[NYTr] Nicaragua Network Hotline -- July 31, 2007

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Nicaragua Network Hotline - July 31, 2007
http://www.nicanet.org

Topics covered in this week's Hotline include:

1. President Ortega accuses US government of conspiracy

2. Union Fenosa says agreement with government is imminent while
Ortega ups his criticisms

3. Controversy over Councils of Citizen Power continues

4. Ortega says that government won't confiscate property or carry
out evictions

5. Government asks donors to make international aid more effective


1: President Ortega accuses US government of conspiracy

On Jul. 21, at a meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum in Managua, Daniel
Ortega accused the US government of conspiring with representatives
of the Nicaraguan opposition and the Nicaraguan media against the
Sandinista government. According to Ortega his government has "clear
evidence" that the US Embassy in Managua "is providing the funds
and giving orientations to these groups which claim to represent
the people." Ortega believes that the principle objective of this
low intensity intervention is to "confuse the population and undermine
.. [and] boycott government programs" such as Zero Hunger and the
Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs).

Ortega said that officials at the US Embassy are "undeniably"
conspiring against his government. "They pay people to go on protest
marches, they finance television spots, they buy whole pages in the
newspapers ... We mustn't be complacent," he went on, "They are
permanently conspiring against governments ideologically opposed
to them. [But] the empire will have to disappear. One day we will
wake up to the surprise of a revolution within the US."

During the Nicaragua Network's June 2006 delegation to investigate
the US government's $12- $13 million interference in the presidential
election, the delegation met with the International Republican
Institute (IRI).  The IRI is one of the four core groups of the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and receives money as well
from the US Agency for International Development.  IRI, as well as
its two principal funders, fund "civil society" organizations that
support US interests.  The IRI staff person proudly told the Nicanet
delegation that they had created Movement for Nicaragua which
organized demonstrations against the "pact" between the FSLN and
Constitutional Liberal Party.

Meanwhile, on Jul. 23 Vice President Jaime Morales accompanied US
Ambassador Paul Trivelli on a visit to the USNS Comfort hospital
ship of the US Southern Command currently anchored in the harbor
of the port of Corinto, Chinandega. The ship was stationed at Corinto
until Jul. 30 while a group of specialist physicians attended members
of the public. During the visit Morales Carazo expressed the
Nicaraguan government's "permanent gratitude ... for this type of...
fraternal action." The Vice President even went on to say that he
believes US - Nicaraguan relations are getting closer every day.


2: Union Fenosa says agreement with government is imminent
while Ortega ups his criticisms

On July 30 the spokesman for the Spanish multinational corporation
Union Fenosa, Jorge Katin, announced that an agreement with the
government which guarantees that the company will continue distributing
electricity in Nicaragua has now been drafted and will be signed
soon. Since Jul. 16 representatives of the government and the energy
sector have been negotiating in an attempt to find a short or medium
term solution to the energy crisis which is causing so much damage
to the national economy.

According to Katin the agreement could be signed as soon as Aug. 1
during Union Fenosa President Pedro Honorato Lspez Jiminez's visit
to Nicaragua. Katin says that the agreement includes the suspension
of the arbitration process against the company promoted by the
government.

President Daniel Ortega meanwhile upped his criticisms of Union
Fenosa on July 28 and gave no indication as to when the signing of
an agreement with the company will take place. At an event in Somoto,
Ortega said that Fenosa's behavior has been "shameful" and that as
a result of the company's "inflexible and insensitive [stance] ...
no advances have been made" in the negotiation process.

In other news relating to the energy sector, the social movement
"Another World is Possible" together with a number of other civil
society organizations began a series of activities which aimed to
activate the population in their opposition to Union Fenosa on Jul.

30. The movements involved in organizing the resistance to Union
Fenosa in Nicaragua demand that the contract between the government
and the company be canceled and that the company be forced to leave
the country.


