Please delete if you have no interestTa!
Steve Lee
University of Glamorgan

>  
> Please find enclosed an urgent action in response to the disaster in
> Nicaragua and Honduras.  Please circulate as widely as possible. This
> along
> with many other articles is available on our weekly-updated website.
> 
> > URGENT ACTION
> > 
> > Ask the Chancellor to cancel debts owed by Nicaragua and Honduras
> > 
> > Jubilee 2000 Coalition is calling on Gordon Brown to take a lead in
> > helping the people of Nicaragua and Honduras to recover from the
> > devastation of Hurricane Mitch, by cancelling the debts owed to Britain
> > and persuading others to do the same. 
> > 
> > As aid agencies draw up emergency plans to bring relief to the region,
> > Honduras and  Nicaragua together pay out more than two million dollars
> > (£1.4m) every day in debt payments. The huge debt burden is a strain on
> > Nicaragua and Honduras at the best of times. Now, when they have been
> hit
> > by disaster, it is a noose around their necks, slowly being pulled
> > tighter. 
> > 
> > The Honduras Jubilee 2000 campaign was due to hold a Latin American-wide
> > Jubilee 2000 conference this week, but had to cancel following the
> > devastating floods.  In an appeal today they called for the immediate
> > cancellation of Honduras and Nicaragua's debts.  Francisco Marchado of
> the
> > Honduras Jubilee 2000 campaign said: "We need debt cancellation now more
> > than ever if we are to rebuild our devastated country." 
> > 
> > It is extremely disappointing that the Secretary of State for
> > International Development, Clare Short, described debt relief as "an
> > irrelevance" in the aftermath of the hurricane (BBC Radio, 6 November).
> Of
> > course there is an immediate need for emergency relief. But cancelling
> the
> > unpayable debts of Honduras and Nicaragua would release resources that
> > could be spent on rebuilding these devastated countries. Honduran
> Commerce
> > and Industry Minister Reginaldo Panting told the Washington Post that
> > Honduras would like to see international creditors forgive "much of the
> > country's $4 billion foreign debt so that the nation can rebuild."
> > 
> > Entire villages in the north of Honduras are under water, and as many as
> a
> > third of the houses in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, where 1
> million
> > people live, have been badly damaged or swept away by the raging waters
> of
> > the Choluteca River. In Nicaragua over a thousand people were killed
> > following a mud and rock landslide caused by the overflowing of a lake
> in
> > a volcano crater.
> > 
> > Against this tragedy, is the huge burden of external debt. Honduras's
> > total external debt has tripled since 1980 and stood at $ 4.5 billion in
> > 1996. Nicaragua's total external debt is $5.9 billion, and until
> recently
> > Nicaragua had the highest debt per capita of all countries in the
> > developing world. Both countries are in the Heavily Indebted Poor
> > Countries Initiative, but debt relief under the initiative is not due
> for
> > many years. Nicaragua will have to wait until 1999 before a decision on
> > how much debt relief it will receive, and then have up to three years
> > longer before receiving anything. Honduras, however, will not reach a
> > decision point within HIPC until 2001, and the IMF holds the view that
> > Honduras does not need full HIPC debt relief.
> > 
> > This natural disaster throws a new and tragic perspective on the scandal
> > of the international debt crisis, and the shame of creditor countries
> and
> > banks who continue to demand payment. Government resources in Nicaragua
> > and Honduras urgently need to go to the massive recovery programme.
> There
> > is no room for the servicing of external debt in the current emergency,
> > and Jubilee 2000 calls upon the creditor countries and institutions to
> > recognise this reality and to cancel all due debt repayments from these
> > two countries immediately.
> > 
> > What you can do
> > Write to the Chancellor, Gordon Brown MP, 11 Downing St, London SW1A 2AB
> > and the Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short
> MP,
> > DfID, 94 Victoria St, London SW1E 5JL. 
> > 
> > Explain that, as long as Honduras and Nicaragua continue to spend
> > (respectively) 80% and 51% of government revenue on debt service, their
> > efforts to rebuild after the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch will
> be
> > severely hampered. 
> > 
> > Call on the government to cancel the debt owed to the UK by Honduras and
> > Nicaragua. 
> > 
> > Ask Gordon Brown and Clare Short to call an urgent meeting of G7
> > colleagues and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to
> encourage
> > cancellation of all unpayable debts owed by these two countries.
> > 
> > Express disappointment that Clare Short described debt relief as
> > irrelevant. Emergency relief is needed immediately, but cancelling the
> > unpayable debts of Honduras and Nicaragua would release resources that
> > could be spent on rebuilding these devastated countries.
> > 
> > Write to your MP as well and ask him/her to make the same call to the
> > Ministers too.
> > 
> >  <<Honduras & Nicaragua action.doc>> 
> > 
> > 
>