Becoming a resident of Costa Rica may soonbecome difficult for foreign retirees who aren’twell-to-do by this country’s standards.A bill being discussed on the floor of theLegislative Assembly could make residency statusunattainable for foreigners without a pension of$3,000 a month, or unwilling or unable to invest atleast $50,000 in the local economy.This is a price too high for most foreigners from theUnited States, Canada and Europe to pay, according tothe Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR).If the bill passes when it comes to vote in the comingweeks, the number of foreigners who call Costa Ricahome could dramatically decrease, said ARCRspokesman Ryan Piercy.MOST disconcerting, according to Piercy, is thebill’s elimination of the category of residente rentista.Many foreigners become permanent residents of CostaRica through this category, which under current law isopen to anyone able to prove they have a continuoussource of income from abroad of at least $1,000 amonth.People who do not come to Costa Rica for work orstudy can also obtain residency as pensionados (retirees) or inversionistas (investors).Under the current law, pensionadosmust show proof of a retirement or disabilitypension of at least $600 a month (TT,April 30). Inversionistas must invest atleast $200,000 in local businesses thatemploy Costa Ricans. The amount isreduced to $100,000 for agriculture-relatedinvestments and $50,000 for investmentsin tourism or import-export businesses.The Immigration Department considersthe current law a “vulnerability in thesystem,” and supports the bill’s changes,said Immigration Director Marco Badilla.“IT is not that less foreigners willcome, it’s that the residente rentista is avery easy door for whatever person tocome in the country, a person who only has$1,000. We have people come who do nothave good intentions, and want to takeadvantage of our system,” he said. The billbeing evaluated by lawmakers touches nearlyevery aspect of the country’s immigrationpolicy, and overhauls an outdated law,Badilla said.In addition to eliminating the rentistacategory, the category of pensionadowould fall under regular immigration law –rentista and pensionado are now regulatedby a separate law. This means specific regulations,such as the minimum pensionrequired for retirees, would be decided bythe Immigration Department and couldchange every three or four years.“I would say (the minimum monthlyrequirement) would not be less than$3,000. Maybe a little less, maybe a littlemore, but to me it seems it shouldn’t beless than $3,000” Badilla said. “Right nowit is $600, and this is very low.”THIS income requirement is farabove the pensions of most retired people,Piercy argues.“Where is Costa Rica going to havepensionados coming from?” he asked. “Asfar as I have seen, the two highest pensionsin the world are the United Statesand Germany. Under (U.S.) SocialSecurity, the maximum a person whoretires at age 62 can earn is $1,442, at age65 it is $1895 and at 70, $2580.”These figures are based on a maximumincome of $87,000, Piercy said.Many people do have the financialcapacity to live in Costa Rica, but do nothave the pensions. Businesses owners,doctors and people who left work earlybefore receiving retirement will all beaffected if the new law is passed, accordingto the ARCR.MORE than 11,000 foreigners residein the country as rentistas or pensionados,according to Badilla. However, computerizeddata is not available, so theImmigration Department can only estimatethat one-third of those are rentistas.While the legal status of those alreadyhere would not change with the new regulations,the new, more selective policycould rub both potential and current foreignresidents the wrong way, Piercy said.North Americans and Europeans lookingto retire in the tropics will instead lookto Nicaragua and Panama for relocation,the ARCR contends.Foreigners can apply for residency inNicaragua under similar categories asthose now available in Costa Rica. Ingeneral, the minimum monthly incomerequirement is $500 for a single personand $600 for a couple.While requirements are easier, the systemis considered confusing to newcomers(TT, May 21). However, in recent monthsNicaraguan immigration has been goingthrough a process of “modernization andrestructuring.”PIERCY said it is Costa Rica that willsuffer if the new immigration law is passed.Once here, residents not only buy cars,homes and other goods, they also contributeto the social economy by gettinginvolved in organizations, often offeringexpert advice, he said.They also act as ambassadors of CostaRica with friends and colleagues aroundthe world, he added.Before making more serious investments,foreigners often use their status asrentistas to study possible investments,according to the ARCR.“Many people don’t think of investingright away, before they have lived in acountry for awhile, and get to trust it,”Piercy said.The ARCR has asked deputies to makemotions to remove the elimination of therentista and pensionado category from thebill before it is voted on.According to calculations by the CostaRican Tourism Institute (ICT), the averageannual revenue generated by pensionadosand rentistas is $13 million, Deputy EdwinPatterson, from the Citizen Action Party,told The Tico Times in a faxed response toquestions.MEANWHILE, Badilla says he is notconcerned about the loss of economic benefitswith the removal of the rentista category.“If we have only 4,000 residentes rentistas,the impact isn’t going to be thatbig,” he said.Beyond changes to residency requirements,the 60-page bill addresses a widerange of issues including national security,displacement of the national workforce,and when and where authorities can searchfor undocumented workers. The bill is subjectto four rounds of motions and potentialchanges before it is voted on.(Tico Times reporter Tim Rogers contributedto this report from Nicaragua.)
