NICARAGUA BRIEFS

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INTEROCEANIC CANAL

In the 19th Climate Change Conference, held in Poland in mid-November, Nicaragua was represented by President Ortega’s public policies secretary, Paul Oquist, who presented the interoceanic canal as an ecological project. He explained that, as “its viability depends on water,” it will be accompanied by massive reforestation programs and good management of the Cocibolca Lake basin, will halt the advance of the agricultural frontier and the lake’s sedimentation, will strengthen protected areas and will care for the national biodiversity. National environmentalists questioned Oquist’s demagogic presentation. In early November, three business people—two representing Nicaragua’s Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) and one the American Chamber of Commerce in Nicaragua—were given seats on the Canal Commission, together with Major General Óscar Balladares and Police Deputy Director Francisco Díaz, an in-law of Ortega.

COSTA RICA–NICARAGUA
BORDER DISPUTE RULING

On November 22, the International Court of Justice at the Hague ordered Nicaragua to withdraw all civilian and military personnel from the three-square-kilometer wetlands border area whose sovereignty is disputed by Costa Rica and Nicaragua (Nicaragua calls it Harbour Head and Costa Rica calls it Calero Island). The Court won’t decide which of the two countries is the sovereign over that area until the end of 2014 at the earliest, but meanwhile ordered the cessation of the dredging of there and the closing of the two channels Edén Pastora had opened up. On December 1 Pastora declared that he had finished closing the channels.

NEW ALBA BANK

A widespread rumor was confirmed publicly in early November: Albanisa (ALBA de Nicaragua, S.A.), a joint venture of Venezuelan and Nicaraguan capital, will have its own bank, called the Banco Corporativo, S.A. (Bancorp). Although Albanisa isn’t mentioned as a stockholder in the information presented by the Superintendence of Banks, the bank will occupy part of the Albanisa installations in Managua. Bancorp, hastily authorized to operate by the Superintendence of Banks, is being structured as a commercial bank, dedicated to financing long-term projects that other commercial banks in Nicaragua aren’t interested in. It won’t seek deposits by the public. The funds from Venezuelan cooperation, largely based on an oil agreement with very favorable repayment conditions, have been managed since 2007 outside of the national budget
and administered at the discretion of Nicaragua’s governing party. These petrodollars have been channeled from the beginning by the Rural Savings and Credit Cooperative known as Caruna, which has grown from a small cooperative to now having 31 branches spread over all of the country’s departments and has been functioning as a kind of para-state bank. The government has placed part of the Venezuelan funds in trust funds in private banks in the country over the years and these will now be deposited in the new Albanisa bank. Albanisa is a powerful economic group linked to the presidential family, and now finally has a presence in the financial sector.

CHANGES COMING TO
TRANSFERS TO MUNICIPALITIES

With the approval of all members of the FSLN bench and rejection by all opposition legislators, the National Assembly passed a reform to the 2003 Law of Budgetary Transfer to Municipalities on November 26. The reform creates a commission that will decide how much to give each municipality and what it must be invested in—the latter a decision previously made by the local mayor and Municipal Council. The original law established a proportionality in the transfers aimed at favoring the poorest and smallest municipalities. In contrast, the most populous municipalities are now favored.

During the parliamentary debate, the opposition representatives argued that 91 of Nicaragua’s now 156 municipalities have a population of under 30,000, and whereas they previously received 44% of the transfers from the central government they will now receive only 28%, while the 9 municipalities with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants will now receive 40% compared to the 19% they received before. The opposition sees this reform as violating the Constitution, whose article 177 (untouched by the new constitutional reforms) stipulates that “the municipalities enjoy political, administrative and financial autonomy. Their administration and government corresponds to the municipal authorities.”

CENTENNIAL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:
ORTEGA LUNCHES WITH THE BISHOPS

On December 2 President Ortega received Cardinal Nicolás López Rodríguez of the Dominican Republic, the envoy sent by Pope Francis for the celebrations of the centennial of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. In his public speech, Ortega reiterated his government’s commitment “to life” and to “normal relations among human beings,” euphemistic references to continuing the criminalization of therapeutic abortion and not legalizing same-sex marriage. The next day Ortega was invited by the Papal Nuncio, Fortunato Nwachukwu, to a lunch in the Nunciature with Rodríguez and all the bishops from the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN). It is the first time since 2007 that President Ortega has met with the Catholic bishops, despite their repeated requests. The lunch lasted two and a half hours. A CEN communiqué specified that Ortega was invited for “protocol reasons” given that Cardinal López Rodríguez was sent by the Pope, also a head of State. It added that the Nuncio “was so kind as to ‘personally’ invite each of the bishops of Nicaragua” because López Rodriguez is the archbishop of Santo Domingo. Lest anybody still think any issues were finally taken up between Ortega and the bishops, the declaration added that “absolutely no argument was addressed in the lunch that had to do with the country’s national reality. It was simply a protocol lunch to thank Cardinal López Rodríguez and say goodbye to him.”

BLUEFIELDS BISHOP INVITES
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO VISIT

On November 28, the National Assembly received a visit from Nicaragua’s bishops during celebrations of the centennial of the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Province of Nicaragua. Speeches were made by a number of bishops, including Leopoldo Brenes, the archbishop of Managua, who was also decorated by the Assembly. Pablo Schmitz, a US Capuchin priest and bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Bluefields since 1984, reminded the legislative representatives that the Catholic Church has 377 schools and 618 teachers attending to nearly 15,000 students in rural areas of the Caribbean regions. He also pointed out that the Vicariate covers 60,000 square kilometers and invited the National Assembly members to “come and get to know nearly half of your country, not just passing over the coast on your flight to Miami.”

NO TOILETS FOR 8 OUT OF 10

According to a United Nations Report, 6 of every 10 inhabitants of the world don’t have access to adequate hygiene services, which means that they defecate outdoors in the open air or at best use latrines, but don’t have a toilet. Nicaragua’s proportion is similar. This problem, which affects people’s dignity and health, is found mainly in our country’s rural areas. In Nicaragua, officials of the United Nations, the World Bank and bilateral cooperation agencies announced the information on November 19, at a celebration of World Sanitation Day. Rinko Kinoshita, UNICEF deputy representative in Nicaragua, underscored that “a high percentage of schools also lack appropriate hydro-sanitary infrastructure.”

OBANDO IN THE CONSTITUTION

In the modifications the presidency made to the text of the constitutional reforms, the existing Preamble to the Constitution was changed, adding the names of three people evoked as representing the national identity. It now reads: “To the Universal Poet, Revolutionary of Castilian Writing, Rubén Darío,” “to the Martyr of Public Freedoms, Doctor Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal” and “to the Cardinal of Peace and Reconciliation, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo.”

PREGNANT GIRLS

According to the UN Population Fund report, State of World Population 2013, titled “Motherhood in Childhood” this year, Nicaragua is the Latin American country with the most women between 20 and 24 years old who say they gave birth before the age of 18 (28.1%), a figure only exceeded by the African Sub-Saharan countries. Nicaragua is followed by Honduras (26%), Guatemala (24%) and Ecuador (21%). Data from Nicaragua’s Ministry of Health together with the Pan American Health Organization show that the number of pregnant 10- to 14-year-olds increased from 1,066 in 2000 to 1,577 in 2009. The Population Fund notes that data on pregnant girls of these ages are scant, incomplete or nonexistent, which leaves this grave problem “invisible.” According to Nicaragua’s latest Demography and Health Survey (2006-2007), 25% of Nicaraguan women who get pregnant are under 19 years old and 106 out of every 1,000 15- to 19-year-olds are already mothers.

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