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| Central American University - UCA |
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Number 321 | Abril 2008 |
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Nicaragua
NICARAGUA BRIEFS
Envío team
THE VIOLENCE JUST
KEEPS ON GROWINGThe director of the National Police’s Women’s Police Stations, Commissioner Mercedes Ampié, revealed that 40% of the crimes committed across the country in 2007 were related to men’s physical abuse of and/or sexual violence against women and children within the home. Ampié stressed that even this doesn’t reflect the true figure, as many victims don’t report such crimes due to shame, fear, economic dependence or lack of confidence in the institutions that should defend them. Commissioner Ampié also stated that those working in these special police stations are convinced that the sensationalist coverage of such violence in the news only increases it.
On April 2, President Ortega passionately criticized TV news programs that broadcast what is known in Nicaragua as “red news,” alluding exclusively to Channel 2. “What worries me most,” he said, “is that it plays with the pain of humble families, which are exhibited on TV media whose owners would never dare display such human tragedies that affected their own families!” While his point is well taken, the President forgot to mention that the FSLN-owned radio station Radio YA, now directed by his son, was the pioneer in broadcasting red news and still reports on accidents, violence, suicides and rapes by making cruel fun of the almost exclusively poor victims’ tragedies. He also failed to mention Channel 10, in which the FSLN is a stockholder, which cultivates the most grotesque and offensive red news of all.
PERPETUAL REELECTION
ONLY A QUESTION OF TIME?Introducing the constitutional reforms desired by President Ortega to transform the political system from a presidentialist to a parliamentary one and permit unlimited consecutive presidential reelection is only a question of time, according to Supreme Court Justice Rafael Solís, a central figure in “legally” ensuring the realization of President Ortega’s political will. Solís said on April 8 that the President is only waiting for the results of the November municipal elections, adding that Nicaragua must move toward a long-term understanding between the FSLN and the PLC. Although 19 of the 25 PLC legislative representatives opposed approving these reforms last year, Solís expressed confidence that Arnoldo Alemán fully agrees with them. “These reforms are important to having the rules of the game well defined for the 2011 presidential elections,” Solís declared.
GIVE THE CPC STRUCTURES
CONSTITUTIONAL RANK?In a speech in Granada on April 3, President Ortega expressed his determination to give constitutional rank to the Councils of Citizens’ Power (CPCs), the new party structures directed by the First Lady, Rosario Murillo. “Civic power is the maximum expression of democracy,” said Ortega. “Direct democracy means giving citizens the last word. Who doesn’t like civic power? Only those who want to rule without taking the people into account. They’re the ones who don’t like it. There are mayors who don’t like it. ‘I don’t like them,’ they tell me, and give totally disrespectful responses to the people. They don’t want to be controlled by the people. So we have to keep on with the battle to make civic power a genuine institution with constitutional-ranking norms in our country. It’s the only way citizens will be respected.” The mayors he referred to apparently aren’t the only ones who don’t like the CPCs. A year after their creation, these unendingly controversial structures have yet to achieve the level of adhesion that Murillo announced following their creation.
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a monthly magazine of analysis on Central America