Nicaragua News Service Dec. 18, 1994 - Jan. 1, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 1 by Coleen Littlejohn Major news stories for the week: 1. World Bank releases figures on Nicaragua. 2. Major news stories in Nicaragua for 1994. 3. FSLN sets priorities for 1994; Daniel Ortega calls for unity. 4. Community Movement reviews 1994. 5. Banco del Campo set to expand in 1995. 6. Judge orders Ministry of Education to reinstate teachers fired in 1992. 7. Liberal Party may soon split again over National Assembly issues. _______________________________________________________________________ 1. World Bank releases figures on Nicaragua. Despite a small growth in the Nicaraguan economy in 1994 announced by government officials, the per capita income of Nicaraguans did not improve. According to the World Bank yearly Atlas just published, the per capita income of Nicaragua was estimated at $360, compared to the $250 registered for Haiti for the same time period. There is, therefore, nothing to show as yet for the tremendous sacrifices that the Nicaraguan people have suffered due to the structural adjustment measures imposed by the same World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. (El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 30) 2. Major news stories in Nicaragua for 1994. In its December 28th edition, the editors of the newspaper Barricada listed the 12 most important news stories in Nicaragua in the year 1994. The stories were the following: 1) Strikes and slowdowns including two transport strikes and slowdowns by health and education workers; 2) The first autonomous elections on the Atlantic Coast; 3) The death of the poet Jose Coronel Urtecho. 4) Illegal evictions of more than 1,500 families, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless. 5) The forest fire in Nueva Segovia which destroyed more than 34,000 acres of pine forests in the area of Dipilto. 6) The election of new party authorities by FSLN Party Congress. 7) The drought of four months which destroyed 100% of basic grain crops in the departments of Leon and Chinandega. 8) High unemployment and underemployment, officially calculated at 43% according to the Ministry of Labor, the highest in Latin America. 9) Epidemics of dengue, cholera, and meningitis which caused 2,213 deaths. 10) Daniel Ortega's heart attack. 11) The surfacing of more government scandals and corruption. 12) Changes at the head of the Nicaraguan Army. 3. FSLN sets priorities for 1995; Daniel Ortega calls for unity. According to FSLN National Directorate member Bayardo Arce, the principal objective of the FSLN for 1995 is to come to a national agreement that will create political stability in the country. A national agreement would facilitate the implementation of medium and long term development plans so that Nicaraguans would be able to come out of the misery in which they are living. The agreement should involve the participation of all the principal political, social and economic forces in the country. Arce also spoke of the need to eliminate tensions from the property problem, an issue which he said should be the priority of the legislative agenda for 1995 of the National Assembly. Arce added that political stability would bring foreign investment to the country, offering new resources and bringing new actors to the national economic scene. In a New Year message to the people of Nicaragua from Cuba where he is undergoing treatment for heart problems, the Secretary General of the FSLN, Daniel Ortega, stated that he would redouble efforts in 1995 to re-unite the Sandinista family which has been disrupted by conflict in the past year. Ortega also said that his heart problem was under control and that medical treatment would be suspended on January 21st. While in Cuba in late November for a conference in solidarity with that nation, Ortega fell ill and it was discovered that he had suffered a heart attack about three months earlier. He remained in Cuba for treatment. (Barricada, Dec. 28) 4. Community Movement reviews 1994. In a review of its principal activities during 1994, the Nicaraguan Community Movement identified as one of its principal accomplishments serving over 20,000 young children at 344 community feeding centers and preschools. The centers are receiving help from the Sandino Foundation (FACS), the World Food Program and the Nicaraguan Institute for Social Security and Welfare, (INSBBI). Enrique Picado, National Coordinator of the Community Movement also stated that another accomplishment of the movement was to consolidate its presence in 90 of the country's 143 municipalities. At the same time, however, he lamented that thousands of people who benefited from Laws 85 and 86 of the last months of the Sandinista Government still have not been able to achieve security with relation to their property because the laws have not been respected. Those laws gave the right of ownership to recipients of land reform who were living in their house or on their lots on February 26, 1990. Picado stated that although there were fewer evictions in 1994 than in 1993, "the reality is that 300,000 families in the country and in the city still have not received their property titles." Picado insisted that a new property law should also cover the thousands of families living in spontaneous settlements who would not have anywhere else to go if evicted. He added that the National Assembly together with the Executive Branch should define a policy regarding construction of low income housing because the housing deficit in Nicaragua is reaching critical levels. (Barricada, Dec. 28) 5. Banco del Campo set to expand in 1995. The recently inaugurated Banco del Campo, a project of the Nicaraguan Farmers and Ranchers Union (UNAG), will open offices in 1995 in Matagalpa, Juigalpa, Rivas, Camoapa, El Sauce and Rio Blanco. To date the Bank has lent $4.4 million to finance the growing of coffee, sesame seed and peanuts as well as for the production of other export crops and pasture development. In 1995, the Bank plans to lend over $22.8 million. The Bank has a total membership of 2,000, the majority of whom are small and medium size farmers. 6. Judge orders Ministry of Education to reinstate teachers fired in 1992. The Court of Appeals of Matagalpa reaffirmed a lower court decision to return to their jobs eight teachers who had been fired by the Ministry of Education in June of 1992. The judge ordered the Ministry to pay back salaries to the teachers. Similar cases have been won in Managua and Esteli, but the Ministry of Education has thus far ignored the court orders. (Barricada, Dec. 29) 7. Liberal Party may soon split again over National Assembly issues. Negotiations continued until the end of the year over who would be the new President of the National Assembly for 1995. The issue may be divisive enough to bring an end to the efforts begun in 1994 to strengthen the unity of the different Liberal Party political groups in preparation for the 1996 elections. One of the strongest Liberal Parties, the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) of Managua Mayor Arnoldo Aleman, formally left the UNO coalition because of disagreements over who should form part of the new executive committee of the National Assembly. The PLC had proposed the candidacy of Jaime Bonilla but that suggestion was not accepted by the UNO and the PLC left the coalition. As a result, Virgilio Godoy gave the PLC until the 30th of December to re-join the UNO Coalition or face a division within the Liberal current. The ultimatum was rejected by the PLC but Bonilla did state that the decision of the PLC to leave the UNO Coalition did not have to affect the unity of the Liberals. He said that the unification process was subject to a series of "verification" meetings with the party base, a methodology that has not been accepted by the Liberals associated with Virgilio Godoy. Meanwhile, the two strongest candidates for the presidency of the National Assembly are Luis Humberto Guzman, the current President, who seems to be favored by the majority of the present members of the Assembly, and Miriam Arguello, the candidate supported by the executive branch of the government and, apparently, by the FSLN, which has given her candidacy substantial publicity in the FSLN newspaper Barricada. Arguello was a member of the civilian directorate of the contras in the 1980's. She has been very strong on women's issues over the last four years in the National Assembly. (Barricada, Dec. 26)