Country Considers Garbage-Fueled Generators
A 100-hectare landfill in Liberia, the capital of thenorthwestern province of Guanacaste, may soon bereduced by 85% after the installation of a machine itspromoters say converts garbage into electricity.The machine is promoted by a company calledEnvironmental Power International (EnPower), aU.S. company based in Ardmore, Oklahoma.EnPower has claimed the project would not costthe Municipality of Liberia a penny and would allowreforestation of all but 15% of the landfill.The remaining area, according to EnPower representatives,would be necessary for the machine andfor garbage that can be neither recycled nor convertedinto energy.Liberia Mayor Ricardo Samper told The TicoTimes that thus far he likes the idea very much, andmembers of the Municipal Council are “very optimistic.”SAMPER said the plant – touted as being capableof processing 180 tons of garbage per day – wouldproduce 100 jobs for area residents, though he did notspecify whether those would be permanent positionsat the plant. He also said the company offered to providebus service for those workers.Guillermo Baltodano, chairman of Liberia’sMunicipal Council, said EnPower representativeshave not yet specified exactly how the machine wouldfunction or whether incineration would be involved inthe process.“From a technical point of view, I can’t tell youmuch,” Baltodano said. “I can tell you we are initiallyvery interested in the project.”Baltodano said the EnPower personnel he hadspoken to, who made a proposal before Liberia’s Municipal Council on April 17, said themachine would require the use of a yet-to be-determined amount of water.He said the company promised thecouncil that the water used would be treatedand returned to the environment “in bettercondition than when it was extracted.”BALTODANO said the municipalitywould be looking at that issue closely, particularlybecause Guanacaste, the driestregion in the country, often faces watershortages during the dry season.But, he added, “At this moment, Liberiadoesn’t have a huge problem with water.”EnPower would profit from the ventureby selling the electricity produced by theplant, though it was not immediately clearhow much electricity the plant would beable to produce. The municipality’s onlyresponsibility, Baltodano said, would be tocontinue collecting the area’s garbage.THE Municipality of Limón, a porttown on the Caribbean coast, is also consideringinstalling one of EnPower’s machines,according to Samper and what appears to bethe first page of a contract between EnPowerand the Limón municipality, faxed to TheTico Times by the Liberia Municipality.However, Limón Mayor Roger Riveradid not respond to multiple phone messagesrequesting interviews or a faxedrequest for information about the proposal.Representatives from the Limónmunicipality said only the mayor would beable to comment on the project.ENPOWER communications representativeEdwin Dobner, operating out ofCalifornia, told The Tico Times both projectsare still in the “development process.”“We’re still in the evaluation stage inCosta Rica,” Dobner said. “We’re relativelytight-lipped right now.”Dobner said he was not at liberty todivulge any specific information regardinghow the machines work, but he did say itwas “off-the-shelf technology.”Dobner declined to comment regardingthe Oklahoma-based company’s history,except to say in a statement that the“EnPower management staff has decadesof experience in the energy industry, internationalenergy projects, plant engineering,design, construction and management,energy legislation and international waste to-energy development.”HE also declined to provide detailsregarding other projects EnPower representativesreportedly told the Liberia citycouncil the company was actively workingon in California.He said he would have to discuss thoseitems with his management before commenting.He added that EnPower is “a very, verysolid thing.”EnPower Managing Director KenRoblyer was out of the office and could notbe reached for comment by press time,though The Tico Times requested interviewswith him several times through thecompany’s headquarters.THE Costa Rican government isentertaining a similar trash-to-electricityproposal from a company calledEurotechnology, which, according tosources in the Legislative Assembly,would involve a machine that only existsin a prototype.Legislative sources told The TicoTimes that government officials are workingwith the Italian business, which proposeduse of the machines in Costa Rica toPresident Abel Pacheco during his trip toEurope earlier this year.Milton Clark, a representative ofEurotechnology and an advisor to the governmenton the project, called the proposal“a huge project with huge implications.”THE machine the President was shown– by means of a video with an interpreterpresent – uses a new chemical process toconvert garbage into electricity, Clark said.Costa Rica would be the first countryin the world to employ the new technology,he added.The machines would cost $1 millionper ton of garbage they are able to processper day, and would be able to produce onekilowatt of electricity for every kilogramof garbage processed, Clark said.He said the machines emit no smoke,and the only by-products would be recyclablemetals and a waste compound thatcan be used as fertilizer, Clark said.