Azahálea Solís Román, from the Nicaragua Autonomous Movement of Women (MAM for its initials in Spanish) wrote in Barricada.com.ni [es]

Ayer por la tarde en Nicaragua, la Corte Suprema de Justicia, por medio de 6 personas que fueron nombradas como magistrados de ese poder del estado, pero que en realidad son militantes de un partido político, declararon la inaplicabilidad de un norma constitucional porque se opone a otra norma constitucional, es decir declararon inconstitucional la Constitución.

The Supreme Court decision produced a minor event a few days later, when a Supreme Court judge, Francisco Rosales (FSLN militant) was being interviewed by a local news tv channel [es], when he was met by a group of young people who attacked him with eggs. In addition, the United States Ambassador in Nicaragua, Robert Callahan, gave a speech where he declared the Supreme Court decision on reelection as inappropriate, undiscussed, and biased towards one party [es]. As a result, protests organized by students took place in front of the US Embassy in Managua.

There was also unrest about the actual budget the universities would receive. By law, they must receive 6% of the National Budget, a budget that is itself is being reduced. However, at the same time, there a proposal to create a new governmental office called the National Council of Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEA for its initials in Spanish). This office will take over functions from the National Center of Universities, which approves all universities in the country and distributes the 6% budget to the public universities, including giving part of this budget percentage to private universities.

Gabriela Montiel wrote on this Facebook page, later reposted on Barricada.com.ni [es], a review of the first day of protest for the 6% budget (October 21st).

El 6% constitucional se ha ido reduciendo a tal punto que son aproximadamente 200 millones los que se han ido recortando y se seguiran recortando. Los perjudicados, LOS ESTUDIANTES, sobre todo los de afuera de managua. Es importante retomar la lucha del 6% hay muchos que creen que por tener un gobierno frentista este 6% esta asegurado pero se han olvidado de los princpios de lucha y se han acomodado al plan del gobierno y no a las necesidades de los estudiantes, que son o deberian ser la prioridad de UNEN.

Two accounts have come up from the first protest of October 29th. Gabriela Montiel wrote on El Boletincito Nica [es]:

Foto: Gabriela Montiel, CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0

Y empezaron a tirar botellas y bolsas de agua hacia la tarima, son tan inteligentes los Universitarios que demandaban que canal 2 y la UCA (Universidad Centroamericana) se fueran, que uno de los botellazos le dio directamente a Edwing Castro (diputado) mientras este declaraba en la tarima el apoyo del gobierno pàra vetar la ley acreedora del CNEA, se logró ver que en la boca de Castro habia sangre…aunque la mayoría de botellas iban directo al periodista y camarógrafo de Canal 2, también se escuchaban abucheos hacia Edwin CASTRO ya que el fue uno de los que votó a favor del CNEA y luego llega aca a estar en contra de CNEA…Incoherencia!!!! Dulce y comoda incoherencia!!!!

Foto: Gabriela Montiel, CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0

The student in the photo carried a sign reading “Assembly: CNU, UNEN and CNEA doesn't represent me, We are students, not ignorant! We demand respect to autonomy and a transparent use of the 6% budget”. Delni Ayala, President of Humanities Faculty of UNAN accused her of damaging the CNU and asked the crowd to repudiate her, which the crowd did with water balloons and other objects.

This shows that the Student Movement is divided because the official association, UNEN, is pro-government, but not all of the students see it that way. That was one of the reasons that Sandinista deputies were booed by the crowd when UNEN and CNU leaders invited them up the stage, while its known they voted for the CNEA law that takes over functions over CNU and 6% budget.

Gaby Castro, UCA Student, wrote on her Facebook [es]:

Pero el grado de hostilidad tuvo su máxima expresión una hora después de concluida la congregación por el 6%. Frente al busto de Casimiro Sotelo, joven sindicalista que murió asesinado por la Guardia Nacional y símbolo de la resistencia en nuestra universidad, nos salimos a gritar más “en lo íntimo” por nuestras becas, en conjunto con algunos de nuestros vecinos, los estudiantes de la UNI y otros de la UNAN. Un grupo de jóvenes encapuchados – unos dicen que eran CPC (Consejos de Poder Ciudadano), otros de la Juventud Sandinista 19 de julio y hasta estudiantes de la UNAN – se bajaron de una camioneta doble cabina y nos agarrabron a morterazos ¡A quemarropa! A los que estábamos en la calle y a las instalaciones de nuestra universidad… Resultado: nueve heridos, todos de la Facultad de Humanidades y Comunicación y daños al edificio en construcción de la UCA. Todo esto a causa de rehusarnos a seguir la protesta organizada por el FNT (Frente Nacional de los Trabajadores, organización satelito del FSLN) en la Embajada Americana, en respuesta a las declaraciones del embajador Callahan emitidas un dia antes, que fueron catalogadas como “injerencistas”.

The USA Embassy was vandalized with wall paintings and minor destruction [es], and the police had to fire tear-gas at the end of the afternoon to disperse the crowd in front of the building [es]. This second protest was caused by the declarations of the USA Embassador, but only Sandinista aligned groups supported this protest.

Later, it was revealed by Twitter user Ojoz [es] that a crew from TV10 news was attacked near UNAM, but there was no aparent reason for this attack.

