desde nicaragua

"Brother countries" making inroads in national TV

The more I do actual journalism here, the less time I seem to dedicate to this blog. Funny, some weeks I spent hours each day reading and comparing, learning and trying to come to an understanding about various issues here and in the rest of Latin America — then writing little blurbs here. And then some weeks, like the past two, I've been doing the same thing but about very specific issues, writing about them for La Prensa, then coming home exhausted to crash in bed.

The past two days, for example, were dedicated to this: Iranian programs coming to national television. Basically, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has been opening the door for his "compañeros" in Iran and Venezuela to make inroads in national television here.

(By the way, Hearst News Service recently had a story about growing Iranian involvement here, if you're interested.)

What do I mean by this? Well, first the Ortegas want Iran to help develop Nicaragua's film industry, which has been basically non-existent since the beginning of the first Sandinista administration. Iran, of course, has an internationally acclaimed film industry.

Last week, First Lady Rosario Murillo announced that a delegation of Iranian officials were in country to look at media and communications here. (Read comments by her and delegation here.)

So both governments say they'd like to bring Iranian soap operas and films and cartoons to Nicaraguan television. But the relationship is more than a sharing of popular culture. Iran wants to help build up Channel 4's "Multinoticias" — pro-Sandinista but private programming that is run by (now, don't be shocked here) two of the Ortegas' sons.

It's unclear how much money Iran plans to invest in amplifying Channel 4's coverage area.

Iran also wants to train Nicaraguan journalists. I'm not sure whether that's the kind of country Nicaragua needs to be taking lessons from, considering Iran's track record in regards to freedom of expression, the press, etc. Then again, the Ortegas (like previous administations) haven't been getting many accolades for their work here, either.

Now, enter Venezuela, which is close to sealing a deal with Nicaragua to take over the basically defunct state television Channel 6. That channel is run by the Ministry of Education but can only afford to show an hour or two of programming a week.

Why the interest? Well, Venezuela is the majority owner of Telesur, a network that's often called the Al-Jazeera of Latin America. It's Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's response to major Western (imperialist, he might say) media outlets like CNN, the BBC or Univsión.

Telesur might soon take up the state's channel, then. I wanted to draw a connection to the influence on television here from Iran and Venezuela — "brother" countries, Ortega calls them. So I spoke with Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, an expert in communications and Latin American soap operas who teaches at the University of Georgia and just happens to be Venezuelan.

“Is it good? Is it bad? To me, it's interesting to have access to content that traditionally we wouldn't get to see," she told me. “It's interesting to have other media powers in the world, but if the object is indoctrination, then it's a bad thing."

If anyone has seen a serious analysis of Telesur out there, let me know. I guess I should probably buy a television and start watching it to formulate my own opinions, but I can barely bring myself to sit in front of one for more than a few minutes every couple of months.

Oh well.

* * * * *

Anyway, if you're an American interested in news from Nicaragua, you probably know all about the Eric Volz case.  That's all Nicaragua is famous for these days.

Honestly, I don't feel up to adding to that scandal, but you can check out coverage from The AP, WSJ, CNN, TIME Magazine, The Nica Times, The Tenessean, Nashville City Paper,Friends of Eric Volz (or their MySpace page).

I had started writing a real post on the Volz case a few nights ago, but got slammed with work and haven't been keeping up since. I'm sorry, but such is life. The rest of the world is covering this one.

* * * * *

Finally, something a little closer to me is in the following photo:

(La Prensa/G. Flores)

The man on the left is Jorge Loásiga. He is an investigative reporter here at La Prensa, a funny guy who sits diagonally from my desk.

A few nights ago Loásiga was roughed up by Ortega's security at a presidential event. Police say he was trying to force himself past security. He says he is the victim of police brutality. All the media, as well as journalism associations, say the government is out to get La Prensa and that this is a sign of Ortega's free speech repression.

I'll follow up on this one later tonight or tomorrow. It's important because the media here is dedicating a lot of resources toward covering this issue.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Danny O is in Cuba, asking for help dealing with this country's energy crisis. Suerte, compañero. Energy problems mean no running water in Granada today. No running water means Melissa badly needs to take a shower.

