Nicaragua News Service A Service of the Nicaragua Network October 1 - 7, 2001 Volume 9, Number 40 By Paul Baker Hernández 1. Ortega Tells US: "Don't Meddle." 2. General Cuadra Calls for Non-Violence 3. Republicans Blast Alemán 4. AMNLAE Challenges Discrimination Against Women 5. Coffee Prices Lowest For Quarter Century 6. Ministry and Police Shut Down Maquiladora 7. Business Focuses on "Path of the Jaguar" 8. Power Privatization Attempt Fails - Again 1. Ortega Tells US: "Don't Meddle." Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Francisco Aguirre met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on October 4 in Washington, DC. Also present at the meeting were John Maisto, Security Council staffperson for Latin America, and Congressman Cass Ballenger (R-NC). A State Department press release stated unequivocally that the Bush administration would have "grave reservations" about a new Sandinista Front government taking office in January. The statement ran, in part, "The United States will respect the result of a free and fair election that expresses the will of the Nicaraguan people. However, we have grave reservations about the FSLN's history." John F. Keane, Director of the Office of Central American Affairs at the State Department, admitted that a FSLN triumph "would be disconcerting" for the US, and claimed that, up to the moment, there were no tangible proofs that the Front had changed. "It would be dishonest of me not to acknowledge that the possibility of the election of a Sandinista government is disconcerting to the US government," he averred. "We cannot forget the FSLN's history of trampling on basic civil liberties and violating human rights. We can't forget the confiscation of properties of US and Nicaraguan citizens alike, nor the suppression of free trade unions and the practice of religion. We cannot forget that Nicaragua became a refuge for violent political extremists from the Middle East, from Europe and from Latin America." Noting that Tomás Borge, Lenin Cerna and Alvaro Baltodano, "who between them carried out many of these abominations," were still among Daniel Ortega's closest advisors, Keane asked, "Given this, and in the absence of concrete proof, how can we believe that the FSLN has changed?" In response, Daniel Ortega said the US should prepare itself to deal with a “convergence” government led by the FSLN, and even spoke of the positive role the US was playing in providing funding for election observers from the Organization of American States. Referring to the Liberal government's "manipulation" of the terrorism issue, he maintained, "We have already expressed our readiness to support the fight against international terrorism. But any action must be based on the consensus of the international community, respect for international law, and not run counter to the system of the United Nations." However, in a final stinging retort, the former president concluded, "The US should not interfere. Reservations also exist about how the current US government came into office. These matters belong to the past. It's as if we were to start talking about Oliver North, judged by the US government itself. And 'Irangate,' imagine if we were to take that up …" (Channel 2, 4, 12 TV, 5 October, El Nuevo Diario, La Prensa, 6, 7 October) 2. General Cuadra Calls for Non-Violence Some Nicaraguan analysts are claiming that both major parties have no intention of letting the other win the close-fought presidential race and have plans to take refuge in violence as a last resort. Former head of the Army, retired General Joaquín Cuadra called on all three parties in contention to sign a commitment to non-violence. Cuadra’s own Movement for National Unity was maneuvered out of the electoral race by the political "pact" which effectively turned Nicaragua into a two party state (the third, Conservative, party is polling in the low single digits). He said that concern was rising, both nationally and internationally, about the degree of polarization being forced on the Nicaraguan people. He challenged the contenders to make their promise before Violeta Chamorro, "a person with an immense accumulation of moral authority." Cuadra said such a commitment should even extend to inviting all political forces within the country to work together "without distinction, to lift Nicaragua up." Cuadra accused President Alemán of helping to foment violence by using his weekly radio program to claim that certain sectors of the national police were sympathizers of "a Party," presumably the Sandinista Front. "Nicaragua's institutions are fragile," he said, "and the police is one in which we have to have confidence for the proper conducting of the elections. They have amply demonstrated their impartiality on many occasions. For the president to say this on air is profoundly irresponsible." His plea to avoid violence at all costs was supported by the watchdog group, Ethics and Transparency (ET), whose