Nicaragua News Service August 7-12, 1994 Vol. 2, No. 34 by Colleen Littlejohn Major news stories for the week ending Saturday, August 13, 1994: 1. Rash of car bomb and TNT explosions. 2. Liberals proclaim party unity. 3. Meeting between FSLN National Directorate and FSLN National Assembly Members. 4. US ambassador laments incident with Leticia Herrera. 5. Malnutrition affects 300,000 children according to MINSA. 6. Rains finally stabilize, but damage done. 7. UNAG inaugurates BANCAM. 8. Nicaragua's team finishes fourth in World Amateur Championship Baseball Tournament. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Rash of car bomb and TNT explosions Nicaragua has been affected during the last two weeks by a rash of bombings (three) and no political or military group has claimed responsibility for the actions. The police have indicated that two of the incidences were related because the different cars involved used the same false license plates. No one was injured in the bombings. The first explosion took place at the National Baseball stadium, three days before the World Amateur Championships were to begin. The second bombing occurred last Sunday night, August 7, in the department offices of the central government in Leon. Dynamite was used and caused damage to the offices of INIFOM (national level municipal planning office) and to neighboring houses. The third incident, the explosion of a car with dynamite, occurred in the town of El Crucero, at the base of the "monument to liberty." This monument was erected last year by the mayor of Managua, Arnaldo Aleman, in memory of one of the first contra leader, Jorge Salazar, and Arges Sequiera, who was killed two years ago by the the Punitive Forces of the Left (FPI), a left wing para military group which took advantage of last year's amnesty. Right wing forces immediately began to accuse Sandinista forces of being involved in the bombing, and specifically mentioned the involvement of the Forces of Workers and Peasants (FROC), who were involved in last years taking over of the city of Esteli. The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights put in a demand for habeas corpus for "Pedrito the Honduran", head of the FROC, who also took advantage of amnesty last year and has received threats from various sources in the last weeks. (Barricada 8/9, 8/10) 2. Liberals proclaim party unity Five Liberal Party factions proclaiming themselves all Liberals, formed an Executive Committee for Liberal Unity last week. The parties involved were the following: Liberal Constitutional Party of Arnaldo Aleman (PLC), The Liberal Independent Party (PLI) of Vice President Virgilio Godoy and Wilfredo Navarro who is the present head of what is left of the UNO coalition, the Liberal Party (PALI), the Nationalist Liberal Party (PLN), and the Liberal Party of National Unity (PLIUN). The Liberal Party was the party of the Somoza dynasty. Navarro did not confirm or deny a possible Liberal-Conservative coalition for the 1996 elections. He also left open the possibility of other alliances, but stated that, "The next electoral alliances will not be characterized by an absurd egalitarianism, as has happened with the UNO coalition, but on the basis of leadership, organization, and national presence." (La Prensa, 8/11) 3. Meeting between FSLN National Directorate and FSLN National Assembly members. Members of FSLN's National Directorate and the 39 FSLN representatives of the National Assembly met last week for over six hours to look for ways to solve the communication problem which has developed over the last several months after the FSLN Congress which did not re-elect Sergio Ramirez, head of the FSLN bench in the Assembly, to his post in the National Directorate. The 39 members of the National Assembly did later ratify Ramirez in his position as party coordinator in the Assembly. The two groups agreed to a monthly meeting and also agreed that the official channel of communication will be a commission comprised of Dora Maria Tellez, Mirna Cunningham, and Benigna Mendiola, all three members of both the National Assembly and the National Directorate. Another topic of discussion in the meeting was the official FSLN position on pending laws such as the Labor Code, the Military Code, the reforms to the Constitution and the naming of a new member to the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. Different participants characterized the meeting as a way to deal with "differences, discrepancies, or misunderstanding" and denied that there was an internal crisis threatening to divide the party. La Prensa's version of the meeting played up the political differences between Sergio Ramirez and Daniel Ortega and stated that Antonio Lacayo and President Chamorro had lost confidence in Ramirez which means that the Center Group in the National Assembly would no longer cooperate with Ramirez in common projects. La Prensa hinted strongly that the Ortega brothers were supporting Lacayo, although the paper did not state for what. (Barricada 8/9; La Prensa 8/12) 4. US Ambassador laments incident with Leticia Herrera The US ambassador to Nicaragua, John Maisto, "lamented" what happened to the Nicaraguan member of the National Assembly for the FSLN, Leticia Herrera who was detained between the 24th and 26th of July in Miami as she returned to Managua, via Miami, from a meeting in Venezuela. Herrera was detained one night in the Krome detention center. Maisto met for two hours with two members of the FSLN National Directorate, Daniel Ortega and Victor Hugo Tinoco and explained that US immigration authorities, after the explosion of the twin towers in New York City, created a list of "terrorists" but stated that with respect to Nicaragua, the list needed to be updated or didn't need to exist given changed circumstances in the country. Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH), denounced the detention before the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission, the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Amnesty International and America's Watch in Washington. (Barricada 8/12) 5. Malnutrition affects 300,000 children according to MINSA The Minister of Health (MINSA), Marta Palacio declared last week that there are over 300,000 children in Nicaragua suffering from malnutrition especially in the north and west of the country as a result of the increasingly alarming unemployment rates and the recent droughts. The Minister stated that the situation is especially alarming in the areas of Leon, Chinandega, Madriz, Nueva Segovia, Matagalpa and Esteli, and that preschool and primary school age children are the most affected. According to the Minister, MINSA is studying the possibility of opening children's feeding centers in the areas most affected, taking as an example the work of SOYNICA, a Nicaraguan NGO that has organized, with the Nicaraguan Community Movement, a total of 25 centers in Managua and 19 in other areas of the country, thus providing nutritional assistance for more that 5,000 preschool children and over 1,200 pregnant women, (Barricada 8/10) 6. Rains finally stabilize, but damage is done. It appears that winter, the Nicaraguan rainy season, finally has begun to normalize in time for the second planting stage of the season, but farmers are worried that bank credit will not be available because of inability to pay for damages suffered from the drought. Banks have been exceptionally quiet about credit availability for the "postrera." The Nicaraguan government appealed to the international community for international aid to combat the effects of the drought which according to the Ministry of Agriculture has affected over 92,000 manzanas of basic grains, directly harming over 57,000 farmers and indirectly, 50,000 agricultural workers. The government requested a total of over $10 million of which $8 million will be used to purchase seeds and other ingredients necessary for the sowing of 90,000 manzanas. of basic grains and sesame seed for the planting season which begins now, called the postrera. The rest of the aid will be used to finance food for work programs for farm families in Region II, Leon and Chinandega, the region most affected by the drought, where 30,000 of a total of almost 39,000 manzanas were lost because of the drought. Aid will also be sent to Region I which lost approximately half its crops. Mexico has been the first country to offer concrete assistance, followed by the European Union. (Barricada 8/9, 8/19) 7. UNAG inaugurated BANCAM Last week the National Association of Small and Medium Farmers and Cattle Ranchers (UNAG) officially inaugurated last week with the presence of Cardinal Obando y Bravo and President Violeta Chamorro, its Bank of the Countryside, BANCAM, which is partly owned (51%) by over 3,000 small and medium farmers, some of whom own only one share. The other 49% has been financed by international NGO's Oxfam America, a consortium of three Dutch NGOs and COSUDE, the official aid organization of the Swiss government. [Editor's Note: US investments in BANCAM can be made through the Nicaragua Center for Community Action. Contact them at: 2140 Shattuck Ave., Box 2063, Berkeley, CA 94704.] The bank will initiate operations on Monday, August 15 with an initial capital of over $2,500,000 which will be made available for the present growing season. Normal banking operations will also be made available to the public. Offices will be opened in rural areas where there is a large concentration of small and medium farmers. Normal credit operations will be done under standard banking procedures in so far as interest rates and collateral, but BANCAM will also administer special programs for farmers who do not qualify for regular credit and whose financing will come from projects financed by international development agencies. Andres Perez Mailanos, president of the new bank, also promised that the bank would continue to pressure the government to legalize land tenure in the countryside. (Barricada 8/9) 8. Nicaragua's team finishes fourth in World Amateur Championship Baseball Tournament. Even the fanaticism of the Nicaraguan people for baseball wasn't enough to fill the stadiums during the recent World Amateur baseball championships, with the exception of the games in which Cuba played Nicaragua, in which Nicaragua hoped for a repeat of the miracle of 1972, the last time Cuba was defeated by the pinoleros. This year's results brought no surprise, Cuba in first place, followed by Korea, Japan, and Nicaragua, a respectful ending for the Nicaraguan all-stars.