Nicaragua News Service Sept. 24 - Oct. 1, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 40 [Note: The volume number of last week's News Service was listed correctly but the date was incorrect. It should have been Sept. 17 - 23, 1995.] Major news stories for this week: 1. FSLN Announces Primary Elections. 2. Coste$a Airlines Incident Becomes Increasingly Complex 3. Colombia says "no" to dialogue. 4. Community Movement Responds to Price Hikes. 5. Mining Concessions Provoke Criticism. 6. UCA death investigation News Briefs _____________________________________________________________________ 1. FSLN Announces Primary Elections. The FSLN announced a decision by the Sandinista Assembly to hold primary elections on February 4 to choose its candidates for national and local offices. According to the newspaper Barricada, the primaries will be open to all voters, not just those registered as party members. Gilberto Aguirre, Executive Director of the Protestant development organization CEPAD, praised the decision, saying it gives "those who are not in [political] parties...the opportunity to participate in the selection of candidates." Central American University President Xabier Gorostiaga called it a positive step, particularly since "the country needs a process of depolarization before the elections." Ada Luz Monterrey, a radio commentator who has run into trouble with the administration at Radio Sandino which airs two of her shows weekly, said it is a way for the FSLN to "recover its credibility, which has been lost due to the party's internal crisis." The FSLN also announced that it will hold its second ordinary Party Congress in February. Registered party members will be allowed to vote for delegates to the Congress. 2. Coste$a Airlines Incident Becomes Increasingly Complex. Roberto Mayorga, former pilot for the Sandinista Air Force, was arrested in Cali, Colombia, this week. Mayorga is suspected of involvement in the death of Andres Narvaez, pilot for the small Nicaraguan domestic airline La Coste$a. Narvaez was killed in late July and his death has led to the uncovering of a wide-ranging drug trafficking network. The network involves many Nicaraguans and includes Nicaragua as a key stop in drug traffic from Colombia to the United States. Colombian authorities think Mayorga was key in the July 30 hijacking of the plane that Narvaez was flying on a routine Managua-Ometepe flight. Narvaez' body was found some days later in Colombia. According to La Prensa, Mayorga told the Colombian Department of Security (DAS) that he was contracted for $20,000 by a Colombian identifying himself as Marcos Antonio Rodriguez, to carry out an unspecified "task." The newspaper La Prensa says the contract stated that Mayorga was to take over as pilot of the hijacked flight. Though Mayorga is currently living in Colombia with false papers, the authorities there will apparently forego any attempts at prosecuting him, and will instead deport him to face charges in Nicaragua. 3. Colombia says "No" to Dialogue. Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal said late last week that Colombia did not show up for a bilateral meeting to discuss the border dispute between the two nations. The meeting in New York was to take place at the United Nations. "We seriously regret the fact that the meeting will not be taking place within the framework of the UN," Leal said, adding that Nicaragua may have to resort to taking the case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Some diplomatic sources commented that the serious political problems facing Colombian President Ernesto Samper may have contributed to that country's decision not to participate in a dialogue at this moment. In related news, Deputy Foreign Minister Jose Pallais said that Nicaragua will be meeting with Honduras to discuss planned Honduran oil drilling in areas that Nicaragua says are within its territorial waters. A key problem is that there are no clearly delimited maritime borders between the two countries. A joint commission is scheduled to meet in Managua on October 10 to take up the issue. 4. Community Movement Responds to Price Hikes. The Nicaraguan Community Movement has called for a massive march on October 4 to protest recent rate hikes for water and electricity. National Coordinator leader Enrique Picado called the rate hikes "inhuman and brutal" and criticized the government for raising rates as it sits on its hands and witnesses the "epidemics of dengue, malaria, murder and cholera in the country." Picado also called for the formation of neighborhood-based "solidarity brigades" to prevent cut offs of water or electricity service to those customers who do not pay or are behind in their payments. He said these brigades could also defend people who stand to be evicted from their homes or land, even when they are legally backed by Laws 85, 86 or 88. Meanwhile, rice and beef producers said the electricity hikes are "disastrous" for them. The Association of Nicaraguan Rice Growers (ANAR) said thousands of rice growers may well end up out of business, due to a combination of the rise in utility rates and the fact that subsidized rice continues to enter the country. The Catholic hierarchy has also attacked the rate hikes. Bishop Eddy Montenegro said the raise in prices makes much "heavier" the cross that the country's poor sectors must bear. The youth wing of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) held a protest at the National Energy and Light Company (ENEL) installations on Thursday, declaring that the hikes are "strangling the Nicaraguan people," and demanding the removal of Minister Emilio Rappaccioli. In addition to the utility price hikes announced last week, prices for basic goods increased in the markets this week. Prices were up to 5% higher for rice, beans, cooking oil, soap, chicken, sugar and toilet paper, among other items. 