president, Gabriel Solórzano, said, "We are seriously concerned at the hundreds of complaints that are apparently being ignored by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE). They concern a whole range of infringements against electoral law, from the destruction of rival propaganda to actual fighting between rival factions." He called on the CSE, the police and the courts to comply with their obligations and punish offenders with the full force of the law. "The candidates themselves and the parties in contention must set the example," he concluded. "This violence must stop, and stop now!" (El Nuevo Diario, 4 October) 3. Republicans Blast Alemán Representatives of the US International Republican Institute (IRI) minced no words last week in characterizing Arnoldo Alemán as a "throwback to the values of the Somoza dictatorship," and even as "exhibiting monarchic inclinations." IRI spokesperson, Steve Johnson, said succinctly, "Alemán is known as an effective mayor who was somewhat corrupt; and as a somewhat effective president who is extremely corrupt." The IRI warned that Alemán's corruption had made it quite possible that the FSLN would return to power, and categorized the electoral process as "extremely worrying," maintaining that there was an increasing concern for its very legitimacy. Others, among them William Perry of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expressed their concern that, should Bolaños win, he would have extreme difficulty in shaking himself free from Alemán's influence, especially with the former president having a free pass to the National Assembly. For Perry, Alemán's leadership had become "increasingly autocratic, extremely manipulative and authoritarian." "All this," he went on, "together with the repeated accusations of corruption and Alemán's continuing immunity from prosecution makes my hair stand on end." In response, President Alemán produced his standard riposte, challenging his critics to show as much as a single cent that he had misappropriated. "As I always say to the donor nations, 'Show me proof. Tell me which cent, what cordoba has been deflected from the purpose for which it was donated.'" While Alemán came under these fierce attacks from unexpected quarters, two of his erstwhile closest colleagues within the PLC abandoned him and threw in their lot with the FSLN Convergence. Eddy Gómez and Sergio Garcia Quintero are two of the highest profile Liberals to align themselves with Daniel Ortega so far. Gómez is married to Alemán's sister, and was formerly PLC Secretary for Managua, while Garcia Quintero is currently a PLC deputy to the Central American Parliament. "Liberalism is going through a very severe crisis right now," said Garcia Quintero. "No matter what we try to do to keep it in check, in reality there's a dirty fight going on between Bolaños's team and the group that surrounds the president, driven by motives which are mean-spirited, unpatriotic and, quite possibly, illegal." "After an open and sincere conversation with Comandante Ortega," he concluded, "I want to tell all my liberal friends that this [the Convergence] is the only decent option open to us to safeguard the interests of the our party. (La Prensa, 2 October, El Nuevo Diario, 3 October) 4. AMNLAE Challenges Discrimination Against Women "We may not be in Afghanistan, and we don't have a Taliban government ruling us, but discrimination against women, even by the government and including the candidates for November's elections, is still very powerful here." Thus Dora Zeledón, National Director of AMNLAE (the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Nicaraguan Women's Association), reflected on the reality which Nicaraguan women experience in their day-to-day lives. "Thanks to the attacks on the US, the lot of the Afghan woman has been revealed to the world - they can't attend school, or work outside the home, they can't even show their faces, and their men can kill them on suspicion of infidelity," she continued. "In Nicaragua, discrimination against us women is not at that level, but it is very profound and very real." Speaking for AMNLAE, Zeledón stressed that, "just as in Afghanistan," Nicaraguan politicians were in the business of maintaining the traditional role of women, emphasizing that they were the "fundamental axis of the family," and, by extension, that their proper place was in the home. "Just consider how few women are in positions of power in Nicaragua," she said. "For us, there's no formal access to credit, to property; there are no institutions which run education or health programs with a gender focus." She maintained that this attitude of systemic discrimination was clearly evidenced in that a equal opportunities bill had been "sleeping the sleep of the just" in the National Assembly for many months, and, although she herself is an FSLN assembly member, she could see no signs that it would be acted on any time soon. Zeledón was speaking