Nicaragua Network Hotlines for February 7, 2007
News topics covered in this Hotline include:
- Ortega refuses to destroy missiles
- Nicaragua negotiates greater international support
- Some NGOs warn of a weakening democracy
- Former President Bolaños requested millions for personal projects
- New school year begins
Topic 1: Ortega refuses to destroy missiles
President Daniel Ortega said that it is absurd and inconceivable to think about destroying Nicaragua's SAM-7 missiles (surface-to-air) when the United States government recently agreed to modernize the Honduran air force. Militarization in the region is a reality, Ortega said, and if there is a confrontation, the country with an air force has the capacity to penetrate the other country in a matter of minutes. The US has relentlessly pressured Nicaragua to destroy the army's stock of missiles. More than half were destroyed under the Bolaños government. Considering the number of times Nicaragua has been invaded by the United States and its surrogates, it is beyond reason to think it would give up its defensive weapons.
The National Assembly is considering a bill to mandate destruction of the missiles. Ortega insisted they consider US support for Honduras and that Nicaragua's missiles are “defensive,” unlike the Honduran planes. According to the head of the military, General Omar Hallesleven, Nicaragua is the country in the region with the most advanced process of disarmament. Nicaragua does not have any offensive aircraft or helicopters while both El Salvador and Honduras do.
The bill in the National Assembly needs only a simple majority vote of 47. The FSLN has only 38 votes and even with support of the 5 member Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) bench is still short of a majority.
The US government said Honduras had the right to modernize its air fleet if it desired to do so without the approval of any other government. However, Nicaragua doesn't seem to have that same right in the eyes of the US government. US ambassador Paul Trivelli challenged Ortega’s claim that the US promised war planes to Honduras. Rather, Trivelli claimed, the US has provided Honduras with eight small “Storm Rally” planes for monitoring airspace in the war on drugs. The Embassy reiterated its desire for Nicaragua to "continue on its path towards disarmament and the destruction of all SAM-7 missiles."
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Topic 2: Nicaragua negotiates greater international support
On February 1, in a meeting with President Daniel Ortega, the vice-president of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean, Pamela Cox, agreed to endorse the government program to combat poverty with a loan of approximately US$50 million annually under very favorable conditions. World Bank Central America Representative, Jane Armitage, explained that 50% of the loan would be repaid over a period of 40 years at a zero percent interest rate.
The World Bank financing will be used for the "Zero Hunger" Program which is based on the model developed by Ortega's choice to head the program, Orlando Nuñez Soto. The program promotes family food sufficiency. The program’s goal is to grant US$2,000 loans to 15,000 families, mainly women farmers, in the first year. These funds would provide the families with chickens, ducks, heifers, pigs, seeds for planting and small-scale agricultural equipment to help them generate sources of income and resources for self-sustainability.
Ortega said his administration is prepared to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new economic plan that would be in agreement with national priorities. "With the IMF we are working on a government proposal with the main objective of combating poverty. Our commitment to them [at the IMF] is that the program will have as tangible results concrete economic growth, as well as a reduction in poverty, employment generation, reduction in illiteracy, and more health care and education for the people.” IMF representatives have expressed their readiness to work with the Ortega administration.
Tomás Duplá, assistant director of European Union (EU) in Latin America, reaffirmed the willingness of the EU to earmark more economic resources for Nicaragua in its programs to combat poverty. The Budget Creation Assistance Group, consisting of mainly European countries, has also allotted US$115.2 million in support of the 2007 budget, which would cover almost 9 percent of the expenditures in the budget. After 16 years of servile Nicaraguan governments bending over before the international financial institutions, it is fascinating to see what can be accomplished by a government that stands up to them.
Topic 3: Some NGOs warn of a weakening democracy
On January 31, more than 300 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), members of a coalition of groups known as the Civil Coordinator, publicly expressed their concern about the direction that President Daniel Ortega is heading with reforms "that concentrate civil and military power" under his control and which they said put democracy in danger.
The communiqué of the NGOs gave a "positive" appreciation to Ortega’s decision to reduce elevated government salaries, restore free public education and punish those who have committed acts of corruption. The groups also applauded his push to make sure nobody is excluded for economic reasons from education and health services.
