Nicaragua Network Hotline - 3 Dec 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Nicaragua Network Hotline - December 3, 2001 Topics covered in this Hotline include: President-elect announces cuts in high-level salaries while FSLN challenges Supreme Electoral Council; U.S. troops to arrive in January while Nicaraguans go to SOA; Citizens protest Spanish company's hike in electricity rates; and Peter Tsokos sells another island! Topic 1: President-elect announces cuts in high-level salaries while FSLN challenges Supreme Electoral Council President-elect Enrique Bolaqos announced last week that no official in his government would earn more than the equivalent of $5,000 per month ($60,000 per year). "And this includes the president and vice-president, by the way," he added. Sources close to the president-elect said that the figure was determined based on a survey of comparable salaries in the private sector, in other Central American countries, and of data from accounting firms such as Price, Waterhouse, Cooper. "However," said Eduardo Montiel, Coordinator of the committee overseeing the fixing of the new salaries, "none of this has been easy. It is in fact extremely difficult to discover exactly what ministers are paid in other countries; there seems to be little standardization. Some people receive as little as US$2,400 per month, while others are paid US$13,600." Within the Aleman administration there was considerable variation as well, with the president receiving around US$300,000 per year (more than the U.S. president), most Ministers earning US$120,000 while Agriculture and Forestry Minister Augusto Navarro, out of conscience, accepted only US$45,600. But all these salaries appears astronomical when compared to an elementary school teacher's salary of under US$1,000 per year. While the president-elect prepares his administration, the results of the election of deputies to the National Assembly is still in dispute. The Sandinista Party last week challenged the ruling of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) the week before giving the Liberal Constitutionalist Party 53 seats, the Sandinista Party 38, and the Conservative Party only 1. That ruling was issued after the three Sandinista magistrates in the CSE had walked out and the session no longer had a quorum. Daniel Ortega, along with members of the National Convergence who joined the FSLN in the recent elections, filed suit in three separate judicial districts in Managua maintaining that last week's ruling on the election results was illegal because of the lack of quorum. Ortega denied that the move had any ulterior political motive, such as obliging president-elect Bolaqos to make political deals with the Front/Convergence. "There is no strategy of that sort," he stated flatly, "We're simply upholding the Law and the Constitution." Topic 2: U.S. troops to arrive in January Last week, Nicaragua's Defense Minister Jose Adan Guerra announced that U.S. Army Reservists will arrive in the country early next year to carry out a range of "socially useful projects." The troops will be stationed in and around Juigalpa and Santo Tomas in Chontales, and in Bluefields in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region. They will arrive in groups of 300, rotating in and out until the end of June, 2002. In total 3,600 troops will be involved. The venture is under the aegis of the U.S. Army Southern Command and the reservists will come primarily from Wisconsin, Florida and Puerto Rico. They are slated to build six clinics and four schools and upgrade 75 kilometers of roads. Lt. Colonel Patrick Gallagher, Assigned Chief of Operations, said that the force would have US$1 million at its disposal for buying materials and employing teams of local people. They will also provide training workshops in basic health care, give free medical and dental consultations, and distribute free medicines. Since they will carry only "officers' weapons," presumably side arms, the Nicaraguan Army will provide overall security. U.S. troops have been coming to Nicaragua since the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in late 1998 and have provoked varied reactions from among the population. Some, remembering the U.S. military's role in training and arming the contras, opposed their presence. Others, such as the Sandinista farmers and ranchers organization UNAG, worked with them to build schools and clinics. Some observers worry that the troops are part of a deeper game to advance the domination of Central America and its natural resources, especially given the oil deposits off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast. They will be conveniently located close to the proposed route of a "dry canal," the huge freight railroad/deep water ports/maquiladora complex designed to link the country's Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The treaty between the United States and Nicaragua to combat drug trafficking went into effect late in October and it marks the first U.S. support for Nicaragua's military since the country was run by the dictator Somoza in the 1970s. Even more alarming, the U.S. will train eleven Nicaraguan officers at the School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) during 2002, according to an answer from the school to an e-mail inquiry from the Nicaragua Network. This school trained thousands of officers of Somoza's National Guard and when the Carter Administration accused these officers of human rights violations in the 1970s, the Somoza regime answered angrily, "We're just carrying out what they taught us in the School of the Americas, and now they call it human rights violations!" Associated Press reports also that U.S. Coast Guard personnel will go to Nicaragua to provide technical support and equipment, while a small number of Nicaraguan naval engineers will be trained at U.S. Coast Guard installations. The Nicaragua Network and the School of the Americas Watch are putting together a campaign to oppose U.S. military involvement in Nicaragua, especially the return of Nicaraguan troops to the School of the Americas, also known as the School of the Assassins. Please watch this space! Topic 3: Citizens protest Spanish company's hike in electricity rates Union Fenosa, the Spanish company that recently took over electrical power distribution under the Aleman government's privatization drive, has announced a 