Nicaragua Network Hotline

Nicaragua Network Hotline
November 24, 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: Two Found Guilty of 
Francisco Garcia Murder, Rebellion in the RAAN, Nicaragua 
Advances Toward HICP Culmination Point, The Practicalities 
of CAFTA Hit Home, Protests of the FTAA and School of the 
Americas, and, FACS Former Director Defends Actions

TOPIC 1: Two Found Guilty of Francisco Garcia Murder

A judge in Bluefields has found two men guilty of murder 
for hire in the execution-style slaying of Francisco 
Garcia, husband of indigenous rights lawyer Maria Luisa 
Acosta.  Wilberto Jose Ochoa, who has been in custody 
since January, and Ivan Arguello, who was tried in 
absentia, were found guilty of the crime which carries a 
maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.  Sentencing will be 
next week. Garcia was brutally murdered on April 8, 2002, 
while his wife, Acosta, was away from the house speaking 
to a Pastors for Peace delegation in Bluefields.  It is 
widely assumed that Acosta was the target of the assassins 
because of her work to defend indigenous land rights 
against the depredations of US citizen Peter Tsokos. 
 Indeed, Arguello was later confirmed to have worked for 
Tsokos as a chauffer and the murder weapon was identified 
as belonging to his lawyer, Peter Martinez.

It has been a long, hard road to these convictions.  A 
Bluefields judge who had dismissed charges against Tsokos 
and Martinez as intellectual authors of the crime was 
removed by the Supreme Court from the bench for blatant 
breeches of judicial ethics, and another judge was 
transferred to Rivas due to his actions on the bench. 
 Acosta has a petition pending before the Supreme Court to 
re-open the case against Tsokos and Martinez.  The guilty 
verdict for the crime of murder for hire rather than 
simple murder, and the fact that the gun's ownership was 
made a part of the court record, bodes well for re-opening 
the case against the buccaneer Tsokos and his lawyer.

TOPIC 2: Rebellion in the RAAN

A short-lived rebellion in the North Atlantic Autonomous 
Region (RAAN) brought the promise of major road and dock 
repairs from the Central Government after residents, the 
mayor of Puerto Cabezas (Bilwi), and autonomous regional 
officials closed down air and sea travel to protest the 
impassibility of the 324 kilometer Rio Blanco-Puerto 
Cabezas-Waspam highway and the inattention of the Managua 
government to the needs of the Caribbean Coast. On 
Tuesday, Mayor William Espinoza said that the RAAN had 
declared a "state of emergency;" until the Central 
Government finally agreed to some of their demands, the 
airlines were not allowed to use the airport and the 
residents were encouraged to employ civil disobedience and 
to refuse to pay taxes.

Threats by the RAAN Council to declare independence from 
Nicaragua and to seek ties with other Caribbean countries 
and with the British, which controlled the Caribbean Coast 
until 100 years ago, brought charges of "treason."  Rev. 
Norman Bent, Ombudsman for Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic 
Communities offered to negotiate but found he had to do it 
by phone since it was physically impossible to get to 
Bilwi with the airport closed and the road impassible. 

Mayor Espinoza pointed out that because of the condition 
of the road and the dangerous condition of the pier at 
Bilwi, the cost of food there is double what it is on the 
Pacific Coast.  "It is cheaper for us to get food from 
Miami than from Managua," he said.

By week's end the Central Government had promised a 
multitude of road repair projects and promised to initiate 
legal action against Delasa, the US company that had 
bought the port of Bilwi and then failed to make any of 
the agreed upon repairs.  The Comptroller General's office 
aims to rescind Delasa's contract as the company has left 
the pier in such a dangerous condition that vehicles can 
no longer even be driven to the docked fishing boats to 
unload their catches.

TOPIC 3: Nicaragua Advances toward HICP Culmination Point

The Nicaraguan National Assembly is working toward passing 
all of the laws mandated in order for the nation to 
receive debt relief under the IMF's Heavily Indebted Poor 
Country (HIPC) Initiative.  Last week the Public Debt Bill 
was passed.  According to Sandinista deputy Bayardo Arce, 
the international community had recommended that, after 
the partial debt cancellation under HIPC, "We should not 
again fall into the maelstrom of indebtedness."  Arce said 
that the Committee on the Economy had made a series of 
changes to the bill as it had come from the executive 
"because we agreed on the creation of a debt committee 
which will play a part in formulating the public debt 
strategy of the nation."  The committee will be headed by 
the Minister of the Treasury, and the other members will 
be the vice-minister of Public Works, Industry and 
Commerce, a delegate from Strategies and Planning and 
others. 