Majailah Francis, 18, daughter of Bridgete Ivonne Budier Bryan of the FSLN party and an alternate deputy in the Central American Parliament, was denied entry to the club El Chamán. She is an Afro-Nicaraguan whose family hails from the Caribbean coast where the majority of the country's black population resides comprising 9% of the country's ethnicity according to the 2005 Census (.pdf format). Her mother led the charge alleging the club had discriminated against her daughter based on race calling for the closing of the establishment.

After the accusations were made, the debate became public in the media, online forums, and also in blogs. Dozens of opinion articles discussed the topic, while the newspaper El Nuevo Diario criticized the nightclub and denounced inherent racism in Nicaraguan society. The human rights ombudsman called for the closing of the locale [es] and some intellectuals provided their own opinion, even comparing the case [es] to what happened with Rosa Parks.

Wilder Pérez of iEntonces [es] writes that “El Chamán does nothing more than reflect one of the many problems in Nicaragua, we are not racist, we are classist,” and lists various reasons why this scandal has more to do with the inherent classism in the society, instead of racism.

In local interviews conducted in various clubs around the city, La Brujula [es] found that much of the discrimination against club-goers had more to do with the person's dress or personal style. The author Roberto Salinas García found that there was a diversity of people who were enjoying themselves at the club, but did overhear discriminatory comments from some of the club's patrons.

“Creo que es una política de la discoteca. Si yo tuviese una no dejaría entrar ni a bolos ni a majes pintas” afirma Norman Espinoza…

“¿Y qué es para vos un pinta?” le pregunto. “Pues un pinta, un chambrín… un maje todo cholo” explica. Norman no es blanco, pero tampoco muy moreno. Se peina hacia atrás con los dedos el pelo negro. Su camisa es blanca con rayas café…

“A los que yo no dejaría entrar es a los indios” afirma Jackeline Orozco…, “No me refiero a los indios como raza. Un indio para mí es la persona intolerante, que no aceptan las diferencias culturales.”

María del Carmen Pérez Cuadra of Animal Inedito [es] has no doubt that there is racism in Nicaraguan society:

Con justa razón están protestando los ciudadanos afrodescendientes porque se sienten afectados y está muy bien que protesten, pero creo que se debe aprovechar este hecho como un momento que propicie la reflexión en torno a la discriminación. La sociedad nicaragüense es racista y discriminatoria. Hay colegios para gente “blanca”, colegios para gente india y pobre y hay colegios que no contratan si parecés pobre, sos gordo o gorda, o si profesás una religión que no sea la del centro de estudios. Yo, personalmente he llenado cuestionarios en los que preguntan si estás casada (o) civil y por la iglesia, si sos o no católica, quién es tu párroco, y que cuánto pesás y cuánto medís de estatura.

Other blogs opted for a more balanced position [es] like Alex Zedch:

…en ningún momento me imagino a los coordinadores del local indicándoles a los bouncer la lista de características de las personas idóneas a batear, es simplemente ilógico. Ponte a pensar, a ella no debe ser la primer mujer del Caribe que batean (niegan la entrada) a su vez que yo mismo sé de muchas mujeres que son de nuestra costa y que entran en cualquier disco sin ningún problema. Esto me parece mucho más a un treta política, extorsión o venganza de parte de la diputada por sentirse bateada, y es normal enojarse, yo alguna vez también estuve en su situación y aunque se siente de lo peor tienes que pensar que fue eso que te faltó para poder pagar por los servicios del local…

… la mayoría de las personas que vamos a las discos al menos una vez hemos sido bateados, y si usted no acostumbra a salir mucho le va a pasar constantemente, por que las discos tratan mucho mejor a los clientes frecuentes. El código de vestimenta existe y es para todos, al igual que usted no iría en calzón a la Asamblea yo no iría desnudo al Chamán y si piensa que usted fue expulsada del lugar por ser de su tierra piense que también está en el pacífico y como me quedaría viendo la gente del la Costa Caribe si les bailo Palo de Mayo a medio día con camisa manga larga y pantalón de vestir, es lo mismo. Y si piensa que la falla de una persona es tan imperdonable como para querer que cierren el local entonces eso de muestra su poca cultura y actualización de lo que sucede en el país, además de su poca madurez y carácter ante la vida.

Other comments were severe in regards to the congresswoman's actions and her exagerrated, incorrect, unfocused judgement. Twitter user @isonauta writes [es], “(there is) a racist crisis in the middle-class discos after five centuries of structured racism disguised under an ideology of mixed races.”

Penalba.info [es] comments:

La diputada dijo tener conocimiento previo de otros casos así, pero solo hasta ahora procedio a una denuncia porque la afectada era su hija; aunque se presenta como defensora de la identidad y raza del caribe…

Existen suficientes personas que estoy seguro estarían a describir historias personales con respecto como no los dejaron entrar a ciertos bares o discos… Muchas otras pueden dar fe de haber sufrido racismo, yo mismo he visto esos casos, pero hay que tener inteligencia para poder apreciar cuando es racismo, cuando es machismo, o cuando simplemente es que le el portero no te quiere dejar entrar y/o te odia o desprecia personalmente por quien eres o porque no les parece y no por tu raza o género. Ser Negro o ser Mujer no te da el menor derecho de ser tratado distinto, sino igual que todos. Que alguien o alguna situación te sea contraria no la hace necesariamente racista.

