Nicaragua News Service
                        Oct. 1 - Oct. 8, 1994
                            Vol. 2, No. 42
                        by Coleen Littlejohn
 
[Editors Note: Our Managua correspondent, Coleen Littlejohn, has 
largely recovered from Dengue Fever and here submits a summary which 
includes some items from the week of Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 1994.]
 
Major news stories for the week:
1. Demand grows to raise health and education salaries.
2. Government asks for silence on corruption cases
3. Constitutional reform commissions hold hearings.
4. Nicaragua is debt case for alternative forum.
5. MINSA demands budget increase.
6. Al Gore's advance team arrives.
7. Community Movement reactivates solidarity brigades.
8. FSLN representative in National Assembly dies.
9. Biography of Cardinal Obando released.
10. Rash of suicides in Chinandega.
11. Pope receives Lacayo and Aleman.
___________________________________________________________________________
 
1. Demand grows to raise health and education salaries.
 
Newspapers continue to report that the prices of basic goods are still
rising.  The "basic market basket" of 52 products now costs over 1000 
cordobas ($140) per month, much higher than the average salary of a 
Nicaraguan teacher or health worker which is about $45 per month.  
There is still, however, no sign that the government is willing to 
consider pay raises for 1995 for public sector workers, even though 
they have not seen a pay raise since 1990.
 
Meanwhile, the teachers affiliated with ANDEN and the National 
Confederation of Teachers have presented a petition to the Ministry 
of Labor signed by 5000 members in which they demand a pay raise of 
80%.  The actual salary of a Nicaraguan teacher does not buy even a 
third of the basic consumer market basket.  Over 2000 Nicaragua 
teachers leave their profession every year because of the low 
salaries.
 
Representatives of the National Assembly had also requested a salary 
raise from the Ministry of Finance from next year's budget but the 
Minister reminded the deputies that no one was getting raises.  A 
legislator's salary in 1990 was the equivalent of $2,200 but has now 
eroded to a little less than $1,400.  Due to the bad publicity given 
their salary request, the legislators, especially from the FSLN, 
retracted their request and stated that it was a mistake and that they 
preferred to see raises given to health, education and police workers.  
Legislators were also quick to point out the hypocrisy of the attempt 
of the Minister of Finance to earn political capital out of their 
request, given that Ministers of the Government earn a salary of at 
least $5,000 per month, most of it covered by hidden payrolls financed 
by different projects funded by external sources.
 
4.  Government asks for silence on corruption cases.


The last two weeks have seen extensive media coverage of issues of 
government corruption within different ministries of the Chamorro 
government.  There has been very little comment from the executive 
branch with the noted exception of a request for everyone to "be 
quiet" in the much commented case of a public fight between the 
Minister of Natural Resources, Jaime Incer, and his two vice 
ministers.  The vice-ministers have each been accusing the other of 
negligence and administrative corruption at a time when Nicaragua is 
about to host an international Ecology Summit to be attended by 
most of the Latin American presidents.
 
In another interesting case, the lawyers of former COSEP president, 
Ramiro Gurdian, who is about to have his property taken by the 
National Development Bank for an outstanding debt of almost $2 million, 
showed up at the property register office to register the sale of his 
plantation to his wife and children, thus apparently thwarting the 
bank's foreclosure papers.
 
Not so lucky was the Nicaraguan Cigar Company, a worker-owned 
enterprise in Esteli.  The company will soon lose to public auction a 
total of eight tobacco farms, 12 tractors, buildings and other 
equipment valued at over $2 million for a debt of only $300,000 plus 
an additional $300,000 in interest.  (Barricada, Oct. 5, 1994)
 
7.  Constitutional reform commission holds hearings.
 
Hearings have begun with different sectors of Nicaraguan society on 
their opinions about the project of Constitutional reforms now pending 
in the Nicaraguan Assembly.  One of the persons to testify before the 
Commission last week was Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, who spoke out 
against presidential re-election but was more flexible in the face of 
a current president's blood relatives or relatives by marriage running 
for office as long as those persons were not corrupt.  
 
The representative of the Catholic Church also asked that the State 
guarantee religious education, the right to life and that common law 
marriages not be given the same rights as legal marriages .
 
President Chamorro was also sent a letter inviting her to testify but 
she refused, stating that the letter sent was "inadequate" and that 
she had not been invited properly.  (Barricada, Oct. 6, 7, 1994)
 
8.  Nicaragua is debt case for alterative forum.
 
At the alternative meeting to the official World Bank and IMF 50th 
anniversary meetings held last week in Madrid, a forum made up of non-
governmental organizations and popular movements decided to use 
Nicaragua as a test case to measure the capacity of the World Bank and 
the IMF to give "rational treatment" to those low income countries 
which are heavily in debt.  During the alternative forum, a letter was 
circulated that was signed by the Acting President of the Nicaraguan 
National Assembly, Reynaldo Antonio Tefel, FSLN deputy and former 
Minister of Social Welfare under the Sandinista government.
 
Tefel stated that the National Assembly was not in favor of the 

agreement signed earlier this year between the IMF and the Nicaraguan 
government.  In this accord the government agreed to increase debt 
payments until the end of the century to a level which would mean 
paying out an equivalent of 20% of all exports during that time.  The 
Assembly calculates that the government will instead be paying out 
more than 44% of all exports during the next six years for debt 
services, which in effect means that foreign aid will be used to pay 
debts rather than to develop the country.
 
