Nicaragua Network Hotlines for November 28, 2006
News topics covered in this Hotline include:
- Ortega meets with Tom Shannon and Central American presidents
- CSE issues final election results
- Managua bus fare to be reduced to US$0.14 (US$0.14) in December
- Concern for levels of violence against women in Central America
- Bolaños welcomes US$37 million BCIE loan for new hydroelectric plant
- Union
leaders beaten and human rights lawyers threatened at Mil Colores
Topic 1: Ortega meets with Tom Shannon and Central American presidents
During the course of last week President-elect Daniel Ortega, on his first foreign trip since the general elections, made “courtesy visits” to meet with the presidents of Panama (Martín Torrijos), El Salvador (Elías Antonio Saca) and Guatemala (Oscar Berger). The themes of Central American integration and the political and economic agenda of the region were discussed. Ortega’s regional counterparts all expressed their support for the new President. On Nov. 28 Ortega plans to fly to the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa to meet with President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras. A meeting with Costa Rican President Oscar Arías is also being planned for the coming days.
It was speculated that Ortega would request that Panama leader Torrijos act as mediator between his Sandinista led government and the government of the USA. Ortega neither confirmed nor denied this when questioned on the matter by journalists at a press conference after his meeting with President Torrijos. “We want a mutually respectful relationship with the US, independent of ideological differences,” said Ortega. “The US has learned to cohabit with China and Vietnam, they will have to learn to cohabit with Nicaragua,” added the FSLN leader.
President Torrijos, son of former Panamanian president Omar Torrijos who supported the final stages of the Sandinista revolution which overthrew the Somoza family dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979, is likely to become a regional ally of Ortega’s government once he takes office on January 10 2007. Torrijos (son) himself, enrolled in a brigade of Panamanians who fought against Somoza’s National Guard in solidarity with the Southern Sandinista Front near Nicaragua's Costa Rica border in 1979.
Salvadoran President Elías Saca, leader of the right wing ARENA party, is not considered such a natural regional ally for Ortega. Nevertheless, after his meeting with Ortega, Saca expressed his confidence that the new Nicaraguan President “will govern democratically.” Although he did go on to add that “socialist experiments” would be “terrible for Central America.”
After the meeting Ortega went on to meet with leaders of the Salvadoran opposition party the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) for what was described by party spokesman Sigfrido Reyes as a “dinner between old comrades... without agenda or protocol.” Ortega was severely criticized by the Nicaraguan and international right for his apparent support of the FMLN during the Salvadoran civil war (1980 - 1992).
The US government and the US Embassy in Managua have been notably restrained
in their comments since the election. Several US officials have said that
their government will respect the Nicaraguan people’s decision. When
asked for an opinion on Ortega’s behavior so far US Ambassador Paul
Trivelli said the FSLN leader had given “positive signs.” According
to Trivelli, however, the real test will come after Jan. 10 and US Nicaraguan
relations will depend on the extent of Ortega’s “commitment
to the democratic future of Nicaragua.” Expect to see Trivelli replaced
soon. His new assignment is not likely to be a promotion after his spectacular
and ham-handed failure to unite the Nicaraguan right-wing and to scare the
Nicaraguan voters into voting for banker Eduardo Montealegre.
Ortega met with US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon on Nov. 28.
Shannon said that the groundwork had been laid to improve relations. "We
have developed the foundations for an important dialogue between the two
countries, always within the framework of democracy," Shannon told
reporters. Shannon’s words, in light of the harsh threats that U.S.
officials made before the election, should remove the fear factor from future
elections since the US demonstrated so far that it was all bark and no bite.
Return to top.
Topic 2: CSE issues final election results
In a press conference presided by the president of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) Roberto Rivas, CSE magistrates issued the official and final results of the recent general elections on Nov. 22 declaring Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega President-elect and Jaime Morales Carazo Vice President-elect. The CSE representatives also declared the list of 220 deputies and alternates to the National Assembly and the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
As reported in last week's hotline, the National Assembly for the term 2007 - 2012 will be made up of 38 Sandinista Front (FSLN) deputies, 25 Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) deputies, 24 Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) deputies (including runner up in the presidential election Eduardo Montealegre and outgoing President of the Republic Enrique Bolaños who are automatically awarded seats in the Assembly) and five Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) deputies.
US Ambassador Paul Trivelli believes the new political makeup of the National
Assembly to be “more balanced” saying parties will be obliged
to negotiate in order to pass legislation. Trivelli expressed his satisfaction
that the two party control of the legislative branch has been brought to
an end. It is not obvious why Trivelli draws this conclusion when the FSLN
will need the votes of either the PLC or the ALN to pass any legislation
making it likely that its legislative alliance with the PLC will continue.
Topic 3: Managua bus fare to be reduced to US$0.14 (US$0.14) in December
After several weeks of tense exchanges in the press between Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco and Rafael Quinto, leader of URECOOTRACO, the main public transportation cooperative for Managua, an agreement which will result in the reduction of the Managua bus fare from C$3 (US$0.17) to C$2.5 (US$0.14) was signed on Nov. 21. The fare reduction, which will benefit thousands of Managua’s poorest families who rely on the public transportation system to get to school and work, will be introduced on Dec. 6.
