Nicaragua News Service Dec. 4 - 10, 1994 Vol. 2, No. 51 by Coleen Littlejohn Major news stories for the week: 1. Daniel Ortega leaves hospital. 2. Benigna Mendiola calls for unity in the FSLN. 3. Henry Ruiz presents proposal for solution to economic crisis. 4. Nicaragua participates in Latin American Summit. 5. Molotov cocktail found in Cuban embassy. 6. Inter-American Development Bank lends $170 million to Nicaragua. 7. Greenpeace puts out red alert. 8. National Assembly gives constitutional rank to UN Convention on Children's Rights. 9. National Assembly committee approves final version of 1995 national budget. _____________________________________________________________________ 1. Daniel Ortega leaves hospital. Daniel Ortega, Secretary General of the FSLN, who has been under observation in a Cuban hospital for heart problems, was to be released from the hospital last Wednesday, although that release was not confirmed later in the week by local newspapers. His doctors have stated that he is recuperating satisfactorily from the minor heart attack suffered without his knowledge over three months ago. Ortega was even able to exercise for two 45 minute periods and it is expected that he will soon resume his daily jogging. Ortega will stay in Cuba, where he will be joined by his family, for the rest of the month of December. It is unclear at present how this illness will affect Ortega's future political career but several commentators have said that his condition will not allow him to run for any political office in 1996. Meanwhile, sources say that Ortega's seat in the National Assembly will not be taken by his legal alternate, Dr. Sergio Ramirez. (Barricada, Dec. 10) 2. Benigna Mendiola calls for FSLN unity. Benigna Mendiola, the legendary FSLN peasant leader, member of the National Assembly and newly elected member of the FSLN National Directorate, stated last week that she did not believe in the division of the FSLN and preferred to speak of "contradictions" within the party leadership which she said have not affected the popular base of the party. She also added that: "I believe that there is still a space to negotiate, without insults. It is necessary to get to the bottom of these problems, but internally within the FSLN. We should not be washing our dirty clothes in public." She also stated that it was false that the Sandinista Assembly was about to expel certain members of the National Directorate adding that if members of the Renovation movement wanted to form another party, "they should leave now." But she went on to say: "If they want to sit down and talk about the problems, I would like to, but the problem is that no one wants to cede an inch. I think we should be aware that while we cannot reach an agreement, we are really hurting our people." Mendiola, also a member of the National Executive Board of UNAG (National Farmers Association) had not until now made any public statement about the problems within the party. UNAG has also refrained from making public statements but many of its principal leaders have been known to sympathize with the Renovation movement. This may be the cause of the virtual lack of news about UNAG in recent weeks in the daily newspaper Barricada which is controlled by the majority "Democratic Left" current in the FSLN. Meanwhile, the National Directorate of the FSLN announced that the committee that they had appointed to negotiate with the Ramirez group would be transformed into a "Leadership Committee" in order to facilitate the beginnings of negotiations with the other side. The leadership committee, which includes Rene Nunez, Rene Vivas and Bayardo Arce sent a letter to the president of the FSLN ethics committee, Rev. Miguel Angel Casco, indicating to him their desire that the Ramirez group appoint a similar commission as soon as possible. And Tomas Borge, Vice-Secretary General of the FSLN, in a visit to Chile, made reference to the internal crisis of the party saying that the only person that is trying to drive the FSLN to the brink has been Sergio Ramirez. Borge also stated that the recent resignations of persons such as Ernesto Cardenal and Gioconda Belli have been a source of sorrow for the party but that the "renovation" group headed by Ramirez have not appreciated all the renovation that has taken place within the party. He also accused the majority of the Sandinista bench in the National Assembly of having allied with the right wing with their approval of a second round run-off in future presidential elections. Borge also stated that there are no candidates as yet selected for the FSLN for 1996 elections but that the ideal for Nicaragua would be someone like the figure of the ex-President of Chile, Patricio Aylwin, who "had a lot of moral authority and who was a president who represented a nation and not one single political party." (Barricada, Dec. 9, 10) 3. Henry Ruiz presents proposal for solution to economic crisis. For the last several months, Henry Ruiz, member of the FSLN National Directorate as well as one of the heads of the "Renovation" movement has been coordinating a team of distinguished Nicaraguan economists in the search for a national economic proposal which would provide an alternative to the present neo-liberal model. That proposal, published under the title: "For a National Solution to the Crisis," was presented last week to a group of representatives of different professional and political groups in the Olaf Palme Convention Center. The event was publicized in Barricada, which has avoided much mention of Henry Ruiz since he declared himself to be a member of the "Renovation" current. However, there has been speculation that Ruiz and Luis Carrion would not support an actual division in the FSLN and that this would frustrate any possibility of the successful creation of a new political party by the reform movement. The publication of the efforts of Ruiz, with no negative commentary attached, may be a step towards the search for dialogue between the different currents of opinion within the FSLN, or it could be an effort of the official party structure to win back two of its most prestigious members. (Barricada, Dec. 10) 4. Nicaragua participates in Latin American Summit. Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro attended the Latin American Summit in Miami, Florida, the weekend of Dec. 10 and 11. While in Miami she appealed to President Clinton to extend the time available for her countrypeople to remain in the U.S. until "Nicaragua reaches the necessary levels of development that will guarantee its people basic conditions of life such as jobs, health care, housing and education." Chamorro went on to say that the Nicaraguan economy was still "too frail to support a massive influx of repatriated citizens." Proposition 187, an anti-immigrant law recently passed by the people of California, has caused panic among the Nicaraguan community in that state and elsewhere. (Barricada, Dec. 11, La Prensa, Dec. 10) 5. Molotov cocktail found in Cuban embassy. Two night guards found the remains of a "Molotov cocktail" bomb in the Cuban Embassy last week as they were making their rounds. Unknown persons threw the lighted bomb into the embassy but fortunately it went out on contact when it hit and broke one of the embassy windows. It is not known if the bomb has anything to do with the demand that the Nicaraguan government is making on the Cuban Embassy to give up the house purchased by Cuba in the previous decade. Conversations between the two countries' Foreign Ministers on the problem were suspended recently but in early 1995 a high level Nicaraguan mission will travel to Cuba to continue the negotiations. (Barricada, Dec.11) 6. Inter-American Development Bank lends $170 million to Nicaragua. Nicaragua has signed a $170 million loan with the Inter-American Development Bank. The money will be used in the "transformation" of the Nicaraguan Energy Institute (INE), the National Water and Aqueducts Institute (INAA) and the Telecommunications Corporation (TELCOR). It is not clear at this moment exactly what those "transformations" will be, but it is well known that the multilateral lending institutions, as well as some bilateral donors such as the United States, are pressuring for the privatization of public services. What is also not clear is why Nicaragua should assume more debt to facilitate the giving away of some of their more profitable public services, such as TELCOR. (Barricada, Dec.11) 7. Greenpeace puts out red alert. A "red alert" was sent out to Central American conservation groups by the international environmental organization Greenpeace about a boat named "Sandpiper Pacific" which evidently will soon be carrying a cargo of highly radioactive nuclear waste through the Panama Canal and up the coasts of Central America. The cargo supposedly is in the form of glass bars and is on its way to Japan from two processing plants in France. Greenpeace declared that this boat could be followed by 100 more before the year 2010 and that each boat represents more than 10 times the radioactivity released during the explosion of the Chernobyl reactor. The risks involved in the transporting of the materials in the Sandpiper Pacific exceed the risk levels that have been established in any country to date. According to Greenpeace, "the possibility of an accident, however remote, is always present for those countries that do not use nuclear power and therefore for whom the transporting of these materials does not represent any benefit." (La Prensa, Dec. 11) 8. National Assembly gives constitutional rank to UN Convention on Children's Rights. Sixty-five members of the National Assembly voted last month to give constitutional status to the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, a treaty that was ratified by Nicaragua in 1991 (but that still has not been ratified by the United States). The raising of the Convention to constitutional status was an initiative of the Committee for Women, Children, Youth and Family of the National Assembly, which is headed by Azucena Ferrey. (Barricada, La Prensa, Dec. 10) 9. Assembly committee approves final version of 1995 national budget. The Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, chaired by Dora Maria Tellez, last week presented its final approved version of the government budget for 1995. According to Tellez, the final product was a result of two days of negotiations with the executive branch of the government which was represented by Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo. The budget, which was described by Barricada as a "pact" between Sergio Ramirez, the UNO political parties, and Antonio Lacayo, now has to be voted on by the whole National Assembly. Several changes were made in the original budget presented to the Assembly by the Executive Branch in November. These changes include: --$3.3 million more in funding each for the Ministries of Health and Education to raise salaries; --$2 million more in salaries for the Police who at present are raffling cars in order to pay for gasoline for their patrol cars; --$4 million for municipal projects; --$1 million for student bus transportation; and --$2 million for increases in operating and construction costs for the National Assembly which must find new offices for its members now that the government is about to privatize present installations. Ministries that suffered budget reductions in the latest round of negotiations were the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Government, Foreign Cooperation, Finance, and Labor. According to the Ministry of Education, the increased budget for the Ministry will mean an almost 100% salary increase for primary teachers and a 50% raise for those high school teachers in schools that have achieved "administrative autonomy." Presently, 50% of all public high schools have had to accept this new form of administration which teacher union officials refer to as privatization. The granting of salary raises to only those high school teachers in the new systems seems to be a new form of pressure on teachers to accept the "autonomy" provisions. The reaction of the teacher and health workers unions ANDEN and FETSALUD was strongly critical of the final budget proposal. According to union spokespersons, the salary increases approved average only $6 dollars per month. As a result, teachers and health workers are calling for a march this week on the National Assembly to protest what they call "an insult, hidden by demagogic propaganda." (Barricada, Dec. 7; La Prensa, Dec. 10)