Nicaragua News Service Oct. 22 - 29, 1994 Vol. 2, No. 45 by Coleen Littlejohn Major news stories for the week: 1. Ernesto Cardenal resigns from the FSLN. 2. Changes in Barricada. 3. Journalists protest, others support FSLN decision. 4. Evictions postponed again by National Assembly. 5. Sandinista Assembly to present proposal for Constitutional amendments. 6. Police about to throw in the towel. 7. Energy rationing to be suspended in December. 8. FETSALUD and ANDEN plan marches. 9. Nicas in US could be deported soon. _______________________________________________________________________ 1. Ernesto Cardenal resigns from FSLN. Last week one of the most internationally known members of the FSLN, the poet priest, Ernesto Cardenal, publicly renounced his membership in the FSLN, affirming that the FSLN had been "kidnapped by a small group" led by its General Secretary, Daniel Ortega. Cardenal claimed that the recent internal elections of the party were "manipulated." "This is not the FSLN that we joined, for which we worked so hard nationally and internationally, for which so many martyrs died." On hearing of Cardenal's leaving, Daniel Ortega commented that: "One enters the Frente voluntarily and can leave in the same way. There have always been problems, errors and vices. They were present when he was a Minister of Government," referring to Cardenal's years as Minister of Culture during the Sandinista government. (Barricada, Oct. 25) 2. Changes in Barricada. The Sandinista Assembly, highest decision-making body in the FSLN between Congresses, voted on October 25th to remove Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of the daily newspaper Barricada, from the post which he had held for over 14 years. After several hours of debate, 120 of the 144 members of the Sandinista Assembly decided to accept the recommendation of the National Directorate of the party to fire Chamorro. Lumberto Campbell, recently elected member of the National Directorate, was named to replace him at least temporarily. The Board of Directors at Barricada also suffered changes. Three of the Directors resigned: Alejandro Martinez Cuenca, Rodrigo Reyes Portocarrero and Emilio Baltodano. They stated that the decision to remove Carlos Fernando Chamorro would not contribute to guaranteeing the economic survival of the newspaper and would not give a constructive signal that internal democratic dialogue would be permitted within the party, given the internal autonomy that had been previously given to Barricada by the National Directorate four years ago. As a result of the removal of Chamorro, many other well-known journalists at Barricada submitted their resignations, such as Sofia Montenegro, Sergio de Castro, Silvia Torres, and Roberto Larios. The rest of the Barricada collective published a protest letter in the edition which followed Chamorro's removal. The Barricada of that day barely made deadline due to the continuous discussions between the editors and Tomas Borge, who arrived with Lumberto Campbell and was in charge of reviewing all text set to be published. After hours of discussions, the Barricada journalists and Borge agreed on a headline to announce the news: "Sandinista Assembly takes over Barricada." Before the actual arrival of Campbell accompanied by Tomas Borge at the offices of Barricada, the head of information of Radio Ya began to publish bulletins that the installations of Barricada were being taken over by the workers in protest for the firing of Carlos Fernando Chamorro. Barricada workers immediately called the police to come and verify that the rumor was false. Samuel Santos, Vice President of the Executive Committee of Barricada, after having consulted with Bayardo Arce, the President of Barricada who is presently in Spain, confirmed the official naming of Lumberto Campbell as Acting Editor of Barricada. Santos also expressed gratitude to Carlos Fernando Chamorro for the "notable labor" that he had done at the head of Barricada for the last fifteen years. There were also changes in other media outlets in the aftermath of the change in Barricada. Conrad Pineda, Director of Radio Sandino, canceled the popular news commentary, "Succesos" of Jose Esteban Quezada. The show has been on the air for over twenty years, the last three of which have been on Radio Sandino. Quezada commented that it seemed that one of the factors involved in his cancellation was his friendship with William Ramirez and the commentaries that Quezada made on learning about the change in editorship at Barricada. A similar thing happened to Karen Santamaria whose program "Profiles" was canceled by Carlos Guadamuz of Radio Ya after she read an editorial signed by Carlos Fernando Chamorro. (InterPress Service, Oct. 25; Barricada, Oct. 25, 27, 29) 3. Journalists protest; others support FSLN decision. Print, television and radio journalists affiliated with the two largest journalists' unions, the Union of National Journalists (UPN) and the Association of Nicaraguan Journalists (APN) marched in protest last week in front of the national headquarters of the FSLN to protest the firing of Carlos Fernando Chamorro and other journalists affected by the recent measures taken by the Sandinista Assembly. No one at the FSLN office was available to talk to the journalists or receive their protest letter. "The liberty of a private owner (in this case the FSLN), does not give the right to step on freedom of speech.... This imposition at Barricada is an insult to the dignity of national journalism," according to Olga Moraga, secretary general of the UPN. The FSLN Municipal Committee of Esteli supported the political decision of the Sandinista Assembly against Chamorro, stating that: "Barricada published very little about everyday party activities that the FSLN has been carrying out over the last few years in the opposition and it also gave little information about the popular sectors." Within the National Directorate, four members, Henry Ruiz, Mirna Cunningham, Dora Maria Tellez and Luis Carrion, released a public statement in a paid advertisement in Barricada in which they expressed their disagreement with the decision taken regarding Barricada and expressed their solidarity with Carlos Fernando Chamorro. The four members of the National Directorate stated that the activities of the leadership organs of the party continue to profoundly wound the unity of Sandinismo. The four stated that Barricada was taken over because it was not an unconditional instrument of the Democratic Left of the FSLN; rather it had developed into a newspaper that gave coverage to