Nicanet - The Nicaragua Network

Nicaragua Network Hotlines for May 29, 2007

News topics covered in this Hotline include:

Topic 1: Former banana workers march again to Managua; Los Angeles court case goes forward


Two hundred banana plantation workers from the northwestern region of Nicaragua, sick from pesticide exposure, are again marching to Managua asking the government to support their fight to get compensation from foreign companies. The demonstrators are mostly elderly workers with precarious health due to their contact with the pesticide Nemagon. They began their march Sunday in Chichigalpa, 120km from Managua, and are advancing toward the capital, where they hope to arrive by June 1.

They say they will not let anything stop their attempt to get to Managua and ask the government’s help so that giants including Dole Fruit Company, the Standard Fruit Company (a brand of Dole), Dow Chemical, Shell Oil Company and Occidental Chemical are brought to justice for operations in Nicaragua from 1970 to the mid-1980s. The former workers want to ask the government to require that the transnational companies pay damages for their ill health.

The last protest was in 2004, when thousands of sick workers camped in black plastic tents for months in what used to be the center of Managua before the 1972 earthquake. Carlos González lamented that many of those who initiated the fight against the banana and chemical company “Goliaths” have been succumbing to disease in the past two years. In the past ten years, over 1,700 people have died (400 of them during 2005-2007), victims of diseases caused by the pesticide, according to González. The Nicaraguan government promised Tuesday to help a group of 23,800 former banana plantation workers receive compensation based on health problems, according to Prosecutor Hernán Estrada.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawyer Juan Jose Dominguez continued to pursue a suit in a Los Angeles court where, as reported by Christian Miller in the Los Angeles Times last Sunday, “a U.S. jury will have the chance to weigh the accusation that Dole Food company knowingly used a pesticide manufactured by Dow Chemical Co. that sterilized workers in Latin America.” Miller reported that, earlier this month, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney broadened the reach of the case (which represents 13 Nicaraguan workers) by linking it with four other pending lawsuits in Los Angeles involving sterility claims on behalf of more than 3,000 former banana workers from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama. Also named in the cases are Del Monte Fresh Produce Inc., Chiquita Brands Inc. and Shell Oil Co.

Workers in countries around the world have been suing the corporations for the past 30 years but in nearly every case they ran into the legal doctrine of “forum non conveniens,” which says lawsuits should be heard in the countries where the damage occurred. Judges ruled that the cases had to be brought in the nations where the bananas were grown (and where the legal system was likely unfavorable to the workers) not where the companies had their headquarters.

“Then,” as Miller said in his article, “Nicaragua changed the rules.” The law passed by the Nicaragua in 2000 favored the workers and, in the first case before the Nicaraguan courts, a judge awarded US$490 million to 450 workers. Dole, Dow and Shell refused to pay saying the law was unfair. Miller continued, “That created an opportunity for new lawsuits in the United States which Dole and Dow no longer opposed.”

Only 13 sterile men (male sterility is the one problem accepted by the companies as caused by Nemagon) are named in the Los Angeles case but the case is expected to open the door for thousands of other former workers. As reported in a previous Hotline, Amvac Chemical Corp. (also sued by Dominguez) recently settled out of court for $300,000 and Dole is in Nicaragua negotiating an agreement directly with banana workers similar to one finalized recently in Honduras in which the company will pay up to $5,000 to banana workers who agree to drop claims against the company. Watch this space for further updates!


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Topic 2: Councils of Citizen Power to be inaugurated on July 19

 Elias Chevez, head of the Sandinista Party in Managua, announced that President Daniel Ortega intends to inaugurate the much discussed Councils of Citizen Power in neighborhoods and villages around the country on July 19. “We’re going to organize citizens to confront poverty, to combat unemployment and all the other problems that can be solved with the will of the people,” Chevez said on Channel 4 Television. Chevez said that last week 50 neighborhoods were organized in Managua and that he expected all the neighborhoods of Managua to be organized by June 20th.

