Nicaragua Network Hotlines for September 12, 2006

News topics covered in this Hotline include:

• IRI accused of electoral law violation and Montealegre complains of "conspiracy."
• Ambassador Trivelli visits San Jacinto and talks about filibusterers
• Energy crisis continues
• Community unites against Copalar mega dam project
• New sex education guide covers taboo subjects of sex abuse and homosexuality
  

Topic 1: IRI accused of electoral law violation and Montealegre complains of "conspiracy."

The International Republican Institute (IRI) is being investigated by the National Police for electoral law violations. The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), the fourth branch of government responsible for conducting elections, has accused the IRI of using out of date, inaccurate, and illegally reproduced materials to train poll watchers for the November 5, 2006, presidential election. The IRI, whose US chair is Arizona Sen. John McCain is one of the core groups of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and receives NED and US Agency for International Development (USAID) funds for so-called democracy building campaigns which in reality subvert elections in favor of US supported candidates. The IRI and the Nicaraguan groups to which it makes sub-grants are training poll watchers from Eduardo Montealegre's National Liberal Alliance (ALN) and the Sandinista dissident party Sandinista Renovation Movement now led by Edmundo Jarquin.

According to CSE President Roberto Rivas, the CSE had warned the IRI about the use of inaccurate information in the workshops given by the institution on several occasions but that a lack of response prompted the official accusation. US Ambassador Paul Trivelli admitted that the IRI has used outdated information but claimed that the CSE hadn't yet issued the rules and regulations for the current electoral process. In fact, the CSE did issue the regulations over a month ago.

Meanwhile the Executive Director of the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH) Bayardo Izabá described the US government, and some Nicaraguan religious sectors and private companies of being “agents of electoral corruption.” While he thinks that the Private Sector Superior Council (COSEP) has been less active during this electoral process, Izabá said US Ambassador Paul Trivelli should “stop worrying about a Sandinista victory.”

Izabá called on all national and international organizations, private companies, and civil and religious groups not to practice “electoral blackmail.” “People should vote in accordance with their personal conviction... not under threat or blackmail,” he went on.

Also, last week, the spokesman for the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), Rafael Cordova, accused the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) and FSLN of conspiring against ALN presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre in an attempt to avoid his electoral victory and ensure an FSLN victory. Montealegre, one of Nicaragua's top bankers, has long been rumored to have benefited financially from corruption around several bank failures that have saddled Nicaragua with an internal debt that now exceeds its foreign debt. Since Montealegre is being sold to voters as "clean" compared to the corrupt FSLN and PLC candidates, any publicity about Montealegre's own corruption is a threat to his campaign.

According to Cordova there is a press campaign coordinated by the PLC and FSLN which aims to dirty Montealegre's name by implicating him in the banking scandal and the subsequent issuing of Negotiable Investment Certificates (CENIS) that effectively turned the private debt of the banks into public debt. This took place while Montealegre was Minister of Public Finance with a major financial interest in some of the banks. The ALN spokesman also accused the judicial system, the National Assembly's Transparency Committee and the Comptroller General Office (CGR) of conspiring against Montealegre.

On Sept. 5 the Transparency Committee issued a resolution ordering the Public Ministry to open an investigation into Montealegre's involvement in the CENIS scandal. “As Ministry of Public Finance, Montealegre knew about the process used to issue the CENIS,” read the resolution. The National Assembly committee also ordered an investigation into the involvement of former Central Bank President Noel Ramírez and the members of the liquidating boards of the now nonexistent banks Interbank, Banco del Café and Banco Nicaraguense de Industria y Comercio.

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Topic 2: Ambassador Trivelli visits San Jacinto and talks about filibusterers

U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli joined Presidents Enrique Bolaños of Nicaragua and Manuel Zelaya of Honduras at the Hacienda San Jacinta northeast of Managua to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the victory by the united Central American forces over the filibusterer from Tennessee, William Walker,. Walker took over Nicaragua in the 1850’s and made himself president of the country, reestablishing slavery. At the Battle of San Jacinta on September 14, 1856, the invader and his men suffered a humiliating defeat by forces led by Nicaraguan Col. Jose Dolores Estrada and was driven from the country.

Ambassador Trivelli took advantage of the occasion to say that “no longer was there reason to fear yanqui filibusterers in Nicaragua.” He then proceeded to reaffirm previous statements that if the FSLN were to win the November elections, the government of the United States would reexamine its relationship with Nicaragua at all levels, including trade, investments, aid, and immigration, among others. The Nicaragua Network asks, how is this type of threat different from the days of the filibusterers?

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Topic 3: Energy crisis continues

Nicaraguans continue to suffer major power outages which President Enrique Bolaños proposes to solve by giving the Spanish transnational Unión Fenosa US$9 million to pay its debts with the generating companies and to buy electricity from other countries to meet Nicaraguan demand. The bill was to be discussed in the National Assembly last week but debate was suspended when the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), which supports the tax give-away, realized it didn't have enough votes to overcome the FSLN opposition so it "broke quorum" in order to avoid a defeat of the bill. It is thought that the PLC will request another session to discuss the legislation once an agreement to guarantee the passing of the proposal has been reached with the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) bench.

