Nicanet - The Nicaragua Network

Nicaragua Network Hotlines for June 06, 2007

News topics covered in this Hotline include:

Topic 1: Nemagon victims arrive in Managua


Thousands of banana plantation workers affected by the pesticide Nemagon used by U.S.-based banana companies reached Managua on May 30 and settled in the park opposite the National Assembly to demand justice and medical attention. These former plantation workers marched on foot over 60 miles during ten days, accompanied by relatives, on their fifth march in the last seven years. Demonstration leaders did not indicate how long they will remain in Managua.

Although Nemagon (Di-bromocloruropropane) was banned for use in the United States in the 1970s, the multinational banana companies continued using it in Nicaragua. The pesticide was used on the banana plantations of Chinandega, in northwest Nicaragua through the 70s and 80s, affecting about 26,000 farmers of whom nearly 2,500 have died, according to Victorino Espinales, one of the leaders of the movement. Because of the pesticide, the farmers state that they contracted problems like skin cancer, sterility, deficiencies in bone development and sight problems, among others. One small group of victims recently won a judgment in a California court.

Espinales accused the government of taking away some of the aid to Nemagon victims put in place by the Bolaños government. Sandinista government officials denied that they have failed to fulfill promises and said they have increased aid to pesticide victims.

The marchers appealed to President Daniel Ortega to support their demands against American banana companies. Companies that produced or used the pesticide in Nicaragua include: Dole Fruit Company, Shell Chemical, Dow Chemical, Chiquita International Brand, Standard Fruit Company (a brand of Dole) and Del Monte.


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Topic 2: Assembly ratifies Central American military agency

 On May 30, the National Assembly ratified the creation of the Confederation of Central American Armed Forces (CFAC). The press report said that CFAC is a regional military body that will respond principally to natural disasters. Details were sparse, so we are unable to determine at this point whether and at what level the US is funding this new military initiative, nor do we know what its mission is when there is no natural disaster to respond to.

The National Assembly also approved the entry of soldiers of the Southern Command of the United States and the exchange of ten soldiers of the Nicaraguan Army. A contingent of the Southern Command of the United States will carry out exercises in the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. This represents an escalation of cooperation between the Nicaraguan and US militaries which began when the army, early in the Bolaños government, began sending officers to be trained at the infamous US Army School of the Americas (now called Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation).

The Nicaragua army perhaps believes that greater cooperation with the US military will make it less likely that they will be a target like in the 1980s. On the other hand, the move to greater cooperation is troubling as it runs counter to the trend in much of the rest of Latin America where Costa Rica just joined a growing number of countries in boycotting the School of the Americas. We hope that Nicaragua will join other progressive countries and stop cooperating with the US military machine.


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Topic 3: Ortega: “Whoever messes with Venezuela, messes with the whole region”


Certainly President Daniel Ortega seems to have drawn the correct conclusions about U.S. foreign and military policy when he gave a speech widely broadcast in Venezuela saying, “Whoever messes with Venezuela, messes with the whole region.” Ortega was emphatic when affirming that “an aggression against Venezuela and its people would not have a positive result for the U.S., because the Venezuelan people have the capacity to resist the constant internal attacks of the United States empire.”

“Venezuela and President Hugo Chávez’s government have been fundamental in the process of South American regional integration,” said Ortega during his visit to Caracas on June 2. Ortega said, “The intention of the U.S. is to clean up its image after the defeat in the war on Iraq, a war that they themselves started, in order to quickly change U.S. public opinion and turn Chávez and Venezuela into their new enemy.” As part of an extensive speech, which included many historical anecdotes, Ortega said that in Venezuela they enjoy a total democracy and President Chávez has acted very benignly considering the attacks by the oligarchy, particularly the attempted coup d'etat on April 11, 2002.

In Ortega’s speech he alerted the Venezuelan people about manipulation. He said, “They must see themselves in the Nicaraguan mirror; it is lamentable that the youngest are those that are being manipulated by the oligarchic interests that are following orders of the United States’ empire.” Ortega made a call to all Venezuelan youth and reminded them that “youth are for making revolutions, not counterrevolutions. Youth that are manipulated by a counterrevolution lose their reason of existence.” He insisted that the youth decide “once and for all to make an advance in history and not become the reason for stopping history from happening.”

Ortega said that the strong reaction of the Venezuelan and international right-wing to the non-renewal of the RCTV television broadcasting license is one of the strategies of the empire to generate a situation of instability in Venezuela that could cause a civil war. He referred to the recent marches of young people protesting the decision to not renew RCTV and said that “hatred has been injected” into those young men and women.

Reflecting on the history of Nicaragua and its struggle against U.S. domination, President Ortega stated that the [U.S.] empire is looking to start a war between Venezuelans. Ortega said that in Nicaragua the North-Americans “came down upon us to stir up hatred, like they are doing here today.” He explained that a similar situation occurred in Nicaragua during the time prior to the civil war that lasted until 1989. "Venezuela does not know what it is to live through a civil war, but without knowing it, they are going the same direction toward confrontation,” he said.