5. Mining Concessions Provoke Criticism. Cirilo Otero, head of the Nicaraguan Environmental Movement (MAN), accused the government of essentially giving away some 30% of the country's national territory in a series of mining concessions that will affect huge areas currently set up as natural reserves. Otero says the concessions affect the large Bosawas Forest Reserve in northeastern Nicaragua as well as the SI-A-PAZ reserve along the country's southern border. MAN, the Humboldt Center and the San Juan River Foundation are appealing the concessions in the courts. Otero has asked the National Assembly's Commission on Environment and Natural Resources to intercede with the Ministry of Economic Development. 6. UCA Student Death Investigation The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) has released a report on the death last week of Cardo Jiron, a student at the Central American University (UCA) near the university's experimental farm "La Polvosa," which characterizes the police as acting precipitously and unprofessionally. CENIDH identifies as an principal problem the fact that many of the officers currently serving on the police force do not have the basic knowledge needed to face unpredictable situations and are not always able to control themselves, thus creating dangerous situations for average citizens. Several well-attended protest marches were held this week by university students demanding justice in the Jiron case. There were also several highly-charged meetings in which the university community held the police directly responsible for Jiron's death. Jiron's sister, Calenda Jiron, said "we know all this won't bring my brother back, but it is important that the police take responsibility for what happened, because yesterday it was my brother, and tomorrow it could be somebody else." BRIEFS More on Church Bombings -- Cardinal Miguel Obando told a Managua television station on Tuesday that the US government, through the FBI, is "willing to help" resolve the wave of bombings against Catholic churches throughout the country. Obando said he has discussed the matter with US Ambassador to Nicaragua John Maisto. National Police Chief Fernando Caldera admitted this week that the police were up against "real professionals," and said that though the police have a number of suspects, they are waiting to make the information public until they have all necessary evidence. Property Issue -- FSLN leader Rene Vivas called the government's draft legislation definitively addressing the property issue a "time bomb" that could effectively take away the property currently in workers' hands as well as in the hands of thousands of peasants who received land under Sandinista agrarian reform in the 1980's. According to Vivas, "it's clear that the government has adopted a position openly favoring 'somocismo'". Drug Trafficking -- National Police took two Nicaraguans into custody last Sunday, after finding 15 kg. of cocaine on their persons, in clothes especially designed to foil standard detection equipment. The women had come from Panama, left the airport without incident and then returned to check in for a flight to Paris via Miami. Their arrests would seem to corroborate statements made by Cesar Palma, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Managua. Palma said the Managua airport is playing an increasingly important role in drug trafficking between Colombia and Europe, as well as the more traveled Colombia-US route. New Managua Mayor -- Roberto Cedeno, the recently appointed new mayor of Managua in the wake of Arnoldo Aleman's resignation, announced that he would try to improve relations between his offices and the executive branch, and pledged to work for the "depolitization" of the mayor's office. Privatization of Garbage Collection -- The mayor's office announced late this week that collection of garbage for about 60% of Managua will be taken over by the private Italian firm, ECO Hidrojet. The fee that the municipality charges for garbage collection (up to 24 cordobas monthly, though in many districts it is rarely collected) will remain the same. New dumpsters with the company's logo have already started appearing around the neighborhoods where service is to be privatized. The company's legal adviser, Andres Garcia, said ECO Hidrojet will force the municipal services to be more competitive. Health Crisis -- National epidemiologists said they would be forced to declare a national health alert soon if the government continues to deal with the alarming health situation in the way it has to date-- that is by doing very little. The doctors called the government's behavior "absurd and callous." They criticized the Health Ministry with the exception of Dr. Alvaro Ramirez whom they lauded as the only one in the Ministry's bureaucracy who has been willing to face the bleak reality of the country's health situation. Electoral Observation -- Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal has officially requested United Nations electoral observers for the upcoming Nicaraguan elections in 1996. Radio YA Electricity Cut -- Radio YA, the FSLN station, had its electricity cut on Thursday, prompting accusations that "repressive measures" were being taken against it for political reasons. Radio authorities admit they owe a significant amount on their electrical bill (a not uncommon situation for businesses and institutions here), but claim they had reached an agreement with ENEL, including a payment plan. Guadamuz recently announced his candidacy for Mayor of Managua, and radio spokespeople feel the cut in electricity may be related to that.