The owners of the El Chamán club published a communiqué stressing their business' commitment to an inclusive and non-racist environment [es]. Days later they published on their website a photo of the congresswoman's daughter in the club, who had been a regular client.

The blogger LEOGG has been working with public institutions to take full advantage of these technologies in order to make them more efficient. In his post “Nicaragua Libre” (Free Nicaragua), LEOGG explains how they helped Jalapa, a rural town near the border of Honduras in the north of the country how to develop and use Linux-based software.

There are two interesting projects that involves Ubuntu there. The first one being the digitalization of thousands of public records using Ubuntu Hardy and XSane. There are 15 computers devoted exclusively to this task.

The other project involves 12 cashier booths with Ubuntu and a custom-made software for receiving and making payments.

In addition, as a first phase of the Migration Project, about 50 desktop computers are being migrated to Ubuntu right now in different departments.

The coolest thing about all this, is that the government office asked us for help, and as a consequence, three of our team members are now full-time employees, giving Ubuntu support to their users.

Photos by LEOGG and used under a Creative Commons license. For more pictures please visit his blog.

The “comuNIdad” (that's how they call themselves) does not focus on rural or government groups only. LEOGG explains in the next post that they are “going mainstream“

Canal 2, Nicaragua’s biggest television network, is going to broadcast a weekly technology show every Tuesday, starting July 15.

The producers of this new show are… yes, you guessed it! …our local LUG (Linux User Group)

The LUG for Nicaragua coordinates linux users from many distributions and disciplines, including developers for Ubuntu, SUSE, Mandriva, and other flavors. Their common website is Linux.org.ni.

You can find more news and insights into the work of this groups in their Press Archive.

Meeting Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, President-elect of the 63rd session of the General Assembly

Thanks to Twitter now we know when Ban Ki-Moon meet the Nicaraguan ambassador, Miguel d'Escoto, who is a US born priest who was into the Liberation Theology movement in Latin America and secretly became a Sandinista Ally during the 70's. He was named foreign minister for Nicaragua during the 80's. He was recently elected to be President of the General Assembly of the United Nations for 1 year, starting this September. He said shortly after being elected, according to Wikipedia:

“I hope my presidency will address what has become a universal clamor all over the world for the democratization of the United Nations. I promise to give full support to the working group on the revitalization of the General Assembly.”

It is funny to see how Nicaraguans found out about this meeting… via twitter! The Nicaraguan Twitter community, Twittnic [es] commented on this interesting piece of information and wondered what other similar political figures might use this popular tool:

Ya ven pues, Naciones Unidas usa Twitter. Como sería el twitter de nuestro presidente? o de nuestros diputados???

@danielortega: Going to see Mr. Chavez

@arnoldoaleman: TWITTER POLL a donde voy a cenar hoy?

@eduardomontealegre: si me hechan preso hechan presa a Nicaragua

@ElCheleGrisby: @eduardomontealegre VOS SI QUE SOS UN SINVERGUENZA!

At this moment, Slim owns ENITEL, with the brands CLARO (Mobile phone), Turbonett (Wireless internet access), AMNET (broadband and data transfer), ENITEL (the former state-controlled company that owns all conventional telephone lines in the country), and ESTESA.

However, the bigger they are the bigger they fall. For the last 10 days, there have been reports about problems accessing blogs hosted on Blogger.com while connecting via Turbonett. Some say it is a technical problem, like blogger Raúl Isaac Suárez of El Econoscopio [es], who believe that it is due to a problem with an international ISP from the connection in Guatemala. Others have been trying to connect from different places, or as Y ahora ¿de qué vamos a hablar? [es] has been doing by trying shortcuts via proxy.

In a virtual telecom monopoly, not having the option to choose from different providers can be a really big problem when the only competitor in the market fails to provide. Some users have been promoting more “direct” ways to tell Slim's companies what they want.

Ramon's blog explains that bigger companies also mean that actual problems might just get harder to resolve.

… Cuando esta empresa comienza a brindar el servicio de Internet, en uno que otro lugar del país, hacen un mercadeo masivo que depués no saben que hacer con la demanda por que no dan a vasto, no actualizan las “centralitas” a tiempo, por supuesto que las personas optan por el servicio DSL por ser menos costoso que el inalámbrico, cuando pasa esto las personas quedan con su contrato en la mano y en espera a que algún día llegue el servicio, ahh y otra de las excusas es que nunca tienen modems además que tenes que esperar como tres meses si es que todo esta bien si no …….

… When this company begins to provides its internet services in the country, they will create such a demand that they will not be able to cope. They already have problems with inventory at local offices. Of course people will try the DSL service since its cheaper, but they leave people remain with contrat in hand, waiting for their connection, and they never have enough modems, sometimes making you wait up to three months just for it.

UPDATE

Just today the “Blogspot Bug” was corrected. Y ahora de que vamos a hablar [ES] recounts the damagges.

Within this context, all sort of political movements have been caught up in the confusion. Liberal candidates march together with members of the former Sandinista Front Party, while the goverment works on a pact with the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Liberal Party.