during a ceremony at which AMNLAE formally expressed its solidarity with the women of Afghanistan, and with the struggle for women's rights everywhere. "AMNLAE's position," she concluded, "is that neither religion, culture, nor prevailing values can be utilized to justify oppression. Women's rights are universal, and, as long as that is not recognized within any society, it is impossible to call that society democratic." (El Nuevo Diario, 6 October) 5. Coffee Prices Lowest For Quarter Century While the world has been watching the endless replays of the attacks on the US, and now their aftermath as the widely-predicted strikes against Afghanistan have finally begun, the coffee workers of Nicaragua and Central America continue their quiet, inexorable, Calvary. With the promise of a bumper crop in the south of Brazil coming hard on the heels of the huge influx of Vietnamese beans, world coffee prices dropped to their lowest level for 26 years at just US$46.65 per quintal (100lbs). Consequently, the situation of the coffee producers, and still more that of the day laborers who rely on the plantations for their families' sustenance, has grown steadily worse. Not only is there little or no credit to finance the necessary pruning, composting and other routine tasks so critical to good coffee yields, but owners can no longer afford the security guards who usually patrol the land; as a result insecurity is spreading across the mountains, with raiders invading with impunity and carrying off whatever they can find. The parks in central Matagalpa and even Managua once again have their share of laid-off workers, huddled under scraps of plastic sheeting, trying desperately to raise a few cents or a little food through begging. In Managua, the camp in the "Luis Alfonso Valasquez" park, just across from the National Assembly building, just saw the birth of its first child. The two hundred or so people who now call it home, accuse the government of failing to come through on its promises of work and land with which it defused an earlier occupation. They will stay; there is nowhere else to go. Across Central America as a whole, the World Food Program estimates there are about 150,000 such refugees from hunger, some fleeing the coffee crash, others the dreadful drought. The World Bank has warned that the catastrophic fall on world financial markets following the World Trade Center attacks will probably mean a reduction of about one third in North-South investment, a creeping disaster which will claim up to 40,000 lives among children under five. In this grim context, the Matagalpa Association of Coffee Growers called on all three presidential candidates to make the regeneration of the coffee sector a central plank of their economic programs. Spokesperson Freddy Torres said, "We don't want to take sides, but so far only the FSLN has made concrete proposals to solve the crisis. What we really want is a commitment independent of whichever party wins." (La Prensa, 6 October) 6. Ministry and Police Shut Down Maquiladora As falling demand threatens more and more layoffs for free trade zone workers, the Ministry of Labor confirmed that the Singbo Garment factory had been ordered to shut down for fifteen days, as a penalty for repeated violations of health and safety codes. Emilio Noguera, General Inspector of Labor, said the closure was also a precautionary measure, since members of the factory's union claimed the owners were removing machinery, cloth and finished clothing from the site in what appeared to be an attempt to cut and run. Local labor inspector Victor Mayorga Castañeda, said Singbo Garment owners and management had been fined nearly US$1,000 on no less than three separate occasions, charged with violating the workers' rights by failing to provide appropriate working conditions. Both Noguera and Mayorga said the employers would be required to pay their workforce full salaries during the fifteen days the plant was closed, and acknowledged that they shared the view that Singbo had intended to vacate the site "to get out of paying." The police had been called in, Noguera continued, to make sure the fifteen day suspension was properly observed and because the plant management had tried to prevent ministry personnel from entering the factory. A management spokesperson denied that the Singbo owners had any intention of abandoning the factory, saying they had no reason to be taking machinery and other materials off the site, and that they were quite prepared to improve working conditions. However, reporters who asked to interview workers for themselves were turned away. Meantime, employees in the Presitex factory, just outside Sébaco, were still left wondering just how deep cuts into their number were to penetrate. Once again, the owners claimed a massive drop in orders left them no choice but to suspend about 40% of their labor force for four months. The factory union, aided by the local branch of the