by Nick Cooke
HIPC – Pardon me?
Nicaragua reached the completion point or entry into the international finance initiative for Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) in January. Around four billion dollars in foreign debt is forgiven conditionally. Interest payments have been alleviated for the last couple of years leading up to forgiveness of the debt. The country benefits further by having to pay less debt service.
Sounding somewhat oxymoronic, HIPC money is for poverty spending. It will be overseen by the World Bank and others. The government must meet certain conditions to trigger future Poverty Reduction Support Credits from that institution and to continue with the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility operations of the International Monetary Fund.
The goal is for Nicaragua to incrementally reach the Millennium Development Goals approved at a recent UN Summit by the year 2015, including, among others, reduced maternal and infant mortality, less people living in poverty, universal primary education, and expanded water and sanitation services. All these and more are included in the Bolaños Administration proposed National Development Plan for economic growth and prosperity.
Fill ‘er up
While draining your wallet, Nicaragua, overall, has the second highest fuel prices among five Central American countries, after Honduras.
Prices at the pump continue to climb here. A couple of córdobas a gallon is destined for the Road Maintenance Fund and billboards indicating works funded by this tax are popping up along highways around the country. Let’s hope they put the cords where the potholes are.
Put out the unwelcome mat:
The United States Recently decided that government officials, current or former, from all nations who have benefited from corruption may be denied entry to into the U.S. This goes for immediate family and relatives. Application of this measure is at the discretion of the US State Department. No one knows whether the measure will apply to those who allegedly benefited illicitly from the “humanitarian assistance” funding doled out in the late ‘80s through Iran-Contragate operations.
Most world travel out of Central America passes through hubs in the USA. With the potential number of corruption perpetrators that could be affected travel agents will be scratching their heads looking for different routes to Europe and parts beyond.
Back from Iraq:
The first Nicaraguan Army contingent returned well in time for Easter holidays. The international base where they were stationed was hit once by insurgent rocket fire, without casualties. Minister of defense José Guerra and top General Javier Carrión paid a visit to that camp in mid-February.
Continuing to keep coalition commitments is costly. A second mobilization is ready to roll, but funding needs to be found. The first dispatch was made possible when the government received $700,000 from an unidentified source.
Cerro Negro burps, again:
The land of lakes and volcanoes… so say the brochures. Nicaragua’s newest and most active volcano, Cerro Negro or “Black Hill”, in the León Department, caused a minor kafuffle in mid-January with a bout of tremulous activity. Since it sprouted up from the mantle 153 years ago, there have been 23 eruptions of differing scope. Specialists in Nicaragua’s Territorial Studies Institute (INETER) say there is a 95% chance that it will belch dust and spew forth magma again before end-2005.
Murder he spoke:
Political commentator Carlos Guadamuz was gunned down on February 10th in front of the studios from which he broadcast his program Dardos al Centro (Darts in the bull’s-eye) from the studios of TV Channel 23. Guadamuz had repeatedly said he was receiving death threats because of the political and criminal “intrigues” that he did and would reveal.
Before falling out of favor with the Sandinista (FSLN) leadership when he decided to run for mayor of Managua in 1996 against the FSLN’s wishes, Guadamuz was noted for his caustic and inflammatory, often scandalous/slanderous style of attacking those who opposed FSLN. He then became a fierce critic of the Sandinista leadership.
Accusations of assassination were automatically aimed at the FSLN leadership, leading to equally automatic denials of any involvement, pointing out that the party had nothing to gain and that perhaps anti-Sandinistas had staged the whole thing in order to discredit them before the upcoming municipal elections, slated for later this year.
Crazy Sickness
Or grisi siknis as it’s called by the Mískito indigenous population on Nicaragua’s North Atlantic seaboard has sociologists and medically-minded practitioners perplexed. Residents of remote Miskito villages simply go nuts and run amok. Mass psychosis, voodoo witchcraft, heavy metal poisoning coming downstream from the gold mining operations… all are hypotheses as to why it happens.
People wreck their own homes and run about villages flailing their arms at anyone in their way. Allaying fears of Nicaraguan-bred SARS-style health threat, Health Minister Antonio Alvarado discounts the possibility that the illness could spread to the general populace. He noted that reports of such siknis date from hundreds of years ago. Could that be why the Olmecs, Toltecs, Aztecs, and Mayas never really settled down here?
Decrying over spilt milk.
The recent decision by Japan to end its three-year support for the “Glass of Milk a Day” program for schoolchildren is of concern to dairy farmers in the central highlands. Government officials are expected to announce a one-córdoda-per-pack tax on cigarettes to keep the program flowing. Now when your wife says you should cut down on smoking to save money to buy milk for the kids, you can altruistically say that you’re helping give milk to thousands of schoolchildren.
Amnesty Me
S’not over till the fat man sings… and the melody contains strains of amnesty for me and mine.
Late last year, former president Arnoldo Alemán was sentenced to 20 years in prison and payment of more or less $20 million for the allegedly hundreds of millions of dollars pilfered and laundered by him during his administration. Alemán’s lawyer is appealing on grounds that that particular crime was not on the books when it was committed. Not that he didn’t do it …?!
