Speaker Change for Sunday Webinar
The Nicaragua Network and AFGJ had reported that the speaker for the Sunday Feb. 20 Webinar (3pm ET) would be Laureano Ortega. Mr. Ortega cannot be with us and in his place we are honored to have Finance Minister Ivan Acosta.

Iván Adolfo Acosta Montalván has been Minister of Finance and Public Credit since February 2012, and as such, is a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Nicaragua.  He is responsible for directing public finances in support of national policies.  He is also Governor for Nicaragua before the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, and Alternate Governor before the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).  Prior to his current role, he had held positions as Secretary General and Vice Minister of Finance and Public Credit since 2007.

He has a degree in economics, and is also a lawyer and notary public, with a master’s degree in business law. He has postgraduate degrees in advanced management and marketing.  He has participated in a program of High Public Management at INCAE and is currently an active doctoral student in Social Sciences with emphasis in Public Management at the University of Zulia, Venezuela.

How Nicaragua Fights Poverty & Empowers Women through the Ministry of Family Economy

By Camila Escalante/Kawsachun News

[First published Feb. 9, 2022 at https://kawsachunnews.com/how-nicaragua-fights-poverty-empowers-women-through-the-ministry-of-family-economy]

In Managua, Nicaragua, we interviewed Minister Justa Pérez of the Ministry of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy, known as MEFCCA. 

Could you start us off with a summary of what MEFCCA does to stimulate, develop and promote the popular economy?

With pleasure, greetings. I would like to tell you that the Ministry of Family Economy arose as part of the strategy of the Sandinista government in the fight against poverty. When Comandante Daniel took office in 2007, he decided to launch a National Plan for Human Development in which a number of public policies, programs and projects aimed at the fight against poverty are being implemented. There are programs and projects aimed at restoring the rights of Nicaraguan families, starting with basic rights such as health, education and above all, the Ministry of Family Economy is responsible for promoting production aimed at food security.

Then the Hambre Cero program (Zero Hunger) was launched, which is a very successful strategy of the Sandinista government, where more than 200,000 women were provided with capital and goods for production. We are talking about goods that in the countryside are used to produce food. We are talking about cows, pigs, pork and poultry. So, in a short period of time it was possible to have food production so that families could contribute to this, to improve their conditions; and added to this, we saw the restoration of other rights, road infrastructure, electric energy and telecommunications.

In the 15 years that we have been Pueblo Presidente, we have been able to reduce poverty and extreme poverty, by about 50%. One in two Nicaraguans was in poverty and almost 20% in extreme poverty. Today we continue to fight against poverty but in smaller numbers. Today we can say that we have eliminated hunger here. No matter how humble a household may be, it has three meals a day. This is because it is guaranteed by policies and socio-productive programs. Here families have produced a lot of basic grains and a lot of products for export. Now, 2021 was the year in which we recovered economically thanks to the efforts that families have been making hand in hand with the government. We now have emblematic programs such as Hambre Cero, emblematic programs such as Usura Cero [Zero Usery], programs such as Patio Saludable [Health Yards], which has to do with promoting production in small spaces, in homes, through schools, family and community gardens.

And now in this new stage, we are working to promote all kinds of entrepreneurship in the countryside and in the city. 26 productive strategies are being promoted by the Sandinista government, including genetic improvement of the main export items.

Today we are promoting the beef sector in the top ten export products. We’re also exporting beans and producing significant amounts of food from Nicaragua for export to neighboring countries in Central America.

So the Ministry of Family Economy has a very important mission to promote family agriculture in all its forms in a sustainable manner, promoting environmentally friendly agriculture that has to do with the diversification of family plots, the incorporation of practices that includes adaptation to climate change.

We also have important items such as coffee, which occupies a very important place in exports and in the life of the Nicaraguan family. A large number of farmers are dedicated to coffee production. And they are not only producing it well, but they are transforming it and exporting it.