all sectors of the country. The decision of the Sandinista Assembly was also approved by 15 Barricada correspondents who cover news outside Managua. In a letter to the new editor, the journalists considered that the change in editorship answered a demand not only of those in the Sandinista Assembly but also a demand of the popular sectors who need to see their demands and needs reflected more in Barricada. Lumberto Campbell, in declarations made after assuming his new job, said that in Barricada, there will be no censorship. "Our goal in Barricada is to gather the facts and testimony in a transparent, objective way." (Barricada, Oct. 27, 29) 4. Evictions postponed again by National Assembly Last week the National assembly again extended for another six months Law No. 174 which protects those about to be evicted from their homes. Over 2,000 people were in danger last week of being immediately evicted if the law had not been extended. However, Carlos Bonilla, Coordinator of the Commission on Housing for the Community Movement in Managua, affirmed that the extension is basically just a "band aid, that does not solve anything because what we really need is a 'Law of Property Stability' to end the agony of over 100 thousand families in Managua forever." The members of the National Assembly, after the positive vote on the bill, promised to approve just such a law before February 25th. Bonilla stated that it was shameful that the National Assembly representatives and the executive branch of the government had not solved this problem. Almost half of the population of the country, some 300,000 families, are waiting for a final resolution on their properties. If there is no resolution, he said, "more violence will occur." 5. Sandinista Assembly to present proposal for Constitutional amendments. The Sandinista Assembly, with 77 in favor out of a total of 122 members present, last week rescinded its authorization of the constitutional amendments bill introduced by the Sandinista legislators on September 5th of this year and labeled that introduction as "precipitated and anti-democratic." The resolution passed by the Sandinista Assembly stated that the amendments bill presented by the representatives was at risk of being transformed into an instrument of the interests of the extreme right both within the Assembly and outside it "helping those forces to impose their political priorities." The Assembly also approved the outlines for a new property law, the "Property Stabilization Bill," the objective of which is to "improve the democracy and judicial order created by the Popular Sandinista Revolution." There is already a similar bill in the Assembly introduced by the FSLN representatives. The members of the Sandinista Assembly also called on the FSLN National Assembly members to "work for unity" and at the same time as they ratified Daniel Ortega as the "maximum representative of the party both within and outside of the National Assembly and the country." It is not clear, at this point, how this latest resolution passed by the Sandinista Assembly will affect the current negotiations on constitutional amendments in the National Assembly, currently under way between the different political groupings. According to newspaper reports, the legislators have to come to a consensus on 45 of the approximately 60 articles to be approved. (Barricada, Oct. 27) 6. Police about to throw in the towel. Fernando Caldera, Director General of the National Police, stated last week that the situation of low salaries in his institution is becoming "insupportable" and added that "if the Finance Ministry does not approve the police budget of $27 million dollars requested for next year, there will be no salary raises, and we will have to take to the streets." The Finance Ministry has approved a police budget of only $17 million dollars, which is just $5 million more than last year's budget, but Caldera confirmed that the extra monies are assigned to two line items, construction and equipment, that were not requested by the police. (Barricada, Oct. 25) 7. Energy rationing to be suspended in December. There was finally some good news for Nicaraguans. Emilio Rappaccioli, Minister-Director of the Nicaraguan Energy Institute announced last week that the present energy rationing program will be suspended in December and that in November users will only have to suffer two hours a day of rationing instead of the present four. The Minister of INE announced that Lake Apanas has recovered three meters of depth but that it is still three meters lower than it was at this time last year. However, by June or July of 1995, new infrastructure should be in place, especially in Leon, to take the pressure off the Apanas dam. The bad news is that the torrential rains that raised the level of Lake Apanas have washed away much of the seed recently planted for the second harvest in northern Nicaragua. (Barricada, Oct. 27) 8. FETSALUD and ANDEN plan marches The national and regional leaders of FETSALUD, the country's largest health union, announced that, as a result of their successful 24 hour slowdown last week, they would convoke a march in front of the National Assembly for the 9th of November. Meanwhile, ANDEN, the largest teacher's union has announced a national march for November 4th which is being co-sponsored by the conservative National Teachers Federation. This will be the first time the two federations jointly sponsor a protest march. Both are demanding a 80% increase in teachers' salaries. The teachers will also demand that the state not privatize high schools, thus abdicating the government's responsibility to provide free education. ANDEN is already promoting a series of local protest marches in the different regions of the country, especially Region I, Nueva Segovia. In the marches they are being joined by members of the two major health unions. (Barricada, Oct. 29) 9. Nicaraguans in California could be deported soon. Over 300,000 Nicaraguans living illegally in California could be subject to denial of services and possible deportation if the people of California approve the ballot initiative proposed by the group "Save Our State." Proposition 187 would require Californians to have an identity card to show that they are legally in the country if they are not citizens. The massive deportation of Nicaraguans from California would seriously affect the already weak Nicaraguan economy because they form part of a still larger group that yearly sends $200 million dollars to family members still in Nicaragua enabling them to survive. (Barricada, Oct. 29)