Just this last Saturday, after a rally in central Managua, two groups formed to go “visit” political personalities. One group visited the Assembly's president Rene Nuñez, and the second group found former president Arnoldo Alemán dining at a local restaurant. Alemán had been convicted for corruption charges that took place during his presidency.

The group stood outside the restaurant singing and shouting against this tried and convictedpolitical figure. The funny side of this is that Alemán had been proven guilty of corruption, but has permission to visit anyone he wants inside Nicaragua.

Jorge Mejía Peralta [es] was present and documented the event on his blog [es]:

Unos cuantos entraron, y ya adentro comenzaron a gritarle a Alemán corrupto, que no es ninguna ofensa porque está mas que demostrado que ha sido ladrón. Con condena judicial firme.

Hubo forcejeos y los escoltas del ladron y corrupto hicieron que expulsara del restaurante a los jóvenes. posteriormente pasaron alrededor de una hora, con megáfonos, banderas de Nicaragua y letreros de precaución por corrupto cerca, increpando a Alemán y a toda su familia.

Más de 20 efectivos de la Policía Nacional de Seguridad Personal, mas escoltas, cuidaban al reo Alemán. Cuando iba a salir del restaurante, los policias, si, los policias que pagamos con nuestros impuestos empujaron y golpearon a algunas de las muchachas que estaban ahi, incluso desplazando las camionetas de lujo sin precaución, poniendo en peligro la vida de dos jovenes y de uno que otro policía.

(…)

Hoy sale vociferando el señor Leonel Teller diciendo que una turba trató de asesinar (Con que señor teller? con la bandera de Nicaragua???) al ex presidente y a toda su familia.

In addition, Mejia's Flickr page has pictures of the restaurant “visit.”

Arnoldo Alemán running away from the restaurant. Photo by Jorge Mejia and used under a Creative Commons license.

These groups also organize online and they recently visited the home of National Assembly president Rene Nuñez.

Protestor with sign outside of Nuñez' home reading “Danger! Corrupt Man 20 Meters Away.” Photo by Jorge Mejia and used under a Creative Commons license.

Protestor with sign outside of Nuñez' home reading “Contaminated Area.” Photo by Jorge Mejia and used under a Creative Commons license.

Another online Facebook group was created to support the hunger strike of Dora Maria Tellez, and is now working on a apolitical AntiPact independent movement. Recently The Miami Herald published a report on this group. The group has 1500 members as of now, even though not all of them attend the protests.

New logo voted on and selected by community members.

Some new and interesting twitter accounts have also been created, for example @ajulloa took the iniative to combine the RSS feeds of local newspapers and web forums in order to turn them into Twitter Feeds: @elnuevodiario, @laprensa, and @bacanalnica; but only El Nuevo Diario was able to work because the RSS feeds of La Prensa and Bacanalnica were not compatible to twitter, and nobody knows the reason.

New (or emerging) blogs

Notas de una nica [es] (Notes from a Nica) is a blog by Yaozka Tijerino Canton. In it Yaozka writes about real life in Managua, politics, phony cinema directors, music, and using local currency.

Ha notado que cada vez que usted va a un restaurante, a una tienda e incluso a una farmacia los precios están en dolares?. Que curioso que si nos pagan bajo la moneda nacional; es decir, en Córdobas, todo lo paguemos en dolares.

¿Y ahora de que vamos a hablar? [es] (¿And what are we going to talk about?) is a blog by Naren Mayorga. It covers political matters, music from the 1980s, “freaky” subcultures, e-commerce and phising in local banks, Paul McCartney's old songs, and firsthand reporting about the latest transport strike

Andando por las calles de managua no he visto nada fuera de lo comun, ni grandes filas de carros por algun tranque ni grandes grupos de gente esperando rutas que nunca pasan. Quizá es solo mi percepcion, pero creo que las protestas están a nivel externo de la capital. Ya ando la cámara en el carro por cualquier cosa que vea.. vamos a ver como se desenvuelve esto.

But Naren Mayorga from ¿Y ahora de que vamos a hablar? [es] summarizes the scope of the program:

Lo poco que se sabe del mismo es que se ofrecen crédito por el rango de C$1,000 a C$5,000 a comerciantes mujeres urbanos bajo la metodología de Grupos solidarios y con tasas de interés subsidiadas que ronda el 4% anual con un périodo de gracia de varia de 2 a 6 meses según el monto prestado y que en su administración participan distintas organizaciones e instituciones del estado.

The little that is known is that loans of C$1,000-C$5,000 Cordobas are given to urban women vendors under the methodology of solidarity groups and with low, subsidized interests rate of about 4% annual with a grace period between 2-6 months according to the amount lent. Different organizations and state institutions are involved in the administration.

This help does not cover the financial needs of the beneficiaries. One beneficiary told Esta Semana she uses around C$10,000-C$15,000 Cordobas in loans, so the goverment help does just cover a part of the a third part of the money.

In addition, the blog signals and points not just the errors made by the TV journalistic crew, but by the goverment and directors of the program.

…En una entrevista que le hicieron a la encargada del Usura Cero en uno de los medios de comunicación afines al gobierno mencionó que el programa era todo un éxito por que se estaba logrando la recuperación de más del 70% de los montos prestados. Para que un programa de este tipo sea viable debe de tener una tasa de recuperación mayor al 90% menos que eso está condenado al fracaso o subsistir mediante la inyección de fondos del erario público o bien mediante préstamos o donaciones de otros países (como es el caso del usura cero).

…In a inverview of the manager of Zero Usury on one of the official government-run media, she said that the program was a complete success because they were making 70% debt recovery. For a program of this kind they must have a debt recovery rate of at least 90% or they will be condemned to failure or have to survive with goverment money or foreign countries donations.

Continue reading here the other 6 arguments of Naren here…

We are very pleased to tell you that the SFD NIcaragua 2007 Team competition entry for Best Event has been chosen as one of three winners! Congratulations!We were very impressed with your event. You had excellent community participation and non-geek inclusion, activities, media coverage (we loved the interviews!), collateral, technology demonstrations and of course information about Software Freedom and FOSS. Your teams hard work and dedication is inspiring and the excellent media coverage you achieved is tribute to those efforts.Well done! You do your country and the FOSS community proud, and are a true example of what Software Freedom Day is all about!Please pass on our congratulations and praise to your team, and your community.Cheers,Pia  

Check the SDF group page  which details all the efforts being made to help people jump into open source software.  The page includes conference preparation and most importantly, conclusions post-conference:

7. Conclusions

• The SFD Nicaragua 2007 event was a huge success in terms of the attention gained from the local media and the non-geek public. More than two weeks after the event people continued to call and e-mail the local GNU/Linux groups seeking for information about free software.
• The LTSP and Edulinux projects got some attention from a couple of local schools. As of today, we are having talks with the representatives from these institutions in order to figure out how we best can help them with this initiative.
• At the international level, the Central American communities were brought closer together and work has already begun on some interesting joint projects(see 4.1.4).
• Last, but not least, the involvement of the younger members of the community in the SFD event (see 4.1.4) is seen as a huge step forward for the future of the FOSS movement in our country. Future plans, in particular within the Ubuntu community, includes the establishment of a local computer club for kids and young people.

 

View of the Plaza, with the Vieja Catedral.

Every city has a place which serves as a symbolic and historic center. In Managua, Nicaragua, the place that served as that space is/was the Plaza de la Republica, known as Plaza de la Revolución. Many historical events happened at this plaza, such as pro-Somoza activities, the triumph of the revolution in 1979, the national literacy campaigns in the 1980s, among other events.

In 1999, with Arnoldo Aleman as president (and after several murals dedicated to the revolution were erased by his government between 1990 and 1996) the government decided to rename the Plaza de la Revolucion to Plaza de la Republica, and build a musical water fountain at the center. The decision was criticized as an attempt to dismantle the symbols of the revolution of the 1980s.

On June 5th, with the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) now back in power, the new government decided to restore the plaza to its original name and that the fountain must go. The media reactions were immediate.

However, there is also the opinion that the demolition of the fountain was just a smokescreen for covering two other bits of news.T he first one involved a group of investors being extortioned by the Nicaraguan consul Gerardo Miranda. The investors said the consul tried to bribe them at the FSLN's Secretaria (the official house of the party), which is also the residence and office of the Nicaraguan President. The previous presidential house is currently abandoned.

The case of Gerardo Miranda can be seen here, in spanish.

See the video about the Gerardo Miranda case in RealMedia (Video) by Esta Semana Esta Semana (This Week) is a investigative television program directed by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who was the director of Barricada, a Nicaraguan newspaper in the 1980s.

The second piece of news that was said to be hidden by the plaza restoration was the international tour by President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, which was sponsored by the government of Libya. The tour included stops in Venezuela, Libya, Iran, and Italy, but the last one was skipped at last moment. According to Nicaraguan law, the president must announce his visits to a foreign country, which is something that he didn't do.

On Television

Cana 2 of Nicaragua reported on June 8 about the fountain. See the video in YouTube. Local television stations have little or no power over their content that appears on YouTube.

President Ortega was in Libya at the moment of this newscast. To answer the criticisms, the first lady Rosario Murillo gave an interview to Nueva Radio Ya (website), which is a radio station closely linked to the government. Download the declarations of Rosario Murillo Download Here

Reactions in printed media (of many many others)

The two national newspapers dedicated headlines, opinion articles, and reports to this news. El Nuevo Diario: Historia no se quedó aparcada el 20 de julio (de 1979) (History that didn't stop on the July 20, 1979)

La Prensa: Alcalde Marenco reta a Murillo (Major Marenco challenges Murillo)
Dionisio Marenco, the mayor of Managua gave his thoughts on the matter, and the ironic thing is that he is a member of FSLN, the government's party, but he didn't support the measure.

La Prensa also reported:

El periodista cultural Wilmor López recordó que en el período edilicio de Arnoldo Alemán (1990-1996) , éste mandó a borrar “de un plumazo y sin contemplaciones” varios murales que fueron pintados por reconocidos artistas nicaragüenses.

Entre los murales considerados con gran valor artístico que fueron borrados por Alemán, López mencionó el mural de la biblioteca del Parque Luis Alfonso Velásquez, el mural del barrio Altagracia y las pinturas del artista Víctor Canifrú en la Avenida Bolívar.

