Peru Indian protest leader arrives in Nicaragua
Peruvian indigenous leader Alberto Pizango arrived Wednesday in Nicaragua, where he has been granted political asylum after facing charges in his homeland for his role in protests against Amazon development that turned bloody.
Pizango left Lima on a Copa Airlines flight and was greeted in Managua by a Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry representative.
Pizango said he was “astonished, very concerned and very pained” by the deaths, which occurred during protests by Indian groups opposed to government decrees they say will speed the sale of their ancestral lands for oil and gas projects.
Peru’s Amazon-based indigenous peoples have been opposing the decrees since last year, but on June 5 the protests erupted in clashes that left 24 police dead. Indian leaders say at least 30 civilians died.
“The results were disastrous, and even the government can’t deny it any more,” he said.
The government of President Alan Garcia, who had argued the decrees were needed to help the poor nation develop, filed sedition and rebellion charges against Pizango.
He sought refuge in Nicaragua’s embassy in Lima last week and Nicaragua agreed to grant him asylum. On Tuesday, Peru approved his safe passage out of the country.
Peru’s government this week said it would ask congress to repeal the decrees that sparked the deadly protests.
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Nicaragua becomes platform for drug trafficking
Nicaragua is not new on the war on drugs but it seems to be increasing in poularity for trafficing of drugs due to the crack downs in other countries in latin america takeing a tougher stand on the drug gangs. Can the government get back control of the flood of new drugs comeing into the country?
Nicaragua has turned into an important platform for drug trafficking, a report released by the National Police said Friday.
The National Police said it seized about 10 tons of cocaine with a street value of 370 million U.S. dollars in 2008, including 49 kg of heroine and more than 200,000 amphetamine tablets.
More than three million dollars, 79 fire guns, four satellite phones, 518 cell phones, 146 vehicles, 20 boats and six water bikes were also seized in 2008, according to the report.
The report said authorities carried out 2,124 operations against drug traffickers, avoiding the selling of three million doses of cocaine.
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A new adventure travel hotspot: Nicaragua
Until recently Nicaragua has been a no-go zone. Plagued by catastrophic civil war and wedged between the tourism powerhouse of Costa Rica and its northern neighbor Honduras , famous for cheap diving and the Maya ruins of Copán .Nicaragua has quietly stabilized politically and fought to stabilize the second poorest economy in the hemisphere (behind Haiti) in obscurity. Nicaragua has all but been ignored. I find it genuine and the people of Nicaragua the most hospitable people in Central America.
Nicaragua has retained its culture in ways neighboring Costa Rica has not. Tourism is slowly trickling in as people find their way across the borders looking for a more challenging travel route than the gringo trail in Costa Rica. That is not to say Nicaragua isn’t modern but that travel can be a challenge that surrounding countries may not be to those used to a hotel with a star rating.
Nicaragua largely lacks the infrastructure that has come to typify Costa Rica. Eco-tourism is fledgling and resorts exist but most accommodation is generally cheap and sometimes Spartan if you are coming from a more established locale. This is one reason why I would choose Nicaragua NOW. It is on the verge of tourist stardom.
For the time being, Nicaraguan beaches are uncrowded. The Corn Islands , 45 miles off the East coast , are still somewhat isolated. They are some of the most unspoiled and uncrowded diving I have seen anywhere in the Caribbean. No hostel on the island has more than 25 rooms and many families rent out their rooms to travelers for an immersion in the unique Afro-Nicaraguan -Caribbean perspective.
Ecotourism in the center of Nicaragua revolves around mountains rather than the pristine sea. Volcanoes, dormant and active dot the landscape between Granada and Leon. The volcanic islands of Lake Nicaragua make for excellent exploration on horse or on foot. Hiking trails lend a “lost in paradise” kind of feel to a day hike. The cloud forests on the dormant volcanic slopes, such as Mombacho, make for a photographers dream with butterflies, orchids of all species imaginable, and birds in bewildering abundance.
