Sale of Nicaraguan TV Station Provokes Journalist’s Departure

January 28, 2010

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, a popular Nicaraguan journalist and outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega, announced this week that he will be leaving Telenica Channel 8 after the station was allegedly sold to relatives of the president. The son of former President Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) and martyred newspaper editor Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, he hosts a nightly news show, Esta Noche, and a weekly program, Esta Semana.

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Here We Go Again: Nicaragua-Honduras-Re-Election

November 6, 2009

Just south of Honduras, in Nicaragua, another constitutional crisis is brewing over re-election.  And while attention is focused on Honduras, many of the actors that stood on the sidelines leading up to the June 28 coup in Honduras are standing on the sidelines again as political totalitarian ambition and institutions head toward a train wreck.

In this case, Sandinista President Daniel Ortega has sparked a constitutional crisis of his own by—like his friend Honduran President Manuel Zelaya—pushing for a constitutional reform to allow himself to run for re-election in 2011. 

In this case, though, six members of the Ortega-packed Supreme Court supported the reform (under the curious and specious decision that Article 147 of the constitution was “inapplicable.” Huh?), and the Nicaraguan Congress refused to question it.  The President of the Supreme Court declared his opposition to the ruling, but the pro-Ortega Sandinista congressional representatives spurned the opportunity to overturn it. 

So wait: the Nicaraguan Supreme Court approved it, and Nicaraguan Congress supported the Supreme Court’s decision.  If this were Honduras this would be constitutional, right?  That’s what U.S. conservatives have been saying: that the coup in Honduras wasn’t a coup because the Honduran Congress and Honduran Supreme Court supported it, and thus democratic institutions had spoken.  (Note: in both cases, the Supreme Court acted in secret with no public debate; in Honduras it was to arrest President Zelaya; in Nicaragua it was to support Daniel Ortega’s totalitarian plan.)

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Nicaraguan President Moves Closer To Another Possible Term in Office

October 23, 2009

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega moved a step closer to running for another term this week when six justices of the constitutional branch of the Supreme Court deemed “unenforceable” a term-limit provision contained in Nicaragua's constitution. According to opposition leaders and legal experts, a 1995 amendment to the Nicaraguan constitution allows a maximum of two non-consecutive terms.

The ruling by the six justices, who are all affiliated with Ortega’s Sandanista party, requires formal approval by the full 16 judges of the court, but the head of the constitutional branch, Francisco Rosales, has said that the ruling will likely stand and the country's electoral court has indicated that it will also comply with the decision.

Many Latin American countries are dealing with the issue of presidential term limits. Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa have all sought constitutional changes that will allow them to continue running for reelection. The same was also true for deposed Honduran President Mel Zelaya, and may soon be true for leaders in Costa Rica and Colombia.

The U.S. reacted to the news yesterday by expressing concern over the irregular governmental actions in Nicaragua with State Department spokesman Ian Kelly commenting: "The ruling appears to short-circuit, through legal maneuverings, the open and transparent consideration by the Nicaraguan people of the possibility for presidential re-election."

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Weekly News Roundup from Across the Americas

October 21, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Honduran Talks Stall over Decision on Zelaya’s Future

Negotiations aimed at resolving the ongoing Honduran political impasse came to a standstill again this week. The main point of contention continues to be whether deposed leader Manuel Zelaya should be allowed to return to office. “Last week, Honduras’s World Cup qualification left the country glowing with optimism. Now, irrepressible hope and joy have again given way to a grimmer reality: political negotiations have hit a wall,” blogs Tegucigalpa-based Daniel Altschuler for Americas Quarterly, who writes about the proposals being passed back and forth between Zelaya and the interim government.

Read an AS/COA analysis on the halting steps made in the Honduran negotiations.

