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TORTILLA CON SAL a different focus - Nicaragua - un enfoque diferente News summary for June 18th 2008 by Karla Jacobs
CSE cancel MRS and PC legal status On June 11, five months before the local elections are scheduled to take place, the seven magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) voted unanimously to cancel the legal status of two parties, the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and the Conservative Party (PC), having determined that these two parties failed to fulfil the legal prerequisites established in the national electoral legislation. According to CSE President Roberto Rivas the MRS "repeatedly violated" electoral legislation by failing to provide the correct documentation refering to internal structural changes during a party convention in February 2007. Rivas said the CSE had requested the documentation from the MRS on several occasions but the party had not complied. The PC's legal status cancelled because it failed to present candidates in the minimum 80% of municipalities as required by the Electoral Law. Rivas said that the CSE was yet to take a final decision about the legal status of the Multi Ethnic Party for Caribbean Coast Unity (PAMUC) and the Multi Ethnic Indigenous Party (PIM), both political organizations from Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast. The leaders of both the MRS and the PC expressed their outrage at what they considered to be an undemocratic decision and reiterated their denial of having violating the national electoral legislation and their claim that the CSE decision responds to the interests of President Daniel Ortega and honorary leader of the main opposition party Arnoldo Aleman. (Despite being a convicted criminal, Arnoldo Aleman is the honorary president of the Constitutional Liberal Party, PLC.) According to the MRS and the PC, Ortega and Aleman maintain a political "pact" which includes plans to eliminate their political opponents and implement an institutional dictatorship in Nicaragua. During a political gathering on June 11 MRS Deputy Monica Baltodano called on MRS followers to "rebel" against "Daniel Ortega's Dictatorship ... to fight like we did 35 years ago" against Anastasio Somoza's dictatorship. Later that evening a channel 4 vehicle was attacked by a group of men with ski masks. According to the journalists of the pro FSLN channel who were inside the vehical at the time, the men wore clothing marked with the MRS logo. Over the weekend (June 14 - 15) the leaders of the MRS, the PC and the conservative "We're with Eduardo" movement (MVE) attempted to form a strategic alliance with the common aim of fighting against the Ortega-Aleman "pact" and objecting the installation of an "institutional dictatorship" with a series of street protests. The negotiations failed, however, because, according to MRS leader Edmundo Jarquin, MVE leader Eduardo Montealegre refused to give up his candidacy for Mayor of Managua with the PLC alliance. The PC and the MRS did confirm plans to carry out joint protests against the government, however. Former President of the MRS Dora Maria Tellez, who began a hunger strike in protest against the threat to cancel her party's legal status on June 4, brought her strike to an end on June 16 saying the moment had come to take the struggle [against Ortega's "dictatorship"] to the streets. "The moment has come for the Nicaraguan people to define its position; either we are with the pact or we are against the pact," she said. Shortly after the CSE resolution was voted on June 11 the interim Foreign Minister Manuel Coronel announced that the Foreign Ministry had received information suggesting that a number of foreign diplomats in Nicaragua were planning to issue a statement condemning the CSE decision. Coronel called on foreign ambassadors "not to intervene in Nicaragua's internal affairs" in order to avoid running the risk of being expulsed from the country. On Jun 13 the Italian Ambassador in Managua Alberto Boniver, ignoring Coronel's call, said that the CSE decision "gives the majority of us [foreign ambassadors] the impression that political pluralism is under threat in Nicaragua, which obviously does not please us." Boniver went on to say that expulsing foreign ambassadors perceived to have intervened in Nicaragua's internal affairs would "go against the country's interests, ... Nicaragua needs the donor countries' aid, it is a very poor country." Agreement with BANPRO on CENIS debt has no baring on criminal investigation Special Prosecutor Armando Juarez said on June 10 that the recently announced renegotiation of the state's debt with BANPRO (the Production Bank), has no baring on the criminal investigation he is leading into the infamous CENIs (Negotiable Investment Certificates) scandal and the legal action that investigation is likely to lead to. When asked whether Judge Julio Cesar Arias would lift the seizure currently on the CENIs bonds held by BANPRO as requested by the President of the Nicaraguan Central Bank Antenor Rosales and the President of BANPRO Ramiro Ortiz, Juarez said "our investigation does not answer to" individual officials. Although he went on to say that the renegotiation agreement was "an element to be considered" by the investigation team. Meanwhile diverse economic and political players applauded the agreement signed between BANPRO the Central Bank including independent economist Nestor Avendaño, President of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) Jose Adan Aguerri and Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) deputy and president of the National Assembly Economic Commission Francisco Aguirre Sacasa. Government now owns 16% of Union Fenosa's shares in Nicaragua On June 12 President Daniel Ortega confirmed that the government had succeeded in signing an agreement with Union Fenosa on May 29 as a result of which the state now owns 16% of the Spanish multinational company's shares in Nicaragua. In return for the 16% of