“En ese entonces nadie reclamó porque ignoraron esa barbarie”, recordó López. Sin embargo Alemán niega que haya destruido obras culturales.

De acuerdo a López, lo que está haciendo el Gobierno de Ortega con la destrucción de la fuente, es la restitución de la plaza histórica de Managua.

Palacio de la Cultura, with the broken wall.

Radio La Primerisima (RealMedia audio)

Radio La Primerisima (web site) is a Sandinista radio station, but two of journalists (including the director of the radio, William Grisby) were in favor of the restoration of the Plaza, but against the way that it happened.

William Grisby: La Plaza de Managua: una decisión justa, un procedimiento equivocado. Los apodos de los capitalinos. (miércoles 6 junio)
Julio López Campos: Polémica sobre la recuperación de la Plaza de la República. (viernes 8 junio) (… The controversy on the restoration of Plaza de la República)

The forums

Nicaraguan web forums also discussed the fountain demolition.

Bacanalnica: Gobierno destruye fuente musical (Government destroys musical fountain)

Bacanalnica: Al rescate de la plaza de la revolución (To the rescue of the Plaza)

Rocknica: ** Destruyen fuente para reabrir Plaza de la República ** (Destroyed fountain to reinaugurate Plaza…)

SkycrapersCity: In memorian ” Fuente Musical “ Fotos de la fuente antes de la demolición. (Pictures of the musical fountain)

SkycrapersCity: Gobierno de ortega destruye fuente luminosa frente a Antigua Catedral Government destroys luminous fountain in front of cathedral.

In this post you can see how the Plaza looked before there were a fountain.

The works

The Blogs comment on the fountain

While the forums were participating in a more formal debate, the Nicaraguan blogs became creative with the theme.

Leonel Delgado published a short story written in 2000 [ES] about the Plaza (the fountain was built in 1999).

La Catedral y el Palacio Nacional (o de la Cultura) ya eran de por sí bastante feos. Con la añadidura de esa fuente y del Palacio Presidencial, todo adquiere un humor negro surreal y no es exagerado afirmar que se trata del lugar más claustrofóbico de Managua.

Gloria Ruiz wrote MALDITA [ES]

El Señor Presidente ve por la ventana. Tiene las manos entrelazadas. Ve la Capital, pero ve el pasado. Ahorita andan todos los chavalos alfabetizando. Estamos leyendo libros cubanos. La Chepa anda en la Alemania Socialista, estudiando pedagogía. Es feliz. Tiene su propia máquina del tiempo en su cabeza. Piensa con satisfacción en aquella victoria, y ve a la gente, a toda la gente, muchedumbre, multitud, aglomeración humana.

Pictures by Jorge Mejía

Flickr set on the destruction of the fountain.

Where's Nicaragua's Blogosphere?

From Florida

When we started collaborating with Global Voices Online, we thought there wasn't a real blogosphere in Nicaragua… and there isn't, but one does exists in the Nicaraguan Diaspora.

In this case, we'll talk about Martha Isabel Arana, a Nicaraguan resident in Florida USA, who writes in her introduction: “I'm interested in everything about technology, art, music, literature, and cultural interchange with other countries. As an immigrant living in the USA, one of my major desires is to promote the culture of my country for all the readers who want to know more about us.”

In her blog she publishes videos, poems, short stories and reports about Nicaraguan culture. In regards to this work Martha says [ES]:

Nunca pensé compartir al mundo mis planes, era más que todo un proyecto personal. No conocía el mundo de los blogs o bitácoras, ni la herramienta de comunicación tan importante y poderosa que representa. Después de “copiar y pegar” un par de leyendas vistas por allí, los primeros comentarios comenzaron a llegar. Me di cuenta que otras personas en diferentes partes del mundo estaban leyendo mis pequeñas historias y la necesidad de buscar una nueva leyenda para mi bitácora nacía apenas publicaba una anterior…. Me atreví a dar un paso mas adelante y quise recopilar nuevos testimonios. Los nicas me inundaron de vivencias y relatos y me enamoré de sus historias, sus cuentos, del tesoro que estaban poniendo en mis manos. De pronto habían 10, 20… 80 mil visitas de diferentes regiones del mundo leyendo las historias mágicas que nacen en nuestros ríos, explotan con nuestros volcanes y desembocan en el mar.

From Costa Rica

Mi Patria es Ticaragua [ES] (My homeland is Ticaragua*) is a blog edited in Costa Rica that tries to unite both Costa Rica and Nicaragua past any territorial or political differences between the two countries.

* Ticaragua = Is a combined word, from TICA, the short name Costa Ricans gave themselves, and RAGUA, for nicaRAGUA, Ticaragua.

Mi Patria Es Ticaragua posts news, opinion articles, and events which promote positive interchange between both countries. For example, they posted the concert of Nicaraguan singer/songwriter Perrozompopo (Ramón Mejía) and Esteban Monge (see event) or to listen to some songs by Elsa Basil, a Nicaraguan, at her MySpace page.

Nicaragua Actual [ES] compiled a bunch of mp3 songs (some by Nicaraguan authors) in honor to Mother's Day in Nicaragua. It calls itself the “Informative Magazine of the Nicaraguan Community in Costa Rica”.