Protest and Media Restrictions Eased in Honduras

The Honduran interim government officially eased restrictions on protests and the opposition media earlier this week. A decree was passed after a pro-Zelaya protest in September to suspend five articles of the Honduran constitution, authorizing the closing of any media outlet deemed to disturb the peace. De facto leader Roberto Micheletti took action to repeal the decree earlier this month, but the measure did not take effect until yesterday. Coincidentally, the decree was lifted the day after the United Nations sent an OAS delegation to Honduras to begin a three-week human rights investigation.

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Nicaragua-Costa Rica Tensions Flare Up Over Water Rights

August 26, 2009

The Nicaraguan government announced yesterday that they will begin construction at the end of September to reroute the San Juan River, which runs along the country’s border with Costa Rica. Eden Pastora, the head of the committee for development of the San Juan River, said that the $1 million project is intended to “recover the 1,700 cubic meters per second of water that was lost after Costa Rica rerouted it toward its Colorado River between 1945 and 1950.” Costa Rica responded, issuing a statement on Tuesday that said a ruling by an international court "forcefully denies Nicaragua's pretension that it has the right to dredge the San Juan River.”

Disputes over the river date back nearly 200 years. For both countries the river is seen as offering the promise for another canal route across Central America. But last month, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice unanimously reaffirmed Nicaragua’s sovereignty over the river and upheld the ban that does not allow Costa Rican police and military forces to use the river. Nicaragua’s exclusive sovereignty over the San Juan River was established in 1858 with the Cañas-Jerez treaty.

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For Nicaragua, a Russian Relations Revival

August 7, 2009

Thirty some-odd years after Moscow and Managua traded diplomatic missions, the one-time Cold War allies appear to be growing closer than ever.

Russia’s deputy prime minister, Igor Sechin, met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at the end of last month—reportedly the third official Russian trip to Nicaragua in a year—signing several deals meant to make ties even tighter.

Sechin came in the company of high government officials from Russia’s energy and fisheries departments, and signed agreements aimed at boosting bilateral cooperation in both these areas. Sechin has said Russia that is particularly interested in the potential for crude oil exploration in Nicaragua.

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Weekly News Roundup from Across the Americas

July 22, 2009

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Second Round of Talks Falls Short in Resolving Honduran Crisis

This latest round of mediated talks between representatives of Honduran interim leader Roberto Micheleti and deposed President Manuel Zelaya ended with little solution. Costa Rican President and negotiations mediator Óscar Arias’s proposed a seven-point plan to peacefully reinstate Zelaya, but the Micheleti delegation firmly rejected it. The New York Times’ Ginger Thompson reported Wednesday that a new round of talks would be postponed after Honduras’ current Foreign Minister Carlos López Contreras failed to convince the de facto government to accept terms that would allow Zelaya’s return to power.  Rumors of another attempt by Zelaya to return to Honduras repeatedly crop up; CNN Expansión reported Wednesday morning that Zelaya himself is planning his return in upcoming days.

In an AQ blog post, AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini takes a look at the negotiations, Arias’ plan, and the increasingly isolated situation Honduras finds itself in as countries and multilateral institutions cut large swathes of aid. On Monday, the European Union followed suit, suspending $92 million in financial aid to Honduras, reports the European Voice.

Access AS/COA’s resource guide to the Honduran crisis.

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Nicaraguans Lose $62 Million in Assistance as Ortega Stands Firm in Defending Flawed Elections

June 18, 2009

Eight months later, the consequences of last November’s municipal elections continue to reverberate throughout Nicaragua. Now the latest victim is not the legitimacy of the democratic process but Nicaraguan citizens. And the government of Nicaragua is to blame.

Last week, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)—a U.S. government entity established in 2004 that ties aid to good governance, economic freedom and investments in people—announced that it would cut $62 million in aid to Nicaragua. This money, suspended a few weeks after the municipal elections, was part of a five-year, $175 million agreement (or compact) that was signed with the Nicaraguan government in July 2005.

