Nicaragua News Service
                        January 15 - 22, 1995
                            Vol. 3, No. 4
                         by Coleen Littlejohn

Major News Stories for the Week:

1. President Chamorro vetoes 49 articles of new Labor Code.
2. Sandinista Renovation Movement assumes characteristics of new political
    party.
3. Division in Sandinista bench in National Assembly and Managua City Council.
4. Spanish-Nicaraguan declared innocent in Zapatera Island land takeover.
5. Somocista claims "Los Gauchos."
6. Tribute to Ernesto Cardenal.
7. Government announces new functions of INE.
8. "Pedrito the Honduran" forms NGO.
______________________________________________________________________
 
1. President Chamorro vetoes 49 articles of new Labor Code.
 
President Chamorro, at the last minute possible moment, sent a message 
to the National Assembly which vetoed 49 articles of 415 articles of 
the new Labor Code, law which had been passed 30 days before by the 
Nicaraguan legislature.  This veto came despite conciliatory phrases 
to the National Assembly made during her New Year's address to the 
nation a little over 10 days ago, words which raised expectations of a 
better negotiating spirit between the Executive and the National 
Assembly for 1995,
 
The President's decision was delivered at 11:30 pm to the house of 
Luis Sanchez Sancho, the third vice-president of the Assembly, 
although officially the veto should have been delivered to the First 
Vice-President of the Assembly, Julia Mena.  
 
The President had been asked by the President of the National Assembly 
not to veto the bill outright but rather to negotiate any differences.  
The outright veto was therefore taken as a sign of unwillingness of 
the Executive branch to dialogue.
 
According to the newspaper El Nuevo Diario, the President was 
pressured by the private business council, COSEP, to veto the 49 
articles which the Council said would scare away private and foreign 
investment and take away incentives for employers to sign contracts 
with their employees.  Days before, COSEP had come out publicly 
against the Code and the day of the veto, major COSEP leaders were in 
an all-afternoon meeting with the President and her top advisors on 
this issue.  
 
The morning after the unusual veto, Minister of Labor Francisco 
Rosales held a press conference in which he stated that the vetoes 
would improve the new labor code and make it "more in accord with 
national reality."  He summarized the content of the articles which 
were vetoed saying that they dealt with contracts, indemnification, 

right of strikers to take over facilities, etc.  
 
A major leader of the National Workers Front (FNT) commented that 
the veto responds to the demands of the IMF-ESAF agreement to maintain 
a very "flexible" Nicaraguan labor market, which means little 
guarantee of job stability for the Nicaraguan workers.  The Chamorro 
government had also signed a letter to the World Bank in 1994 
promising a labor code that would allow for easy dismissal of workers.  
The demand for changes in a country's labor law which would put it in 
violation of International Labor Organization (ILO) accords it has 
signed is itself a violation of the internal rules of the World Bank.  
 
No Nicaraguan newspaper has yet done a complete analysis of the 
articles vetoed.  It was reported, however, that there was enough of a 
majority in the National Assembly to override the veto if the deputies 
should so decide. (El Nuevo Diario, Jan. 20; La Prensa, Jan. 19)
 
2. Sandinista Renovation Movement assumes characteristics of new 
political party.
 
During a meeting last week in the city of Granada with sympathizers of 
his new Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), Sergio Ramirez defined 
the movement as totally outside the structures of the FSLN, and said 
that therefore it meant the emergence of a new political party in 
Nicaragua.  Ramirez founded the MRS upon his January 10th resignation 
from the FSLN after his daughter was verbally attacked by a radio 
commentator with close ties to some FSLN officials.  When asked to 
explain who could join the MRS, he stated that "no one who is a 
militant in any other party, including the FSLN, may be a member of 
the Sandinista Renovation Movement."  Ramirez made clear that the MRS 
would participate in the 1996 elections as a legally constituted 
party, duly registered with the Council of Political Parties.
 
Ramirez insisted that the most important task of the MRS is to 
organize at the grassroots for the 1996 elections, so that the party 
is represented in every voting precinct.  Ramirez estimates that at 
least half a million people will join the movement, including a 
substantial number of young people.  He said that the party platform 
of the organization would be written as the party becomes more 
organized but would include "our position relative to property, 
administrative corruption, the 'pinata,' mines, re-election, justice, 
human rights, the role of the army and other things."  He called on 
present FSLN members as well as those of no party to join the MRS.
 
Last week there was only one public resignation from the FSLN, that of 
Father Fernando Cardenal, former head of the Literacy Crusade, of and 
Minister of Education.  Daniel Ortega wrote a personal letter to each 
of the FSLN members of the National Assembly asking them to publicly 
ratify their militancy in the FSLN.  So far no responses have been 
made public.  
 
When Sergio Ramirez was asked about political alliances for 1996, he 
did not discount any possibilities, including with the FSLN.  But he 
did deny the possibility of his rejoining the FSLN stating: "How am I 
going to sit down with people who have carried out slander campaigns 
against my family, my children, and friends of the MRS."  (El Nuevo 

Diario, Jan. 17)
 
3. Division in Sandinista bench in National Assembly and in Managua 
City Council.
 
The FSLN National Assembly members associated with the official party 
structures were not invited to a recent series of Sandinista bench 
meetings. The majority of the bench decided to exclude the FSLN 
deputies who supported the candidacy of Miriam Arguello for President 
of the National Assembly as a sanction against them for not following 
the majority of FSLN deputies in supporting the candidacy of Luis 
Humberto Guzman.  Arguello was supported by the official leadership of 
the FSLN elected by majority vote in the May 1994 FSLN Party Congress.  
However, most of the FSLN delegates in the National Assembly supported 
Sergio Ramirez Renovation current.
 