Chevez stated that the councils will hold government officials responsible for carrying out their duties and will be able to submit complaints about officials, including ministers and other high-ranking government employees, “who are behaving badly or who are not solving problems like they should.” He added that the councils will also have representatives in local health centers and public schools to ensure that health care and education are free and that medicines are available.

The councils are patterned on models of direct democracy being used in Venezuela and Cuba. In Venezuela, the citizen councils and “Missions” were necessary to bypass a bureaucracy in which the opposition was still firmly entrenched. After 17 years of neoliberal governments, that is likely to be at least somewhat true in Nicaragua as well. Some who believe in the validity of US -style representational democracy based on periodic voting alone are alarmed by the addition of Councils of Citizen Power. Also some nongovernmental groups see them as a threat to their base in the community.

Others fear that the Councils will become arms of the FSLN and become tools of an authoritarian system. This is, of course, possible, but much more likely is that, if they do not turn out to be vehicles for popular democracy, people in the communities will stop participating in them just like they did in the Sandinista Defense Committees of the 1980s. Time will tell whether the Councils are a good idea or not.


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Topic 3: Environmentalists march to defend rivers and lakes


Over one thousand young people and adults participated on May 26 in a march to celebrate the first environmental day. The march was organized by Cáritas and the Archdiocese of Managua to “demonstrate love of nature.” One of the organizers of this mobilization, Kamilo Lara, reported that participants in the demonstration included representatives from the office of the mayor of Managua, students at three Managua universities, and the Young Environmentalist Club in addition to the general population many of whom came from outside of the capital.

The route began at the contaminated Tiscapa Crater Lake in the capital, continued through other sectors of the southern periphery of the city, and ended at the cathedral, where a cultural program took place and a mass was celebrated.

In his sermon, Bishop Carlos Avilés emphasized the importance of the Christian community involving itself in natural resource conservation efforts, particularly in efforts to protect water. March supporters from different cities within the Archdiocese of Managua said they were convinced that environmental contamination and the destruction of natural resources “are also sins.”

The march, under the slogan “Water is Life,” had as its goal generating awareness about the great risks and threats Nicaraguans face as rivers dry up, and rivers, lakes and lagoons become contaminated. Lara, who is director of environmental issues for the group FUNDES Sur, said that there is a general lack of recognition that 70 percent of Nicaragua’s water resources have been declared contaminated.

March organizers aim to make themselves heard so that the water law, approved on first reading weeks ago by the National Assembly, will receive final approval by the government and be strictly enforced. The contamination of scarce water resources threatens the ecosystems of the nation including flora and fauna, said march organizers.

The Catholic Church’s next environmental day will focus on reforestation. It will take place in October to celebrate the Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.


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Topic 4: President of Brazil set for visit to Nicaragua

Luis Ignacio Lula de Silva, President of Brazil, will be arriving in Nicaragua on August 7 for a short 24-hour visit. Regina Bittencourt, an advisor at the Brazilian embassy in Managua, spoke of the political and ideological affinity of Daniel Ortega and the Brazilian president, known simply as Lula. Plans to increase diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries will begin with the visit of Lula to Nicaragua.

Although Lula did not attend Ortega’s inauguration on January10, according to Bittencourt, it was because the Brazilian president had to rest after the two exhausting electoral campaigns in which he had recently participated that resulted in his reelection for a second term.

Bittencourt said that Lula and Ortega will sign several bilateral collaboration agreements, among them one that will allow Nicaraguan representatives who have official or diplomatic passports to travel to Brazil without a visa. Bittencourt did not discard the possibility of increased trade relations between the two nations, although she noted that Brazil and Nicaragua cultivate similar products. Consequently they would need to look carefully for areas in which to exchange other products and services.

“There are several possibilities of cooperation that have been explored by two Brazilian missions, in the energy field -- that is a priority of President Ortega’s government -- construction -- because we have extensive experience in highways and large projects --in addition to agriculture and health. We were also discussing the possibility of cooperating with the Hunger Zero program because, as a result of our own experience, we think that we could be useful,” emphasized Bittencourt.

Since 1987, Brazil has had an agreement with Nicaragua to train technicians and professionals under the first agreement of technical cooperation between the two countries.

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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.