Nicaragua News Service May 8-14, 1994 Vol. 2, No. 19 by Colleen Littlejohn Major stories of the week: 1. Pre-FSLN Congress Updates 2. Increased incidents of police brutality 3. US amendment threatens US aid to Nicaragua 4. Nicas involved in Costa Rican banana strike 5. Continued terror in the North 6. Diesel loss off Miskito Keys --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Pre-FSLN Congress Updates With less than one week left before the beginning of the special FSLN Congress, there are increasing signs that no agreements will have been previously made concerning major issues that face the party four years after their electoral defeat in 1990. The UNO has virtually disappeared as a coalition, but conversely, the FSLN has not been able to parallel that disintegration with increasing strength and unity. That has not been the case of the ultra-right wing mayor of Managua, Arnaldo Aleman and his Liberal Constitutional party (PLC), as was recently shown by that party's strength in the elections on the Atlantic Coast. The major pre-Congress event this week was the announcement by National Directorate member Henry Ruiz Hernandez that he had accepted his nomination for the position of Secretary General, which means the Congress must choose between Ruiz and the present Secretary General, Daniel Ortega. Radio Primerisima began almost immediately to attack the candidacy of Ruiz, accusing him of selling himself out to the right wing of the FSLN. Earlier in the week, the Sandinista Assembly met to discuss last minute details and arrangements for the Congress. The Assembly discussed an interpretation of several lawyers who had suggested that the special Congress did not have the authority to elect officials. That premise however was sufficiently refuted. Meanwhile, in a pre-Congress assembly in the Autonomous Region of the Southern Atlantic Coast (RAAS), held last week in the city of Bluefields, FSLN members proposed a type of party "autonomy" for their region, which would parallel the spirit of the national Autonomy Law passed in 1987. Under the proposal, Sandinistas in the RAAS would have separate party structures, and after the upcoming Congress, where the proposal would have to be approved, would create their own political program and party statutes, according to their own cultural reality. (El Semanario 5/12) 2. Increased incidents of police brutality The Nicaraguan police force, which in the 1980's received ample recognition for its honesty and respect for human rights, has come under some heavy scrutiny recently by human rights organizations for their excessive brutality. Still heavy in people's memory is the violent eviction of over 450 families from a squatter settlement in Managua. Neither the population, nor journalists, nor human rights activists on the scene were exempt from the violence, which was denounced in a special report by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), who also denounced that the police did not even have a court order for the eviction. No one in the police force has stepped forward to take responsibility for ordering the 200 members of the special forces of the police into action. CENIDH has also asked permission to confirm or deny a charge that the police are using certain cells that had been used by former State Security to interrogate prisoners. After the bank robbery in the Centroamerica neighborhood over 10 days ago, dozens of ex-military were picked up and questioned and some have denounced the use of psychological torture. There has also been an increase in the number of detained who have been shot and killed trying to escape the police, according to official sources. The most recent case was last week, when a confessed rapist and murderer of a three year old girl was being brought to Leon to avoid being lynched by the outraged population of the small town of Nagarotte. The police reported that the man tried to escape while the police were fixing a flat tire. There are conflicting versions of whether the man died of three shots to the shoulder or one shot to the neck. The father of the man claimed that he was murdered by the police. (El Seminario 5/12; Barricada 5/13) 3. US amendment threatens US aid to Nicaragua US Senator Jesse Helms is back again in the Nicaragua news media with his latest Gonzalez-Helms amendment which includes Nicaragua in its list of countries faced with an ultimatum of 90 days to return all confiscated property to US citizens in Nicaragua or face a total cut off in US aid. Over 20 such cases have been resolved in Nicaragua in the past few years but there is a large list still pending according to Helms, the majority of which are Nicaraguan Somocistas confiscated in 1979, but who have, in the meantime, taken on US citizenship. President Chamorro, however, at least publicly, did not appear to be too disturbed by the measure. Nor was her foreign minister, Ernesto Leal, who stated that the amendment was not applicable to Nicaragua because the country was already following legal procedures designed to resolve the property problems of US citizens. However, others are not so optimistic including Luis Humberto Guzman, president of the National Assembly. Nor were the major representatives of Nicaraguan big business, namely Ramiro Gurdian, President of the Superior Council of Business (COSEP), or Ariel Solorzono, President of the Nicaraguan Association of the Confiscated. Both met with US Ambassador John Maisto, who warned that US aid to the country could be affected if the 1,300 cases still pending of confiscated US citizens were not resolved. Meanwhile, some US citizens in Nicaragua affected by the confiscations, formed their own association last week. It is estimated that at least 700 US citizens are affected and have claimed over 1,300 pieces of property. Big business has stated that the sanctions implicit in the Helms Amendment would be "very serious for Nicaragua," but did not hesitate to ask Maisto to send their message to the US that the mechanisms put in place by the Nicaraguan government to resolve confiscation claims were "illegal and arbitrary." An article in last week's weekly newspaper, El Seminario (May 12), commented that the Helm's amendment could very well affect the $200 million that the government expects to receive shortly from the IMF as part of the package deal which comes from signing the ESAF agreement. The US representatives of the Fund and the World Bank could be legally obliged to veto Nicaragua's request when it comes up to a vote by the directors of these multilateral organizations. What would help the Nicaraguan government in what seems will be inevitable negotiations with the US government over delayed aid (once again) would be a general solution on the property question in Nicaragua, which is being demanded by almost all sectors, left, right, and center. (El Seminario 5/12; La Prensa, 5/12) [Editor's Note: Sec. 527 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act provides an exclusion for the cut-off of aid if a country (offered a domestic procedure providing prompt adequate and effective compensation in accordance with international law... There is also a waiver clause stating, "The President may waive the prohibitions in subsections (a) and (b) for a country, on an annual basis, if the President determines and so notifies Congress that it is in the national interest to do so."] 4. Nicas involved in Costa Rican banana strike 650 Nicaraguan migrant workers were fired by the English transnational company, Geest Caribbean Americas, Ltd. after having participated in a strike along with 200 Costa Rican workers, in a plantation owned by the company in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica. The workers had been promised salary raises which never came through, provoking the strike. According to the nicaraguan workers, the transnational is holding on to their immigration papers as an added threat to the workers. The workers have barricaded the entrance to the farm, and economic activity has come to a standstill. A total of approximately 1,500 people work on the plantation; one half of whom are reported to be illegal immigrants. The workers labor an average of 12 hours a day and receive approximately $200 per month. Over 100 Costa Rican national guard were sent to the scene earlier in the week to clear the access roads to the plantations. Violence was avoided by the timely presence of a local Catholic priest. The access roads, as well as the farms, have been taken over by the workers. The Costa Rican police, 300 strong, returned later in the week, however, and attacked the installations. The workers also responded with arms. As a result of the incident, 18 Nicaraguans and 16 police were wounded and 33 Nicaraguans are under arrest. (La Prensa 5/13; Barricada 5/11, 513, 5/14) 5. Continued terror in the North Armed terror in the North of Nicaragua continues, despite a special military offensive that has dismembered approximately 20 outlaw bands in the last several weeks. Estimates of the number of delinquent groups operating in the First and Sixth Regions run as high as 100. According to Nicaraguan army reports, these groups have killed 92 civilians and kidnapped and held for ransom another 55 in the first four months of 1994. Average ransom demanded is about $50,000. Cardinal Obando y Bravo and a few other politicians have made some public statements that the government should enter into dialogue with the bands, but according to some local newspapers, the population is tired of negotiating with these bands and prefers to have the army hunt them down. A former Resistance (contra) military leader, who would not disclose his name was quoted in last week's El Seminario as stating, "Dialogue has not worked as far as recuperating tranquillity; its only served to fill the pockets of some leaders with money. If today its Northiel (one of the leaders of the delinquent bands), tomorrow, who else will it be?" Meanwhile, over 600 producers from the North met last week to discuss the atmosphere of insecurity in the countryside and how that situation is affecting production. The meeting was called by the National Farmers and Ranchers Union (UNAG). In the meeting, the producers called on the government and the armed forces to end the delinquency problem in the countryside by doing "whatever it takes." The assembly also urged that government to intensify its efforts to resolve the problem of land tenure, and to change the economic policies that are hurting production. (El Seminario 5/12; La Prensa 5/12) 6. Diesel loss off Miskito Keys A vessel flying the colors of Ecuador ran adrift on the coral keys between the islands of San Andres and Corn Island over two weeks ago. Initial reports, out only last week, gave to understand that a total of 60,000 gallons of diesel fuel were spilled, out of a total of 900,000 gallons that the vessel was bringing to the Atlantic Coast cities of Bluefields and Puerto Cabezas. A panamanian vessel nearby was able to transfer most of the oil, avoiding what could have been a major ecological disaster. Later reports spoke of a loss of only 1,273 barrels of diesel fuel. The Nicaraguan Energy Institute (INE) had received notice of a diesel spill a few days after the fact but decided not to make public the news in order not to upset the Coastal population or local economy activists. According to INE, "not a single drop of diesel was spilled." The Ministry of Natural Resources also made an inspection flight over the zone, but admitted that it would be difficult to detect any loss 11 days after the fact. Nicaragua does not have any specialized equipment which could be used to clean up her shores after an oil or diesel spill. (La Prensa 5/12, 5/13)