Tomas Borge, Acting General Secretary of the FSLN, sent an official 
communique to the President of the National Assembly informing him of 
the creation of an FSLN parliamentary group made up of the following 
persons: Nathan Sevilla, Damaso Vargas, Gladys Baez, Francisco Rivera, 
Roberto Laguna and Benigna Mendiola.
 
The new group called for an immediate meeting with the rest of the 
FSLN members as well as heads of mass organizations in order to work 
out an agenda for future meetings.  At this time it is still not 
entirely clear who is with which group.
 
Meanwhile, the FSLN division was felt last week in the Managua City 
Council when three of the four FSLN city council members voted to oust 
Monica Baltodano as coordinator of their group and named in her stead 
Mario Flores.  The other two city council persons besides Baltodano 
and Flores are Carlos Carrion and Javier Alvarez.  Baltodano declared 
that she was surprised at the new election.  She said that the FSLN 
Council Members had elected her as their representative and that if 
they had called for a new election she would have supported the idea.  
Baltodano stated that she will continue representing the FSLN before 
the council. She said that she was unaware of the status of the others 
but that as far as she knew "they had not resigned their FSLN 
militancy."  (Barricada, Jan. 20)
 
4. Spanish-Nicaraguan declared innocent of Zapatera land takeover.
 
A local judge declared innocent Jose Maria Ampudia, a naturalized 
Spanish-Nicaraguan, who had been arrested as a result of the massive 
land takeover on the island of Zapatera.  Sources said that police had 
been looking for a scape-goat and had found one in the figure of the 
internationalist Ampudia.  Ampudia has worked for eight years with 
peasants organized in the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (UCA) of 
Nandaime, where over half of the land assigned to the cooperatives is 
still without have legal title.  (Barricada, Jan. 19)
 
5. Somocista claims "Los Gauchos."
 
Los Gauchos, a popular steak restaurant on the Masaya highway has been 
run by the workers since the 16th of April, 1993, and is in the last 
phase of legalization by the government as a worker-owned business.  

Los Gauchos had been confiscated in August of 1979 because it belonged 
to Somocista Jose Alberto Bermudez Somoza.  Bermudez Somoza has now 
come back to Nicaragua as a US citizen under the name of Joe Albert 
Bermudez and he wants his restaurant back.  CORNAP, the government 
organization negotiating the final deal with the workers has been 
strangely silent, but the workers, who are open to others investing in 
their business, "will have nothing to do with a former Somocista, no 
matter the color of his passport."  (Barricada, Jan. 19)
 
6. Tribute to Ernesto Cardenal
 
The 70th birthday of internationally renowned Nicaraguan poet Ernesto 
Cardenal was celebrated this week by all political sectors of 
Nicaraguan society.  A special commemoration of his birthday was held 
in the National Theater, sponsored by the government's Institute of 
Culture.  Barricada also spotlighted the poet priest in this week's 
edition of the magazine supplement GENTE.  (Barricada, Jan. 20)
 
7. Government announces new function of Energy Ministry.
 
The main objective of the dismembering of the former Nicaraguan Energy 
Institute (INE) is to separate the functions of generating and of 
transmitting or distributing the energy.  INE, in the new scheme of 
things, will be the governmental entity that will formulate energy 
policy, plan the expansion of energy services and supervise the sale 
of energy in order to protect the consumer.  The new minister of INE 
is Jose Ley Lau.  The second half of the restructuring is the 
formation of the Nicaraguan Energy Company (ENEL) which will continue 
to deliver energy to clients who will continue to pay their bills at 
the former INE offices.  
 
INE itself will regulate the quality of services, calculate prices and 
approve rates, promote the installation of new infrastructure and 
provide general norms for the energy sector of the economy.  As of 
June 1995, Petronic, in the past a part of INE, will lose its 
monopoly rights as the only importer of crude oil.  As of 1996, 
the government estimates that there will be at least six private 
plants generating energy in the country, including the Momotombo 
Geothermic complex, INTERGEOTHERM (Nicaraguan and Russian), US Power 
and Light, and General Electric.
 
8. "Pedrito the Honduran" forms NGO.
 
The National Assembly voted last week to give legal status to a new 
non-governmental agency, the Association of United Workers and 
Peasants, founded by Pedrito "the Honduran," re-compa leader of the 
take-over of the city of Esteli in July 93.  "Re-compas" were 
demobilized members of the Sandinista Army who took up arms again in 
protest over the inability of the Chamorro Government to answer their 
demands for land and jobs and to protect them and their family from 
attacks from former "contras."  The takeover of Esteli was met 
with a swift and decisive counterattack by the army which left over 50 
dead, most of whom were civilians.  Last year the Assembly had denied 
legal status to the new organization.  The objectives of the new 
organization are the following: promote the organization and 
development of workers and peasants in Nicaragua, prioritizing the 

areas of health and education.  Needless to say, the more conservative 
sectors of the National Assembly were not happy with the vote that 
finally legalized the organization.  (La Prensa, Jan. 19)