“THAT means you can put it rightsmack in the middle of New York City andno one would notice,” he said. “It’s quite amachine.”Clark said the project is in the feasibilitystage and no concrete plans have been made.Until the government can obtain morefunding for the project, he said, not muchprogress will be made.“We’ve gone as far as we can given themoney we have,” he said.The original plan, he said, was toinstall one machine in Guanacaste, butPresident Pacheco asked to see if it wouldbe possible to put one in Limón, as well.Liberia council member Baltodano saidEurotechnology is attempting to convincethe Guanacaste League of Municipalitiesto form a business and then buy one of themachines. He said he was somewhat skepticalabout the proposal.“We know about experiences we’vehad in many cases,” Baltodano said.THE projects being proposed byEnPower and Eurotechnology appear to becompletely distinct. At press time, it wasnot clear whether Pacheco’s administrationis aware that the municipalities of Liberiaand Limón are negotiating with EnPower.Dr. Richard L. Bein, who works in thermo-chemical conversion research at the U.S.National Renewable Energy Laboratory,said he is only aware of three main processes,aside from methane extraction, used toconvert garbage into fuel.One is burning.The second, he said, is a processcalled thermal gasification. That processinvolves taking solid waste and convertingit into a combustible gas compoundincluding carbon, hydrogen and contaminants,Bein said.It is then possible to “clean up” thosecombustible gases before burning them,which is “easier, more efficient, but moreexpensive” than incinerators, he said.“What you’re trading off is cost versusemissions, which is the main thing peopleworry about,” Bein said.The third process is fermentation of theorganic components of what he calledMSW – municipal sold waste. He said byadding enzymes to the organic matter itcan ferment to produce ethanol – a highlycombustible compound.“It’s kind of like putting yeast intobeer,” he said. “It eats up the sugars andmakes ethanol.”THE concept of using waste to produceelectricity is not new. Machines convertingmethane gas produced by garbageor waste from livestock are in use inDenmark, India, the United States, thePhilippines, Germany and a host of othercountries.Machines incinerating garbage to produceelectricity are also in use throughoutEurope, Bein said.
Tico Elected to Top OAS Post
FORMER Costa Rican President Miguel AngelRodríguez (1998-2002) on Monday was unanimouslyelected secretary general of the Organization of AmericanStates (OAS) during the organization’s 34th GeneralAssembly, held this week in Quito, Ecuador.Rodríguez, who will be sworn in Sept. 15, will replaceColombian César Gaviria, who has served as head of theOAS for the past ten years. The Costa Rican will be theeighth OAS secretary general – and the first from CentralAmerica – to be elected since the organization was createdin 1948.“We have a challenge and a responsibility to reducepoverty, expand liberty and guarantee the peace and securityof our citizens,” Rodríguez said in a speech thankingthe foreign relations ministers of the 34 countries of thehemispheric organization.“Many thanks for this honor, which has brought recognition to Costa Rica,” he said. “This smallcountry in the center of the Americas hasdistinguished itself by constructing liberty,justice and peace.”RODRIGUEZ has traveled down along path to become secretary general.Upon announcing his campaign on July9 of last year, Rodríguez and representativesof Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministrybegan traveling throughout the Americasseeking the support of the OAS’ members(TT, Aug. 1, 2003).At first, support for Rodríguez wastimid. However, things began to snowballafter the 14-member Caribbean Communitypledged its support for his bid (TT,Dec. 19, 2003). The United Statesannounced it would support the formerPresident in April.Last week, the Presidents of El Salvadorand Nicaragua – the last two countries tosupport Rodríguez – along with thePresidents of Guatemala, Honduras, CostaRica and Panama signed an agreementpledging to support Rodríguez (TT, June 4).This made it possible for him to be electedby a unanimous vote and attain “the hemisphericconsensus” he had sought.UPON being elected, Rodríguezannounced he is in favor of “accompanyingthe process of Venezuela” begun by outgoingOAS leader Gaviria, to ensure a peacefulreferendum vote regarding Hugo Chávez’spresidency and to help the country get backon its feet after years of economic troubles.Rodríguez also said he will use the positionto recuperate the credibility of the OAS,adding the organization “should lend a moreeffective contribution to finding radical solutionsto the serious problems” that affect theregion. He said last weekend he will use theposition to strengthen ties between LatinAmerica and the United States.Latin America has been neglected byWashington D.C. following the Sept. 11,2001, terrorist attacks, he said.COSTA Rican President Abel Pachecosaid he is pleased with Rodríguez’s election.