Nicaragua Network Hotline

Nicaragua Network Hotline
October 6, 2003

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. Our web site is: www.nicanet.org 

Topics included in this hotline are: Ambassador Admits 
Trying to Unite "Democratic Forces" Against Sandinistas; 
Former Contras to Claim Compensation from the US; US 
Promises Limited Agricultural Protection; Indigenous 
Peoples See Little Hope in National Development Plan; 
Population Influx into Capital Slows; and Health Unions 
Win New Collective Agreement

TOPIC 1 Ambassador Admits Trying to Unite "Democratic 
Forces" Against Sandinistas

US Ambassador Barbara Moore acknowledged that she is 
meeting with various Liberal party factions, apparently in 
an attempt to bring anti-Sandinista forces together before 
the municipal elections of 2004. El Nuevo Diario reported 
that, "The US Ambassador, Barbara Moore, admitted that she 
is meeting with members of the Aleman wing of the Liberal 
Constitutionalist Party (PLC), as well as with sectors 
linked to the Bolaqos government and members of the Blue 
and White Independent Liberal bench.  She said her 
motivation is to help what she called 'the democratic 
forces' to unite with one another once and for all. 
Responding to questions put to her about the difficulties 
the PLC is undergoing, the diplomat refrained from 
committing herself, only saying that she had had meetings 
with several of its members to look into the possibility 
of bringing together "all parties adverse to the 
Sandinistas through the different Liberal factions." 

Call the Nicaragua Desk at the US State Department to 
demand that the US Ambassador stop interfering with 
Nicaragua's democratic process.  It was the Sandinista 
government that brought democracy to Nicaragua in the 
first place, a democracy that was severely undermined in 
1990 due to massive US interference.  Such anti-democratic 
interference has continued unabated in each election 
since, saddling Nicaragua with government corruption 
surpassing even that of the Somoza dictatorship.  Call 
Meave Dwyer, the State Department Nicaragua Desk Officer, 
at (202) 647-3518.
  
TOPIC 2 Former Contras to Claim Compensation from the US

In a reminder of yet another form of US intervention, the 
Nicaraguan Resistance Party (NRP) announced that it will 
begin a formal legal process against the US government to 
obtain millions of US dollars for members of the former 
Contra forces, which fought against the Sandinista 
government of the 1980s. Party leader Salvador Talaveras 
declared, "We want the US to recognize our men as war 
veterans, and to pay us our due as befits that condition. 
The basis of our claim is that we were created, trained 
and financed as part of the foreign policy of the United 
States. They cannot abandon us now." As precedent, 
Talaveras used the US$400 million awarded to former 
soldiers of what was then South Vietnam in the early '90s. 
"They fought alongside US troops, and then they too were 
abandoned. Yet they got justice in the end," he affirmed.

Talaveras explained that the proposed legal challenge had 
the full backing of the newly-formed National Council of 
the Resistance, which will receive its legal title during 
this coming week. The NCR comprises over 200 former Contra 
commanders. "We feel the timing of this initiative is very 
important," he went on, revealing that he and other party 
leaders would be meeting with the US Embassy and will set 
up visits to influential congressional leaders to carry it 
forward. "In an election year, no-one will want the 
specter of the Iran-Contra business to resurface," he 
observed.

TOPIC 3 US Promises Limited Agricultural Protection

Robert Zoellick, United States Trade Representative, 
completed a four day trip to Central America last week to 
shore up US interests in the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement (CAFTA) negotiations. Zoellick threatened Costa 
Rica with exclusion from CAFTA unless it quickly 
privatizes its state telephone company -- a step Costa 
Rica said it would not take. Zoelick offered Nicaragua 
what he called "special protection," to avoid CAFTA 
visiting chaos on its small and medium farmers when/if the 
treaty is signed in December. Called "Lifeguard," the 
special protection would enable Nicaragua to re-impose 
import taxes on US products which were proven to be 
adversely affecting its trade, such as rice, corn, beans, 
meat and dairy produce. However, he warned, these tariffs 
could only be put back in place for a maximum of 15 years, 
after which time, "all our markets, whether of the United 
States or of the countries of Central America, would have 
to be completely free and open. This means that 
'Lifeguard,' too, would have to go."  He didn't guarantee 
that the US would drop the massive subsidies of 
agribusiness which enables it to dump agricultural 
products at prices below what Latin American farmers can 
produce them.

Speaking at a press conference held after meeting with 
President Bolaqos and Trade Minister Mario Arana, Zoellick 
acknowledged that agriculture "would be of fundamental 
importance in the negotiations which we expect to conclude 
by the end of this year." However, he went on to underline 
that, if Central American countries wanted the US to make 
concessions to ease their way forward, they must be 
prepared to offer the US something in exchange." He did 
not elaborate. 

TOPIC 4. Indigenous Peoples See Little Hope in National 
Development Plan

Community leaders and organizations of the Atlantic Coast 
considered that the government's newly-announced Plan for 
National Development (PND) offered little that was new in 
terms of projects and plans for the social and economic 
improvement of the daily lot of their peoples. At best, 
they saw a faint chance that the Plan might "open a door 
to the hope that there might be some reversal of the 
situation of poverty and marginalization" in which 
thousands of people found themselves living.  "Essentially 
the PND is the bringing together of all the development 
projects which were put forward during the Chamorro and 
Aleman administrations," said Leonel Pantin, President of 
the Ethnic Affairs Commission of the National Assembly, 
who declared himself "cautiously optimistic." "Just like 
Mexican President Vicente Fox's North/South development 
proposal, Plan Puebla Panama, and the treaties being 
negotiated to form the free trade areas of Central America 
and the Americas, the PND must root itself in reality, 
Nicaragua reality, with its seemingly incurable economic 
ills. Only if we all join forces, we may at last get 
somewhere."

