Pastran, Aug. 7)

5. Juan Bautista Arrien, long-time UNESCO representative, dies at 83

Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry announced the death of the long-time representative in Nicaragua of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Juan Bautista Arrien in Managua at age 83. He had been battling cancer. A former Jesuit priest, a philosopher and an athlete, he was president of the Central American University (UCA) in Managua and wrote widely on education issues. In his role as UNESCO representative, he recognized Nicaragua as free of illiteracy in 2009. “His legacy in the field of education is vast,” said former Education Minister Miguel De Castilla, adding, “He not only founded the modern UCA, but headed up so many efforts in teacher training and left a large legacy of published works.” In a note, President Daniel Ortega recognized Arrien as “a teacher of generations with profound humanistic principles of social justice, a former of values in faith and education, [and] a promoter of peace and solidarity.” (La Prensa, Aug. 10; Radio La Primerisima, Aug. 10)

6. PLI and PLC sign unity pact

On Aug. 7, the presidents of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) signed a unity accord with an eye to the presidential elections of 2016. The accord could achieve an end to eight years of quarrels among the different Nicaraguan Liberal parties. However, still to be decided is the methodology for deciding how the single presidential candidate will be chosen. Eduardo Montealegre for the PLI and Maria Haydee Osuna for the PLC signed the accord in Managua. “This has been a long battle but we won’t give up although Liberal unity has its enemies, some external and some internal,” said Montealegre. Liberals were divided in the presidential elections of 2006 and 2011, which were won by Daniel Ortega and the FSLN. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 8)

7. United States donates rapid vessels to Nicaraguan navy

The Southern Command of the United States donated two rapid marine interception boats to the Center for Military Operations on the Caribbean Coast of the naval force of the Nicaraguan Army in order to improve its operational capacity in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime. The two boats, Boston Whaler model 370 Justice, are valued at US$1.2 million and contain sophisticated communications equipment and mapping technology according to a communiqué from the US Embassy in Managua. Five Nicaraguan sailors will be trained in Florida in the sailing of the vessels and the aid package also includes replacement parts valued at US$280,000. The total donation is approximately US$4 million. (El Nuevo Diario, Aug. 7)