Nicaragua News Service
                         February 12-19, 1995
                            Vol. 2, No. 8
                         by Coleen Littlejohn
 
Major news stories for the week:
 
1. Update on Constitutional amendments.
2. Daniel Ortega Returns to Nicaragua; FSLN begins Sandino 
     commemorations.
3. La Fosforera taken by force.
4. Felipe Gonzalez on three day state visit.
5. Agricultural producers strike settled.
6. National University students protest hike in registration fees.
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1. Update on Constitutional Amendments.
 
Update may actually be too ambitious a title for the following news 
on the ongoing saga of the Nicaraguan Constitutional amendments.  
February 23rd is the deadline by which the National Assembly is 
demanding that President Chamorro promulgate the constitutional 
amendments passed several weeks ago.  The reforms must be published in 
any public print media in order to be legally put into effect.  
Chamorro, however, has decided not to sign the amendment package and 
is first insisting on a series of negotiations. She has stated that 
after that process she may be ready in about six months to sign the 
reforms.  The President of the National Assembly, Luis Humberto 
Guzman, however, has stated that he has the power to publish the 
reforms if the President declines to do so.  At this point, jurists 
are divided as to who is legally right and the Supreme Court is 
nonfunctional due to several vacancies.  In light of this, next week 
promises to be even more confusing as far as the Nicaraguan political 
scene is concerned.
 
Most sectors are calling for national dialogue and negotiations 
between the Executive and the Assembly.  But, although they have 
agreed to meet, neither side has shown any sign of entering 
negotiations with a willingness to cede on any points.  Guzman has 
stated that he is willing to negotiate the implementation of the 
amendments, but only after they are legally promulgated, whereas 
President Chamorro has stated that she is willing to promulgate the 
reforms, but only after a process of consultation with different 
sectors of Nicaraguan society.
 
Meanwhile, members of the National Assembly have been visiting parts 
of the country in an effort to recruit support for the reforms and 
pressure the President to sign them.  Reynaldo Antonio Tefel, first 
vice-president of the Assembly was in Ocotal last week where he met 
with municipal leaders and representatives of local civil society to 
explain the reforms.  As a result of the meeting in Ocotal, those 
present decided to support the amendments.
 
Nevertheless, one of the most publicized criticisms of the amendments 
is the fact that the majority of the population are not really sure 
what they contain.  (Barricada, Feb. 19)


2. Daniel Ortega Returns to Nicaragua; FSLN begins Sandino 
     commemorations.
 
On Saturday, Feb. 18, Daniel Ortega Saavedra, Secretary General of the 
FSLN,, returned from Cuba, where he had been under treatment for the 
last two months for a "silent" heart attack, whose effects are now 
being successfully treated by medication.
 
Ortega was greeted at the airport by hundreds of followers as well as 
by Tomas Borge, who referred to Ortega as the most important FSLN 
leader alive.  On his arrival, Ortega addressed the following 
greetings to his well-wishers: "I know that my people have been with 
us during all these months.  I am happy to be back, to share in the 
struggle of the Nicaraguan people."
 
Ortega made his first public appearance in a massive demonstration in 
the Plaza of the Revolution on Sunday, Feb. 19.  The demonstration 
was organized to welcome Ortega home, to commemorate the 61st 
anniversary of the assassination of Sandino by the US-trained 
National Guard of the first Anastasio Somoza and to kick off the 
centennial of Sandino's birth.  According to Barricada estimates, 
40,000 people were present.
 
One of the special guests invited to attend the celebration was 
Francisco Pena Gomez, the president for Latin America of the Socialist 
International.  In his speech to the crowd, Pena stated that democracy 
in Nicaragua had only one father - the FSLN.  He stated that the hands
that washed the blood from the body of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro were 
those of the FSLN and that the elections that enabled his widow to 
assume the presidency in 1990 were the most democratic and open 
elections ever seen in Latin America.  Those elections, he said, gave 
the FSLN the "right to enter into the pages of history."
 
