Nicaragua News Service Dec. 11 - 17, 1994 Vol. 2, No. 52 by Katherine Hoyt Major news stories for the week: 1. 148 workers fired from match factory. 2. Humberto Ortega would consider being drafted for presidential candidacy. 3. Crisis in health care leads Nicaraguans to natural and Asian medicine. 4. Managua neighborhood dominated by drug cartel. ______________________________________________________________________ 1. 148 workers fired from match factory. All 148 employees of "La Fosforera," the Managua match factory, were fired last week by the factory's returning former owner, Pedro Ortega Macho. Dr. Adrian Meza, legal advisor to the factory workers, said that the action "violates the legal procedures of the Nicaraguan Labor Code, the Constitution, the union contract, and accords with the International Labor Organization (ILO)." The government had returned management of the factory to its pre-1979 owners without negotiating with the workers who supposedly own 50% of the shares in the company. The match factory workers are organized into two unions, one of which is Sandinista while the other is not. However, the two unions have been negotiating together and have jointly remained at the plant to protect their interests. At the end of last week, the Ministry of Labor gave its blessing to the firing of all the leaders of the two unions. The workers also complained to the Chief of Police that a high level police officer is on the payroll of returning owner Ortega Macho. The security services which he supposedly provides have been in actuality a systematic campaign to intimidate the workers. (Barricada) 2. Humberto Ortega would consider being drafted for presidential candidacy. Humberto Ortega has made a call for a "national accord" among all political, social and economic sectors in Nicaragua that would establish clear rules for the 1996 elections. According to a Spanish language report by InterPress Service, Ortega said that "It's not important if a liberal, a conservative, a centrist, or a Sandinista wins; what is important is that there is stability and a state of law." Ortega, who is stepping down as head of the Nicaraguan Army after having led that force since 1979, made these remarks upon leaving a meeting with Managua's Cardinal Miguel Obando. He had asked the Cardinal to support this national accord. In answer to a reporter's question about the possibility of his becoming a candidate for the presidency of Nicaragua, Ortega said "Let's see who offers it to me and if it would be worth it." When asked if he would join one of the tendencies within the FSLN, which is at the moment divided into "Democratic Left" and "Renovation" currents, he said that he was "with the historical current, the current of the historical changes." Ortega assured reporters that the army would respect the results of the 1996 elections. "We began a process of institutionalization and professionalization that is not going to end with my leaving," he said. Ortega, generally considered to have been the strategist of the FSLN military victory over the National Guard of Anastasio Somoza in 1979, leaves his position on February 21 and will be replaced by Gen. Joaquin Cuadra, also a Sandinista. (IPS) 3. Crisis in health care leads Nicaraguans to natural and Asian medicine. The elimination of many government health care programs, the deterioration of others and the rising costs of private care have led to an increase in use of natural medicine in NIcaragua. The rise in use of medicine based on herbal remedies and Asian medicine including acupuncture in many parts of Nicaragua was reported in a recent study by FIDEG (International Foundation for the Global Economic Challenge) and reported in IPS. Haruo Yamaki, a Japanese acupuncturist, says he has seen more patients every year for the last few years. One of his treatments costs the equivalent of $3 as opposed to approximately $20 for a visit to a private medical doctor. Yamaki says that the majority of his patients have been abandoned by the Health Ministry and therefore "look to oriental and natural medicine. They are above all people who are older and very poor." Neighborhood pharmacies stock natural remedies and "people buy them because they are recommended by natural medicine 'doctors' or by their grandmothers," according to one woman who works in a pharmacy. (IPS, Dec. 13) 4. Managua neighborhood dominated by drug cartel. The economic power of drug traffickers in Managua's Barrio Santa Ana is growing according to a report by IPS. According to one of the members of the cartel, now in jail, the group began with one street- corner building but now has control over several blocks and is extending its influence into nearby neighborhoods such as Monsenor Lezcano and San Judas. Many of the members of the Santa Ana cartel were users also and, because they shared needles now are carriers of the AIDS virus. One of them, "Ramon," was demobilized from the Sandinista Army after the 1990 elections and, when he could not find work in the civilian economy, turned to selling drugs and to using them. "Ramon" states that many people would come to Santa Ana in expensive cars "to buy drugs and often to join us in consuming them even using the same syringes." According to the Health Ministry, there could be 10,000 people with the AIDS virus in Nicaragua, with 25% having acquired the virus through intravenous drug use. (IPS, Dec. 15) 5. Non-traditional export crop production rises. Non-traditional export crops will bring in $45 million to the Nicaraguan economy this year according to Nardo Cardenas, Manager of the National Program for Promotion of Exports. The government has revealed a plan for the next five years in which it projects raising the value of non-traditional exports to $270 million by the year 2000. Oil-producing seeds and grains are the leading non-traditional crop followed by vegetables and fruits. Nicaragua's total exports for this year are expected to reach a value of $340 million which is an increase from $270 million for 1993..