Central American & Caribbean

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• NICARAGUA: Ortega cracks down further on dissent

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  Local civil-society groups warned last week that the Nicaraguan administration led by President Daniel Ortega was establishing a state of siege. The concerns are in response to a recent police (PNN) press release warning that anyone who holds or takes part in “illegal” acts that “alter the public order” will be “held responsible”. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concern that this signals yet another blow to democracy. It comes as a US legislative initiative, which would restrict lending from international finance institutions (among other things) if these democracy concerns are not addressed, is moving through the US Senate.

  The OHCHR and IACHR were quick to respond to the press release issued by the PNN, which human rights organisations have largely held responsible for the violence (along with pro-government paramilitaries) which has claimed 521 lives on the latest (24 September) figures from local human rights group ANPDH. In a tweet, the OHCHR warned that it “violates basic norms of criminal responsibility and standards regarding the right to peaceful” protest, while the IACHR said the move was “counter to inter-American standards and prevents the exercise of rights inherent in a democratic society”.

  It follows other acts similarly slammed as undemocratic, such as the approval of a law against money-laundering and terrorism in July by the legislature, which is controlled by the ruling Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN). At the time, OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville warned that the new law has “a very broad definition of terrorism…which…could be used against people taking part in protests”. The latest figures from the interior ministry, released on 19 September, put the number of people imprisoned for acts of “vandalism and terrorism” in relation to the protests at 201 (although human rights organisations believe it to be higher).

  The PNN’s latest warning would suggest that moves by the international community to pressure the Ortega government into offering democracy-related concessions to the opposition (not least its demand for general elections to be brought forward to 2019 from 2021) continue to fall on deaf ears. Yet these efforts continue. So far they have included sanctions by the US government targeting three allies of Ortega: PNN chief Francisco Díaz; Fidel Moreno, the secretary of the mayor’s office of Managua; and Francisco López, the vice president of Albanisa, the bi-national oil company owned by Venezuela’s state-run oil firm Pdvsa and Nicaragua’s Petronic.

  On 28 September the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved an amended version of the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act of 2017 (Nica Act) which is now merged with the Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption Act. Authored by US Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the latest version of the Nica Act imposes targeted sanctions on “Nicaraguan government officials responsible for human rights violations”, and calls for “a negotiated solution to the country’s ongoing crisis”. The amended version of the bill also includes restrictions on lending to the Ortega government by international financial institutions, as proposed in the original Nica Act.

  • Amended Nica Act

  According to a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee press release, key elements of the amended Nica Act include: “Targeted sanctions on Nicaraguan government officials responsible for human rights violations, corruption, or undermining democratic processes; restrictions on lending by international financial institutions to the Ortega government, with an exception that ensures continued funding for projects that advance democracy and the basic needs of the Nicaraguan people; an annual waiver that would lift the requirement to impose sanctions if [the US] State Department certifies that the Ortega government is taking steps to hold democratic elections, improve human rights conditions, combat corruption, and strengthen the rule of law; increased intelligence reporting on Nicaraguan officials’ role in corruption and human rights violations, and the transfer of arms to Nicaraguan security forces”.

  • Poverty

  On 28 September a respected Nicaraguan think-tank, Fideg, released a report which showed a slight increase in extreme poverty and slight decrease in general poverty in Nicaragua. The report found a decline in general poverty between 2016 and 2017, to 41.2% of the population down from 42.0% (and from 44.7% in 2009). However, the rate of extreme poverty went up to 8.4% of the population in 2017, up from 7.7% in 2016 (and down from 9.7% in 2009).

• TRACKING TRENDS

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  COSTA RICA | Fiscal reform. The legislative assembly is making progress with a fiscal reform bill against the backdrop of strike action and protests. Deputies are seeking to debate 368 motions related to the fiscal reform over the course of this week ahead of a debate and first vote on the bill next week. If the bill is approved, it will be sent to the constitutional court to pass judgement before returning to the legislature for a second and final vote.

  A strike by trade unions has entered its fourth week with nationwide demonstrations and a march to the legislative assembly building in San José. On 30 September trade union members rejected a preliminary accord their representatives had struck with the government with the mediation of the Catholic Church. The accord would have established a multi-sectoral dialogue table to analyse the fiscal proposals of the unions but without delaying the legislative passage of the reform bill.

  The leader of Costa Rica’s Asociación Nacional de Empleados Público y Privados, Rafael Mora, said the trade union movement was in a position of strength and would continue to “defend the people” against the “unjust” reform which he said would be most keenly felt by the country’s poorest citizens (a claim the government contests, arguing that 80% of the additional tax revenue will be provided by the wealthiest 30% of the population). The unions suffered a setback on 1 October, however, when a labour court for the social security institute Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), which is in charge of most of the country’s public health sector, declared the strike to be illegal. CCSS figures showed that nearly 100,000 appointments have been cancelled since the strike began on 10 September and some 3,000 surgical procedures postponed.

  PANAMA | “Historic” ruling on mining concession. Panama’s supreme court (CSJ) has ruled in favour of an appeal presented nearly a decade ago by a local environmental NGO, Centro de Incidencia Ambiental (Ciam), against a contract signed in February 1997 by the state with mining company Minera Petaquilla, (at the time owned by Canada’s Petaquilla Minerals) for the extraction of gold and copper in Donoso district, Colón province.

  Ciam – which hailed the court’s decision as “historic” – had argued that the contract violated various articles of Panama’s constitution related to human rights and the environment. After the contract was signed in 1997, a new concession development plan was laid out in 2005, dividing its implementation into gold and copper phases.

  As the Canadian government notes, the first phase involved the development and operation of a commercial gold mine (El Molejón) which started producing in 2009/2010 although this was abruptly shut down in 2014. The second phase – the development and operation of a large-scale open pit copper mine (Cobre Panama), now owned by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals – is now under construction and is expected to be in production before the end of the year.

  In response to the CSJ’s ruling, First Quantum released a statement saying that the company understands that it “only affects the enactment of Law 9, and does not affect the mining concession contract itself, which remains in effect, and therefore allows continuity of development of the Cobre Panama project”. It adds that “Minera Panama is in the process of formally obtaining and examining the ruling and its applicability and is working with the appropriate parties to identify suitable legal remedies. Such remedies would need to be analyzed by the Supreme Court”.

  Labour minister Luis Ernesto Carles has similarly provided reassurances to the mining sector, echoing First Quantum’s insistence the CSJ had only declared the contract Law 9 unconstitutional and did not rule on the concession contract itself. He said that, as a result, jobs would be protected. The project employs over 12,600 people of which approximately 1,500 are from the nearby villages and towns.
  
  SURINAME | Oil exploration. The managing director of Suriname’s state oil company Staatsolie, Rudolf Elias, signed a production sharing contract with the multinational oil exploration and production company Tullow Oil on 2 October for offshore Block 62. The assigned block covers 4,061km² with a depth of 1,600m-2,400m. Tullow Oil already operates two other blocks, 47 and 54, and has interests in Guyana and French Guiana.