Nicaragua News Service
                        Nov. 27 - Dec. 3, 1994
                            Vol. 2, No. 50
                          by Katherine Hoyt
 
Major news stories for the week:
 
1. Daniel Ortega suffers mild heart attack.
2. Authorities break Masaya drug cartel.
3. Workers march to protest privatization and demand higher salaries.
4. Rumors fly about demotion of four members of FSLN National 
Directorate.
5. General Cuadra expects no major changes in army.
6. Police expel corrupt officers.
________________________________________________________________________
 
1. Daniel Ortega suffers mild heart attack.
 
Daniel Ortega, the General Secretary of the FSLN was hospitalized last 
week in a specialized medical clinic in Cuba after doctors discovered 
signs of his having had a heart attack about three months ago.  A team 
of Cuban specialists performed the necessary tests to determine the 
level of arterial obstruction and decide on the proper treatment.  Dr. 
Milton Mairena, Ortega's personal physician, who has been in constant 
consultations with the Cuban specialists, said that the good physical 
condition of the Sandinista leader will help him to recover.  First 
reports indicated the attack was a result of arteriosclerosis.  After 
two days in the hospital, doctors announced that Ortega did not need 
surgery.  Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo, and children will travel 
soon to Havana to be with him.
 
In Nicaragua, well-wishers of all political tendencies were expressing 
their hopes for Ortega's prompt recovery.  According to one source, 
one of the first to call Havana was Sergio Ramirez, who has been 
Ortega's rival in recent conflict within the FSLN but who served as 
his Vice-President for six years under the FSLN government.
 
Monica Baltodano said that Ortega's heart attack was caused by 
overwork, with no rest or weekends, and by the tension and pain of 
attacks on his person by members of his own party.  
 
Ortega had been in Cuba for the Cuba Solidarity Conference attended by 
3,000 activists from five continents.  At the Conference, Ortega 
received a standing ovation from those attending and was particularly 
singled out for praise by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.  (Barricada, Dec. 
2, 3, 4; other sources)
 
2. Authorities break Masaya drug cartel.
 
The Masaya police captured twelve drug traffickers last week in eight 
neighborhoods of the city.  Sub-Commander Leonardo Vanegas, Director 
of Criminal Investigation of the Police, said that a large amount of 
cocaine and marijuana was seized in the operation.  It was sent to 
National Police Laboratories to determine its grade of purity.  Some 
addicts had complained the drug was adulterated.  A police report 
indicated that drug users in the city were suffering from damage to 

the membranes of their noses as a result of their high levels of 
consumption.  Evidently the drug was produced in a laboratory in Rio 
San Juan which was also discovered and destroyed by the Police last 
week.  Police captured as well a substantial number of firearms and 
supplies of ammunition.  They are now investigating the problem of 
"angel dust" which they say other dealers are trying to introduce into 
the schools of Masaya.  (Barricada, Dec. 4)
 
3. Workers march to protest privatization and demand higher salaries.
 
Thousands of telecommunications, energy and education workers marched 
last week to the offices of the President demanding higher salaries, 
an end to layoffs and no privatization of public services.  Teachers 
from three major unions, ANDEN, FENITEC and CNMN of different 
political orientations marched under the banner of "Salary increase or 
national strike."  
 
Mario Quintano, a leader in the FSLN-affiliated teachers union ANDEN, 
stated that the teachers are demanding an 80% salary increase with 
further periodic increases, the re-hiring of teachers who have been 
unjustly fired and the recognition of the Confederation of Teachers 
of Nicaragua (CNMN).  Quintana said that the three teachers unions are 
united in the struggle for their demands.  "We have differences, that 
is certain," he recognized, "But there are more things that unite 
us."
 
Mario Casco, a CNMN leader, said that there are 700 thousand students 
in primary schools who each pay one cordoba for each exam they take at 
the end of each semester.  At seven subjects per student, that totals 
4.9 million cordobas ($960 thousand) which goes into Ministry of 
Education coffers.
 