We are complying with international norms and requirements. We have a national production system, which also ensures that producers are complying with these standards; it is part of the work of the Ministry of Family Economy. We manage the organizational part. We give the legal status to the cooperatives. We are in charge of cooperative organization. There are a large number of agricultural cooperatives, but also service cooperatives. So we are working to strengthen the model in order to produce more, to produce with higher quality and to look for national and international markets.

In our country, a very important strategy is [providing] commercialization spaces throughout Nicaragua. There are municipal fairgrounds, national fairgrounds, where the idea is that fair trade can take place, that the producer sells directly to the consumer and both are winners.

We are strengthening capacities and we are also providing capital with solidarity credit and technological packages. These help the family take a step forward in this task that it has assumed as part of its co-responsibility in the model of shared responsibility of families. We have been promoting creativity and innovation. We are in the National Program of Creative Economy, which enhances the cultural industries and works to combine art and culture with the talent of our people. It is a wonderful thing how our people respond to that invitation from the Sandinista Front so that together we can move forward using a different model, where the center of development is the person.

So there is a lot of motivation from the family. We’ve recovered from the significant damage to our economy which was done in 2018, in a failed coup attempt sponsored by the enemies of humanity and who wanted to take power away from the people, from the Pueblo Presidente. But 2021 meant the rebound in the economy for Nicaraguan families. There was growth of more than 9%, giving us a starting point for 2022 where sooner rather than later we can say that we are going to declare Nicaragua poverty free.

What would you say was the state of things before the government introduced these approaches?

It is important to understand the strength and fortitude of the Nicaraguan people. For 16 years a campaign of fear was introduced here, to say the least, targeting families who voted for the Sandinista Front [during the Chamorro, Aleman and Bolaños governments]. And that came right after the [Contra] war, the military service, and the US economic blockade.

And so we spent 16 years suffering and impoverished as a nation. Then Comandante Daniel returned to power [in 2007] and began all the policies that we have described, and this gave positive results in the family, economic growth, better living conditions, elimination of hunger and malnutrition. This gave confidence to the people.

Then, during the 2016 elections, there was also a very strong campaign around the NICA Act. That’s when the sanctions began. However, the people endorsed the FSLN government because it had already generated the confidence that it is the only government which will guarantee those steps towards well-being, towards development. During the 2021 campaign, Nicaragua was also threatened with sanctions and the international media did their thing, smearing Nicaragua.

But the beautiful thing now is that the people, aware that this is all just a media campaign, decided to continue trusting the model of faith, of family, of community of the Sandinista Front. In this sense, the leadership of Comandante Daniel and of Comrade Rosario play a very important role. Also international relations have been strengthened. Re-establishing relations with China provides us with a new challenge, because it is no longer a matter of making raw materials or grains available for export, but to move towards more finished products, industrialized, and in larger volumes. So we are happy. We knew about the challenge, but we are working and preparing those conditions to produce more, to produce better quality, meeting standards, but also to industrialize.

We have been working as a production system on a national industry policy that will require some investments, but we are already on that path. We are preparing ourselves to continue producing our nation’s food, to continue supplying food to our dear brothers and sisters in Central America, but also to position some of our Nicaraguan products in China, and also in Russia. We have learned through our Minister of Finance about Russia’s interest in being able to exchange products. They are very interested in cigars. We have awards for the best cigars in the world, and we have quality coffee; we have an award for the best fine cocoa.

So Nicaragua has been working on that path of recognition, on that path of efficient performance and on that conscience, a collective conscience that makes us unique as Nicaraguans. The support of Comandante Daniel for the productive sectors, for the economic sectors of the country, is what has allowed us to have the results we have with the equal participation of men and women.

Can you tell us about how the democratization of the economy has promoted the inclusion of women?

We work on a gender policy that has to do not only with names of women in [high] positions or women as numbers, but women participating, women making revolution, women transforming their lives. A very important program is the solidarity credit, because assets are directed to women. The Comandante and the Sandinista Front know that to provide capital to a woman is to provide for that family.

In our program, 80% of the protagonists are women in the commercialization spaces, in the credit program, in the fields, in all the spaces where value is added there are women; Many women are participating; many young people.