3: Controversy over Councils of Citizen Power continues

The controversy created by the opposition and the media over the
Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs) continued this week with claims
that President Daniel Ortega is planning to give the CPCs functions
and responsibilities which have no legal basis. According to
journalist Nestor Marin, the two right wing parties (the Constitutional
Liberal Party, PLC, and the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance, ALN) could
even manage to overcome their deep rooted differences in order to
form a united front against the CPCs and destroy the project even
before it is fully implemented.

The CPCs are a key aspect of the Ortega Administration's agenda and
have been promoted by the government as mediums through which "direct
democracy" will evolve. Although details about the exact role the
CPCs will play at a local and national level have still not been
revealed, it seems that Ortega plans to install a system of citizen
participation similar to that of the Bolivarian Circles in Venezuela
or the Popular Power Assemblies in Cuba. In other words, local
groups of citizens are elected by their communities to represent
them before government bodies and agencies, to present communal
problems to the appropriate authorities and to help coordinate any
government projects or programs involving their communities. The
idea behind this form of citizen participation is that members of
any given community are likely to be better at and more dedicated
to solving problems affecting that community.

Both of Nicaragua's daily newspapers, El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa,
as well as right wing TV channels such as Canal 2 seem intent on
creating popular opposition to the CPCs by publishing damning
articles about the government program. El Nuevo Diario, for example,
published an article on July 27 called "The Citizen Terror Counsels"
by Rodolfo Perez Garcia, in which it is made out that the CPCs are
an attempt by the Ortega administration to take control of events
at grassroots level so as to take revenge on all those opposed to
the FSLN. Perez describes the CPCs as an "absurd monstrosity of
citizen power" but he doesn't say on what evidence his opinions are
based.

Government adviser and sociologist Orlando Nuqez believes that the
success or failure of the implementation of the CPCs is key to the
ideological struggle the government must win in order to guarantee
future FSLN electoral victories. Despite having won the presidency
Nuqez says that the FSLN "is still in the opposition. We have a
socialist government administering a capitalist system and governing
a neo liberal society." According to Nuqez, the ongoing hate campaign
against the FSLN government is aimed at preventing the FSLN from
changing the neo liberal system imposed on Nicaragua 16 years ago.
But, says Nuqez, with the implementation of the CPCs, that system
"could begin to topple."

So far 6,334 CPCs made up of 500,388 individuals have been formed.
Government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said that by September 14
a total of 16,957 CPCs consisting of close to 1,000,000 members
will have been formed.


4: Ortega says that government won't confiscate property or
carry out evictions

"Private property will be completely protected [during my
administration]" stated President Daniel Ortega on Jul. 28. "The
time when the revolution confiscated property and carried out
evictions is passed," he added.  Ortega said that he has ordered
the police not to carry out evictions of peasant families and
cooperatives which have occupied land for several years without the
proper legal documents. The President said his government plans to
facilitate the legal documentation for those families and cooperatives
in such situations.

Ortega made these comments during a political- cultural event in
Somoto. As a demonstration of his promise to facilitate legal
documentation for property holders Ortega gave out 761 land deeds
to cooperatives and families during the event. Later the same day
he gave out another 374 land deeds during a similar event in
Palacaguina. The cooperatives also received tractors and other
agricultural tools and materials which were sent by the Venezuelan
government as part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
(ALBA) agreement.


5: Government asks donors to make international aid more effective

On Jul. 24 representatives of the National Budget Support Group,
made up of diplomats from Germany, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands,
the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, the World Bank, the Interamerican
Development Bank and the European Commission, met with government
officials to discuss the effectiveness of the international aid
given by this group to Nicaragua.

According to Presidential Technical Secretary Rodolfo Delgado the
government officials told the donors that in order to combat poverty
Nicaragua needs "at least"

US$1 billion a year (in 2006 the National Budget Support Group
donated US$750 million). Delgado went on to say that as well as
more money being required, the money needs to be used more effectively.

"International aid must be restructured" in order to be effective,
said Delgado. For example, he went on, less should be spent on
consultations, workshops and investigations into areas about which
sufficient research already exists. On top of this access to resources
and opportunities should become more democratic. These steps, he
said, would allow international aid money and resources to reach
those who need it most.

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