In Ortega’s analysis of the present situation of Venezuelan student groups protesting, he did not discard the possibility that their actions might conform to a plan on the part of the intelligence services of the U.S. government: “With Nicaragua they did the same thing, they took advantage at that time of what was then the largely ignorant portion of the population so they could easily and quickly manipulate them, and later simply leave the Nicaraguans to kill each other.”


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Topic 4: Wal-Mart plans to make Nicaragua its largest supplier in Central America

Wal-Mart Central America Board Chair Fernando Paiz announced on June 1 that the largest retail chain in the world, Wal-Mart, Inc., projected that total imports from Central America this year (2007) will be around US$300 million, of which US$130 million will be from Nicaragua, mainly in garments. Another US$65 million will come from Honduras and the remaining US$105 million will be imported from the rest of the countries of the isthmus.

Wal-Mart Central America President Ignacio Pérez Lizar confirmed that Nicaragua will be the largest exporter to Wal-Mart in Central America. “The opportunities in the region are growing, especially from the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States (DR-CAFTA),” said Pérez. DR-CAFTA, in effect in Nicaragua since April 2006, allows exports to the United States under preferential market conditions, meaning low or zero import taxes. Pérez stated that they will continue expanding business in Nicaragua in spite of the change of government and that Wal-Mart executives have confirmed this in meetings with President Daniel Ortega. Paiz did not disclose last year’s earnings on Nicaraguan exports to Wal-Mart, but said that the numbers continue growing at an “impressive rate.”

Wal-Mart presently operates in over 13 countries on three continents, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, the five Central American countries, Argentina, Brazil, the United Kingdom, China and Japan with over of 6,779 stores and 1.9 million employees. Wal-Mart hopes to expand operations to Korea and India. The company’s sales to date surpass US$300 billion annually, more than some countries total export income.
Wal-Mart is also one of the largest importers of goods into Central America and includes over 400 stores. Forty of those stores are located in Nicaragua under other names; five stores are “La Unión” discount stores and 35 are “Palí” supermarkets. Wal-Mart also owns the following companies: Supermarkets United Corp. (CSU) and Agroindustrial Companies Corp. (CCA) of Costa Rica, and is a major partner of La Fragua of Guatemala.

Wal-Mart Central America executive Carlos Uribe said that this year he expects to open at least 50 new stores in the region, similar to the number of stores opened in 2006, although he did not reveal how many would correspond to each country. Neither did he say how many of Nicaragua’s ubiquitous “mom and pop” stores will be wiped out by the Wal-Marts, condemning people who have been proud independent operators into what Wal-Mart calls its “associates.”

Wal-Mart maintains that these investments generate at least 1,000 direct jobs that add up to over of 24,000 jobs in Central America. “Today we are one of the ten greatest generators of jobs in region,” said Pérez. Wal-Mart Central America has around 500,000 local suppliers, which, if true, would mean that one out of every 80 people in Central America is a Wal-Mart supplier. With this growth, Wal-Mart Central America expects to continue extending the number of local suppliers in Nicaragua that provide the stores with a number of diverse products, including meat, grains, fruits and vegetables, among others. However, Wal-Mart plans to increase its imports into Central America of beef.

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Topic 5: Ortega on State Visits to Venezuela, Libya, Algeria, Iran, Italy and Cuba


President Daniel Ortega’s speech in Venezuela marked the beginning of international trips to Venezuela, Libya, Cuba, Algeria, Iran, and Italy.

In Libya, Ortega plans to meet with President Muammar al-Gaddafi, with whom he is supposed to sign an important collaboration agreement. Rafael Ortega Murillo, Ortega’s oldest son, traveled to Tripoli in April to prepare for the presidential visit. In Algeria, Ortega will meet with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika with the goal of “restoring and extending the bilateral relations” that were shared with the Sandinista Popular Revolution in the 1980s.

In Iran he will meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “broaden our relation with Iran across all fields,” said Ortega who was promised aid during Ahmadinejad’s visit to Managua on January 10. Ortega has defended Iran’s decision to maintain its nuclear program, which is opposed by United States and the United Nations Security Council. In Italy he will meet with President Giorgio Napolitano and civil employees who have been “friends” of the FSLN since the 1970s. He will also meet with Italian industrialists interested in investing in tourism, construction and infrastructure in Nicaragua

La Nueva Radio Ya said that the objective of these visits is to look for ways to develop relations with those countries “in order to combat poverty.” According to Foreign Minister Samuel Santos, President Ortega’s tour has no reason to affect relations with the United States. First Lady Rosario Murillo said that the cost of the trip does not come from the State treasury. All of the expenses are paid by the hosting governments and revolutionary friends, including the Boeing 707 provided by Libyan President al-Gaddafi.

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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.