Nicaragua Network Hotlines for July 10, 2007

News topics covered in this Hotline include:

• Blackouts increase all over the country
• Fifty-seven percent of classrooms are in bad shape
• Police and Army say seized Israeli arms not for them
• FUNIDES claims weaknesses in Zero Hunger Program
  

Topic 1: Blackouts increase all over the country

Nicaragua loses 30% of electrical energy due to “technical problems and robbery,” signifying energy sector losses of US$90 million a year, said César Zamora, general manager of the electric generating company Energética Corinto. “This country cannot afford the luxury to continue losing that amount of money; we have already been losing it for 30 years and that is what it has caused the intensification of this crisis,” he added.

The reality of electricity “robbery” is a bit more complicated than Zamora lets on. Many wealthy people and even factories have illegal hook-ups and could potentially be a source of revenue for the Spanish transnational, Union Fenosa, which won the “right” to distribute Nicaragua’s electricity in an IMF-imposed privatization of the State electric company during the presidency of Violetta Chamorro. Bringing electricity to many rural communities was a project of the Sandinista revolution and international solidarity, and seen as a social benefit by the recipients. After privatization, Union Fenosa suddenly owned the poles and wires that delivered electricity and started charging people, often at rates above those set by law, and disconnected those who could not pay. In defiance, popular movements and individuals often reconnected people to the electrical grid.

Another reason that Nicaragua has been confronting an energy crisis for almost three years due to frequent breakdowns in obsolete generating plants that are over 40 years old, financial difficulties in the sector, and a lack of rain that impedes an adequate rise in the level of Lake Apanás which impedes hydroelectric production.

The energy deficit as of July 4 was 170 megawatts. Zamora said that at the moment, the acute energy crisis will continue until August, when the state plant Geosa will begin operations, with 100 megawatts of energy, and rains in the central-northern part of the country are expected, which is where Lake Apanás is located. He said that the Hidrogesa plant, which is fed by Lake Apanás, presently generates 30 instead of the potential 100 megawatts due to the lack of rain. Zamora estimates that by “September or October they should already be past these great crises, at least past the greater technical problems.”

Nicaragua consumes 480 megawatts an hour of electricity daily and, although the supposed installed capacity is 660 megawatts, the effective capacity is only 522 megawatts and currently only 310 megawatts are being generated.

Thousands of energy consumers all over the country are living with prolonged energy cuts of up to 12 hours a day. Union Fenosa calculated that this situation will signify ten to twelve hours of rationing in each district, with the exception of prioritized sites, such as hospitals and the National Water and Sewerage Company’s wells (ENACAL). The blackouts will be applied in blocks of six hours each. Union Fenosa hopes that the damaged Nicaraguan plants return to generate energy before the weekend; nevertheless, he warned that the prolonged and extensive blackouts will continue to grow. The worst days in the history of the Nicaraguan energy crisis were two weeks ago, reaching its record on June 20 with a deficit of 174 megawatts.

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Topic 2: Fifty-seven percent of classrooms are in bad shape

Minister of Education Miguel de Castilla said that “the scholastic infrastructure situation in Nicaragua is not the best,” because 57 percent of the classrooms are in “average” or “bad shape.” De Castilla said that of the 27,854 registered classrooms of primary and secondary public schools, only 43 percent are in “good condition.” He added that other 11,226 classrooms are in “average state” and 4,447 are considered in “bad shape.” This is the result of 16 years of neoliberal governments under the tutelage of the IMF which forces countries to prioritize debt repayment over social investment.

“We have a very devastating panorama,” he said. The Minister of Education says it is urgent that they replace those classrooms and construct another 3,000 annually in the period of four years, required by “the expansion of school registration.” School registration this year reached 1.62 million students, 87,000 students more than the number officially registered last year thanks to Castilla’s first act as Education Minister which was to make education free again by abolishing IMF-mandated school fees. Students attend their classes in 9,000 educational centers. The Minister of Education declared that “it is a difficult and complex problem” to obtain the funds, although he did not calculate what that figure would be, nor where the funds would come from.


