On Wednesday 6 February 2008 we were called to attend a court-ordered arbitration with Yelba Carvajal, the party bringing the lawsuit against us in our land case. It is customary for civil cases in Managua to go through this arbitration process in an attempt to resolve the situation before it goes to court. Members of both the Nueva Vida women's sewing co-op and the Genesis spinning plant co-op were there outside the session (they were denied entrance) together with supporters from the international community in Nicaragua. In all, there were about 15 of us there.
At the beginning of the arbitration, the arbiter was explaining the process to both parties when Yelba Carvajal said "I understand the process very well." To which the arbiter replied, "Yes, I recognize your face."
As the person bringing the suit, Yelba Carvajal was then asked if there was any possibility of resolving the situation through arbitration, and she replied "Absolutely not, the land is mine and I'm going to take it." With that response, there was not much more to be done in the arbitration session, and it ended without resolution.
The next step is for us to be officially served with the lawsuit, and then we begin a period of submitting evidence and witnesses and then being assigned a court date. These civil suits can drag out for years, which means that everything from the Genesis spinning plant to the proposed ginning plant comes to a halt because we can't move forward with construction on these projects if the title to the land is in dispute. It is urgent that we resolve this situation! If you haven't already, please send an email (sample email below) to the First Lady of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo at rosario@presidencia.gob.ni and copy us at jhc@jhc-cdca.org. So far we've received copies of more than 500 emails that have been sent to Rosario!