Nicaragua y su blog

Nicaragua y Su Blog [ES] introduced itself in Barricada some months ago, on April 28 to be exact. We visited them again and we noted that their work had advanced.

Their objective “is the promotion of all the Nicaraguan blogs in the blogosphere. To succeed in this “mission” we'll write a little review of the Nicaraguan blogs that we find along the way and we'll also add them in our link area”.

Their blog began February 22, 2007, and have since published 46 posts to date, reviewing, indexing, and sharing videos or other blog matters relevant to Nicaraguan blogs.

About Barricada they wrote this:

Hoy le presentamos el blog de noticias de Nicaragua “Barricada”. Este nombre pertenecía a un diario que existio en los anos ‘80. Hoy, hablamos no del periódico, sino del blog que lleva su nombre, según ellos nada que ver con el periodico.

and more recently they reviewedour sister website, MarcaAcme.com:

Hasta el momento, después de Barricada, (Marca Acme) es uno de los blogs con diseño profesional y uno de los mas importantes en Nicaragua y porque no decir en Centroamérica

They have blogs we haven't listed yet in the Wiki Marca Acme, but we'll add them in the future.

Mother's Day

We cite three fragments for different blogs published in the month discussing Mother's Day, or by extension about being a woman and their difficulties.

Karla Castillo, from El Nuevo Diario [ES], published the text titled Freedom to Nurse

Hace poco, una conocida de mi familia dio a luz a una niña. Pese a que la madre tiene 38 años, era su segunda experiencia en la maternidad, y sin embargo, la criatura casi se le muere por deshidratación, tres días después del parto, porque los médicos le dijeron que si quería tener una hija sana, inteligente, con las defensas elevadísimas, sólo la alimentara con su leche y que en los primeros seis meses no le diera a beber ni siquiera agua.

El resultado fue catastrófico, aunque la pequeña sobrevivió, y no quiero pensar que la mujer intentó en algún momento someter sin necesidad a su hija a este tipo de carencias. Pero ¡Por Dios! reflexioné, si ella ya había parido hace algunos años, pecó de confiada, al creer todo lo que los médicos dicen sobre la leche materna.

The post continued to examine various issues on this topic.

Therapeutical Abortion

A PDF file was transmitted trough various email chains with this text in it:
37 Muertes Maternas en el 2007, 80 niños y niñas sin madre
37 mothers died in 2007, 80 boys and girls are now orphans

and the next image counts the dead, which was a consequence of the banning of therapeutic abortion or the fear of the law.

The figures speak for themselves.

Mother is Merchandise is Marketing

Martha Cecilia Ruiz [ES] posted a sincere and straightforward blog entry on the celebration of Mother's Day in Nicaragua (May the 30th)
Mother to buy for, to sell to, to give birth to and to forget..

Otra vez el día de las madres. Nuevamente las rosas rojas anunciando la venta de electrodomésticos y los productos de belleza para que las madres cumplan de mejor manera con sus roles –dentro y fuera de sus casas. Con mayo, más que lluvias, caen torrenciales de propuestas comerciales para convertir a la madre “en reina por un día”, pues para servir, obedecer, callar y parir los hijos que “Dios mande” está el resto del año. Y por si alguien duda del mandato, ahí están las canciones que confirman los cánones que dicen que madre buena es aquella sufrida, resignada, con vida sexual solamente para la reproducción y que vive la maternidad como un apostolado.

Hernaldo Zuñiga, fan-blog

“Official” blog for the fans of Hernaldo Zuñiga.
Bio, discs, lyrics and news about Hernaldo… the great nica trovador

The blog is edited by Marcela, who she says: “I'm married with Jaime, and I have three sons: Jaime, Ignacio & Sebastián”. She lives in Chile and posts videos, reviews, concert dates, lyrics, news and song of the Nicaraguan author that lives in México working as songwriter. He recently released a new album called Nomada (2007).

The blog is part of a Yahoo! Group dedicated to Hernaldo Zuñiga. Visit the official website.

Why there is not a Nica blogosphere?

Actually, it exists, but not as blogosphere. Many users have accounts on social networs as Hi5 or MySpace, but the main space for dialogue in internet is in the forums.

Here we give account of some formums, somes with hundres of users, others with a few loyal visitors, and others dedicated to local audiences only

Foros Bacanalnica, it seems to be the biggest. 5 years working and more than 6000 users and 30 subforums.
Foros Rocknica, dedicated to local music scene.
Area 505, for the nicas in Miami.
Foros de Nicaragua en Skycrapercity, a Nicaragua community discussing developments in the construction and architecture fields in Nicaragua.
Foros de Computación de la UNI, used by ingeniering students, experts and open source communities.
Forums for local cities: Jinotega Life (Jinotega), DBakanal (León).

Spreading Open Source Philosophy

On March 28th the Grupo Ubuntu Nicaragua (an open source community) coordinated the Festival Latinoamericano de Instalación de Software Libre (FLISOL 2007) for Nicaragua. The Festival is an effort across Latin America to help spread the knowledge of Open Source Technologies. The Group Ubuntu ran the event in León and Managua, with conferences explaining the advantages of Linux and Open Source softwares compared to propietary software and licenses.

