Is the price-gouging and profiteering along the Managua-Miami route over? For years now, TACA and American Airlines have been taking advantage of the demand from Nicaraguans to go to that destination, and passengers have been paying through the nose, up to $500 for a round trip flight. Misplacing your luggage is free. Fares from other points in Central America to Miami were significantly lower.

Then in late July, Spirit Airlines began servicing the route from the capital to Fort Lauderdale, three times a week at present, with plans to go daily by November. The price they charge for the journey is around $300 after taxes. All of a sudden, American and TACA became consumer-friendly, and in their new found largesse they began to offer “promotions” at significantly reduced prices and better deals for those using credit card points.

Nicaragua’s arsenal of surface-to-air shoulder-launch SAM-7 missiles has long been a bone of contention and a bargaining chip between this country and the USA. The number of such weapons was reduced significantly under the last administration in exchange for improved relations between the two countries, including military cooperation.

In late July, President Daniel Ortega suggested that in exchange for destroying around two-thirds of the remaining 1050 missiles, the United States could give Nicaragua some medical equipment for the country’s ailing healthcare system plus some helicopters to be used to fight drug trafficking and defend forests from illegal loggers.

The helicopters were quickly dropped from the wish list, likely because the nation’s armed forces have already called for bids from countries that can supply them with these aircrafts, including Brazil, Venezuela, and reportedly Libya.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure announced plans to rehabilitate a number of stretches of road that are in a bad state of disrepair, some of them along the heavily-trafficked natural corridor for freight transport up and down the Central American isthmus. Most of the roadwork is to begin later this year, once the rainy season ends. Meanwhile, your shocks and chassis will continue to get a pounding as you drive along the potholed lanes.

To improve overland transport to the northeast Atlantic Coast, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration approved financing of $5 million to pave over some stretches from Río Blanco to Siuna that are notorious for becoming mudholes in the rainy season that swallow up whole trucks.

And in the never-ending saga of the Pacific Coastal Highway (yawn), there was a major setback. The design phase for this route that would link many prime sites for tourism development began a couple of years ago, but the plans were sent back to the drawing board. Whoever was in charge came up with a proposal that would cost too much to build. Expect further delays.

Preliminary figures from the government agency CETREX indicate that export earnings increased over the first six months of this year by almost 20%. Hard currency equivalent to $742 million came into the country from January to June, compared to $628.3 million for the same period last year.

Agriculture led the increase. Despite a decline in coffee earnings (from 155 to 126 million dollars), beef exports rose from 79 to 105 million and cheese accounted for $52 million, compared to $33 million.

The trend overall for the 2007-2008 agricultural cycle is upwards, even for coffee. Growers are expecting an all-time record high in production due to favorable weather this year. Other sectors of the export economy are being hit by the electricity crisis, but this has less of an impact on farming, except for crops requiring irrigation.

Word has it that Michael Vick, the quarterback for the US National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons, recently indicted on charges related to dogfights, has crossed Nicaragua off his list of countries to visit. Last June, the National Assembly amended the Penal Code to sanction people who organize such spectacles for fun or profit with up to two years in prison. Cockfights, however, are still allowed because they are a “tradition.” George Orwell’s Animal Farm lives on in new Nicaraguan legislation.

Forecasting is an inexact science to say the least, but local meteorologists in the employ of the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies have stuck out their collective neck. The first half of the rainy season was marked by precipitation that was sporadic and in lesser quantities than the norm, supposedly because of the El Niño phenomenon. Never fear, his sister La Niña is due to appear. Its cooling effect on the Pacific’s waters would create conditions for increased rainfall from August to late October. Together with an expected intense round of tropical storms and hurricanes from the Atlantic it is shaping up to be a particularly wet end of the rainy season. That’s good news for the water table and people who draw their water from hand-dug wells, but it may result in flooding and landslides in vulnerable areas.

Nicaraguan cigars enjoy a good reputation worldwide, but a proposal before US legislators to increase the tax on cigar imports has local producers in an uproar. The current tax is 4.5 cents on each “premium” cigar, but the new levy would raise it up to $10. This, naturally, would result in a drop in sales in the USA and affect the livelihoods of the 100,000 Nicaraguans directly involved in cigar production.

Despite anti-smoking campaigns in the land of Uncle Sam, it still imports about 310 million cigars yearly, 56 million from Nicaragua. Looked at from the other side, it is the destination of 69% of the country’s puros. Representatives of local tobacco growers and cigar manufacturers claim that this tax violates the spirit and letter of the free trade treaty signed last year between the United States and the countries of Central America, along with the Dominican Republic. US ambassador Paul Trivelli hinted that George W. Bush would probably veto the new tax law in the event it is approved by his country’s Congress and Senate.

Critics of the new government, including the media, spend an inordinate amount of time lamenting about some rather minor issues. The image projected by First Lady Rosario Murillo is the subject of many inches in local newspapers, disapproving of her fashion accessories (a jangle of bangles that dangle from her wrists and her oft-times outlandish earrings), as well as her penchant for taking every opportunity to get herself in front of the television cameras. And of course, her decorating style is subject to an abundance of criticism. She oversaw the alteration of the nation’s emblematic seal, stylizing it into something that looks like a logo for Crayola while garish psychedelic colors blaze out from FSLN party signs and even the walls of the office in which President Ortega celebrates most of his national and international meetings. That room looks a lot like the aftermath of a finger painting competition for grade school kids.