The reason? MCC assistance only goes to “governments who are governing justly,” and according to MCC Acting Chief Executive Officer Rodney Bent, Nicaragua has not shown “meaningful reforms or progress” in this area. The MCC had been looking for the government of President Daniel Ortega to address the voting irregularities that helped his Sandinista candidates win the mayorship of Managua, and the country’s second city, León. In Managua, Alexis Arguello defeated Eduardo Montealegre (Ortega’s challenger in the 2006 presidential election) amid accusations of voter identity fraud and suspicious polling station tallies. For the first time in 20 years, independent observers were barred from monitoring the election.

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New Magazine Highlights Nicaragua's Thriving Arts Scene

May 27, 2009

Ask anyone for good investment tips, and they’re unlikely to suggest going in to the magazine business. So for a pair of young designers to front $10,000 of their own savings for a new print publication—that is a sign of confidence in their product.

Hecho magazine is the brainchild of Christopher Sataua, 27, and Oliver Best, 31, U.S. graphic designers who have been living in Nicaragua since 2005 and 2007, respectively. The bilingual, bi-monthly Managua-based glossy delves into Nicaragua’s underground arts and music scene with reviews, travelogues, interviews, and photo essays. The publication places a heavy emphasis on design and its appeal spans from Nicaraguans living in Nicaragua and abroad to the country’s large, English-speaking ex-pat community.

One of the feature articles for the first issue (which came out in February) profiles Bluefields Sound System, a collective of musicians from the often-ignored Caribbean coast, and reflects the publication’s dedication to broadening its scope beyond Managua. “Most people we talk to here say Managua’s the cultural center, but when we traveled [beyond Managua] we started meeting musicians, painters, and [discovering new] art galleries. That opened up a world to us.” The magazine has also profiled international artists living in Nicaragua, including Jean Marc Calvet, a French-born, Granada-based painter, and Martín Perna, a U.S. saxophonist who is living and recording music in Bluefields.

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Daily Focus: Nicaragua’s Supernatural Epidemic

May 4, 2009

Global health experts are focused on Mexico, but regional neighbor Nicaragua is confronting an epidemic of its own. The method for transmission is unknown, but grisi siknis, or “crazy sickness” in the language of the indigenous Miskito­s—a community of 150,000 to 200,000 residing along Central America’s Mosquito Coast—continues to spread throughout the community. Experts are calling it a “cultural-bound syndrome” that is “more mental than physical,” and have puzzled over how to classify the illness, let alone cure it.

In 2009 alone there have been 46 recorded instances, ­each time afflicting a teenage Miskito girl. It is not, however, a new phenomenon. Reports from the 1970s catalogue the illness and note that symptoms include behavior commonly associated with supernatural possession. The BBC, in a recent article on the phenomenon, reported that grisi siknis “turns people into witches and they go crazy."

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All Quiet on the Latin American Front? Not Quite.

April 30, 2009

The Summit of the Americas brought a ton of Latin American coverage in the U.S. media.  Finally. But, now that the Summit is over, press attention to the hemisphere is waning. That is except for the swine flu spreading from Mexico.

There were a few news nuggets that came out of the Summit, but judging from post-Summit news coverage, you’d think that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Cuba were the only stories.  Of course, those are the two boilerplate favorites for covering Latin America. There have, in fact, been a number of positive developments—some of them coming out of the Summit. Unfortunately, none of them makes the U.S. news.

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Presidential Term Limits: Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega Seeking Constitutional Changes

April 21, 2009

Whether term limits are essential for democracy is a matter of opinion. Whether certain Latin American politicians are pushing that debate front and center is not a matter of debate.

Recent constitutional assemblies in Ecuador and Bolivia have limited presidential re-election to two terms. In Venezuela, voters cast ballots in a February 15 referendum promoted by President Hugo Chávez to allow unlimited re-election for all elected offices (it was approved), and in Colombia, President Álvaro Uribe continues to keep people guessing as to whether he’ll seek constitutional changes to allow a potential third term.

The latest to follow suit is Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who announced in February his intentions for constitutional reform. Nefarious motives have been attributed by publications such as The Economist, which interpreted the move as a power grab between Ortega and his partner in crime, former President Arnoldo Alemán.

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