Nicaragua is bursting on to the international travel scene. Beaches are secluded, locals still welcome foreigners into their homes, and the colonial districts of Granada and Leon still pulse with a Nicaraguan spirit, trails are places for reflection on nature. Tourism is taking off. Now is the time for the adventurous at heart, to experience this corner of the world! 67guiybwxm
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Nicaragua decries US moves to cancel aid
Nicaragua’s Sandinista-led government decried Washington’s decision to cancel 62 million dollars in aid following the defeat of opposition candidates in contested municipal elections.
“Since their candidate didn’t win … they (the United States) say that the country cannot be governed,” but when previous right-leaning governments “stole millions, they did not cut the aid,” human rights prosecutor Omar Cabezas told reporters.
The official from President Daniel Ortega’s ruling Sandinista Party (FSLN) namely cited the millions of dollars in public funds misappropriated under president Arnoldo Aleman (1997-2002).
Washington said last week it would freeze 62 million dollars in aid to Managua because “democratic principles” had not been respected during November 9 municipal elections.
Nicaragua has been in political turmoil since the Supreme Electoral Council (SLC) said the FSLN won 105 of the 146 mayoral elections on November 9, which the opposition charged were riddled with fraud and has called to be annulled.
“This is retaliation against President Daniel Ortega for having said the truth in international forums on the imperialistic attitude of the United States in Latin America and across the world,” said former Sandinista guerilla commander Eden Pastora.
Since his return to power in 2006, Daniel Ortega, a big admirer of the Cuban revolution and a former extreme-left guerilla fighter, has jagged relations with the United States, his arch-foe during the 1980s.
The United Nations, the European Union and the United States, as well as several Nicaraguan NGOs, have expressed concern about the transparency of the voting in November, increasingly seen as a referendum on the performance of Ortega.
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WHO recommends rotavirus vaccination for all children
WHO officials have recommended that rotavirus vaccination be included in all national immunization programs.
The recommendation by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts extends an earlier recommendation made in 2005 on vaccination in the Americas and Europe, where clinical trials had demonstrated safety and efficacy in populations with low and intermediate mortality. New data from several clinical trials in developing countries led to the recommendation for global use of the vaccine.
One clinical trial, funded in part by GAVI and conducted by PATH, WHO, GlaxoSmithKline and research institutions in high-mortality, low-socioeconomic settings of South Africa and Malawi, found that the vaccine significantly reduced severe diarrhea episodes due to rotavirus.
While efficacy data from Asian countries are forthcoming, SAGE recommended rotavirus vaccines for all populations, including Asia, since available evidence indicates that efficacy data can be extrapolated to populations with similar mortality patterns regardless of geographic location.
“The GAVI Alliance welcomes this exciting recommendation,” GAVI CEO Julian Lob-Levyt said in a press release. “It represents another important step in our ability to achieve significant impact on under-5 deaths in the world’s poorest communities and make progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. We are extremely excited about the potential to offer African and Asian countries funding to introduce rotavirus vaccines.”
CDC researchers writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week noted reductions in severe rotavirus diarrhea rates in Nicaragua following routine use of the pentavalent rotavirus vaccine there.
In October of 2006, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health added the vaccine to the immunization schedule. The schedule recommends recommending three doses of RV5 for all children between the ages of 2 and 6 months.
Children in four hospitals, in Managua, Jinotepe, Masaya and Matagalpa, Nicaragua were evaluated, as well as all age-eligible children to receive the vaccine who were admitted for confirmed cases of rotavirus diarrhea. CDC researchers selected one to three neighborhood and hospital controls for each patient.
About 1,600 patients provided stool samples, of which 285 were identified with a single rotavirus strain. Two-hundred fifty one children received intravenous hydration and 265 were admitted for about three days. “Of all the cases and controls, 18% and 12% respectively, had not been vaccinated. 12% and 15% received one dose of RV5, 15% and 17% received two doses, and 55% and 57% received three doses,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers concluded children who were administered three doses of RV5 had a lower risk of rotavirus diarrhea that required overnight hospitalization or intravenous hydration. They also noted an increasingly lower risk of severe and very severe rotavirus diarrhea following RV5 vaccination.
The CDC researchers noted that although vaccination reduced the risk of severe rotavirus diarrhea in children younger than 2, it was not to the same extent as has been reported in clinical trials in industrialized nations.
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