Nicanet - The Nicaragua Network

Nicaragua Network Hotlines for September 27, 2006

News topics covered in this Hotline include:


Topic 1: Most recent attempts to unify anti Sandinista forces fail

President Enrique Bolaños last week in a private meeting pressured Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) presidential candidate José Rizo to unite with the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) candidate Eduardo Montealegre to insure the defeat of Sandinista Party (FSLN) candidate Daniel Ortega. Bolaños' plan is to poll 10,000 Liberal voters to determine which man would head the unified ticket. René González, president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua (AMCHAM) offered to facilitate a meeting between Montealegre and Rizo to discuss the proposal. On the same day a new group called Unity for Nicaragua presented its proposal to create an even larger anti-Sandinista coalition which would include not just the PLC and the ALN but also the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS). Coordinator of Unity for Nicaragua Mauricio Mendieta is a doctor who has become disaffected with Montealegre. He said that “neither the MRS, the PLC nor the ALN can win the election on their own. The FSLN will win in the first round” if anti-Sandinista forces do not unify.

Executive branch sources claim the original idea of polling Liberal voters to pick a single candidate of the Right came from US Ambassador Paul Trivelli. US Embassy spokesperson Preeti Shah denied that this was true on Sept. 20. This denial is not credible given that Trivelli had previously offered to pay for a combined PLC/ALN primary to choose a single right- wing candidate. We urge solidarity activists to download the Nicaragua Network's election investigation delegation report from our web page and send it to your elected officials and demand that the US stop interfering in Nicaragua's democratic process and that Ambassador Trivelli be removed from office. The Nicaragua Network web page is www.nicanet.org. This week the delegation report was hand delivered to 85 Senate and House members of their respective foreign affairs committees.

Another action solidarity activists can take is to sign your name and make a contribution to a paid ad in both Nicaraguan daily newspapers during the week of Oct. 8-15 while a joint Nicaragua Network and Quixote Center/Quest for Peace delegation is in Nicaragua following-up on the investigation of the first delegation. You can read and sign the ad at http://quest.quixote.org/handsoff/letter.

Leaders of the PLC, ALN, and MRS categorically rejected the unification scheme. Rizo said the PLC has sufficient political strength to take him to victory, while Montealegre said “the Nicaraguan people have already made their decision to support the ALN.” Edmundo Jarquín, presidential candidate for the MRS said his party is not part of the anti- Sandinista right-wing and therefore “these proposals have nothing to do with me.” The MRS is a party of dissident Sandinistas who reject Ortega's leadership. The party was formed after Social Democrats left the FSLN in 1994 and they have been joined in this election by the "Democratic Left" in a strategic alliance to wrest control of the Sandinista movement from Ortega.

Meanwhile US Republican congressman and Chairman of the sub-committee on the Western Hemisphere of the House Committee on International Relations, Dan Burton, made his own threats to the Nicaraguan electorate in a two day visit last week. Burton met in private with the PLC, ALN and MRS candidates. After the meetings Burton said “We spoke about the good relations between the US and Nicaragua. I told them that if Daniel Ortega is elected it would be very difficult to maintain good relations after these elections.” That's not all Burton said. In a press conference on Sept. 24 Burton said that an FSLN victory would mean war, inflation and destabilization of the region. He also warned that the US$175 million Nicaragua will get from the US Millennium Challenge Account could be threatened as could the success of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). “I didn't come to Nicaragua to tell the people who they should vote for,” he insisted, “It's their decision, but it is important that the people know what could happen if the FSLN win the elections.” Burton's efforts to unify the right failed like all previous attempts.

Vice presidential candidate for the FSLN alliance, former contra leader Jaime Morales Carazo described Burton's comments and his behavior as “intolerable intervention.” Ortega called on “those looking to create polarization” to join his quest for reconciliation. Call Burton's office at (202) 225-2276 or fax him at (202) 225-0016 to condem him for threatening a new war against Nicaragua and demand that he stop interfering in Nicaragua's democracy.

The US government role to unify the Right suffered another blow last week when the unlikely selection of Morales Carazo as Ortega's running mate bore fruit with the signing of a peace agreement between leader of the Nicaraguan Resistance Party (PRN) Salvador Talavera and Ortega. Despite outrage by a small number of former contra commanders who attempted to depose Talavera, the majority of PRN affiliates have decided to follow Talavera and join the FSLN-led United Nicaragua Triumphs alliance. This news has come as an unexpected blow for the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) and all those sectors including the US Embassy and other US diplomats which support it. Up until last week the PRN was one of the principal parties in the ALN, which is led by presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre.

The peace accords between the PRN and the FSLN were blessed and signed by Cardenal Miguel Obando y Bravo. “Peace does not just consist of not hearing the war machines,” said Obando on receiving the document, “but of wellbeing, schools, education, employment, healthcare, fair salaries. That is the sort of peace we should try to achieve with love, truth, justice and liberty.”

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Topic 2: Election day concerns

President of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) Roberto Rivas met with the head of the National Police Aminta Granera on Sept. 19 to discuss plans to ensure a smooth running and secure electoral process. Rivas raised concerns to Granera about the possibility of “certain organizations” planning to discredit the entire electoral process and the election result. Rivas repeated charges that unnamed organizations or individuals plan to print counterfeit ballots which would be scattered around towns and cities so as to create the illusion of electoral fraud.

