Nicaragua Network Hotline

Nicaragua Network Hotline
October 21, 2003

This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service 
and other sources. To receive a more extensive weekly 
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Topics included in this hotline are: End the Occupation 
Demo on Oct. 25, Water Bills Debated in National Assembly, 
NGOs Challenge National Development Plan, Texaco May Face 
Million Dollar Environmental Damage Claim, and Bilwi Dock 
?On Point of Collapse?

TOPIC 1: End the Occupation Demo on Oct. 25

The largest anti-war demonstration since the invasion of 
Iraq will be held in Washington, DC, and San Francisco 
this Saturday, Oct. 25.  The demonstration is organized by 
the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) 
and United for Peace and Justice, the two largest anti-war 
coalitions in the US.  The rally in DC will start at 11:00 
am at the Washington Monument followed by a march around 
the White House and Justice Department.    In San 
Francisco gather at 11:00 am at the Civic Center Plaza in 
San Francisco, adjacent to City Hall.  Visit 
www.internationalanswer.org for details.  Nicaragua 
Network DC staff have been working hard on the 
demonstration since returning from Nicanet's annual 
National Leadership Meeting in Chicago over Columbus Day 
weekend.  National Co-Coordinator Chuck Kaufman spoke at a 
national press conference on Oct. 21 and will speak at the 
rally on Oct. 25.

TOPIC 2: Water Bills Debated in National Assembly
  
"Water is a national resource that cannot be privatized 
and which must be regulated to benefit all Nicaraguans and 
the interests of the nation," according to Jaime Morales, 
National Assembly Deputy from the Blue and White Bench. 
 The government's Advocate for the Environment Lisandro 
D'Leon expressed his agreement as debate began in the 
Assembly over the water bill presented by the Ministry of 
Public Works, Industry and Trade.
  
The Consumers' Defense Network and a number of other 
organizations asserted that the bill masks the 
privatization of water. The Consumers group has introduced 
its own National Water Bill which would prohibit 
privatization and create a National Water Authority that 
would include representatives of citizens' groups.  The 
government defended its bill by saying that nothing would 
be sold, rather the possibility of concessions over water 
resources would be established.  According to Morales, 
however, all of the forced privatizations or sales in 
Latin America have been a source of corruption and the 
promised benefits have never reached the population.  In 
fact, the people have seen the costs of public services 
rise.
  
"We have gone from state monopolies to private ones 
looking for the promised private sector efficiency, but 
the companies have turned out to be as inefficient as the 
state owned firms," Morales maintained.  He added that 
Nicaragua should follow the example of Costa Rica and 
Mexico which have refused to privatize their 
communications and petroleum industries, respectively.
  
The government's Advocate for the Environment, Lisandro 
D'Leon, said that the country's constitution prohibited 
the privatization of a natural resource such as water "but 
did not prohibit the government from giving concessions 
for the liquid."

A street protest against water privatization last week in 
Managua was broken up by police. Several protesters 
received bruises and broken bones from the police who made 
six arrests.
  
TOPIC 3: NGOs Challenge National Development Plan

"The representatives of civil society have just eight 
minutes to put forward their point of view; that?s 
ridiculous," said Violeta Delgado, delegate from the Civil 
Coordinating Body to the National Development Plan (NDP) 
Consultative Group meeting, to be held in Managua later 
this month. Delgado said that the Bolanos government would 
be presenting its NDP and poverty reduction strategy to 
representatives of the international financial community 
as early as 27 October, "about which we have serious 
reservations.? She declared that the non-governmental 
organizations were planning to march through Managua?s 
streets to draw people?s attention to the meeting and to 
the basic lack of information being provided by the 
government. "We?re also planning a series of informational 
forums," she continued. "The government has already given 
CONPES, the National Council for Economic and Social 
Planning, a pre-report which we find very disturbing. For 
example, there is no setting out of the actual financial 
resources and amounts that will be made available to the 
various government institutions for the poverty reduction 
program. This information is critical, particularly since 
we know that the Ministry of the Family already spent most 
of its annual budget for salaries in the first three 
months of this year."

The CC representative also criticized the speed with which 
the government was insisting on working. "Imagine," she 
declared. "They distributed the pre-report on Friday last, 
and required our response by this Monday morning. 
Forty-eight hours to give serious consideration to 
something so critical; forty-eight hours over a weekend at 
that." Rather than go along with such a process, she 
explained, the NGOs have asked the government to allow 
more time so that they can study the full implications of 
the plan. "It?s not just a matter of applying measures 
already in place in other countries, such as 'development 
clusters' and free trade zones and factories," she said. 
"The government can?t just react knee-jerk fashion to the 
requirements of the international financial institutions." 
"We want to talk about a system of self-sustainability; 
for that, it?s necessary that the government make 
resources available. But we se no sign of that in the 
budget plan for 2004 so far.

