Nicanet - The Nicaragua Network

Nicaragua Network Hotlines for May 30, 2006

News topics covered in this Hotline include:

Topic 1: FSLN Announces Vice Presidential Candidate and Platform

The FSLN announced that Jaime Morales Carazo, former Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) deputy and godfather to one of former president Arnoldo Aleman’s children, will run for vice president alongside presidential candidate Daniel Ortega. The official announcement was made on May 28 at the FSLN party congress. Morales, who has connections to big business across Central America, is now a member of the "Nicaragua Triumphs" Unity Alliance in which the FSLN is the major political party. The list of the candidates for National Assembly and Central America Parliament was also announced at the conference and Ortega presented the party platform. The full candidate list can be accessed at http://www.fsln-nicaragua.com/elecciones/2006-nac/index.html. The Movement to Rescue Sandinismo ticket headed by Herty Lewites announced its candidates the previous week. A partial list of candidates can be viewed at http://www.alianzaherty2006.com/.

The FSLN program includes a promise of no more war or military service, modernization of state institutions and branches and 50% of public positions to be held by women. The FSLN also promises to award land to peasants without confiscating land from anyone, reduce the gap between the salaries of public officials and workers, decentralize political and economic power to municipalities and negotiate with owners of Free Trade Zone factories so that they invest more but with greater respect of labor rights and a vision of social justice. The FSLN offers a government of harmony, but with a commitment to the rights of the workers. Ortega announced, “We will fulfill the right of the workers, we will end man’s destruction of the flora, fauna, and the environment, a social organization will be established to face all natural disasters, and we will go from external dependency to full national sovereignty."

FSLN economist Alejandro Martínez Cuenca was refused entry to the event by the doormen. Martínez attempted to enter the theater on three occasions but was turned away each time because he did not have an invitation. “I have always attended these events and...have never been asked to show my invitation. I don’t know why they aren’t letting me in," said Martínez. The economist, who ran in the 2001 party primary against Ortega, was planning to read out a declaration at the event in which he would call for democratization within the party.

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Topic 2: Aleman Attempts to Tighten Grip on Party Anger PLC Leaders

The Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) narrowly avoided the resignation of its presidential and vice presidential candidates Jose Rizo and Jose Alvarado when party leader and convicted former president Arnoldo Alemán attempted to tighten his grip over the party by hand-picking all the PLC candidates and ignoring Rizo and Alvarado's lists. Some high profile PLC members did jump ship and go over to the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) led by PLC dissident and US government favorite, Eduardo Montealegre. After changes to Aleman's slate, some of which have still not been made public, Rizo and Alvarado decided to retain their positions. La Prensa characterized the outcome as a victory for Aleman while El Nuevo Diario judged it the beginning of the end of the Aleman era. Whichever is accurate, it maintains a divided Right in the elections and continues to foil the efforts of US Ambassador Paul Trivelli to force the Right to unite. Now that the four alliances running for president have registered their candidates, barring death or some unexpected political maneuver there will be two candidates of the Left and two of the Right contesting for dominance in November's election. A candidate needs 30% of the vote and to lead the next highest candidate by 5% in order to be elected on the first ballot. Failing that, a run-off election will be held between the two top vote getters.

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Topic 3: Supreme Court Organizes for New Year

On May 24 Supreme Court Chief Justice Manuel Martínez announced that Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) justices had yielded the position of president of the constitutional panel to the FSLN in return for the continuing presidency of the entire court and the presidency of the Penal panel. Since March 18, which marked the end of the Supreme Court’s administrative year and time for a reshuffle of power and positions within the institutions, the court has been paralyzed as a result of the failure of the 16 PLC and FSLN magistrates to come to an agreement.

The eight Liberals were adamant that one of them should preside over the Penal panel because the Panamanian indictment of Arnoldo Alemán and his wife and father-in-law for money laundering will be sent to this court. The Panama indictment on top of a similar indictment in Miami has shaken the PLC and weakened Aleman's iron grip on the party.

Martínez’ announcement came a day after the end of the ongoing paralyses of the National Assembly and the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) and amidst claims that Ortega and Alemán have revived their pact dividing positions in government between the FSLN and PLC.

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Topic 4: Government and Union Fenosa Exchange Blame for Power Cut-Offs

The failure of privatization to provide essential services again was demonstrated on May 23 when the Spanish multinational electricity distribution company, Union Fenosa, issued a press release in which it confirmed that 150,000 of their 600,000 clients are experiencing power cuts as a result of a deficit of 43.1 megawatts of electricity on the national grid. Union Fenosa recently shamed a number of state institutions by publicizing the amounts of money they owe the electricity distribution company. According to Fenosa the current energy crisis would not be nearly so acute if the state settled its debt with them. Of all the state institutions mentioned the national water company ENACAL, which is now being "modernized" by a Chilean company, owes the most money with their debt standing at US$4.62 million.