Edwin Castro, another FSLN deputy, said that the debt 
relief would amount to US$4.4 billion, including US$1.076 
billion from the donor nations which are members of the 
so-called Club of Paris; US$816 million from other Central 
American countries; US$435 million from the Central 
American Bank of Economic Integration (BCIE); US$387 
million from the Inter-American Development Bank; US$301 
from other multilateral organizations; US$239 million of 
commercial debt and approximately US$1.1 billion in 
bilateral debts.  [Editor's note:  This would be 70% of 
Nicaragua's foreign debt of US$6.3 billion, not the 80% 
that was mentioned in a previous Hotline article.] 

Meanwhile, Treasury Minister Eduardo Montealegre confirmed 
that President Enrique Bolaqos would travel to Washington 
in December at the invitation of the IMF before the 
culmination point of HIPC.  Bolaqos will formally present 
a report on the alleged advances his government has made 
in putting the finances of the country in order and in 
preparing a National Development Plan.  Montealegre told 
the National Assembly last week that what is important is 
that Assembly delegates approve a budget for 2004 that is 
"sustainable," that it fall within acceptable 
macro-economic guidelines and that it "not spend more than 
we have."  

TOPIC 4: The Practicalities of CAFTA Hit Home

As the deadline for the conclusion of the CAFTA 
negotiations nears, the countries involved in the accord 
are beginning to address some practical issues.  In 
Nicaragua, the cost of administering the changes brought 
on by CAFTA worry many.  For example, the director of 
Nicaragua Customs reports that the current decisions offer 
no reflection on how much money may be needed to implement 
CAFTA.  There are two areas in which the Customs Office 
requires improvement: personnel and technology.  An 
advisory group of Ministers of Development and corporate 
representatives has been formed to empower the private and 
public sector to take advantage of the new openings in the 
market.  However, as the El Nuevo Diario journalist 
reported, Nicaragua has little preparation or capacity for 
the huge changes that will come with CAFTA.  The Minister 
of Policy and Planning, part of the Agriculture and 
Forestry Ministry, Oscar Neira, urged Nicaraguans to adapt 
quickly to the new realities of international economics; 
CAFTA can either carry the country forward or crush it. 
  The Minister of Industry, Trade and Development, Mario 
Arana, has said that the hardest part of the negotiations 
has been convincing people that free trade is beneficial 
to them.  

TOPIC 5: Protests of the FTAA and School of the Americas

In Miami this week, representatives of 34 countries of the 
western hemisphere, excluding Cuba, met to further the 
negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas.  The 
ministerial meeting was met with a large number of 
protesters which in turn were confronted with excessive 
police reprisals.  There were an estimated 200 people 
arrested, including journalists.  Tear gas, pepper spray, 
and rubber bullets were used on the protesting civilians. 
 Though not as impressive in numbers as the mass protests 
in Seattle in 1999, the demonstration made it clear that 
not everyone agrees with the proposed liberalization of 
all the economies of the Americas. 

The negotiations proceeded, however, and the two leaders 
at the meeting, Brazil and the U.S., came to the 
conclusion that the FTAA would have different levels of 
participation based on each individual country's decision. 
 They have dubbed this new format the "FTAA a la carte." 
 As the initial dream of an enormous, north-south trading 
block fades away, the U.S. has jumped on the chance to 
solidify other bilateral and multilateral accords with 
specific economies, such as the Dominican Republic and the 
Community of Andean Nations.  This newest model, with 
voluntary levels of participation, signifies a weakening 
of the all-encompassing power of the free trade agenda.

Also, the annual protest against the School of the 
Americas in Fort Benning, GA, took place over the weekend, 
with a record number of participants.  Though the protest 
was generally peaceful, thirty participants practiced 
civil disobedience, and were arrested.  The sentence for 
such actions can be from 3-6 months in federal prison. 
 Another protest was held in Managua, Nicaragua, which 
included a march to the U.S. embassy there.  It was 
organized by a coalition of grass roots movements, under 
the name the Nicaraguan Social Movement.  There were close 
to 300 people present and no arrests were made.

TOPIC 6: FACS Former Director Defends Actions

 From a hospital bed, Edwin Zablah finally spoke in his 
own defense last week.  According to the former director 
of the Sandino Foundation (FASC), the transfer of over US$ 
400,000 to a European account was merely to preserve the 
patrimony of the Foundation.  The current president of the 
FACS, Jose Angel Buitrago, has implicated Zablah in 
illegalities in these acts, saying that he had already 
been relieved of his duties.  Zablah responds that he was 
not actually dismissed at that point, but that his 
dismissal was given a retroactive date.  He showed 
provisional records of the monetary transactions to 
journalists, and insisted that he was not guilty of fraud 
with relation to his administration of the FACS.  

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