15-30% hike in prices for electricity services. Ruth Selma Herrera of the Consumers' Defense League (CDL) said that, "This rise, any rise, is completely beyond the reach of most people." Anastasio Somarriba of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce, called the hike "catastrophic," adding that "most of our farming industries-sorghum, sugar, cattle-are all in grave economic difficulties. Even 5% higher electricity bills will be enough to break many of them." Together with higher gas prices, power hikes have a ripple effect across the whole economy, affecting most industrial products, irrigation systems for farming, refrigeration costs, particularly in small neighborhood shops, all milk products and many family food items. Herrera pointed out that such staples as rice, beans and cooking oil were already at all time highs (in many cases more expensive than in the US, despite average monthly incomes of less than US$100), and that, but for the staunch resistance of Managua's mayor, Herty Lewites, bus fares would already have been raised by 25%. Enrique Picado, of the Community Movement's National Directorate, commenting on an offer to negotiate with Union Fenosa from incoming president Bolaqos, said categorically, "No! No! No and No! There is nothing to be discussed. The government and its economic regulators know the state the country is in perfectly well. There is simply nothing to negotiate." As the coalition to resist the hikes continued to grow, community leaders said they could not discount direct action in the streets. Topic 3: Peter Tsokos sells another island! Peter Tsokos, a U.S. citizen of Greek origin living in Texas, has been selling beautiful Nicaraguan islands on his web site www.tropical-islands.com. These islands, under the Nicaraguan constitution, belong in perpetuity to the indigenous people of the area who have used them for hundreds of years to obtain fresh water and harvest coconuts. They do not live on the islands. Tsokos claims to have bought "titles" to the islands, when in fact what he purchased were pieces of paper from the 19th century that were superceded by the Nicaraguan constitution and Autonomy Law of 1987 which re-established the traditional indigenous rights over the land. One island, known as Water Cay, was recently sold to a businessman from Eugene, Oregon, named Christian Billard. The Eugene Register Guard notes that the island is located three miles off Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, is 20 acres in size, and is home to "man-of-war birds and pelicans, lizards, orchids, pineapples, mangos and many, many coconuts." According to the newspaper, Billard paid "something less than $1 million" for the island. Billard is in the midst of building "a cozy but elegant thatched-hut-style resort for up to 12 guests on the island." Billard says that what his island will have is "saltwater fly-fishing - extraordinary fly-fishing, making it worth every penny of the $2,295 per week charge for a seven-night package with five days of guided fishing." Another island, known as Lime Cay, was sold to an English couple, the Gaskins. The Gaskins have cut off the island from the indigenous inhabitants of the area, disrupted the environment of the island and, most especially, the habitat of the Hawksbill Turtle. On October 12, when a boat with ten officials from MARENA (Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources), and the regional government as well as Advocate for the Environment Marianela Rocha attempted to visit the cay, in order to speak with the Gaskins and inquire about the environmental damage to the cay, they were met with gunshots. "They shot to kill; these were not shots in the air!" Rocha told the press afterward. She added that their boat had a sign identifying it as from the Ministry of the Environment. The local mayor and judge have the authority to prohibit any activity on the cays until the courts rule in the case; however, they have not taken any action as of yet. Tsokos has sold a fifth cay to an American who has already begun to cut and burn vegetation, despite MARENA's orders not to do so. The Nicaragua Network, working in conjunction with the Center for Assistance to Indigenous Peoples and lawyer Maria Luisa Acosta, is continuing its campaign to stop the sale of these islands which belong to the Miskitu people of Nicaragua's South Atlantic Autonomous Region. We will keep you informed about actions that you can take to support the local indigenous communities. Meanwhile, readers can write to Peter Tsokos, P.O. Box 536111, Grand Prairie, TX 75053, USA, Phone: (817) 861-1981, Fax: (817) 460-6607, E-mail: ptsokos@yahoo.com using the sample letter below or your own words. If you have any questions or would like more talking points to engage Mr. Tsokos by telephone, please contact the Nicaragua Network at nicanet@afgj.org or 202-544-9355. Dear Mr. Tsokos, I am writing to express my outrage at your treatment of the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua and to demand that you: 1) respect the ancestral territorial rights of Miskitu and Rama indigenous people of the Pearl Cays, Cane Creek, and Eagle Point; 2) cease and desist from selling, deforesting and developing ecologically fragile lands. 3) Inform Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Gaskin that they must cease obstructing the turtle preservation teams in the Cays. According to the Nicaraguan constitution, indigenous land cannot be "bought, sold, or mortgaged." Furthermore, your destruction of ecologically fragile land is in direct violation of Nicaraguan environmental regulations, which mandate environmental impact studies before trees can be cut, etc. Activists throughout the United States as well as in Nicaragua are aware of your activities. I hope you are aware of the serious problems that are a direct result of your illegal actions. Sincerely, Your Name * This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources. To receive a more extensive weekly summary of the news from Nicaragua by e-mail or postal service, send a check for $60.00 to Nicaragua Network, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. We can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355. Our web site is: www.infoshop.org/nicanet [To subscribe to the Nicaragua Network hotline, send a blank email message to nicalist@afgj.org with "subscribe hotline" in the subject header>