The Managua public transportation system has been in crisis for the last
two years as a result of the soaring international oil price which has pushed
the bus fare up from C$2.50 (US$0.14) to C$3.50 (US$0.19). This is a seemingly
small increase but one which has had a severely negative affect on the finances
of the system’s 850,000+ users, most of whom live in extreme poverty.
As a result of the crisis, which the central government has failed to do
anything about, there have been violent protests and clashes between student
groups and bus owners.
Topic 4: Concern for levels of violence against women in Central America
There have been 3,988 reported cases of feminicide (murder of women by men) in Central America since 2002 according to a study carried out by the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights (IIDH). This shocking figure is a cause for concern for human rights groups which are trying to raise awareness of what appears to be an epidemic in some countries in the region, namely Guatemala and El Salvador. While there have only been eight reported cases of feminicide in Belize since 2002 there have been 1,398 in Guatemala, 1,320 in El Salvador and 613 in Honduras. There have been 315 in Nicaragua, 146 in Costa Rica and 188 in Panama. The Managua newspaper El Nuevo Diario speaks of the situation in Nicaragua as being “almost an epidemic.”
The majority of the murdered women were victims of their partners, ex-partners, boyfriends, relatives or gang members, according to the IIDH study. The institution urges immediate action to be taken to tackle the worrying levels of violence against women in the region. One of its main recommendations is to introduce in schools educational policies which teach children to value women.
Nicaraguan Ombudsman for Women Deborah Grandison thinks that domestic violence
“should be declared a public health problem” in Nicaragua, a
move which she believes would go some way towards tackling the silence and
shame surrounding the issue. While femicide in Nicaragua is low compared
to El Salvador and Guatemala, other types of violence against women is endemic
and too often tolerated by society and the legal system. So far in 2006
over 20 Nicaraguan women have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners.
Topic 5: Bolaños welcomes
US$37 million BCIE loan for new hydroelectric plant
On Nov. 20 President Bolaños signed papers for a US$37 million loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE). The money will be used to build the Larreynaga Central Hydroelectric generation plant which is expected to generate 17 megawatts of electricity. The plant will be in the department of Jinotega and will generate electricity by means of a dam to be built on the river El Cacao. Once a construction company has been awarded the contract the plant should be ready to operate in two years.
According to Leonides Solórzano, Regional BCIE Manager, the Larreynaga plant will help alleviate the current energy crisis and will produce US$5 million annual savings for the government by reducing the country’s dependence on petroleum. He did not say whether the interest on servicing the BCIE loan was taken into account when calculating this figure.
Bolaños described Nicaragua as a “disgrace within Central
America” because only 50% of the population have access to electricity.
He went on to blame the legislative branch for the national energy crisis
saying that since his administration began in 2002 he has sent a number
of proposals to stimulate more investment in the energy sector which have
been blocked or held up by the National Assembly deputies. One of his proposals
is to build an extremely large dam which would generate 980 megawatts and
flood an area half the size of Lake Managua, displacing 20,000 people in
the Department of Matagalpa near the border of the North and South Autonomous
Regions (RAAN and RAAS). Local residents have organized to fight the megaproject
which is intended to turn Nicaragua into an exporter of electricity benefiting
Plan Puebla Panama projects as far north as Mexico.
Topic 6: Union leaders beaten and human rights lawyers threatened at Mil Colores
Two union organizers were beaten and detained and four human rights lawyers were threatened as 200 anti-riot police arrived with a judge’s order to remove merchandise from the free trade zone garment factory Mil Colores on November 24. The union leaders were Luis Barbosa and Miguel Ruiz of the José Benito Escobar Sandinista Workers Confederation (CST-JBE). They and several workers at the factory lay down in front of trucks removing merchandise under court order in support of the claim of businessman Edward Irías Pastora who said that Mil Colores management owed him money. Workers and union leaders said that the merchandise was their insurance that they would be paid if the factory, which is in grave financial difficulties, were to close.
Customs officials said that the judge could not legally order the removal of the merchandise without the proper importation documents but Judge Jose Galeano allowed the removal. This was the fourth time Irías had attempted to carry out the judge’s order. The three previous times workers had prevented removal of the garments from the factory. This time Police Commissioner Cecilia Taleno, second in command of the police in Ciudad Sandino, arrived at the factory with 200 officers, including members of the Special Operations Brigade, who simply removed the union leaders who lay down in front of the trucks and beat them. Taleno then accused Norwin Solano and three other lawyers from the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) of being “instigators of the violence.” Solano answered that it was the 200 members of the police force who arrived on the scene armed, not the human rights lawyers.
No representatives of the Ministry of Labor or of the factory’s owner
Craig Miller, a U.S. citizen, appeared on the scene.
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.