That is why we say that there is a positive energy that has been unleashed and that we are taking advantage of this to promote all these processes of democracy in our country. Because as the President said in an interview, democracy is not about getting the vote, democracy is responding to the needs of the people. That’s what it is all about.

The Sandinista government is carrying out a historic program of restoration of rights to the family, but above all a program that gives them the capacity and the possibility to live better. Because our people have the right to live better; our people deserve to live better and that is the course we have decided upon. That is the course we have set and that is the direction we are moving.

So we are talking about an efficient public policy, where all the government actors work in an articulated and coordinated manner to provide this service to the families, to provide this timely support.

I was telling you that our Ministry was created in 2012 as part of the strategy to fight poverty and, together with it, the National System of Production, Consumption and Trade was created. So, in the system we are all the institutions that have to do with production and with the dynamization of the economy and also with technology, with health. …. There is also a very important contribution made by other complementary institutions such as energy, health and education.

If the family has solved the issue of their children’s education, their school lunch, their school supplies, if they have health programs, if they have a good road, where their production will go, if they have electricity to use for transforming products, the family has the possibility to think about how to improve their productive performance, how to make a business efficient and how to generate more income, which in the end is the objective: that the family have more income from each activity they carry out, which contributes to satisfying their needs.

So, well, we have a very big task, very big, but very important in these times, preparing ourselves for a better future for the Nicaraguan family.

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Briefs
By Nan McCurdy

Please see below for information on a delegation you could join in April!

China to Invest in Electricity and Telecommunications
The People’s Republic of China will invest up to US$564.1 million in generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Nicaragua, as reported by Minister of Energy and Mines Salvador Mansell on Feb. 8. China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC South) will invest US$357.4 million, of which US$251.3 million in the Mojolka hydroelectric project on the Tuma River, Department of Matagalpa, and US$106.1 million in the El Hato solar project in Terrabona, Department of Matagalpa. They will also invest US$101.6 million for new power transmission lines between the municipalities of Terrabona, Mulukukú and Boaco. Another US$40 million will be invested in the commercial management and electricity distribution systems and US$8 million for the construction and modernization of the National Load Dispatch Center. CCCC South will also invest US$49 million in the electric mobility project: promoting the introduction of electric vehicles in the country, accelerating the deployment of the charging infrastructure, and creating local capacities for the operation and maintenance of the new technology. In telecommunications, they will invest US$8 million in a Data Center to operate the telecommunications network and expand coverage with microwave systems in remote sites with limited coverage, such as San Juan de Nicaragua. The Energy and Mines Ministry is already working with ZTE and Huawei and with the Chinese government and the Russian Federation to promote social and commercial projects through loans and attracting investors. “The great advantage is that we already had these projects ready and the current infrastructure allows it, so this will give us great opportunities,” said Mansell. The government will continue to promote a series of electric infrastructure projects with the support of the People’s Republic of China, Korea, India and the Russian Federation. (Radio la Primerisima, 8 Feb. 2022)

Nicaragua Expanding Electricity Generation
Nicaragua is expanding its capacity for generating electricity with financial assistance from several international sources. The country has extensive experience in the use of solar energy and has also passed laws for its implementation. In 2006, in the Caribbean Coast Region, only eleven communities had electricity; today all municipalities in that region have electricity. The government is also promoting the Microgrids Study of the North Caribbean Coast which aims to contribute to clean energy micro-grids. These will be developed in localities without access to electricity to create early warning systems and contribute to economic development. They will improve the lives of vulnerable people by providing a reliable, clean and affordable system that will expand opportunities for education, employment, health, and community safety. The project is being funded with an investment of US$10 million from the Inter-American Development Bank. At a Latin American level Nicaragua has one of the most diverse energy matrixes in the region: at the beginning of the year 75% of generation was based on renewable sources (solar, hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass). In addition, the installation of a natural gas-based plant in Puerto Sandino by the North American company New Fortress Energy is progressing. A new solar plant installed on Corn Island in the southern Caribbean has a capacity of 2.2 MW of electricity. The US$251.3 million Mojolka hydroelectric project in the Department of Matagalpa, to be executed by China Communications Construction Company Limited, will build a 103 MW capacity plant and a solar energy project, El Hato, will be financed by the People’s Republic of China in Terrabona, Matagalpa. (Informe Pastran, 14 Feb. 2022)