The FSLN opposes the legislation because Union Fenosa, which bought the formerly state-owned electricity distribution franchise, had been inefficient and has broken its promises to modernize the power grid. The FSLN has brokered a deal with the Venezuelan state oil company to buy oil under preferential terms and sees this as a better solution to Nicaragua's energy crisis.

Meanwhile the effects continue to be felt across the country with power cuts of between three and twelve hours affecting almost all regions of the country. On Sept. 11 Unión Fenosa issued a press statement which announced the “financial collapse” of the company due to the “uncontrollable” increase in the international oil price and electricity rates that it claims do not cover the real cost of generation.

According to the Permanent Council of Nicaraguan Businesswomen, more than 50% of production of the small and micro companies is being lost as a result of the current energy crisis. President Ximena Ramírez said the constant power cuts and subsequent unexpected surges of electricity are damaging the machinery and production of thousands of small and micro companies which are now on the point of economic collapse.

Betty Espinoza, a baker from Somoto and member of the Permanent Council of Nicaraguan Businesswomen, said the bakery industry is being terribly affected by the energy crisis. Personally she says her business is losing over 50% of its production. “What money we do make does not cover our production costs, or the basic costs of running a household.” Espinoza said many bakeries have taken out loans to buy industrial ovens and other equipment and machines which are powered by electricity. As a result of the power cuts of up to twelve hours, these small businesses are now unable to make the monthly payment plans for these loans.

Meanwhile, technical issues continue to hold up implementation of the Venezuela oil deal. The board of the Nicaraguan company PETRONIC met on Sept. 7 to discuss the technical and logistical aspects of using the storage facilities belonging to PETRONIC in the port of Corinto which was finally approved by President Bolaños after months of obstruction. According to José García, President of PETRONIC, permission from the Swiss company Glencore, which has a leasing contract with PETRONIC, would be necessary before authorizing use of the storage facilities by ALBANIC.

The company ALBANIC was created to coordinate the importation and distribution of Venezuelan oil sold by the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA as part of an agreement with the Association of Nicaraguan Municipalities (AMUNIC) which aims to reduce the impact of the current energy crisis. PDVSA has agreed to sell up to 10 million barrels of oil a year (the annual demand in Nicaragua) to ALBANIC with preferential payment conditions.

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Topic 4: Community unites against Copalar mega dam project

On Sept. 11 El Nuevo Diario published a special report into a community group, Committee Against the Dam, which has been set up by local people in the Municipality Bocana of Paiwas in the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) to fight against the government's plan to build a huge hydroelectric dam which would destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people and change the map of Nicaragua forever.

The “Copalar” mega-project forms part of the Plan Puebla Panamá and is being promoted by the Nicaraguan government, the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), several European and Latin American governments and a number of multinational companies. The idea for the Copalar project has been around since the 1970s, although it had to be abandoned during the late 1970s and 1980s because of the armed conflicts which took place in the country. Now, thirty-five years later, the project has been revived and, despite the fact that the thousands of people whose lives will be ruined as a result of the project have not been consulted by the government, President Bolaños has signed an agreement with Mexican President Vicente Fox permitting this nation to participate in what Bolaños has referred to as “the deal of the century.”

A dam one kilometer wide and 200 meters tall would be constructed as part of Copalar, which would come to wipe out half the municipality of Bocana of Paiwas which is in the center of the country near the RAAS border with Matagalpa, including the town of Paiwas and twelve rural communities and destroy an enormous area of tropical rain forest. While the government predicts 5,000 people would be affected by the project, the Committee against the Dam believes that figure would be more like 30,000. The government has said it would provide compensation for those affected by the project. It is unlikely this compensation would be sufficient to allow for their economic security. Some local people are so enraged about the project that they say they are willing to resort to armed conflict to defend their homes and their land.

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Topic 5: New sex education guide covers taboo subjects of sex abuse and homosexuality

Minister of Education Miguel Ángel García presented the new sex education guide to be used in primary and secondary school beginning February 2007. The new guide called “Educational Guide to Affection and Sexuality” broaches subjects including sexual intercourse, responsible parenting, contraceptive methods, homosexuality and sexual and domestic abuse.

Director of the Education for Life Program at the Ministry of Education, Rodrigo Álvarez, explained that the idea for the new guide was born after a widespread survey in Nicaraguan schools revealed shocking numbers of students were having sexual intercourse at a very young age, suffering from sexual or other kinds of abuse, drinking alcohol or taking drugs or suffering from depression and / or suicidal thoughts. “A few years ago we had an obsolete, traditional education system which the students could not apply to their everyday lives,” explained Álvarez.

Given the historic opposition of the Catholic Church hierarchy to alleviating people's ignorance about sexuality, this is not likely the final word on this subject. It would not be surprising to find this becoming an issue in the presidential election just as it has in many local, state, and national campaigns in the US.

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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.