Pro-government protests which began Tuesday in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua continue to escalate as supporters of the ruling Sandinista party try to prevent opposition lawmakers from overturning a presidential decree extending the terms of office of two Supreme Court justices. The AP begins this story with a report late Tuesday, writing that FSLN activists had blocked the entrance to the country’s parliament to keep opposition legislators from entering. When those same lawmakers headed to a Holiday Inn some 2 miles away to hold an impromptu legislative session, the crowd followed them there with rocks, fireworks, and, according to EFE, homemade mortars. Three legislators were reportedly injured when they were struck with rocks near the hotel.
Among the protestors were the two Sandinista-affiliated Supreme Court Judges whose terms of office are in question: Rafael Solis and Armengol Cuadra. The terms of both expired on April 11, but both took part in a decision last week which upheld the legality of an Ortega decree that had extended their mandates.
On Wednesday, Sandinista supporters continued their blockade of the parliament. EFE says “sympathizers of the president, among them employees of the judiciary with their faces covered in ski-masked,” surrounded the National Assembly with buses to prevent access to the building while many sang and waved FSLN flags.
Speaking out against the protests, some opposition legislators are increasing their criticisms of the president for doing little to discourage its supporters [the opposition also has criticized the national police, say Nicaragua’s Confidencial and El Nuevo Diario, for not doing more to stop acts of violence/vandalism]. According to dissident Sandinista deputy, Victor Hugo Trinoco (vice chancellor under the first Sandinista government, 1979-1990), Ortega has prevented the functioning of parliament in order to “bring the country into chaos and destroy its institutions,” so that his “somocista ambition” of being reelected in 2011 is fulfilled. Vilma Nunez of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights echoes those concerns in an AFP report, saying in Nicaragua, “‘el Fujimorazo’ is being established,” (a reference to Peru’s Alberto Fujimori and the auto golpe he led in 1992).
To the contrary, pro-government legislators argue that the opposition has not fulfilled its duties by refusing to implement critical pieces of economic and social legislation and by not accepting the rulings of the Supreme Court.
Finally this morning, Al-Jazeera has reporting (and a video report) from Managua where its correspondent, Ricardo Castillo, says yesterday “more and more protesters surrounded opposition headquarters. The situation gradually became violent and the atmosphere remains tense.” The headquarters of the country’s main opposition parties, as well as the homes of some prominent Ortega opponents, were also “sieged.” However, opposition leaders insist they will attempt to return to parliament today, “despite the blockade,” setting the stage for what Al-Jazeera calls a “possible showdown.”
Congress has been unable to name replacements for the two FSLN justices because neither the Sandinistas nor the Liberals have a majority in the legislature. However, this week’s protests seem to be, in part, fueled by the Liberals recent claim that “with the help of legislative allies” it now has the 47 votes needed to overturn Ortega's decree extending the terms of the two justices.
To other stories:
· From one Holiday Inn in Managua to another Holiday Inn in Monterrey, Mexico – the site of a kidnapping raid yesterday. According to the New York Times, at least six persons (four guests and two or three staff) were abducted by hooded, armed men in the middle of the night. Speculating on the motive, Alejandro Garza, the top prosecutor in the state of Nuevo Leon, says “it could be an organized crime group who was looking for an opposing group.” Experts say some evidence also suggests the kidnappers are affiliated with the Zetas. The LA Times adds that approx. 50 gunmen were involved in the raid and that “police had trouble reaching the scene because the attackers commandeered cars and used them to block surrounding streets.”
· Another piece on Mexico and drug violence – this time from BBC Mundo – reports today on the lucrative business of security in the country. The report comes as private security companies gather this week for the “Mexican Security Expo,” self-proclaimed as the largest such expo anywhere in Latin America. In the last year alone, the BBC writes, the security industry grew by some 40% compared to 2008. Such private businesses have become so profitable that they now make up 1% of the country’s total GDP (2nd only to Brazil in Latin America).
· In Honduras, another journalist was killed late Tuesday while leaving a TV station in San Pedro Sula. The victim, Georgino Orellana, is the sixth reporter killed in the country this year, according to the AP. No arrests have been made in any of the killings.
· Meanwhile, on crime and democracy around Central America, AQ’s blog has a piece by contributor Julio Rank Wright who says Guatemalan and Salvadoran officials now report that 15,000 gang members are active in each country. Most of these individuals are between the ages of 13 and 26. While the figure is relatively small given the huge youth populations in both countries, AQ writes that “these countries represent ample breeding ground for mara recruitment.” “The main challenge,” Rank Wright argues, “is ensuring effective crime control programs without compromising the already fragile individual, economic and political liberties that have been built in the past two decades.”
· In Bolivia, Evo Morales spoke to activists at the climate change summit which wraps up today outside Cochabamba. “It is now more important to defend the rights of Mother Earth than to defend human rights because in defending the rights of our planet we are also defending our human rights,” proclaimed Evo Wednesday. On Thursday, a handful of Evo’s closest Latin American allies arrive in Cochabamba for the summit’s conclusion. Among them: Hugo Chavez, Rafael Correa, and the embattled Daniel Ortega.
· Fernando Lugo was also expected to be present in Bolivia but cancelled yesterday after an attack, being attributed to increasingly active left wing guerrilla groups, took the lives of four in northern Paraguay. The Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP) has been operated in the country for a decade, but as a recent backgrounder at the blog Latin American Thought says, the group has risen from its former obscurity over the last few years. Another recent BBC piece reports on the little which Lugo has been able to accomplish since taking office in 2008.
· The famous Argentine human rights organization, the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, have reportedly been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
· An EFE report today says Brazilian President Lula da Silva has warmed to the idea of allowing re-election in Brazil. This after an interview with Correio Braziliense published this week. The change of opinion, however, will have no impact on the current race to replace the president.
· Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond provides an astonishing statistic after compiling some numbers on the Colombian Defense Ministry’s website: 20,915 people (military, guerrillas, paramilitaries, and “criminal gang members”) have been killed in “combat” between 2002 and the end of March 2010. Those numbers do not include civilians which some estimate at over 14,000 between 2002 and 2008.
· Caracas residents now have the option of buying “socialist arepas.” The subsidized snacks go for about a third the normal cost, says Reuters!
· Finally, two opinions. Mark Weisbrot has a recent piece in France’s Le Monde diplomatique (French readers click here, English readers here) on the Venezuelan economy. By most accounts, the Venezuelan economy is in a pretty dismal state. And yet it never quite seems to implode. Weisbrot offers some explanations for this and says that as oil prices go back on the rise, the Chavez government may have another chance to use oil profits to restore economic growth and lay groundwork for a yet unfulfilled “economic development strategy.” Also, in the LA Times, an editorial takes us back to Mexico. There the paper looks at Cuernavaca as the “new front” in Mexico’s drug war. Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City’s mayor, meanwhile, writes on the environment at the Huffington Post – highlighting his city’s 15 year Green Plan designed to reduce carbon emissions by 7 million metric tonnes between 2008 and 2012. The plan seems to be working. “In 1990, there were a total of 333 days in which the ozone level rose above the Mexican national standard,” says Ebrard. “In 2009, the number of days above the standard fell to 180.”
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