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Topic 3: Police and Army say seized Israeli arms not for them

Neither the National Police nor the Army of Nicaragua claimed a shipment of 1,085 firearms that were detained in Spain while being shipped supposedly “disguised” from Israel to Nicaragua. Spokesman of the National Police, Commissioner Alonso Sevilla, said that although the police have not yet received an official version of the arms detained in one of Spain’s ports, he is ready to offer his service to support the investigation on the destination and the owners of the shipment. Sevilla said the police have not purchased arms in Israel. The spokesman the Army of Nicaragua, Colonel Adolfo Zepeda, said the same.

A shipment of 1,085 firearms was found July 4 in a “Maersk Detroit” container ship coming from Haifa, Israel, that supposedly was destined for Managua, Nicaragua. Spanish officials said the shipment was discovered during the load’s inspection in Algeciras. When opening the container, the Spanish customs officers seized “400 pistols of different calibers, 300 guns and 385 rifles,” said López Garzón. He customs officers also found 500 compressed air guns, which were the only arms declared in the documents that accompanied the container.

The destination of the arms was confirmed by the police on July 6 to be for the Nicaraguan company, Magnum S.A., importer and seller of firearms. Representative of Magnum S.A., Salvador Luna Sediles, said that the lot of arms was 1,085, and said the 300 rifles were for commercial use and sale to civilians. Luna Sediles said he had the import permission from the National Police several months ago. On July 5, he presented to the police the documentation. “The National Police is verifying the fulfillment and legality of the respective procedures,” said the police spokesman, after adding that “the irregularities that the authorities have expressed to us indicate that the declared arms do not coincide with what was found in the container.”


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Topic 4: FUNIDES claims weaknesses in Zero Hunger Program


The Nicaraguan Foundation for Social and Economic Development (FUNIDES) criticized the “Zero Hunger Program,” with which the government will try to remove 75,000 families from poverty during the next five years. Javier Argüello, executive director of FUNIDES, said that the program shows some weaknesses because it lacks a clear definition of objectives.

The Zero Hunger Program proposes to make peasant families food self-sufficient by giving them plants and animals valued at US$2,000. Each family will pay back 20 percent of the value. The premise is that each peasant family is able to produce its own milk, meat, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and cereals, and in the medium-term, to establish local markets to sell the excess. Each nuclear family will receive a pregnant cow, a pregnant pig, six chickens, seeds, fruit and medicinal plants, revolving credit, a biodigestor, and other agricultural inputs. Biodigestors convert manure into methane cooking gas thus relieving the need to cook with wood. The program is based on the successful program developed by the Nicaraguan NGO CIPRES which has made more than 5,000 peasant families food self-sufficient in recent years.

Argüello said that 48% of the Nicaraguan population lives in poverty and 14.9% percent lives in extreme poverty. Based on such numbers, he estimates that the Zero Hunger Program will not cover all of the people who live in conditions of extreme poverty on a dollar or less a day. Official statistics indicate that the Nicaraguan population is reaching the 5.1 million people. With obvious funding constraints it seems self-evident that the Zero Hunger Program alone can’t meet all the needs of a rural population ignored since 1990 by successive neoliberal governments and denied credit by IMF structural adjustment conditions on international assistance. The removal of 75,000 families from the ravages of hunger seems to us to be something to celebrate not to criticize because there isn’t enough money to bring everyone up from poverty.

Argüello also insisted that the success of this type of program is tied to “external monitoring” by international institutions. Silvana Flinn, investigator of FUNIDES, said that families selected to benefit under the Zero Hunger Program must be chosen by technical and nonpolitical criteria. “It is important that we to know the beneficiary selection process and that the program is not politicized, to assure its effectiveness,” he added.

FUNIDES also criticized the government’s treatment of the program budget. “It is necessary to present the budget, which permits us to make an analysis of the structure of costs.”. Argüello added that the budgetary structure of the program is not known. He indicated that the released budget shows that over 25% will go to administrative expenses, which he considers a little high, and hopes that lowering it will improve the logistic capacity.

He also said that the beneficiary families need training in order to know how to administer the productive assets that they will receive and so that they can do more with them and not consume them immediately due to their own necessities. Also, due the families’ present conditions, there is a danger that a permanent dependency on the State is created. The CIPRES program involved intensive training and follow-up with recipients. It is not clear whether the Zero Hunger Program includes the same level of training.

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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 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. 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.