NICARAGUA: NGO ATTEMPTS TO ADVANCE

UNCLAS MANAGUA 002499 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/EPSC, AND OES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO EAID ECON ETRD EAGR KIPR NU SUBJECT: NICARAGUA: NGO ATTEMPTS TO ADVANCE ANTI-BIOTECHNOLOGY AGENDA Sensitive but Unclassified. Please protect accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: In recent weeks, the Nicaraguan-based environmental NGO, Centro Humboldt, has stepped up its campaign against the distribution of "biotech food" by the World Food Program (WFP) and Project Concern International (PCI). While the campaign failed to elicit public support, it was launched on the eve of national elections, suggesting that the group was trying to attract the attention of candidates and possible new legislators. Humboldt introduced an anti-biotechnology bill in the National Assembly in 2005, but a series of USDA-led educational programs, targeting key legislators and GON officials, armed law makers with the knowledge they needed to defeat the bill and to introduce a pro-biotechnology bill. International food aid distributors working in Nicaragua predict that Centro Humboldt will attempt to persuade newly elected officials to vote against the pro-biotechnology bill. Food aid distributors are ready to renew efforts to educate the new government about biotechnology. End Summary. ¶2. (U) In recent weeks, the Nicaraguan-based environmental NGO, Centro Humboldt, stepped up its campaign against the distribution of "biotech food" by the World Food Program (WFP) and Project Concern International (PCI). Centro Humboldt propaganda, appearing in local magazines, on television, and in fliers throughout the capital, accused WFP and PCI of distributing food "contaminated by dangerous transgenic organisms." Centro Humboldt is demanding that the National Assembly pass an anti-biotechnology law to block the import of all transgenic organisms into Nicaragua. It is also demanding that WFP and PCI stop importing "risky transgenic food" and, instead, buy from domestic producers. ¶3. (SBU) While the campaign failed to elicit public support, it was launched on the eve of national elections, suggesting that Centro Humboldt was trying to attract the attention of candidates and possible new legislators. Humboldt introduced an anti-biotechnology bill in the National Assembly in 2005, but a series of USDA-led educational programs, targeting key legislators and GON officials, armed law makers with the knowledge they needed to defeat the bill and to introduce a pro-biotechnology bill. Ministry of Health insiders assured Econoff that the pro-biotechnology bill would pass if it were to go before the National Assembly before the end of the year. Insiders doubt, however, that the bill will be presented before year-end and predict that it will probably have to be voted on by the new crop of legislators arriving in January. ¶4. (U) In an October 10th USAID-facilitated meeting, representatives from five international agencies working in Nicaragua unanimously agreed that the current anti-biotechnology campaign was more designed to influence future GON officials than it was the general public. Catholic Relief Services, Adventist Development and Relief Agency, PCI, Save the Children USA, and WFP agreed that any public attempt to counter the campaign would only attract media attention to Centro Humboldt, providing it with a platform to disemminate its message. Food distributors adopted a wait-and-see posture, anticipating that after the elections, Centro Humboldt would seek to persuade newly elected officials to vote against the pro-biotechnology bill. Food aid distributors are ready to renew efforts to educate the new government about biotechnology. (Comment: The Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN),which won the Presidency in the November 5 election, does not have a public position on biotechnology although the party is ideologically linked and often sympathetic to Humboldt positions. End Comment.) BRENNAN