On democracy, language and the next ALBA summit

As I mentioned in an earlier post, December 7 is the last day of the Purísima celebration. I hope to be in León tonight for the best parties. Between then and now, I'm riding buses, heading to the office to work on a few story ideas and reading the news.

* For The Nation, Greg Grandin, an NYU historian who specializes in Central America, writes about Chavismo and Democracy. After Sunday's "No" vote in Venezuela, critics and media  hailed it as a tribute to freedom and democracy, and a slap in the face to President Hugo Chávez's power grab. Grandin analyzes the points in the failed referendum, and writes about what direct democracy has actually meant in Venezuela.

Political scientists can debate the viability of direct, or "protagonist," democracy, but they would have a hard time making the case that politicians in Latin America's traditional representational systems are more accountable to their citizens. Throughout the 1990s, candidates for president repeatedly ran on antineoliberal platforms only to capitulate to the IMF and Wall Street once in office. And what system of checks and balances controls the monopoly power of Latin America's corporate media, as much a political as an economic force, or the "veto" that bond managers and banks have over a country's financial sovereignty? Hate him or admire him, Chávez at least tells voters what he plans to do: he made clear that in his re-election campaign he planned to introduce legislation that would allow him to seek yet another re-election ...

Never before have the majority of Venezuelans been so involved in the political life of the nation. Throughout the country, peasant organizations, cooperatives, women's and gay rights' organizations, indigenous groups, environmental activists, community councils and cultural associations argue about the possibilities, limits and perils of Chavismo. Hundreds of community radio and TV stations provide a forum for residents to express views, address local issues and learn, free of charge, production and broadcasting skills. Critics dismiss these stations as but more mechanisms of patronage and control. But all empirical evidence points to an extraordinary democratization of free speech, with little or no monitoring of content, frequent criticism of the government and uninhibited and robust grassroots participation. This is confirmed by yet another poll, released last month, by the respected Chilean firm Latinobarometro: for the third year running, Venezuelans are behind only Uruguayans in their satisfaction with their country's democratic institutions (59 percent compared with the regional average of 37 percent).

Also on The Nation's website, you can read pieces on the referendum by: Mark Weisbrot,  co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Sujatha Fernandes, a sociology professor who studies urban social movements in Venezuela; Chesa Boudin, a former intern on Chávez's foreign policy team; and Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, a psychoanalyst.

* Meanwhile, blogger Justin Delacour writes about a "glaring error" in an Associated Press story about the referendum:

It is incorrect to state that the constitutional changes would have "enabled him [Chavez] to remain in power for life." It would have been correct to say that the constitutional changes would have enabled Chavez to run for reelection indefinitely, but I can't emphasize enough that that is completely distinct from enabling him to "remain in power for life." Had term limits been eliminated, only the Venezuelan electorate could have enabled Chavez to "remain in power for life," and that would have been up to them. The distinction is really quite important.

It is an important distinction, and a good reminder of how much care foreign correspondents need to take when choosing words, as what they write defines for the outside world what is going on in a country.

* The NYT takes a look at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. foreign aid agency that lets recipient countries undertake their own projects, instead of doling cash to American contractors and charities. The story highlights its "sluggish record in getting projects beyond the planning stage to the point where contractors can actually build the roads, irrigation canals, power plants and clean water systems that poor countries say they need."

I hope to talk to the folks in charge of the MCC's $175 million, 5-year project in Nicaragua, which aims to improve transportation in the northwest part of the country, strengthen property rights and develop rural businesses. Paul Trivelli, the U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, wrote in August that some US$9.6 million has been dispersed to that date. More on this later.

* The next ALBA summit will not take place in Managua, as originally planned. The president confirmed yesterday that the sixth summit for the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas is happening in Caracas on Dec. 16 and 17, in homage to the grand liberator Simón Bolivar on the anniversary of his death.

Read about the ALBA model here.

Oh, and Guatemala's president-elect, Álvaro Colom, tells Nicaragua's president it'd be too complicated for his country to join ALBA since his country has already signed a free trade agreement with the States. He added that 62 percent of Guatemala's trade is with the U.S. "and obviously it's a little complicated for the country" to sign onto the Chávez's alternative agreement (EFE).