9.  Health Ministry demands budget increase.
 
Budget discussions for 1995 are advancing within the Ministry of 
Finance (MIFIN) and last week the Ministry of Health (MINSA) formally 
requested a budget of more than $100 million.  The ceiling placed by 
MIFIN for Health, however, is only $57 million.  MINSA's 1994 
budget was only $66 million and that Ministry has already had to ask 
for $13 million more to be able to have a minimum inventory of 
medicines in hospitals and health centers.  Per capita health spending 
in 1994 is at a level of $16 per person per year, the minimum 
recommended even by the World Bank.  Per capita spending will drop to 
$13 per year for 1995 if more money is not found in the budget.
 
In her request for more money, Health Minister and former Vice-
Minister of Finance, Marta Palacio, stated "We know it is difficult 
but it is the only way to assure that health conditions in the country 
do not continue to deteriorate."  The Minister will ask the National 
Assembly and the Presidency to support her new budget proposals.
 
The nation's health budget for the past few years has been the 
following (in millions of dollars):
      1990    $77.7
      1991     62.8
      1992     63.8
      1993     70.3
      1994     66.6              (Barricada, Oct. 6, 1994)
 
10.  Al Gore's advance team arrives
 
Albert Gore, Vice-President of the United States, will be in Nicaragua 
for approximately five hours this week to attend the "Ecological 
Summit" to be held in Managua from October 13th to the 16th.  Sixteen 
Secret Service agents are already in the country checking out routes 
and itineraries in order to prepare for the vice-president who will 
arrive with his bullet-proof limousine on board his government jet.  
Another 105 persons will arrive with the Vice-President including 
aides and more security staff.  
 
11.  Neighborhood community leaders throughout the country agreed to 
reactivate neighborhood solidarity committees to prevent the wave of 
evictions expected if the National Assembly does not pass another 
extension to the law that forbids evictions.  The present law expires 
on October 19th.  Over 50 brigades have already been formed in Managua.  
 
Enrique Picado, national head of the Community Movement, went to the 
National Assembly last week to demand that the law be extended.  If it 
is not, he stated, "we will see again the problems of last March and 

April when over 450 families were violently evicted from Villa 
Reconciliation and when a house was burned down on the South highway.  
We will not permit the eviction of any of the beneficiaries of laws 85 
or 86 or of any of the residents of the over 300 squatter settlements 
in Managua."  Picado also demanded that the Assembly pass a suitable 
version of the property conflict law.  
 
Last week three war-handicapped as well as another four civilians 
were beaten up and detained by the police when they tried to stop the 
eviction of a couple and their four children from their house in 
Bolonia, where they had lived for the past fifteen years.  The judge 
had ruled in favor of the ex-owner and stated that even though the 
couple had rented the house from the now extinct Ministry of Housing, 
the state was actually never legal owner of the property.  (Barricada, 
Oct. 6, 7, 1994)
 
8. FSLN Representative in National Assembly dies.
 
On Friday October 1st, Orlando Pineda, FSLN representative in the 
National Assembly from Region I, Esteli, passed away as a result of 
complications from major surgery.  Hundreds of people paid their final 
respects to Pineda, who was posthumously awarded the Carlos Fonseca 
prize, the highest honor given by the FSLN.  Pineda was one of the 
first persons to join the FSLN in the early sixties with Carlos 
Fonseca and was one of the most respected Sandinistas in the 
National Assembly and in the country. (October 3)
 
9. Biography of Cardinal Obando released.
 
"Miguel Obando, Cardinal of Peace" is the title of the recent 
biography of the prelate, written by Domingo Urtasun, a Spanish priest 
who has lived in Nicaragua since 1974.  The book was officially 
presented to the public by Pablo Antonio Cuadra who referred to Obando 
y Bravo as the "most influential man in Nicaragua.... his biography is 
a sign of grace and hope."  (Barricada, Oct. 2)
 
10. Rash of suicides in Chinandega
 
Chinandega, one of the most economically depressed areas of the 
country at this moment due to the colapse of the cotton-based economy, 
is also winning he reputation of being the suicide capital of 
Nicaragua.  According to a special report prepared by the Ministry of 
Health of that city, in the first nine months of 1994, a total of 45 
people have attempted suicide, including three children.  The adults, 
of which 11 have died, were between the ages oif 15 and 49 years old.  
Other areas nearby, such as El Viejo, Somotillo and Chichigalpa have 
also reported elevated numbers of suicide attempts, the majority due 
to depression about the economic situation or problems with 
relationships. (Barricada, Oct. 2) 
 
11. Pope receives Aleman and Lacayo.
 
Pope John Paul VI was the subject of controversy last week when it 
seemed that he would not receive Antonio Lacayo and his wife, after 
having just received the mayor of Managua, Arnoldo Aleman.  The Pope, 
however, did receive Lacayo in the end, perhaps in thanksgiving for 

Nicaragua being one of the few countries that supported the Vatican 
point of view in the recent population conference in Cairo.
 
The Pope promised Lacayo that he would consider responding positively 
to President Chamorro's request that he soon visit Nicaragua.  Lacayo 
also met with the president of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and with 
the president of Opus Dei, conservative Catholic religious group to 
which many of the top ministers of the Chamorro government belong.  
(Barricada, Oct. 2)