shares and a place on Fenosa's board of directors, the government condoned a US$10+ million debt the company had with the state. Ortega said the signing of the agreement was made possible as a result of the "good will of President Jose Luis Zapatero's government." National Assembly postpones elections in RAAN On June 10 the National Assembly voted to postpone the municipal elections in seven of the eight municipalities of the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) until January 18 2009 in response to a request by the RAAN Regional Council to do so. According to the Regional Council the devastation caused by Hurricane Felix (a category 5 storm) last September was so great that it would be inappropriate to hold elections in November as scheduled. Felix destroyed the region's infrastructure and displaced tens of thousands of people. Also as a result of the storm the electoral roles in the worst affected municipalities were lost or damaged. The Sandinista (FSLN) deputies and the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) deputies voted in favor of the postponement while the "We're with Eduardo" movement (MVE) deputies and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) deputies voted against. The elections in the eighth RAAN municipality Waspam and in the rest of the country will take place on November 9. IMF mission in Nicaragua A high level International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission arrived in Nicaragua on June 9 in a two week visit to conclude the first revision of the three year economic program the organization signed with the Sandinista (FSLN) government in October 2007. Currently the disbursement of US$10 million as part of the program has been suspended because, according to IMF representatives, the government failed to comply with the conditions outlined in the agreement. IMF and government sources have confirmed that the main discrepancy between the two parties was the continuing delays in the ratification of the Special Law for the Responsible Use of Electricity (also known as the Anti Fraud Law). The law was eventually passed by the National Assembly on June 12, however, and after a meeting with the IMF mission on the same day President of the Nicaraguan Central Bank Antenor Rosales expressed his confidence that the suspension would soon be uplifted. According to Rosales it was concluded in the meeting that Nicaragua "has more than satisfied" the conditions set out in the economic agreement. NGO calls for special state protection of child workers On June 12, World Day Against Child Labour, The non governmental organization (NGO) the Two Generations Center made a call to the Nicaraguan authorities to guarantee special state protection for child workers. According to one of the directors of the center Reina Isabel Velazquez there are over 300,000 child and adolescent workers in Nicaragua, 50% of whom do not go to school. Velazquez said that the current economic crisis and soaring prices of basic products will force more children to work so their families can earn enought o survive. According to CODENI, the umbrella group which coordinates the work of NGOs that specialize in the rights of children and young people, the Nicaraguan Family Ministry (MIFAMILIA) would need US$25 million to put in place the measures it deems necessary to guarantee special protection for the country's child labourers. Women's group extremely concerned about high levels of gender violence The Women's Network Against Violence is extremely concerned about consistently high levels of violence against women in Nicaragua. According to the network at least one woman is murdered by her partner every week in the country. During the first six months of 2008, 28 women have been murdered by their partners and another 21 have been reported missing, many of them have presumably also been murdered. According to Fatima Millon, representative of the Women's Network, one of the most worrying aspects of the phenomenon is that the average age of the female victims is dropping and the forms of violence used against women are becoming increasly brutal. Citizens unsatisfied with MARENA's handling of CEMEX case The members of the community group Commission Against the Contamination of San Rafael del Sur (CONSANRAFA), whose formal complaint against the Mexican multinational company CEMEX for the severe contamination it has caused in their municipality was behind the Ministry of the Environment's (MARENA) investigation into the environmental impact of the company's activity in the area, expressed their dissatisfaction with the way in which MARENA has handled the case. CONSANRAFA issued a statement on June 10 criticizing MARENA for not notifying them about the resolution to sanction CEMEX which was issued on May 19. Although MARENA's resolution about the case does order CEMEX to bring into force a number of the measures demanded by CONSANRAFA, the community organization believes that it will be "difficult to control CEMEX' faithful compliance with these orders." Whatismore the organization requests MARENA to make a further review of the case arguing that the full extent of the environmental damage caused by CEMEX was not taken into account. Radio Ya warns that group trained by CIA plans to destabilize the country La Nueva Radio Ya, a pro FSLN Managua based radio, warned that a group of youths trained by the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Spanish far right Popular Party is operating in Nicaragua with the aim of destabilizing the FSLN government. According to the radio station this group of young Nicaraguans received training in "the fabrication of chaos" during seminaries in Miami and Spain and are attempting to put their plans into action in coordination with right wing media outlets such as La Prensa and Channel 2, a number of non governmental organizations (NGOs) and certain private universities. "These are the same [type of] group that have sown violence in Bolivia and Venezuela," warned Radio Ya. | |