Telecommunications and energy workers also marched to the Presidential 
Office Building.  A leader in the federation of communications unions, 
Mario Malespin, asserted that the bill that came out of the 
Communication and Transportation Committee of the National Assembly on 
the privatization of the country's telecommunications network was 
"full of tricks."  He added, "The bill says that we workers support 
privatization when we have never said anything of the kind."  Ronald 
Membreno, a leader in the energy workers' union, said that 
privatization of the generation of electricity will mean the immediate 
laying-off of a thousand workers. (Barricada, Dec.2) 
 
4. Rumors fly about possible demotion of four members of FSLN National 
Directorate.
 
According to the daily newspaper El Nuevo Diario, in a speech in 
Malpaisillo, Leon, Sergio Ramirez accused the Democratic Left majority 
in the FSLN National Directorate of planning to present to the 
Sandinista Assembly a proposal to remove Henry Ruiz, Luis Carrion, 
Dora Maria Tellez, and Mirna Cunningham from the National Directorate 
of the FSLN.   All four are members of the Sandinista Renovation 
Movement (MRS) which is a new grouping that combines members of the 
Return to the Majorities current identified with Ramirez and 
Sandinistas such as Ruiz who were not identified with a current but 
support change in the party.  There was no independent confirmation of 

the existence of this supposed National Directorate plan or even that 
Ramirez comments were accuratly reported. 
 
Ramirez was evidently speaking before a gathering of 150 peasant 
farmers from cooperatives and farms in the Malpaisillo area.  Several 
farmers present said that they had been discouraged from attending the 
gathering by local FSLN officials who accused the supporters of the 
MRS of being "bourgeois."  Justino Fonseca of the Malpaisillo 
Municipal Committee of the FSLN said that it was likely that in the 
coming week those who attended the Ramirez gathering would be purged 
from the party structures.
 
Later in the day, Ramirez attended another rally in Chichigalpa, 
Chinandega, where he asked the crowd if the FSLN had credibility there.  
In answer, Jose Zuniga, an MRS sympathizer, told the gathering that the 
Movement of Renovation did not arise to divide the FSLN but rather to 
renovate it and win the elections of 1996.  "The people passed the 
bill to the FSLN in 1990," he said, "where here in Chichigalpa it won 
only 6,000 votes to 10,000 for UNO."  On another subject, Zuniga 
lamented the removal from the airwaves of the radio program of Carlos 
Mejia Godoy, who wrote the Sandinista Unity Anthem, by the managers of 
Radio Ya, an FSLN station.  (El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 4)
 
5. General Cuadra expects no major changes in the army.
 
Major General Joaquin Cuadra, who in February of 1995 will become head 
of the Nicaraguan Army, assured the press recently at a gathering in 
homage to the "Patriotic Soldier," that the army will continue to 
become more professional and also will stay on the sidelines of 
political debates and conflicts.  Gen. Cuadra gave assurances that 
when the first peaceful transfer of military leadership in Nicaragua 
is completed, the only thing that will have changed will be the "style 
of work and leadership."  He said that, in contrast with his 
predecessor, he will stay out of politics.
 
Since her election in 1990, President Violeta Chamorro has reduced the 
size of the Army from 80,000 men and women under arms to fewer than 
20,000.  With the addition of several thousand demobilized "contras," 
the numbers have risen to 23,000. (Barricada)
 
6. Police expel corrupt officers.
 
Twelve Managua police officers were discharged from the force upon 
discovery by the Inspection Department of the National Police that 
they had participated in illicit activities such as accepting bribes 
for obtaining different types of licenses and permits, and even for 
freeing prisoners.  The announcement was made last week by Sub-
Commander Pedro Aguilar who is second in command of the Managua 
Police.  Another eleven officers will be moved to different 
jurisdictions but will not be charged or removed from the force.  
(Barricada, Nov. 29)