desde nicaragua

News updates: Ex-contras, deportees and more

Some interesting notes from these parts:

* Last year's return of Daniel Ortega here re-energized at least some ex-Contras in Miami who are now lobbying support from the U.S. government and working with anti-Ortega movements in Nicaragua with former colleagues here.

According to this Associated Press story, a few even "warn darkly" that armed resistance is again a possibility. They say they're worried about the CPCs, which I've written about earlier and have largely disappeared from local news after some typical political circus antics here.

* The increasing crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the United States is resulting in waves of deportees flooding back to their "home" countries like Mexico and Nicaragua. Many of these deportees grew up in the States and, lacking connections in their countries, are at a bit of a loss for finding work, etc., when they return. (Months ago, I wrote about one such case in Granada.)

"Some of these people are arriving in Mexico's border cities with nothing but the clothes they have on. Many have no family links, no knowledge of the country. They are very vulnerable," said Rolando Garcia, an immigration official working on the new program. "What we want to do, quite simply, is give them a human reception." (TIME)

Anyway, Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced a repatriation program to help reintegrate the deportees into society, according to a recent Time Magazine article. The program will organize refuge centers in border cities, transport to hometowns and jobs for the deportees, immigration officials say. Critics however say the program doesn't have much substance (there's nothing for it in the budget) and that Calderón should focus on defending immigrants' rights in the U.S.

* Reacting to recent legal actions taken by Exxon Mobil, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez threatened Sunday to cut off oil supplies to the United States.

A British court issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion in assets, according to recent news reports, after the oil company had gone to U.S., British and Dutch courts to challenge the nationalization by Chavez's government of a multi-billion dollar oil project.

"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said. "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."    

The threats by Chavez boosted prices, even as analysts downplayed the chances of Venezuela cutting off supplies.

"The Venezuelan president is bluffing, but his well honed rhetoric will help support prices in New York and London nonetheless," said The Schork Report, issued by U.S. trader and analyst Stephen Schork. (TIME)   

Despite this, Venezuela continues to be the U.S.'s fourth-largest supplier of crude oil — supplying some 1.2 million barrels a day, and the U.S. continues to be Venezuela's top trading partner. The threats by Chávez caused a slight tremor in oil prices, which are already affected by continued worries of a recession in the States.

* Despite earlier optimism, deforestation continues in the Brazilian Amazon. So it's back to the drawing board for officials "to figure out what went wrong and how to tackle monumental problems like endemic lawlessness and land disputes, which have long stymied governments," according to a McClatchy News Service story.

* Finally, Andres Oppenheimer writes about Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's allies in Miami's Cuban exile community, and his views on issues like undocumented immigration and farm subsidies.

* * * * *

I added a link to the Media Accuracy on Latin America's site, which I learned about last month from the LANR blog. This initiative from the North American Congress on Latin America seeks to "foster public discourse by offering more pluralistic views on events unfolding throughout the hemisphere." On the site, you can find criticism of news coverage from this part of the world, "highlighting reports in which news outlets have simplified, overlooked or distorted critical facts as well as reports in which the media fails to connect relevant U.S. policy to developments in Latin America. MALA also offers background information on economic, political, and societal issues, as well as other resources for journalists, students, and the public at large to better understand the complexity of events in the region."

As a side note, I'm strongly considering a trip to Venezuela at the end of next month, in time for the Inter American Press Association's meeting in Caracas. These folks (who are funding my stay here) highly criticize Chávez for limiting press freedom and had the audacity to invite him to speak at the conference. We'll see whether he accepts.

Anyway, does anyone have friends in Venezuela?

Coming full circle (thanks CPCs)

So yesterday I made a brief mention of a La Prensa reporter who says he was attacked by the president's  security at an event Tuesday night. I failed to bring up the controversial CPCs (Citizens Power Councils) because they seemed sort of irrelevant.

But I should have thought to mention a Thursday headline in La Prensa that directly blamed the CPCs for the alleged brutality: "CPCs with a license to give beatings." It's unclear whether the security members who roughed up Jorge Loáisiga were CPC members, fanatic Sandinistas, or just doing their jobs.

The headline is pretty weighty, and the article that follows doesn't directly link the folks Loáisiga says attacked him with the CPCs. And now yesterday, five CPC members denounced the newspaper, saying it caused them personal injury : “We are all CPC and we feel offended, because yesterday they accused us and pointed us out as the people with a license to beat, and classified us as delinquents."

The chief of the National Police says those "blue shirts" weren't police or CPCs, but that they had every right to detain Loásiga for violating security norms: "The manner in which he tried to get into a restricted area was irresponsible," said Aminta Granera Sacasa.

In response come the editorials, including one by La Prensa's editor in chief directly criticizing Granera.