“It is a marvelous day for Costa Ricaand for Central America, because for thefirst time a Central American is going tohold this position,” Pacheco said, addingthat since the 1950s there have been effortsto elect a Tico to the position.In addition to the election of the new secretarygeneral, the principal themes of the34th Assembly of the OAS were the fightagainst corruption in the Americas, the crisisin Haiti and the situation in Venezuela.Pacheco said he thinks that withRodríguez as the new head of the OAS, theorganization will immediately intervene toresolve the crisis in Haiti.ANALYSTS see the election as a historicmoment for Costa Rican and CentralAmerican diplomacy.“I think the election of Miguel AngelRodríguez will be a historic event for CostaRica that could help it recover its place onthe international stage,” said Costa Ricanpolitical analyst Antonio Barrios. “It’s anopportunity for Costa Rica to situate itself inthe international spotlight and play a relevantrole, such as the one it played in negotiatinga peace settlement to the 1980sCentral American crisis.”Analyst Luis Guillermo Solís agrees.“Beyond the symbolic importance ofthe event, it creates an opportunity tomove forward with the agendas ofCentral America and other small countrieswithin the OAS,” he said.Barrios said Rodríguez has his workcut out for him as he faces the challenge offinding solutions to a wide range of regionalproblems, including economic and politicalinstability, the long-standing disputebetween the United States and Cuba andthe Colombian armed conflict, he said.HOWEVER, Rodríguez inherits aweakened OAS, the analyst said, becauseGaviria “did not do much” during his twoterms. Rodríguez has the opportunity tomake the region’s governments and peoplebelieve in the OAS again, he added.“What he has promised to do looksvery good. However, things will be differentonce he sits down in the secretary general’schair,” Barrios explained. “I hope hisproposals become a reality.”
Reagan Death Sparks Bitter Memory of Contra War in Nicaragua
GRANADA, Nicaragua – The death and mourning of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) this week forced Nicaragua to revisit its recent bloody past, and reminded the country just how divided it still is 14 years after the war ended.
In Nicaragua, Reagan is remembered as a fanatical anti-communist who sponsored the counterrevolutionary war in 1980s against the left-wing government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. The low-intensity Contra war left some 50,000 dead and countless injured or maimed, destroyed much of Nicaragua’s infrastructure, strangled fledgling health and literacy campaigns and sunk the country deeper into the abyss of poverty and underdevelopment.
But the war also forced the Sandinistas to concede to some democratic reforms, including national elections in 1990, which ousted the revolutionary front from power. As a result, Reagan is remembered in Nicaragua as both a monster and messiah, depending on who you ask.
PRESIDENT Enrique Bolaños this week sent official condolences to the U.S. government and the Reagan family, remembering the 40th U.S. President as a man who “contributed to the establishment of democracy and liberty in Nicaragua and the world.” Bolaños, a U.S.-educated businessman, was temporarily jailed and had his property confiscated by the Sandinista government in the 1980s.
Other conservative foes of the Sandinistas also remember Reagan fondly. A group of former Contras celebrated a mass in his honor in Managua on Tuesday. “I will remember Reagan with great respect, appreciation and fondness,” said Adolfo Calero, former president and commander-in-chief of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest of the Contra groups.
Calero, nicknamed “Sparkplug” by U.S. Lt. Col. Oliver North, was the United States’ point man on the northern front. “Reagan was instrumental in liberating Nicaragua and democratizing Nicaragua and the world,” Calero told The Tico Times this week.
MANY Nicaraguans, however, remember Reagan as the architect of a war that brought misery and suffering to the country. “[Reagan] will be remembered as an assassin guilty of an eight-year illegal war against Nicaragua. He armed criminals and caused thousands of deaths here,” Ernesto Cardenal, the guerrilla poet-priest who served as the Sandinista’s Minister of Culture, told The Tico Times this week.