Many volunteers were installing and giving away discs with samples of free software, even installing complete linux distributions for the visitors for free.

Barricada.com.ni reported on the event:

Photo taken from Barricada.com

Hace falta ver a más gente No Dedicada a esas areas tecnicas exponer sus experiencas; y se hablo poco o nada sobre varios fenómenos web que están sucediendo hoy en dia: Blogs, ciberperiodismo, medios independientes, generación de contenido, etc. Pero esta fue la primera experiencia de este tipo, y todo el esfuerzo fue hecho de manera gratuita por el Grupo UBUNTU de Nicaragua y el Grupo Pro Software Libre, por lo que creemos positivo el esfuerzo.

Watch more photos on Flickr and a video on Youtube. More comments for the group were made on the Universidad Nacional de Ingeneria Computing Forums

Working With Meat

A new blog called Working With Meat by “Christiane” tells us:

Saturday's field investigations led to the shocking conclusions:

1. Patriarchy is still the foundation of our society
2. It sucks to be a woman in said society

Christiane and Glow went for a photography session at a local park in Managua only to find themselves sexually harassed by “machistas” all day long.

So, that's the sad story of two girls who had the audacity of being young, female, and pedestrians, but more importantly, young female pedestrians with NO MALE CHAPERONE! The horror!

The whole cronicle gives evidence of how far are we from getting a totally equal and respectful societies for ALL our citizens.

Morterazos en Los Angeles

Luciano Cuadra Waters (a nicaraguan in Los Angeles) writes in NacionGueguence [ES] and La Prensa about a Pro Immigration Rally in Los Angeles, which ended with police violence.

Por lo que pude ver, parece que LAPD pretendía obligar a la multitud a evacuar hacia el lado Nor, nor-oeste del parque MacArthur, pero por alguna razón, los agentes que tenían ubicados en ese sector, empezaron a agredir a los manifestantes, los que se sintieron acorralados. En la televisión se puede notar claramente a los oficiales de policía golpeando a personas mayores de edad, también a personas que cargaban con sus hijos pequeños, e incluso a periodistas claramente identificados.

La nicaragüense Martha Lorena Guillén me asegura que uno de los agentes intentó golpearla sin razón alguna, quizá por que ella había filmado a este oficial mientra agredía a otra persona. Aproximadamente una hora más tarde, mientras caminaba en dirección al lugar donde había dejado mi vehículo, me encontré con un muchacho que había sido impactado por una bala de goma en su costado derecho “Fue sin motivo alguno. Yo solo llegué a reclamar mis derechos”…

Biodiesel

The MEL-info mailing list posted this article by Arturo M. Lozza about the use of Biodiesel:

Los movimientos sociales lanzan voces de alerta y no son pocos los investigadores con visiones muy distintas a las planteadas por las petroleras ahora devenidas destiladoras del combustible verde. El periodista británico George Monbiot, por ejemplo, hizo cálculos y descubrió que para mover solamente nuestros coches y autobuses con agrodiesel se requerirían sembrar 25,9 millones de hectáreas. Sin embargo, existen en el Reino Unido solo 5,7 millones de hectáreas.

MEL-Info is a mailing list with 5000 suscribers dedicated to enviromental and cultural discussion in the country. Sometimes the editors post articles relevant to local events.

On the other side, Sofonías Martín Cisneros Argeñal writes an apology for the biodiesel project in Nicaragua:

La actual campaña de demonización en contra de los proyectos de producción de biodiesel tempate es totalmente infundada, malintencionada e irresponsable.

…Los costos de producción y mantenimiento del tempate y de la palma africana son convenientemente mucho más bajos que los costos por hectárea de maíz. Las ventajas de estos cultivos no se limitan solamente a la simple producción del bendito aceite. Por ejemplo, en el caso del tempate, está conjuntamente ayudando a prevenir y revitalizar exitosamente suelos perdidos por la erosión y desertificación de zonas desérticas de África, Australia, China, India y Latinoamérica.

The La Prensa blogs sometimes serves as ideological supporters of the editorial line of the newspaper, which at this moment is serving as an opposition media to the goverment.

The recent media campaign launched by the Volz family puts in doubt all of the commentaries, news stories, and reports published in the Nicaraguan media.

Taking advantage of YouTube, MySpace, and various blogs, the Volz family has managed to get the attention of North Americans television programs, opinion pages, and senators and representatives who can act at the political level to pressure the Nicaraguan judiciary.

On the other hand, Nicaraguan netizens, still too dispersed to have a strong blogosphere, have expressed themselves on forums and the comment pages of national newspapers.

Both parties put forth their cases, some with personal manifestations of friendship, others with national patriotism, and many more with epithets of all kinds.

In its national news section, El Nuevo Diario has responded to the online challenge to their coverage of the Volz case by insisting that their reports [ES] and facts are true; but they are also trying to change the opinions of relatives and friends of Eric Volz.

This, beyond the verity of facts, or the innocence of the involved parties, is a battle of Nicaragua's traditional media (La Prensa, El Nuevo Diario, and TV news programs), against the social media pressure of the blogosphere, a new medium of journalism and collective information based on social relations made over the internet.