National Workers' Front (FNT), put on the table a list of demands including that one that would stipulating that suspended workers would each receive one month's salary to buy basic food, that social security benefits would be maintained, that no pregnant or lactating women would be suspended, and that, if the suspensions became dismissals, all workers' benefits would be paid in full. The company's response was not recorded. (La Prensa, 2 October, Channel 2, 4 TV, El Nuevo Diario, 5 October) 7. Business Focuses on "Path of the Jaguar" The great environmental dream of a Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, running from southern Mexico through the Central American isthmus to the southern border of Panamá, is receiving increased attention from a group of businesspeople eager to promote "Eco-tourism." The Corridor, also called "Path of the Jaguar," is a linked series of reserves, supposedly designed to provide plant and animal species with migration paths of sufficient size to maintain the region's astonishing natural wealth. Covering a total of some 24 million acres, the Corridor is protected by the United Nations and contains about 7% of the total biodiversity of the planet. It is host to many species in danger of extinction, and its ecological value is immense, including as it does wetlands, coral reefs and many varieties of forests. Many environmentalists express concern that the project is more paper than practice, especially given the massive logging concessions which are decimating the forests up and down its length, and the callous seizing of lands belonging from time immemorial to the region's many indigenous peoples. The declarations of Bruno Bustos Bol, Director of the Central American Commission for the Environment and Development (CCAD), may well deepen their concern. "The Mesoamerican Corridor is synonymous with profits," he said, "it provides new opportunities to businessmen looking to make money from Eco-tourism." And, "We are committed to exploit the resources of the Corridor, and we trust we will be successful." CCAD is made up of entrepreneurs from throughout Central America; it has its headquarters in Nicaragua, and representatives in each of the other countries involved. Bustos Bol continued, "We intend to stimulate Eco-tourism from Europe, where, by and large, people appreciate ecology, and are inclined to stay longer in the region, and therefore consume more. We want to develop the Corridor in a sustainable and rational way, counting on the assistance of the governments of the region. The first fruits of our investment should be observable this coming year." (La Prensa, 3 October) 8. Power Privatization Attempt Fails - Again For the third time, the government's attempts to sell Nicaragua's crumbling power generating plants into private hands, proved fruitless. At the bidding ceremony, held in one of Managua's most luxurious hotels, the chairperson of the privatization committee, Abdel Karim, received embarrassed silence in response to his call for offers. Three companies, two US and one Canadian, had 'pre-qualified' for the sale, having shown a serious interest in buying the power facilities, but, when the moment came, not even one was prepared to put an offer on the table. Carlos Morice, president of the governing board of ENEL, the government-owned power company, expressed his surprise, saying that the terms of the offer had been very favorable to investors, with the buyer having to pay only 50% of the final price immediately, having five years to provide the balance. First responses to the failure were that the recent losses experienced by the international stock markets and the approaching elections were generating a climate of uncertainty and confusion. Treasury Minister Esteban Duquestrada tried to play down the result, noting that ENITEL, the state phone company, was put up for sale five times before it was finally privatized, and that "we now just move into the next stage of the sales process, that is, ENEL comes 'under the auctioneer's hammer.'" He added he was confident the sale would go through early next year (2002), when the elections would be out of the way, and the climate should have stabilized. "Indeed," he continued, "we may well get a better price than we expected at present, since investors will have had more time to find financing." For his part, César Zamora, U.S. manager of ENRON, said, "We did everything we could to come up with an offer, but, in the end, we were floored by sudden huge increases in insurance costs for the plants, in the order of 1,100%. To meet these, we would have had to run at a loss for the first four years of operation. You can't invest under those circumstances." Zamora said his company remained committed to Nicaragua, since it had already invested US$72 million in a floating energy platform in the northwestern port of Corinto. (El Nuevo Diario, 6 October) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp