Nicaragua News Service Vol. 2, No. 32 July 24-30, 1994 by Colleen Littlejohn Major stories for the week: 1. CNT warns of upcoming transport strike. 2. Human rights organization investigates repression on banana plantations. 3. FSLN begins election process. 4. Gold found in San Francisco Libre. 5. CSE requests $40.6 million to prepare for 1996 elections. 6. Violeta states: "Property conflict to be solved here." 7. PLC sabotages session of RAAN regional council meeting. 8. Leticia Herrera detained and outraged in Miami. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. CNT warns of upcoming transport strike. Leaders of the National Transportation Commission (CNT) gave the government a deadline of July 29th to initiate negations with them about a series of demands that include rates, fuel subsidies, and debt renegotiating. The CNT declared that if the government did not begin negotiating, the transport workers would declare a national strike this coming week. One CNT transport spokesperson stated: "Our members, especially those transport workers in the North that have suffered the destruction of their trucks by irregular forces, want to declare a national strike in the next days because of the terror that they are living in." The workers, however, he insisted, want to negotiate, but have been unable to get a meeting with Pablo Vigil, the Minister of Transport. (Barricada 7/28) 2. Human rights organization investigates repression on banana plantations. Banana workers and their union leaders from the Leon and Chinandega areas of Region II testified before the Nicaraguan Commission of Human Rights (CENIDH), that they have been persecuted and their union repressed by the owners of large plantations, including that of Ramiro Gurdian, a presidential hopeful for 1996. Roberto Ruiz, President of the Federation of Banana Workers, testified that since the privatization process began in the banana industry, over 1264 workers have been fired -- including 20 union officials, 10 of whom have been jailed. The struggle against union repression and the loss of work-places has been ongoing for the past two years. In the case of Ramiro Gurdian and one of his plantations, the Candelaria, the area courts ruled in favor of the workers, but Gurdian has defied court orders and refuses to pay the workers what they are due. Soon the court is supposed to auction the farm in order to pay the workers their indemnization, which is more than $1 million. Later this week, Dr. Vilma Nunez, President of CENIDH, another person who is being mentioned as a possible FSLN candidate for the presidency, will visit the area. In the past two years the area has seen the closing of eight of the fifteen banana plantations -- all without permission of the Ministry of Labor to lay off their workers. (Barricada 7/28) 3. FSLN begins election process. The FSLN hopes to include 60,000 of their party's militants in what was described as "the newest and most democratic party electoral system ever." Last week saw the conclusion of the training of the FSLN municipal electoral committees throughout the country, thus fulfilling the first phase of the FSLN electoral plan. Meanwhile, La Prensa reported that former Vice-President Sergio Ramirez, chief of the FSLN block in the National Assembly, was investigating a possible 1996 electoral alliance between the FSLN, the Christian Democratic Party (UDC), the Social Democrats (PSD), and the "Group of the Center." (La Prensa 7/27; Barricada 7/25) 4. Gold found in San Francisco Libre. Last week word was out that gold had been found in the area of the small town of San Francisco Libre, located approximately 20 miles outside of Managua. The area has a population of almost 10,000 people, the majority of whom are unemployed and barely can manage to survive by selling firewood, an activity which has ecologically devastated the area. Rumors about gold had been alive for almost over 100 years, but it was the implementation of a potable water project, financed by an Italian non-governmental agency, MOLIVS, that brought the rumors to a head once again. Nicaragua engineers, when doing soil sampling, realized that the water held an extraordinary amount of metallic substances. They sent the samples to Italy for study and continued on-site investigations. Six months later the study of the samples confirmed deposits of gold as well as five other valuable metals including silver. The community, together with MOLIVS, have formed an organization to exploit the mines, and will soon request permission from the Nicaraguan government to exploit an area of eight square kilometers. According to the plan, after an initial investment of $300,000 on the part of the Italians, 15% of the profits will go to the owners of the land and 60% will remain with MOLIVS to invest the major part of those profits into development projects for the area. (Barricada 7/26; La Prensa 7/27) 5. CSE requests $40.6 million to prepare for 1996 elections. The fourth branch of the Nicaraguan government, the Supreme Electoral Council, is requesting a total of $40.6 million, including over $23 million from international sources. This money will be used to fund the modernization of the Nicaraguan electoral process which will culminate on the first Sunday of November of 1996, with national and local elections as well as elections for the Nicaraguan representatives of the Central American parliament. "We need this support from the international community so that the development of democratic electoral processes in Nicaragua will be irreversible," stated Dr. Mariano Fiallos, President of CSE and whose name has also been mentioned recently as a possible FSLN candidate for the presidency. The amount requested will finance a process of providing election identification cards to all Nicaraguan citizens over 16 years old and will also finance the elections themselves. The CSE request has been supported by all major political forces in Nicaragua, but for different reasons. Antonio Lacayo, Minister of the Presidency, who hopes to become president himself, states that the amount needed was an "investment" in democracy. Right-wing politicians thought it urgent to come with proper identification to avoid an election fraud which would benefit Lacayo. (Barricada, 7/27) 6. Violeta states: "Property conflict to be solved here." On July 29th the 90-day deadline to resolve property conflicts with US citizens or risk the loss of US aid, expired. Last week the Nicaraguan government was confident that their country would not be affected given that mechanisms, however slow, were in place for finding just solutions to the pending problems for both Nicaraguan and US citizens. It is expected that the US official position will be favorable for Nicaragua, despite the pleas of those organized in the Association of Confiscated. They and their major US ally, Senator Jesse Helms, insist that the US block both bilateral and multilateral aid to Nicaragua. (La Prensa 7/27) [Editor's Note: On July 29 Secretary of State Warren Christopher gave Nicaragua a "national interest waiver" to the law that would cut off US aid. The use of the waiver means that the State Department acknowledges that Nicaragua would have its aid cut off under the new law, but that it is in the national interest of the US not to do so. Christopher must renew the waiver every six months or the aid will be cut off. Source: Central America Working Group 7/29] 7. PLC sabotages session of RAAN regional council meeting. Elected officials of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) have made it difficult for the Regional Autonomous Council of the North Atlantic to function. They have stated: "Until we are given control of the mayorships of Waspam, Siuna, and Prinzapolka, no one will be able to guarantee stability in the region." Last week when the council tried to hold a session, tactics of the PLC made serious discussion impossible. Representatives of the FSLN and Yatama left the session in protest against the manipulations of the minority PLC forces. 8. Leticia Herrera detained and outraged in Miami. On July 24th the Nicaragua National Assembly member Leticia Herrera was detained, insulted, imprisoned, and psychologically tortured for two days by US migration agents, while in transit from a meeting of the Latinamerican Parlamente (PARLATINO) in Venezuela. The well-known member of the Sandinista Party was in transit in the Miami airport traveling on her diplomatic passport and on international diplomatic service. She was detained by force, subjected to hours of abusive interrogation, and held without communications to her family or government officials by telephone or other means. US immigration agents forcefully deprived her of all documents, personal and official, and humiliated her personally because, according to them, she was "included in a list of terrorists furnished by the Nicaraguan government" to the US Immigration Department. Nicaraguan Secretary of State, Ernesto Leal, denies knowledge of any such list existing or being made available by his government. (Barricada 7/29) Paul Bary Reference Librarian Latin American Library Tulane University New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 phone: (504) 865-5691 / fax: (504) 862-8970 e-mail: pbary@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu