On 11 January 2010 a delegation of members of FRENA (Resistance Front in Defence of Natural Resources and the Rights of People and Communities) held meetings in Guatemala City with various civil society organisations and government authorities, including the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior and the Secretary General of the Presidency. The meetings were organised to present extensive documentation of complaints against DEOCSA, one of the two electricity distribution companies set up by Unión Fenosa.

Shortly after the meetings, the delegation returned to San Marcos. Evelinda Ramírez Reyes and three male FRENA members noticed that their car was followed by a four-door, white car with two passengers, both men of about 22-24 years of age.

At 8:30 pm, near Km. 208, the same car overtook them and blocked the road. The FRENA members´ car was shot at, possibly from another direction, and both Evelinda Ramírez and the driver were hit. The driver and two other passengers were able to escape from the car and hide from their attackers. Once the assailants had left the scene, the driver and the two other passengers returned to the car, where Evelinda had died from her wounds. Nothing was stolen during the attack.

Evelinda Ramírez was 26 and a single mother with a 5 year old son. She was a member of FRENA and president of the board of the community of Chiquirines, Ocós in the department of San Marcos. She was also a member of the Peasant Unity Committee (CUC).

By the end of 2009, no less than sixteen of the organisation’s members had been assassinated. Unión Fenosa denied any responsibility for the assassinations.

In February 2010, fifty organisations, trade unions and Spanish parties sent a letter to President Colom and to the directors of Unión Fenosa declaring that these assassinations had resulted from the social activism and opposition to the high costs charged by DEOCSA. The letter also pointed out the responsibility of the Spanish government in ensuring the continuing impunity enjoyed by the assassins.

2010 witnessed more assassinations of FRENA members.

Sources:
Martín Cúneo, (15 April 2010) ‘Ocho activistas opuestos a Unión Fenosa asesinados en seis meses en Guatemala’, Revista Amauta, http://revista-amauta.org/2010/04/ocho-activistas-opuestos-a-union-fenosa-asesinados-en-seis-meses-en-Guatemala (accessed 12 July 2010).
NISGUA-United States (together with a collection of similar solidarity organisations) (2010) Urgent Action bulletin.
Wikipedia ‘Unión Fenosa’, http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni%C3%B3n_Fenosa (accessed 12 July 2010)

Even in Costa Rica where at least 90 per cent production of electricity from renewable sources, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) has been blamed for failing to invest in new sources of renewable energy, this leading “to the increase in reliance on fossil fuels to generate energy.”[i] In 2000, however, attempts to privatise the ICE sparked public protests and strikes on a huge scale, grand enough to force withdrawal of the proposed legislation. “Few argue that the services don’t need improvement, but opponents say the bill is too deeply tied to the personal financial interests of several political families.”[ii] Efforts to privatise the electricity generation sector disappeared from view for a few years, and from 2005 to 2007, the amount of power produced by thermal (fossil fuels-based) energy crept up from 3.5 to 8.2 per cent.[iii]

In February 2008, then President Oscar Arias announced his goal that Costa Rica would become carbon neutral by 2021. Since then, efforts to privatise have begun to re-surface, linked to attempts to increase the proportion of energy produced by renewable sources. Interestingly, the privatisation moves are also linked to attempts to promote small-scale energy generation. In March 2011, Arias’s successor, President Laura Chinchilla, issued a decree ordering ICE officials to promote small-scale power generation on the grounds that opening the electricity market to private companies would boost “the growth of small-scale power-producing businesses across the country.”[iv] Carlos Wahrman, an energy consultant, explains the thinking behind this move:

The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE) has been designed to take on enormous endeavours, such as blasting mountains, building dams, flooding acres of land and changing landscapes. But ICE is totally unable to build small power generation plants because of its size. That’s where private initiative steps in.[v]

Rather than an explanation, this sounds like questionable reasoning for privatisation, and it highlights the problems caused by large-scale electricity generation with its talk of blasting mountains and flooding acres of land. It also raises the question of why large companies or institutions are unable to work at the small-scale. Logically, it is easy to see why small companies may not be able to work at the large-scale; but there is no reason why large companies cannot work at the small-scale. With such feeble justifications it is not surprising that opposition to the privatisation promotion strategy is likely to rise again. As José María Villalta, a congressman for the Broad Front Party has said:

We have an electricity generation strategy that has worked almost flawlessly. The country has decided to take the path of renewable, cheap, environmentally friendly energies, and ICE has performed amazingly. The only people that would like to see energy competition under free-market rules are the ones who would [financially] benefit from it.[vi]

Indeed, in 2011 there was certainly some salivating within the business community that the privatisation of the ICE was likely in the near future, as a Business News Americas headline testified: “ICE seen likely to consider privatisation within next 5 years.”[vii] As a clear supporter of privatisation, President Laura Chinchilla and the business community are waiting only for the right moment when they consider they can gain approval for the ICE privatisation, but it is unlikely to occur without a fierce battle with a Costa Rican public that has managed to defeat the move once already and has been emboldened by victory in other battles such as a ban on oil exploration.

[i] Mike McDonald (4 September 2009) ‘Rising Energy Needs Prompt New Bill’, Tico Times, San José, Costa Rica.
[ii] Megan Stacy (19 April 2000) ‘Costa Rica: Strikes, marches force delay of privatisation’, Green Left Weekly, Australia, www.greenleft.org.au/node/22511 (accessed 24.07.11).
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Rommel Téllez (15 April 2011) ‘Chinchilla Administration Furthers Push For Renewable Energy Sources’, The Tico Times, San José.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Business News Americas (28 April 2011) ‘ICE seen likely to consider privatisation within next 5 years’, Business News Americas, http://www.bnamericas.com/news/telecommunications/ice-seen-likely-to-consider-privatization-within-the-next-5-years1 (accessed 26.07.11).

Nicaragua News Bulletin 11 May 2010 – May 2010

In an effort to reduce dependency on petroleum, Nicaragua’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) has set the goal of running entirely on renewable energy by 2016. Today, approximately 30% of Nicaragua’s energy comes from renewable sources (including geothermal, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass) while the other 70% comes from oil.

A number of projects (both public and private) are helping to change these percentages and make the Ministry’s goal a reality. Iceland’s International Development Agency will support growth within the geothermal sector with over US$4 million. Director Gil Paison said that the objective was to strengthen the capacity of Nicaragua’s central government and the ministries and agencies involved in the geo-thermal energy field.

Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli recently visited the geothermal project ran by Polaris Energy and Queiroz Galvao, a Brazilian company, at San Jacinto-Tizate. The companies are currently expanding the capacity of the plant and installing new technology. They hope that by next April it will be producing 36 megawatts (up from 10 megawatts), enough energy to supply the departments of Chinandega and Leon. Tom Ogryzlo, head of Polaris Energy Nicaragua, said, “I have worked in many countries around the world and in only a few places have I seen the support from a government similar to that which has been offered by this government.” A total of US$151 million has been invested in this phase of the operation.

Rappaccioli said that by 2012, the geothermal plants at San Jacinto-Tizata and Momotombo will be producing between them 72 megawatts of electricity. Polaris Energy already has a contract to sell energy to Union Fenosa (the Spanish-owned electricity company which runs Nicaragua’s energy distribution network) at US$92 per megawatt hour. (La Prensa, May 6; Radio La Primerísima, May 7, 8)