There are a million ways at looking at any given event, subject. The newspapers seem to be using the aggression against Loásiga as proof of government totalitarianism. The government (because the CPCs are the government, as President Daniel Ortega likes to remind us) is using the event as proof that the newspapers are out to get them.

And now you have the ex-pat community in Miami using the incident to beef up their opposition to Daniel Ortega and his CPCs:

"It's a violation," said (Nicaraguan American Chamber of Commerce head Armando) Arana, a former Nicaraguan diplomat in Costa Rica, "but what is more worrisome is the government's defense of the action."

Doctor Salvador Marin, a former Contra member, said he hopes those outside of Nicaragua can help raise money and support for civic greater participation in the countryside.

"We will do all that the people will let us do," said Marin.

Although still in its infancy, the loose coalition plans to recruit support from the Nicaraguan expat communities in Texas, California and New York as well.

Welcome to journalism in Nicaragua. It's never boring.

García Laviana and rabid dogs

Last night, President Daniel Ortega spoke in Tola at an event honoring Gaspar García Laviana, a Spanish Roman Catholic priest who in worked in Nicaragua, and in 1978 took up arms to fight with the FSLN. Before getting into what was said, because as expected Ortega went off on a few other things, let me share a little about García: 

It was in this country where Gaspar truly becomes conscious of what poverty is, and the outrage of the Somoza dictatorship's treatment against the most unfavored classes. He was always on the side of the poor, struggling especially against child prostitution. His voice was  heard loud and clear against the Somoza regimen, which quickly labeled him Communist. That wasn't a much of a mistake since Laviana plainly embraced liberation theology (we must remember that this sector of the Catholic Church was later harshly reprimanded ...) García Laviana finally decided to take arms and join the Sandinista Front insurrection. “Martín” (his war alias) died in combat on Nov. 11, 1978. (Cabeza Mechero, my translation)

There appears to be some confusion about the date of his death. During an August speech, Ortega said the mistake was made on García's tombstone, and that he actually died on Dec. 11.

The following is one of his poems, in Spanish and English (my translation):

La niña del prostíbulo

Catorce añitos de edad,
dos de puta,
cara joven
rasgos viejos,
piel lozana,
ojos muertos.

Pantaloncito ceñido,
desnudos pierna y ombligo,
pies descalzos,
recorriendo el puterío.

— ¿Cuántos años tienes, niña?
— Señor, tengo diecinueve.
— Niña, tú no tienes tantos años.
— Son diecinueve, señor, ataja la criatura.
Mira, niña, soy el jues. Si eres menor
de edad yo te llevaré conmigo y serás honrada.
(cruza un sueño infantil por los ojos viejos
de la niña puta)
— Señor, tengo diecinueve.

El juez se vuelve hacia mí:
— Tiene miedo a la rufiana.

Catorce añitos de edad,
dos de puta.

The girl from the brothel

Fourteen years of age,
Two as a whore,
young face
old features,
lush skin,
dead eyes.

Tight little pants,
naked legs and belly button,
barefoot,
making the rounds at the whorehouse.
— How old are you, girl?
— Sir, I'm nineteen.
— Girl, you are not that old.
— I am nineteen, sir, the creature cuts in.
— Look, girl, I am the judge. If you are under
age I will take you with me and you will be respectable.
(a childlike dream passes those old eyes
of the child whore)
— Sir, I am nineteen.

The judge turns to me:
— She is scared of the madame.

Fourteen years of age,
two as a whore.

* * * * *

So back to last night in Tola ... Ortega compared his political opposition to "a rabid dog that barks every day in the media" (END/photo, too).

As I mentioned earlier, a group of Ortega's critics formed the Bloc against the Dictatorship on Friday.

Ortega called the new bloc "Somocistas." He said they're simply upset that his administration isn't helping the rich and elite stay rich and elite, and that during the 16 years that Sandinistas weren't in power, his opponents did nothing to resolve poverty.

Meanwhile, those opponents are after blood.

They say they plan to pass a legislative decree against a Supreme Court's resolution last week that legalized the controversial Citizens Power Councils (CPCs). They're also asking for the head of Enabás, Róger Alí Romero, for allowing CPC members to handle the money in his agency's program to sell cheap beans in poor neighborhoods.

"The political agenda is one thing, and the needs of the people are another thing, and we want to attend to the needs of the people," Alí Romero said last night.

The opposition's logic is this: If the CPCs are not a legal part of government, then the members shouldn't be allowed to handle government money. The CPCs' legal status is entirely unclear, though. And the topic gets more complicated because not all the judges were in on the ruling that made them legal, so the opposition safely call the ruling illegal.

* * * * *

Unrelated, but important to me: I just learned a woman I worked with on the college paper is in Iraq right now, covering the war for McClatchy News Service. You have to respect the courage it must have taken her to go there. This is her blog.

"Wait a minute. I know these people ... "

Yesterday, President Daniel Ortega announced that regardless of what the National Assembly or courts say, he will go ahead and install the controversial Citizens Power Councils (CPCs) as a national cabinet.

