Orchid exhibit
Through Sunday, Grecia Library, Grecia, Alajuela.

Swing en 4 and Doug Cameron in concert
Salsa, 8 p.m., National Theater, Avenida 2, between Calles 3 and 5, 2221-9417.

Peace day festival
Featuring craft and vegetarian food sales, concert by Santos & Zurdo and NoisNois, 7 p.m., CENAC. Free entrance.

Rhythm & Beats in concert
Jazz, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Citing “deep concern” over Nicaragua's democratic process, the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) announced yesterday that it is freezing $64 million in aid pledged to Nicaragua over the next year and a half.

A day after U.S. Congressman Howard L. Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the MCC to suspend its $175 million program in Nicaragua due to concerns over the decline of democracy here, the U.S. developmental-aid organization announced Nov. 25 that it is suspending all disbursements for new projects not under contract.

In a press release sent out yesterday afternoon, Ambassador John Danilovich, CEO of MCC, expressed “deep concern and disappointment” over the Nov. 9 municipal elections in Nicaragua, which have been riddled with allegations of fraud, and he ordered MCC to re-evaluate its compact with Nicaragua.

“We had hoped, for the sake of the Nicaraguan people, that the government would continue the country's trend towards peaceful, democratic and credible elections,” Ambassador Danilovich said. “I am afraid recent evidence shows that this is not the case.” 

Sarah Stevenson, media relations officer for the MCC in Washington, D.C., told The Nica Times in a phone interview yesterday that the MCC has already contracted $111 million of the $175 million it committed to Nicaragua. That means an outstanding $64 million has been frozen.

Stevenson said that most current projects and employees of the MCC in Nicaragua will not be affected, but that the organization will not be disbursing funds for any new projects. However, the “N1” highway under construction from Managua to León could now suffer from some “potential hold ups,” and other projects such as land titling in León and rural business development in Chinandega could be affected, Stevenson said.

César Zamora, president of the Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), told The Nica Times yesterday that a suspension of MCC funding for Nicaragua would be a “nuclear bomb for the economy” and urged the U.S. government to give Nicaragua some time to find its way out of the woods.

Danilovich acknowledged that concern in yesterday's release.

“I am very concerned about the impacts any holds on our program will have on Nicaragua's poor, so it is taken very seriously and with the hope that the Nicaraguan government will do all it can to reestablish what has been an effective partnership,” he said.

Danilovich added, “We call on the government to return to democratic norms and respect for the democratic process.”

The release said that the MCC “will continue to monitor the situation” and that its board of directors will discuss the next steps for Nicaragua's eligibility during its next meeting on Dec. 11.

The MCC's five-year grant for Nicaragua was signed July 14, 2005, and “seeks to support those living in the Departments of León and Chinandega by significantly increasing incomes of rural farmers and entrepreneurs,” according to MCC.

President Daniel Ortega initially mocked the MCC compact for taking a “millennium” to show any benefits, but after a Jan. 23 meeting with Danilovich he publically applauded the program by shouting, uncharacteristically, “ ¡Que viva el pueblo de los Estados Unidos!”

The Costa Rican government will likely issue a state of emergency decree today in the wake of continuous rain and flooding on the country's Caribbean side in which at least one person has died and thousands more have been forced from their homes.

In a televised address, President Oscar Arias, preparing to travel to Qatar, said he has instructed acting President Francisco Antonio Pacheco and several high government officials to visit the villages most affected “to evaluate the damage and to sign an emergency decree, mobilizing all the institutions to contribute resources to attend to the victims.”

More than 5,300 people have been moved to 73 shelters in towns stretching from the north-central canton of Sarapiquí to Talamanca and Matina, both in the Caribbean province of Limón, according to CNE press release.

A man died Monday from electrocution caused by the flooding in his home in the Caribbean slope town of Siquirres, the Red Cross said.

“Thousands of Costa Ricans have had to evacuate their homes empty handed and only with the clothes they have on. Hundreds of families are still cut off, and our authorities have not been able to reach them to bring them assistance. Whole towns are sleeping in shelters, wondering what will become of their homes and their belongings. There are banana plantations that have lost everything,” Arias said.

Extensive damage to roads and bridges has isolated entire communities from relief. A bridge on the road to the popular Puerto Viejo beach collapsed, and today workers will build a temporary structure to restore traffic, according to the Public Works and Transport Ministry.

The president called for public cooperation and solidarity. “We cannot stop the rain, but we can help the victims,” he said.

Arias urged citizens to donate cans of food and clothing to their nearest Red Cross office.

The U.S. Southern Command yesterday flew helicopters down to Costa Rica's Limón Airport yesterday afternoon to give assistance to Panama, where airports are flooded by continuous rains, the U.S. Embassy in San José said.

At first the embassy was not certain how many landed, but four helicopters were to be sent, according to CNE.

In the western Panamanian provinces of Chiriqí and Bocas del Toro, at least seven people have died, another 7,700 have been forced from their homes and many roads and bridges have been damaged, according to the news agency EFE.

The U.S. Embassy said it is requesting further humanitarian support for Costa Rica.

The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court this week annulled a 2004 government decree authorizing the logging of coastal forests for eco-tourism projects.

The decree was issued by the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET) in April 2004 but was suspended two months later when the high court took up an injunction filed by MINAET workers and Alvaro Sagot, an environmental law professor.

“The decree had a first and last name,” Sagot said. “It was made for someone in particular that needed to cut down forest to build hotels.”

Sagot declined to identify whom he believed the bill was meant to benefit.

According to the text of the decree, its purpose was to regulate eco-tourism, defining it as tourism developments that “simultaneously promote environmental education, the conservation of natural resources, the socioeconomic development of the inhabitants, (and) that reflect an environmental conscience and identity.”

The decree also limited the definition to coastal projects that fell within the first 200 meters inland from the ocean, which is state-owned land known as the maritime zone. Land there can be developed for tourism under a concession. However Costa Rican law prohibits the logging of any land declared as forest, and the concession of any coastal forest.

The Environment Ministry decree, signed by former environment minister Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and former President Abel Pacheco, allowed “eco-tourism” projects to get concessions on forested property and to build over as much as 15 percent of an area declared old growth or primary forest, and 25 percent if the forest is second growth.

The decree required the project to have its due permits and a forest management plan to cut down any trees in a forested area, but the decree does not appear to limit how many trees could be logged.

The court, however, found that permitting the logging of forest on government land is unconstitutional and ruled to annul the long-suspended decree.