Daniel Ortega, Sandinista secretary general and former revolutionary president, will not be sending flowers to Reagan’s state funeral today in Washington, D.C. “We don’t celebrate anyone’s death, but we have to speak the truth [about Reagan]. We can’t now say that he respected international law or treated Nicaragua well,” Ortega told Sandinista supporters this week at a party rally in Masaya. “May God forgive him, because the God’s capacity for love is great.”
THE Reagan administration’s dark and turbulent relationship with Nicaragua began shortly after he took office for his first term in 1981 – less than two years after the Sandinista National Liberation Front ousted the Somoza dictatorship and took power of Nicaragua. By 1982, it was revealed that the CIA was training, arming, and directing some 10,000 Contras at secret bases, mostly in southern Honduras.
In 1984, the CIA mined Nicaraguan ports, and a year later Reagan declared a U.S. economic embargo against Nicaragua after Congress voted to cut off military aid to the Contras. Reagan’s unveiling of the so-called “Reagan Doctrine” in 1985 attempted to justify U.S. aid to any and all “anti-communist” movements in the world. When Reagan announced the doctrine during his State of the Nation address, he made specific mention of his Nicaraguan Contra allies, whom he later referred to as “the moral equivalent of the [U.S.] Founding Fathers.”
THE next year, the Iran-Contra Scandal broke revealing that Lt. Col. Oliver North of the National Security Council and CIA Director William Casey were illegally funding the Contras in Nicaragua through profits from secretive weapons sales to Iran, a country the United States had denounced as a terrorist nation.
The icing on the cake came in 1986, when Reagan refused to respect the ruling of the International Court of Justice that found the U.S. war on Nicaragua in violation of international law and ordered Washington D.C. to “make reparation to the Republic of Nicaragua for all injury.”
“The Yankee government’s debt with Nicaragua is still pending, and will have to be paid someday when the United States has a government that is honest, respectful of international law and in favor of peace,” Ortega said.
REAGAN’S death last Saturday also highlighted the editorial differences between the country’s two leading daily newspapers: the more-conservative La Prensa and the Sandinista-sympathizing El Nuevo Diario. La Prensa’s editorial page on Tuesday celebrated Reagan. “If it had not been for [Reagan’s] vision and energetic international policy against communism, Nicaragua would now be a communist state, Nicaraguans would not have individual liberties, there would be no democracy and most Nicaraguans would be subject to espionage,” La Prensa concluded.
El Nuevo Diario, meanwhile, ran several scathing articles blasting the model of democracy and liberty that Reagan’s so-called “freedom fighters” helped to bring to Nicaragua: “Now Nicaraguans are so free that health care and education have become merchandise and we become more like East Los Angeles, with gangs on corners in front of McDonalds and beautiful girls in miniskirts offering their charms.”
Students in Nicaragua Call Off Education Strike
MANAGUA – The NationalUniversity Council agreed Wednesdaynight to call off the 24-day student strike,following the government’s offer toincrease next year’s proposed educationbudget by an additional 139.4 million córdobas($8.8 million).The additional funding brings nextyear’s education budget to $59.6 million –the 6% of the public spending budget thestudents had been demanding. The governmentand students had disagreed overthe budget calculations, with the SupremeCourt siding with the students.When the government initially refusedto pay the amount the Court decided on,students took to the streets and clashedviolently with police for several days lastmonth (TT, May 21, June 4).
World-Class Hospital Opens in Nicaragua
MANAGUA – The MetropolitanVivian Pellas Hospital, a $23 million privatehealth facility billed as the most modernand best-equipped hospital in CentralAmerica, was inaugurated last week.The hospital, located in Managua onCarretera Masaya km 9 3/4, next to theUniversidad Catolica, is being celebratedas a world-class health facility that willdramatically improve Nicaragua’s healthcareoptions as well as help tourism.The hospital, staffed by more than 300specialists, will also have a special unit totreat free-of-charge all child burn victimsthrough the Nicaraguan Association ofChild Burn Victims, headed by the hospital’snamesake, Vivian Pellas, wife ofNicaraguan business tycoon Carlos Pellas.
President Negotiates with Guatemalan Protestors
GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) –President Oscar Berger Tuesday eveninggracefully negotiated a ceasefire with thousandsof protesting workers, students andindigenous who earlier that day blockedmajor highways and border crossings intoMexico, Honduras and El Salvador.The protestors – some 15,000 ofwhom were in the capital alone – wererallying against the government’s proposalto increase taxes for low-income families,the pending Central America Free-TradeAgreement (CAFTA) with the UnitedStates and land issues in rural areas.The President reportedly agreed to calloff the tax increase for people who make$4,600 or less a year, suspend pending furtherstudy a series of police actions forcinguntitled indigenous off land, and releasecopies of the CAFTA agreement in the 22different languages spoken in Guatemala.