Also last week the CSE sent a letter to the Ministry of Governance (MIGOB) and Unión Fenosa requesting that electricity service be guaranteed for the first fifteen days of November to ensure a smooth electoral process. Rivas admitted to the press that there is great concern about potential power cuts disrupting the election. "Can you imagine if we experienced power cuts during the vote counting?" said Rivas, saying it would be "catastrophic." Rivas believes that all sorts of speculations about the electoral process and results would be made including claims of electoral fraud.

According to Rivas MIGOB and Fenosa replied to the CSE's letter saying there should be no problems in guaranteeing normal service for that period "as long as the generation companies are working normally." Unfortunately, however, the generating companies have not been working normally for the last several months. As a cautionary measure, Rivas said that the CSE would be including candles and matches in the boxes of electoral materials to be sent to the over 12,000 voting centers which will receive more than three million voters on Nov. 5. Rivas admitted that it would not be appropriate for the counts to be carried out by candlelight.

Granera said that the police are working with the army on a contingency plan to guarantee the security of the electoral process should power cuts affect the crucial period directly before, during and after election day. "I hope we don't experience power cuts, though" she admitted, saying it would create a "very difficult" situation.

Roberto Rivas last week also asked for an explanation from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), about the final destination of US$2 million which he was told by AID officials that the organization had allotted for the Supreme Electoral Council. Rivas said the CSE had received US$1 million in aid, adding, “I would like to know where the other two million that AID was talking about ended up. The International Foundation for Elections Systems (IFES) has spent about US$1 million on expenses we suggested to support democracy. The problem is: where are the other US$2 million?” He went on to say, “The CSE is concerned because, if they are going to tell me that those US$2 million dollars went to the Movement for Nicaragua, that money is not going toward supporting the democratic process, but instead is working to destroy the democratic process.”

USAID had no direct response; rather the office re- released a press memo from Sept. 12 that stated that USAID had a total of $12 million allocated for assistance for the Nicaraguan elections to be disbursed among a number of agencies, including the CSE. The press attaché for the Embassy, Kristin Stewart, said that not all the aid had been disbursed.

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Topic 3: Bolaños flails about for solution to electricity crisis

On Sept. 19 Presidential Spokesman Lindolfo Monjarretz announced the government's decision to put the clocks back to standard time on Oct. 1. In an attempt to save energy the government instituted highly unpopular daylight savings time on Apr. 30. According to the President of the Nicaraguan Energy Company (ENEL) Frank Kelly at least US$3 million has been saved. Monjarretz said details of the savings would be given by the government during the next few days. The measure was criticized by many sectors including energy experts, the Nicaraguan Energy Institute (INE) and even the electricity distributing company Unión Fenosa, all of which insisted that little if any energy would be saved. Being much closer to the equator than the United States, there is scarcely any difference in the number of hours of daylight regardless of the time of year. Whether or not the government saved any money, the measure had the opposite effect for most ordinary Nicaraguans. Over 50% of the population who have no electricity were forced to spend extra money on candles or oil for oil lamps because of having to get up and ready for school or work in the dark.

Meanwhile President Bolaños' attempts to "overcome" the energy crisis were harshly criticized by INE, the Consumer Defense Network and other sectors. Bolaños proposed a new Energy Emergency Law to the National Assembly on Sept. 13. Likely "dead on arrival" the proposal would allow weekly changes in the electricity rate based solely on oil prices. Currently rate increase requests are analyzed by INE based on the price of oil, the quality of service being provided by Unión Fenosa and the amount invested by Unión Fenosa.

Bolaños also proposed that an electricity emergency fund be created to finance an "immediate solution" to the ongoing power cuts. This fund would be created by setting aside US$26 for each megawatt of electricity sold by the state hydroelectric generating company Hydrogesa. Presumably income from Hydrogesa is already included in the national budget but Bolaños didn't explain where he'd make up the shortfall. On Sept. 21 INE President David Castillo said that "while Unión Fenosa continues inflicting power cuts on their clients INE will not authorize any more tariff increases."

Frank Kelly, President of ENEL, did not directly criticize Bolaños' proposal to create an energy emergency fund from Hydrogesa's sales but he did mention the fact that the company's finances were in a bad way after lending US$30 million to Unión Fenosa "without any guarantee of the money being paid back except for the company director's word." The decision to make the loan was made after a meeting in the Presidential office last week attended by representatives of the energy sector.

On several occasions over the last few weeks Bolaños has inflicted seemingly unsustainable demands on the state generating companies and specifically Hydrogesa as a means of creating short term respite from the ever worsening energy crisis. Currently Hydrogesa is running at full capacity despite the fact that the water level of Lake Apanás is dangerously low due to a lack of rainfall and the dry season doesn't even start until Nov. 1.

Another of Bolaños' proposals to reduce the impact of the energy crisis was announced by Lindolfo Monjarretz on Sept. 20. He proposed that a British company, Optimal Integrated Energy Service, be authorized to install an electricity generating barge in the port of Corinto within the next 60 days. According to Monjarretz this barge would have the capacity to generate 80 megawatts thus allowing an early solution to the current electricity deficit of between 40 and 80 megawatts.

The state generating company, GECSA, made a formal request to the Comptroller General Office (CGR) on Sept. 20 to authorize the contract with the British company immediately. Nicaraguan law normally requires a 3-6 month waiting period to allow the CGR to analyze the contract.

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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.