Nutritional Census Shows Great Results
The Nicaragua Ministry of Health issued a report on the 2021 Nutritional Census carried out to study the nutritional status of children between the ages of 0 to 14 in rural and urban areas of the country. The report states that “the census surveyed 1,292,122 boys and girls in 2021, finding that between 2016 and 2021 acute malnutrition of children between the ages of 0 to 6 years was reduced 25% and chronic malnutrition fell 32%. Acute malnutrition between the ages of 6 and 14 fell 26.5% and chronic malnutrition was reduced by 8.6%.” MINSA Health Services Director General, Carlos Cruz explained that “with this data, programs like Zero Hunger, Family Gardens, School Lunches, Food Production Packages and the Family Support Plan will be strengthened, enhancing the efforts to eradicate malnutrition through adequate nutrition guidelines, vaccination and periodic weight and height monitoring of children.” (Nicaragua News, 14 Feb. 2022)

National Radiotherapy Center Remembers Nora Astorga
Health authorities from the National Radiotherapy Center paid tribute to the heroic guerrilla fighter Nora Astorga on February 14^th, the 34th anniversary of her death. In this center that bears her name, Astorga’s legacy is reflected: thanks to the investments made, up to 40,000 radiation treatment sessions a year are carried out, attending daily about 200 patients from different parts of the country. In 2020, the second linear accelerator to fight different types of cancer was inaugurated there with an investment of US$5 million. (Radio la Primerisima, 14 Feb. 2022)

Hospital Acquires High Resolution Cardiology Unit
The authorities of the Dr. Alejandro Dávila Bolaños Military School Hospital inaugurated the first High Resolution Cardiology Unit in Nicaragua which will help people who for years have been waiting for cardiac procedures of this magnitude. With this, the military hospital becomes a pioneer and unique in the management of cardiac pathologies treated with state-of-the-art technology. The deputy director of the hospital, Colonel Dr. Noel Vladimir Turcios, said that four years ago this hospital signed an agreement with the international organization World Heart Caregivers that develops programs and first class sustainable cardiac medicine. The unit is made up of a multidisciplinary team of specialists such as cardiovascular surgeons, electrophysiologists cardiologists, interventional cardiologists of congenital diseases, adult and pediatric cardiovascular anesthesiologists, specialists in cardiac imaging and diagnostic studies. “All the members of the cardiology unit are Nicaraguans who are updated on a daily basis to be at the forefront of medical knowledge and modern techniques to respond to the treatment of complex cardiac pathologies that previously could not be treated in the country,” said Turcios. (Radio La Primerisima, 15 Feb. 2022)

University Fees Cheaper under New Public Administration
According to agreements made by the National Council of Universities (CNU), the National Polytechnic University (UNP), reported that, under the new administration, the debt of all students who have outstanding payment commitments is forgiven, so that they can enroll without any problem. The University also announced that registration will be US$10 (in Córdobas) on all campuses and monthly tuition at the central campus will be US$30 and $25 at regional campuses. (Radio La Primerisima, 14 Feb. 2022)

Third Rubén Darío International Festival of the Arts a Success
On February 13 in Estelí, Rivas and Matagalpa, the III Rubén Darío International Festival of the Arts “Aquí nos Ilumina un Sol que no Declina” (Here We Are Illuminated by a Sun that Doesn’t Set) came to a close. It was a weekend marked by a cultural and artistic splurge in each of the venues; with the representation of around 700 national, local and international artists, as well as the participation of 100 protagonists in cultural and creative fairs. The festival was full of art and Rubén Darío with varied cultural agendas such as: painting and engraving exhibitions, fashion design and shows, traditional and modern dances, puppet theater, poetry recitals, musical concerts and film screenings. Of these three consecutive festivals, this 2022 festival has exceeded expectations, with more participation in all the activities. The government is committed to generating cultural spaces that promote art, dynamize the economy, and immortalize the poet Rubén Darío. (Nicaragua News, 14 Feb. 2022)