Shortly after sentencing, Judge Juana Méndez decided to send Alemán back to house arrest, this time “house” defined as the Municipality of El Crucero, where Alemán’s main residence is. No decision has been made yet regarding the $20 million payment due. No one suggests auctioning off assets, like the house and coffee/cattle farm on which Arnoldo lives, or the land alongside the proposed interoceanic canal route from sea to shining sea.
Multiple maneuvers are underway to free him, most of which revolve around reviving the concept of amnesty. A pardon would not do, since that would only cover charges laid against him for those particular incidences of money laundering he was tried for last year. There are more charges of outright embezzlement pending. Draft legislation presented for an amnesty would have removed all possibility of prosecution for peccadilloes perpetuated in the past 14 years.
Amnesty was decreed in early 1990s when the country was healing wounds from a decade of civil strife. Charge against anyone involved in violations of human rights, etc. during those years would be forgotten, if not forgiven. Then a sound measure for unsound times.
Most argue that amnesty is not meant for theft and other criminal offenses; it if for politically-related crimes. Nicaraguans are noted for their special turn of phrase, the invention of completely new words, and their interpretation of those already consigned to lexicons. Amnesty by any other name would stink so foul.
Jobs + Growth = More Money
The Nicaraguan government says 80,000 new jobs are to be created this year and the GDP will rise 3.7%, 1.4% more than last year. These hopes are based on recent past and projected future performances in different branches of the economy.
Projections have it that, next year, there will be national production of just over $4.2 billion due to a slight resurgence in construction, livestock production, manufacturing, and public investment projects. Contributing to this would be improved prices for coffee, sugar, and shrimp, along with an increased lobster harvest.
Overall export production rose in 2003 to $604 million, 3.6% more than in 2002. Expectations are that this figure will reach $631 million this year. Do the math yourself.
Officials and experts debate over whether or not to include exports from the free trade zones, or zonas francas, in foreign exchange earnings figures. Reportedly, these plants for final assembly, labeling, and some manufacture exported over $350 million worth of miscellaneous items. Economists note that little if any national raw materials are made use of, and basically, advantage is taken of cheap local labor. New zonas francas under construction near Granada and Tipitapa will likely draw long lines of job seekers, despite the low wages offered. It has been said that Nicaragua’s major export is its people. They continue to earn elsewhere to the benefit of their homeland. Last year, money remitted by relatives abroad represented an estimated $435 million in informal income for the country.
Tennis anyone?
Courting Disaster
In the Nicaraguan Open, Magistrates and Judges are the players in singles and doubles tournaments. All sides agree it’s in their court. A number of match sets must be resolved shortly. Nicaraguan newspapers serve up many stories about the rackets involved.
Sweet revenge?
Sugar refinery AgroInsa has one top-seeded finance-wing of judicious power all balled up. An insurance claim for more than $6 million for fire damage was filed. Fine print on the contract with State-run insurance firm INISER does not offer coverage for poor maintenance procedures. INISER won in the Appeals Court, but the Supreme Court called foul, even before the case was appealed to their level. It appears that more is at stake than a reading of insurance policy.
Ripley’s or simply surreal?
Haroldo Montealegre, former newspaper and bank owner continues to nip at the heels of Robert Zamora of BanCentro/LAFISE fame. At issue, a hand-written deal to buy the former’s controlling shares in the now-defunct Banco Mercantil way back before it broke.
One in-line judge ruled contrary to national law that a draft contract written on paper, not numbered and sealed on legal stationery, is binding. This is despite the fact that Montealegre had already sold those same shares to another financial wheeler-dealer with interests in the local Western Union franchise. Paid once, Haroldo has been suing Zamora for payment. The court in question currently favors his returns.
Montealegre’s sale of a pig in a poke does not enter into play. At stake… a $12 million settlement, the reputation of the legal system and a modicum of stability for banking operations in Nicaragua.
Et tu, Comandante?
As if blood letting was in vogue and reminiscent of mystical figures eating their children, Henry Ruíz volleys his way through his own Minoan Labyrinth. Riuz, dubbed Modesto, was one of the nine Comandantes at the head of the revolution during Sandinista times. But he decided to go low profile years ago while Daniel Ortega continued to lead what was left over.
Last October, Ruiz accused Edwin Zablah, head of the Augusto C. Sandino Foundation (FACS), a large internationally-financed NGO, of embezzling. The table turned and Ruíz was charged with the same crime. A whirlwind judgment sentenced him to a year in prison. Ruíz cried “foul,” saying former comrade-in-arms Daniel Ortega was pulling strings to defend Zablah. He also remarked that maybe it was time to head to the hills and take up arms again to bring justice to the land.
Judge Juana Méndez reconsidered the case and acquitted him. Then, the judge who takes Méndez’s place during temporary absences backhanded the sentence and, once again, Ruíz was found guilty. Modesto continues to volley the ball back, without the benefit of a well-strung racket.
These cases and others lead many to wonder about the legitimacy of Rule of Law in Nicaragua. Water rights, rights-of-way, subterranean surface rights, interest rates… all are to be subject to rallies in the tribunals under the eyes of courtside umpires in this ongoing Nicaraguan Open.