He said if the Assembly continues to paralyze his work, "I would be obligated to govern by decree."

This alarms people.

The CPCs will be "formalized"  on Friday during a massive rally at the Plaza de la Revolución, Ortega said.

"We're going to newly install all of this legally ... in such a way that if they erase (veto),
we will again write the law, and that's how it's going to be: They erase the CPCs, we will
re-install them; whoever comes and tells the Assembly that no, I the following day will dictate another law that yes, and that's how we're going to be." (Radio Primerísima, FSLN outlet)

Last week, the National Assembly had vetoed Ortega's plan to make the CPCs an official arm of government. An appellate court later overturned the veto, and the Supreme Court was expected to follow with a decision.

To opponents, the CPCs are another name for a Sandinista volunteer group that existed during the first Sandinista administration, the Sandinista Defense Committees. The CDSs are often remembered for serving as neighborhood spies to government, pointing out dissenters in the community.

Of course, we must remember the context in which the CDSs existed: the civil war of the 1980s, a Counter Revolution funded by the U.S. government.

These new CPCs, under the direction of First Lady Rosario Murillo, operate in neighborhoods to "exercise direct democracy," according to the government. (Check out this January speech by Murillo that talks about this and creating consciousness and citizenry.)

Ortega's opponents don't want the CPCs to receive and/or distribute government resources because the groups are politicized. Who will know for sure whether the CPCs are only helping out Sandinistas?

So far, the government is crediting the CPCs with a lot of good work. Yesterday afternoon, they were even credited for ending the blackouts. Sounds weird? Well it is:

According to the energy minister, Ortega made the decision of "zero blackouts" after CPC members solicited the FSLN secretary's office on Monday, asking to end the energy rationing, motivated by the start of "la purísima" (a religious holiday) prayers, “so that one way or another, those of us who begin to celebrate "la purísima" no longer have darkness." (El Nuevo Diario, my translation)

And last week the CPCs helped with Enabas' discounted bean sales throughout the capital.

My friend and I were walking to in his (working-class Grandada) neighborhood  the other day when we passed by a huge group of people talking in front of a house. They were talking about education, politics and what the community needs.

Are these the scary CPCs? I ask myself.

"Wait a minute," my friend says. "I know these people. These are my neighbors."

I ask an older man what's going on, and he warmly invites us to join the discussion. The meeting is to elect the neighborhood's CPC representative.

Let's hope they don't get too politicized. They seem to have promise.

citizens power councils

I went to a nice government event yesterday, offered to write a story about it for La Prensa and this morning it made the front page.

It's sort of a complicated story, but basically the government is selling beans for cheap to poor people, and using very controversial and new Citizens Power Councils (CPCs) to distribute them. The price for this staple to the Nicaraguan diet more than doubled in the past month, and many families can't afford to eat them anymore.

President Daniel Ortega' political opponents criticize the CPCs because they seem like another name for the Sandinista Defense Committees, which in the 1980s were the "eyes and ears" of the government during the Contra Revolution.

Because of that, the National Assembly vetoed Ortega's plan to make the CPCs an official part of the government. Before that veto was even written into law, an appellate court said CPCs are a constitutional right and overturned the veto. Meanwhile, as the future of the CPCs officially will be decided by the Supreme Court, the Ortegas announced the CPCs will officially go into effect by the end of the month.

I spoke with Juan Ramón Bravo Reyes, president of a large association of farming cooperatives, which are now selling beans directly to consumers through this government program. He's worked with committees, associations and cooperatives since the first Sandinista administration in the 1980s.

He told me that if the CPCs continue with programs like the discounted bean sales, they can be a strong force to protect citizens' interest.

"With the CPCs can begin the solution to their problems, and the inquietudes of the population," he said.
"They can be very useful if they aren't politicized."

* * * * *

Okay, so it's slightly surprising to see your name on the front page of a newspaper in another country. I'm trying to get over shocks. But then yesterday I casually ask my editor whatever happened with a first-person story — a column or essay really — he'd asked me to write about my trip Matagalpa's coffee haciendas.

He tells me it's in the magazine, a beautifully designed, glossy weekly that comes out separately from the newspaper. I buy it. And what do you know — a whole page devoted to the "Opinión" of one U.S. journalist.

* * * * *

Finally, a couple of pictures.

Last week, my friend came into town (err ... country) to visit. We took a bus to Volcán Masaya, walked 6 kilometers up a steep road to the summit. The volcano is active.

Here's Dan at the top.

* * * * *

Finally, I've got a ton of school work to catch up on. Well, by that I mean I have a lot to read. I'm taking a post-graduate history course at UNAN, and the reading/lectures are the kind of stuff you'd (or at least I'd) have trouble understanding in English just because it goes over your (my) head. It's a delightful challenge that it's entirely in Spanish.