Before that, there was the decision by Ortega to avoid use of the Presidential Palace and to run presidential operations from the FSLN party office attached to his house of residence. Daniel said he wanted to have a “presidency of the people” and the lavish structure near the shore of Lake Managua was inappropriate.

Then came the demolition of the fountain in the plaza in front of that palatial structure. Arnoldo Alemán, a former Managua mayor and president, built it back in the 1990s, complete with music accompanying the jets and sprays of water. In part he was motivated by his desire to eliminate a highly symbolic location for FSLN rallies. He renamed the square from “Revolution” to “Republic” in his vendetta against everything Sandinista that included painting over street murals with his favorite color of gunmetal fascist grey.

The local press featured stories for days, asking pointed questions about who had authorized this act of “cultural barbarism” and who was paying for it. It was made into a big deal, as if democracy itself was in jeopardy. Likewise with the construction of a stage in the plaza where the FSLN celebrates its annual July 19th rally to commemorate the overthrow of Somoza in 1979. With all the fuss that was raised, you would have thought that the nation would be bankrupted by the expense.

Maybe the administration is simply drawing the attention of its media audience to one hand, like a magician doing a card trick, diverting eyes from major policy issues it has up its sleeve. Comedian George Carlin had it right when he said, “Don’t sweat the petty… and don’t pet the sweaty.”

It’s going to be called the Supreme Dream of Bolivar Refinery. The ceremonial first stone was set in place in July by Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has promised to finance the construction. It is located near Puerto Sandino on the Pacific Coast, close to the tank farm used to store oil offloaded from tankers for processing in the ESSO refinery in Managua. Besides having a greater capacity than that refinery, the Supreme Dream will be able to work with the extra heavy crude with high sulfur content that Venezuela produces, rather than relying on sweet light crude.

The project, which will take several years to complete, is heralded as a major part of the solution to Nicaragua’s energy crisis since it means the country would no longer have to import gasoline or diesel. It will, however, still have to import crude and details of the deal for supply from Venezuela are sketchy. Chávez isn’t giving it away.
Ground broken for refinery
It’s going to be called the Supreme Dream of Bolivar Refinery. The ceremonial first stone was set in place in July by Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has promised to finance the construction. It is located near Puerto Sandino on the Pacific Coast, close to the tank farm used to store oil offloaded from tankers for processing in the ESSO refinery in Managua. Besides having a greater capacity than that refinery, the Supreme Dream will be able to work with the extra heavy crude with high sulfur content that Venezuela produces, rather than relying on sweet light crude.

The project, which will take several years to complete, is heralded as a major part of the solution to Nicaragua’s energy crisis since it means the country would no longer have to import gasoline or diesel. It will, however, still have to import crude and details of the deal for supply from Venezuela are sketchy. Chávez isn’t giving it away.

Some say it is just to annoy the United States. In fact, US ambassador Paul Trivelli has even said that Nicaragua’s relations with Iran are “dangerous.” Others say Nicaragua should be able to seek out and receive aid from wherever it can. If it only accepted cooperation from squeaky clean democracies, the list of partner countries would be a very short one indeed.

After a few days of meetings, technical teams from Nicaragua and Iran issued a joint declaration stating their intention to formalize an agreement that would benefit Nicaragua with several infrastructure projects financed with soft loans and donations from the Islamic republic. Cooperation will be spread across the areas of energy, housing, ports, water supply and sanitation, fisheries, agriculture, and forestry.

Authorities presented the Iranians with four separate proposals for developing hydroelectricity that would produce 616 megawatts and cost more than $200 million. By the time of the next round of meetings in November, one of these is to be selected for development, contributing significantly to Nicaragua’s stock of renewable energy resources.

The head of the housing institute was pleased to announce that Iran will provide support for the construction of 10,000 low income homes. Two wharfs will be built at the container port in Corinto on the Pacific and the Iranians are considering sharing in the construction of a deepwater port at Monkey Point in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region, possibly with the participation of Venezuela. Combined with an overland link and pipeline, this would enable that country to supply the new refinery (see above) with crude oil directly, without having to run tankers through the Panama Canal.

An assembly plant for agricultural implements for the local market and export is part of the package, as is the construction of five dairies and a modern slaughterhouse and meat packing plant. Irrigation equipment and the construction of small reservoirs will help boost agricultural production.

The list goes on: Iranian-made tractors financed with cooperation from Venezuela for distribution at a low price to agricultural cooperatives; construction and repair of healthcare facilities; technological training programs and scholarships in laboratory services and high-technology production of pharmaceuticals; launches and tackle for small-scale fishermen; drilling wells in the southeast section of Managua and laying pipe to distribute the water; and, machinery for a plant making plastic goods that would get its raw materials from the new refinery.

On the other side of the coin of this agreement, Nicaragua would export beef, coffee and agricultural produce to Iran.