But in the area of government reform the communiqué said that Ortega was making alarming changes through the act entitled “Organization, Competence and Procedures of the Executive Authority.” This act was approved on the 24th of January by the National Assembly with the votes of other parties along with those of the FSLN. These changes concentrated in the Presidency the control of several institutions that were previously under the Central Bank. They also allowed the president to exert greater control over administrative and security decisions of the police, which before was supervised by the Ministry of Interior. The changes also increased presidential power over the military, transferring the intelligence apparatus under his control. The Civil Coordinator called the structure similar to that of Cuba and Venezuela.
Georgina Muñoz of the Civil Coordinator said, “While it is true that the president is commander in chief of the armed forces and the national police, the respective ministers should continue to play the role they have been playing because that allows greater input from civil society into these military institutions.” In the same communiqué the NGOs asked for approval of the law for citizen access to public information, passage of the water law, as well as passage of changes to the Penal Code, which would assure sexual and reproductive human rights.
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Topic 4: Former President Bolaños requested millions for personal projects
Néstor Delgadillo, former director of the National Census and Statistics Institute (INEC), told the Comptroller General on January 29 that former President Enrique Bolaños during his government requested at least US$1.94 million from organizations such as the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (BCIE), the United Nations Development Project (PNUD), and the embassies of Taiwan and Japan, in order to finance a private foundation, the New Era Foundation, of which he was president and member.
Roberto Courtney, Executive Director of the Ethics and Transparency Civic Group, said, "This idea of using the position of president and creating foundations to receive funds from large powerful donors only to be later converted into purely private entities is totally disgusting." With the documentation and testimony, the Comptroller will summon former president Bolaños to explain these requests of money for use in his private foundation.
Topic 5: New school year begins
According to official data from the Ministry of Education, there are 1.3 million children registered for class for the new school year, although reports from the Caribbean and other areas of the country have not arrived at ministry offices. Last year 1.6 million students were reported registered, a figure known to be inflated as there were at least 534,000 children and youth who did not go to school because their parents could not afford the "voluntary" fees.
Minister of Education Miguel de Castilla said last year’s numbers were questionable due to the school autonomy program, which the new government has promised to end. The program created the temptation for school principals to elevate the enrollment numbers for their schools in order to receive more of the extremely limited central government funding. Under that program, which was mandated by the World Bank and IMF, the Ministry of Education paid only a part of the cost of running most of Nicaragua’s public schools. The rest had to be raised by charging fees to the often impoverished parents of public school students. De Castilla said that, while the Ministry of Education under the previous administration said that only 5% of students were not in school, teachers have presented statistics showing that number at 30%.
The new school year was officially inaugurated in ceremonies at Denmark High School in Managua attended by President Daniel Ortega, Minister de Castilla and the mayors of Managua and surrounding towns. The dignitaries visited five nearby schools where they distributed sports equipment and book bags. Parents greeted them with demands for “fixing up the schools” and ending school fees.
In Matagalpa enrollment totals in public and private schools increased this year, reaching 184,000 students. The number will most likely continue to rise due to the number of young people working in the coffee harvest. School registration will be extended for two more weeks in order to include students working in the harvest which has almost concluded. The Education Ministry is planning a census in order to give out fifty thousand pairs of shoes and uniforms as a part of its new “rescue plan” for the school dropout problem.
In Chontales, even though the public schools are overflowing, the Education Ministry has ordered that schools continue registering children all this month. Under recent previous governments, when the classrooms were full, registration was ended. In Estelí the shortage of classrooms and desks were the main complaints from the parents. District officials are debating if they will use large tents to house the great numbers of students. Enrollment will stay open for fifteen more days, and to cover the demand education officials will reorganize registrations, transferring some students to other schools.
According to official data, the Education Ministry repaired almost 3,000 classrooms and, with the help of the US aid program FISE, 2,700 more were repaired for a total of 5,650 class rooms. The Ministry of Education runs 9,120 state schools, with 7,700 of these in rural areas. The education minister stated that he will increase temporarily the number of students using tents, but put out a call to international organizations like UNESCO for educational resources for Nicaragua
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.