Given the tiny space open to them in the consultative 
group meeting, the NGOs also plan to invite 
representatives to that meeting to workshops in the days 
immediately before the main sessions. "We plan to present 
them with our considered thoughts about the NDP," 
explained Delgado, "and at the end of the process, we will 
have a document to present to the consultative group 
meeting itself." She noted that the CC and other groups 
had already achieved a pre-meeting with representatives of 
Norway, Italy, Norway, Finland, the International Monetary 
Fund and the World Bank. "We explained that such a 
national plan is certainly necessary in the long term, but 
that it must be developed from the bases, using 
grass-roots experience and participation, and with 
development plans emerging from them. The plan then to be 
under the administration of central government."

TOPIC 4: Texaco May Face Million Dollar Environmental 
Damage Claim

"A fine of US$3,500 simply doesn?t begin to answer the 
gravity of the damage which has occurred here," declared 
Environmental Ombudsman Lisandro de Leon Mairena. He was 
referring to a 5,200 gallon fuel leak which took place 
this in May at a Texaco garage in Managua, for which the 
company is already in trouble with the law. While it 
seemed at first that the effects were localized, further 
investigations have revealed that in fact the spillage has 
contaminated Managua?s aquifer, on which the capital?s 
population depends for fresh water. Recently other leaks 
from underground pipes at other stations have also been 
discovered. "People are going to get a shock," De Leon 
declared. "The Ministry for the Environment and Natural 
Resources (MARENA) is applying the due penalty already; 
however, this is just a standard administrative fine and 
will be for a very modest sum when you consider the damage 
that has taken place. However, while MARENA can only apply 
this fine of a few thousand dollars, we're talking about 
possibly millions in damages. The company has contaminated 
the nation?s basic resources to a serious degree; it is 
therefore our obligation to require that that 
contamination be completely cleared up, and the damage to 
the soil and sub-soil made completely good." Speaking for 
Texaco, customer service representative Carlos Vargas 
acknowledged that the process initiated by MARENA was 
already process. "We're in an eight-day evidence 
collection phase," he said. "As to the further matter, I 
can only repeat what I?ve said before, that the Texaco 
company will comply with whatever the law decides." 
 Texaco's performance is yet to be seen, but Vargas' 
response was more responsible than that of Dole, Dow, and 
Shell which have been stonewalling a multimillion dollar 
court order to pay banana workers poisoned by the 
pesticide Nemagon.

TOPIC 5: Bilwi Dock "On Point of Collapse"

Despite constant warnings from dockers, who risk their 
lives on a daily basis venturing out onto the unsteady 
planks of Bilwi?s rickety wharf, the port authority of 
Puerto Cabezas, principal city of the North Atlantic 
Autonomous Region, has allowed the fabric to deteriorate 
to such an extent that great gaps are beginning to appear 
in its surface and no trucks dare drive onto it. As a 
result the owners of the fishing boats which dock there 
are being faced with huge increases in loading their boats 
with stores and offloading their catches of fish and 
lobster. Gustavo Medina, president of the North Atlantic 
Fishing Association, declared "We're paying up to ten 
times what we paid before, just to load and unload the 
boats. Previously we paid the dockers about 3 US cents per 
sack of supplies that they carried on board; now, because 
the trucks can?t get close to the boats, we have to pay 
anything up to 30 US cents. Just imagine: each time that?s 
something like 500 sacks that have to been brought on 
board, food for the journey, ice to keep the lobsters 
fresh, drinking water for the crew. All these extra costs 
were never foreseen. Somehow we have to find the money to 
pay them, or our boats don't get loaded." He said the boat 
owners were particularly incensed that, despite the 
parlous state of the wharf, the port authority was still 
insisting on collecting the same dues from anyone docking 
in Bilwi. "No matter what, we have to pay port fees," he 
explained, "to land our catch on a wharf which is 
positively dangerous."

While locals have been calling on the port authority to 
fix the wharf up ever since the US company Delasa 
abandoned its concession to develop the port, things have 
deteriorated to such an extent that it had broken in half. 
Despite the precarious state of the dock, however, and the 
increased costs to which they are being subjected, none of 
the fishers feel they can abandon their calling. "We can't 
give up," declared Mario Mora Lacayo, one of those whose 
catches are affected. "Besides those of us who go out to 
sea, there are thousands of people on land here who also 
depend on the fish and the lobster to make their living. 
Despite all these extra costs, we have to go on."
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