For Humanitarian Reasons Hugo Torres Trial Had Been Suspended
A court had ordered some time ago the definitive suspension of the oral proceedings and public trial against Jorge Hugo Torres Jiménez, who was accused of “performing acts that undermine the independence and sovereignty” of the country. Representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office had made the request on humanitarian grounds, due to the health of Torres. Torres died Feb. 12 in a hospital in Managua of cancer. In a press release, the Prosecutor’s Office said that from the moment Torres presented deterioration in his state of health he was transferred to a hospital in the capital to be adequately attended. There he was always accompanied by his children and his son-in-law. The Public Prosecutor’s Office said it will continue to contribute to maintaining security and respect for the norms of peaceful coexistence, as well as tranquility, tolerance and respect for the law. See Public Ministry Report: HERE (Radio La Primerisima, 12 Feb. 2022)

Organizations outside the Law Lose Legal Status
On Feb. 14 the National Assembly approved a decree that cancels the legal status of six non-governmental organizations which were operating outside the laws. The organizations are: María Elena Cuadra Women’s Movement, PEN International-Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH), the Center for the Promotion of Youth and Children, the Blanca Araúz Foundation for the Promotion of Women and Children and the Ibero-American Foundation of Cultures (Fibras). In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior said that these organizations failed to comply with their obligations under the laws that regulate non-profit organizations: they did not release their financial reports according to the fiscal periods and with detailed breakdowns; their boards of directors are not active; and they have not reported previous donations from abroad, which has hindered the control by the Department for the Regulation of Non-Profit Organizations. The Department of Non-Profit Civil Associations of the MIGOB will proceed to cancel the respective registration of each of the six associations. The legal representative of each will be informed so that they deliver the legal books, the seal and other documents. Regarding their assets, if their disposition has not been previously established in the event of a possible liquidation, they will become property of the State in accordance with the law on the matter. (Radio La Primerisima, 15 Feb. 2022)

Five US Agents Found Guilty on Feb. 9 and 10
Nicaraguan courts found four opposition leaders guilty on Feb. 9 for the crime of conspiracy to undermine national integrity, bringing to14 the number of US agents found guilty. Medardo Mairena was found guilty of conspiracy or “treason.” Pedro Mena, José Antonio Peraza and Alexis Peralta were also found guilty. [In February 2019, a Criminal Court judge sentenced Medardo Mairena to 216 years for the murder of four police officers and a school teacher and the kidnapping of 9 police officers on July 12, 2018, in the municipality of Morrito, Rio San Juan, and other crimes committed during the coup attempt. He was also found guilty of ten kidnappings, organized crime, and aggravated robbery. Mairena’s actual sentence was to have been 30 years because that is the maximum allowed by Nicaraguan law. Also sentenced to 210 years was Pedro Mena. Co-defendant Orlando Icabalseta was sentenced to 159 years. All benefitted from the 2019 Amnesty Law.] Alexis Peralta was found guilty of violating the cybercrime law. José Antonio Peraza was a member of the political council of the National Blue and White Unity, and former director of the Movement For Nicaragua; he was found guilty of conspiracy.  A fifth agent, Miguel Mendoza, was found guilty on Feb. 9 for leading mobs of criminals in the destruction of Managua’s public infrastructure in 2018. In one of those events a Guatemalan journalist was crushed to death when the crowd pushed over a large metal tree. More recently from his social networks he disseminated fake news and made calls for violence and military intervention against his own country. (Marcio Vargas on Channel 4’s Izquierda Visión 9 Feb. 2022; various small media outlets on Facebook, 10 Feb: NicaNotes 2019)