Guatemalan Police Arrest Former Campaign Financer
GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) –Embattled banker Francisco Alvarado, afriend of former President Alfonso Portillo(2000-2004), was arrested Tuesday onsuspicion of fraud, according to governmentsources.Alvarado, who was the principalfinancer of Portillo’s 1999 campaign, wasarrested in the southeast department ofSanta Rosa and transported to the capital,according to the National Civil Police.The banker faces a series of charges offraud and abuse of authority that date backto 2001, when Portillo’s government offereda $200 million bailout to the Metropolitanoand Promotor banks, with which Alvaradowas involved. The banks filed for bankruptcyanyway.According to the Prosecutor’s Office,more than 80 charges have been filedagainst Alvarado.
Nicaragua’s Coffee Crisis Worsens Extreme Poverty
MANAGUA – Despite years of drought, the onset of a coffee crisis and the devastation of Hurricane Mitch, overall poverty in Nicaragua fell from 50.3% in 1993 to 45.8% in 2001, according to the World Bank’s Nicaragua Poverty Assessment, released last week. But the macro-economic numbers offer little comfort to Nicaraguans living in rural areas of the country – especially in the coffee-producing sector – where two out of three people live in poverty and more than 25% of the population struggles to survive on less than $1 a day, according to the report.
“Nicaragua’s advances in poverty reduction over the past 10 years are encouraging, but we also realize there is much to be done, particularly in improving the conditions of the poor in rural areas,” said Amparo Ballivián, World Bank Country Manager for Nicaragua.
The report found a stark contrast in the livelihoods of urban and rural societies, and that poverty reduction varied substantially by region. For example, in the Pacific Rural area, poverty rates fell by 10% between 1998 and 2001, with less significant reductions reported in the Atlantic Rural, Pacific Urban, and Central Urban areas.
Since 1998, poverty has increased in Managua by 1.7%, but the biggest increase in poverty was in the coffee-producing sector, which represents 23% of Nicaragua’s rural population. Extreme poverty shot up 5.7% in the coffee-dependent Central Rural region, while the incidence of poverty among “coffee households” increased by more than 2% (and those numbers represent just the first year of the coffee crisis). In contrast, overall rural households saw a 6% decline in poverty since 1998.
The World Bank report also found that most social indicators have not improved in the last decade. A high teen-pregnancy rate, stagnant education efficiency indicators, and insufficient improvement in basic water and sanitation infrastructure all contribute to the greater panorama of poverty in Nicaragua.
Investment in productive infrastructure also has stagnated since the early 1990s, the report found. The result is decreased access to electricity and a deterioration of roads in rural areas, despite recent efforts by the administration of President Enrique Bolaños to invest in electrification and brick road construction in rural areas.
The report also warns that some of the factors that contributed to the reduction in overall poverty, such as international relief aid following Hurricane Mitch, are not sustainable. “Sustaining Nicaragua’s progress in poverty reduction will require increased productivity,” said Florencia Castro-Leal, World Bank Senior Economist and author of the report.
“The report outlines policy actions to boost productivity, including expanding the coverage and improving the quality of education, and increasing access to productive and basic infrastructure and financial services.” The Nicaragua Poverty Assessment report suggests the government should prioritize maternal and child health services for a broader base of families, especially reproductive health and prenatal care.
The report also says expanded access to social protection interventions linked to situations of crisis can help protect the welfare of the poor, break the poverty trap, and reduce the vulnerability of the poor during difficult times.
Libertarians Call for Public Access Laws
IN an effort to bring more transparencyto the government, the LibertarianMovement Party has proposed a law tofacilitate public access to what theConstitution defines as public information.The party accuses public employeesof abuse and inefficiency in providinginformation to the public.Article 30 of the Constitution says,“Free access to administrative departmentsfor purposes of information onmatters of public interest is guaranteed.State secrets are excluded from this provision.”The bill says the public has access topublic entities, municipalities, public businessesor private businesses with concessionsor permission to provide public services,and other regulated organizations.The bill proposes that entities of thestate should have no more than 10 days torespond to public requests for information.If the response is not provided withinthis period, citizens can file an injunctionwith the Constitutional Chamber ofthe Supreme Court (Sala IV).