Union Fenosa has failed from the beginning to honor its commitments to invest in the national power grid and it has improperly billed users and illegally raised rates that have sometimes been turned back by the courts, so the electricity shortage is not solely due to government institutions failing to pay their power bills. The National Consumer Defense Network has been encouraging the population affected by the power cuts to refuse to pay their electricity bills until the service is normalized. This is part of the network’s campaign against both Union Fenosa and ENACAL which have both recently adopted the policy of cutting off services to entire neighborhoods where a high proportion of residents are behind in their payments. According to Ruth Herrera, coordinator of the network, in Managua alone at least 120 neighborhoods are affected by the power and water cuts. Herrera described the measures as “criminal” and says these two companies are “violating the population’s human rights... Life for those affected is hell.”

Small businesses in Managua's sprawling Eastern Market (Mercado Oriental) announced they are taking legal action against Union Fenosa for the damages caused to their businesses by the power cuts. The traders, who mainly sell food products like meat and dairy products, say they have had major losses because of the unannounced cuts.

In a press release the company also said the government was acting in a “contradictory” manner because, according to the multinational if the state paid the money owed to Fenosa then the power cuts could be called off. It also threatened that, should the government fail to pay up by midday on May 29 then electricity would be cut off to at least two government ministries. President Enrique Bolaños responded to the Fenosa threats by saying “I am not going to tell you what I’ll do if they cut off the electricity to ENACAL, I’m just warning them not to do it.” He seemed to have no intention of ordering the payment of the state’s debt to the Spanish company saying “I don’t know how much we owe them but ... they owe us too.”

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Topic 5: No End in Sight of Escalating Violence on Managua’s Streets

Students continue to senselessly clash violently with Managua bus cooperatives and police while the Bolaños government and the parties in the National Assembly twiddle their thumbs. Both combatants have truth and justice on their side and it is only the failure of the political class that has set two groups in conflict that should be allied. Students are correct that most Managua residents can ill afford the legal bus fare of US$0.15 and can't afford the unauthorized increase to US$0.18. Transportation cooperative members, the vast majority of whom own the bus they drive and depend on fares to support their families, are also correct that skyrocketing oil prices cause them to work at a loss at the official fare of fifteen cents. The failure of the political class to deal with the crisis meant that violence continued last week with dozens of injuries and at least 24 people detained by police. On May 23 a group of university students blocked traffic on the Avenida Universitaria and nearby Rubén Darío traffic circle in protest against the violent police response to secondary school students’ protests the day before. Armed police attempted to break up the university students’ protest but student resistance and the use of mortar bombs and stones led to the usual tear gas and rubber bullets response from police.

On May 23, 24, 25 and 26 violent confrontations between police and students took place at several points across the city. A group of masked students protesting outside the National Autonomous University (UNAN)-Managua campus situated on the Pan American Highway on the outskirts of Managua employed the new tactic of placing electrified wires on a foot bridge. This was done so as to avoid police “shooting at us from up there and disrupting our protests” according to one student. Three buses were burned during the week and a number were seriously damaged by groups of masked university and secondary school students across the capital. According to the President of the Regional Union of Transportation Cooperatives (URECOOTRACO) Rafael Quinto, protesters have caused US$60,000 worth of damage to buses in Managua during the last two weeks.

On May 24 one student and one free trade zone worker were seriously injured when a number of bus drivers attacked protesters outside the UNAN-Managua. An 18 year old student was shot in the thigh by an angry bus driver using a revolver while a 20 year old worker from a nearby factory who was mistaken for a student by a group of bus drivers suffered serious head injuries after being hit with metal tubes and bottles.

On May 25 the National Assembly finally approved the US$2.1 million subsidy for public transportation in Managua which was promised back in February to end the transportation stoppage. Quinto made it clear that the payment of the subsidy would not bring the bus fare down to US$0.15, however, as the subsidy only covers the months of February and March and will be used to pay existing debts.

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Topic 6: Amnesty International Criticizes Nicaraguan Government on Awas Tingi

A recently published Amnesty International report about human rights abuses during 2005 says some agents of the Nicaraguan police force “made use of excessive force against protesters during at least two protests” during the year. “In February,” the report goes on, “three people who had occupied the farm ‘La Pañoleta’ in Chinandega died at the hands of police officers who evicted them by force.”

The report goes on to criticize the government for failing to comply with an Inter-American Human Rights Court (CIDH) ruling dating back to 2001 ordering compensation and land titles to be awarded to the indigenous community of Awas Tingni after the government authorized a logging company to fell large areas of the community’s land. The community requested that representatives of CIDH intervene in the situation in 2005 because the government had still not acted on the ruling from 2001.

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This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources. To receive a more extensive weekly summary of the news from Nicaragua by e-mail or postal service, send a check for $60.00 to Nicaragua Network, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. We can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355.