Pantin, who is himself from the Atlantic Coast, also 
emphasized that any development plan had to include all 
the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua, not just those of the 
east Coast. "There are indigenous peoples on the Pacific 
and in the Northern-Central parts of the country who, in 
my judgment, live in worse conditions than our communities 
do. Yet they are hardly ever even noticed." The Reverend 
Norman Bent, Special Advocate for Indigenous Peoples and 
Ethnic Communities, declared the plan to be, "overly 
general. It doesn't begin to touch on the fundamental 
bases of poverty. The government appears to see itself as 
the only doctor capable of curing the patient; ignoring 
the fact that the patient can do a lot to heal himself." 
He went on to dismiss the whole raft of free trade 
treaties and development plans as "exclusive; our peoples 
are not genuinely consulted or considered." He decried the 
fact that the indigenous peoples "were caught in the 
cross-fire between governments, civil society 
organizations and the political parties. Whenever we try 
to make ourselves heard, we're ignored. Take for example 
the Plan Puebla Panama. Indigenous peoples put forward a 
wealth of ideas, proposals on health, education, 
infrastructure, tourism. They were simply blocked. There's 
a new group that's arisen within these plans and 
negotiations; it's the private business sector and even 
the transnationals. They have far more influence than we 
do."

TOPIC 5. Population Influx into Capital Slows

Fewer Nicaraguans are migrating from the countryside to 
the city of Managua, which is now home to close to 
one-quarter of Nicaragua's entire population. Pablo Gomez, 
Director of Habitat Nicaragua, explained that his 
organization has projects in 10 departments and 17 
municipalities, and is thus well-placed to observe 
population drift. "People used to go to Managua; some 
still do of course, but mostly from the South, Masaya, 
Granada, Carazo. Now it's the turn of northern cities like 
Matagalpa and Jinotega; that's a main area people are 
settling these days." Gomez noted with alarm that the 
Atlantic side of the country was also undergoing an 
intense process of what he called, "Chontalization." This 
term refers to land invasions from the central department 
of Chontales, where trees are clear-cut to prepare the 
land for cattle-ranching causing immense eco-damage of the 
whole region. 

"Those people who come into Managua from the South," he 
continued, "many of them return to Masaya or wherever on 
the weekends, so the influx is more apparent than real. 
Much more importantly, people are abandoning the 
increasingly dry zones along the Pacific and Central parts 
of the country, and looking to settle in the humid 
tropical areas. This means that Nueva Guinea and the 
Northern and Southern Atlantic Autonomous Regions are 
under increasing pressure. That's where the 'invasions' 
are taking place, that's where the major environmental 
damage is being done."

TOPIC 6. Health Unions Win New Collective Agreement

After some 14 months of uncertainty, which, in recent 
weeks culminated in a serious strike threat, health 
workers' leaders shook hands with a government negotiating 
team to seal a new collective agreement. After a marathon 
session, which lasted from 2:00 pm to 8:00 am, Dr. Gustavo 
Porras, General Secretary both of the Health Workers' 
Union, FETSALUD, and of the National Workers Front (FNT), 
and Health Minister, Josi Antonio Alvarado, announced the 
new deal to the press.
"There's no force on earth that can shake this agreement," 
exulted Porras. "We even managed to get the retired health 
workers that the government has been trying to cut off 
included. They are now guaranteed a monthly income of more 
than US$100, together with medical assistance, glasses if 
they need them, and assistance to the family when they 
die." He also explained that veteran workers currently 
within the system now had the right to opt for retirement. 
"Someone who's been working for 30 years or more now has 
the right to take retirement early, and the government is 
obliged to pay them up to four years indemnity."  

While active workers didn't receive an actual pay rise, 
they were granted an extra free day per year, improved 
medical attention and various other benefits. To cover the 
costs of the agreement in what remains of this year will 
require roughly US$3 million. "This time round, we didn't 
ask for a salary raise," said Porras, "we wanted to 
concentrate on improving the precarious and marginal 
attention which is available to the population at large 
and to ensure the presence of more basic medicines so that 
when they have a prescription to fill they not be turned 
away empty-handed." For his part, Alvarado said, "We 
didn't just pluck this out of thin air; we consulted 
widely, going from municipality to municipality to listen 
to the basic needs and complaints of the people. We knew 
what was our roof, our limit. But we're hopeful of a good 
reception from the Treasury. Health is and has to be a 
national priority; without it, there can be no 
development." He warned that the country's hospital 
infrastructure needed an investment of at least a further 
US$3.25 million, on top of the similar sum being sought as 
a budget increase for next year by the unions. 

**********
To subscribe to this Hotline, send an e-mail to 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] from the address which should 
receive the Hotline.  To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

#############################################################
This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to
  the mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To switch to the INDEX mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Send administrative queries to  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>