Another invited speaker was Gustavo Carvajal, Secretary for 
International Relations of the PRI of Mexico.  Carvajal reminded the 
audience of the dignity with which the FSLN transferred power in 1990, 
but assured the crowd that the people of Nicaragua would give back 
power to the FSLN via elections in 1996.  "We are going to win in 
1996," stated Carvajal.
 
The next speaker at the event was Tomas Borge, the only living founder 
of the FSLN.  Borge announced to the crowd that the FSLN had decided 
to "break out the fireworks as an opposition party and to end the 
cease-fire that it had conceded to the government and to other 
political adversaries of the FSLN.  Borge also spoke of an enormous 
alliance with the country's popular and social movements.  "It will be 
an huge alliance with farmers of all sizes, and with the workers... in 
order to raise this country from its present situation of economic 
prostration..., a broad alliance with the farmers of UNAG, COSEP and 
former members of the Resistance."
 
The main speaker of the morning was Daniel Ortega.  One of the main 
points in Ortega's speech was that the FSLN is not involved in the 
current power struggles between the Executive and the Legislative 
branches.  But, Ortega insisted, it was urgent for these two state 

powers to reach a national agreement to stop the damage that this 
crisis was inflicting on the Nicaraguan people.  "The Nicaraguan 
people do not want to know anything about these power struggles 
between the two governmental branches; the [constitutional] amendments 
don't create jobs for the poor and parliamentary discussion s don't 
produce planting credits for farmers... Our people don't eat 
constitutional amendments."
 
Ortega repeated the need for a "social alliance with peasants, 
farmers, workers, all together, because the government, as well as the 
National assembly is inflicting a lot of damage on our people, and 
besides that, foreign investors are also fleeing."  Ortega demanded 
that the Executive and the State in general become more flexible in 
negotiations.  He reminded his listeners of the flexibility and the 
negotiating capacity that the FSLN showed in the 1980's with the 
counterrevolutionary forces in order to avoid chaos and instability 
in the country.  (Barricada, Feb. 19, 20)
 
3. La Fosforera match factory taken by force.
 
On February 14th, Managua police forcibly removed the workers of the 
match factory, La Fosforera, from the premises of the company.  The 
workers, who are co-owners of the business, had taken over the 
installations due to the abuses committed against them by the former 
owner and present co-owner, Pedro Ortega Macho.  In the past days, the 
workers had complained that Ortega Macho was beginning to try to 
decapitalize the company by taking out finished products to unknown 
destinations.  The violent expulsion was ordered by Managua Labor 
Court Judge Agustin Lacayo.  Weeks before, however, the workers had 
won their right to appeal previous court orders favoring Ortega Macho.  
This did not stop the violent expulsion of the workers from the 
factory, however.  Workers suffered bruises, cracked heads and even 
broken limbs due to the excess of police violence during the execution 
of the judicial order.  
 
The union immediately appealed to the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center 
(CENIDH) which is investigating the abuses and illegal detentions of 
the workers.  [Editor's note: CENIDH reports also that a recent Labor 
Court decision would deprive workers who were also owners of a business 
of the right to organize unions or enjoy the benefits of union 
membership.  This decision has alarming implications for all of the 
worker\owners of recently privatized businesses.]
 
Union lawyer Adrian Meza did not discount the possibility that the 
eviction was motivated by international political considerations given 
that Pedro Ortega Macho is a Spanish citizen and that one of the top 
points on the agenda of the visit of the Prime Minister of Spain, due 
four days after the eviction, was to be the cases of Spanish citizens 
reclaiming properties confiscated under the previous government.  
Adrian stated that: "This precedent of the government using violence 
against the workers because they could not defeat them legally is 
unfortunate, given that the workers won legal victories in the 
Ministry of Labor."
 
The union has filed suit against three police officers for abuse of 
authority, abuse against the population, and unethical conduct.  (El 

Nuevo Diario, Feb. 15)
                                                                   
4.  Felipe Gonzalez on three day state visit
 
Felipe Gonzalez, Prime Minister of Spain, made a three day state visit 
to Nicaragua last week, accompanied by 40 Spanish businessmen 
interested in exploring possibilities of investing in the country.
 
The prime minister met with government officials and other political 
figures, including Tomas Borge and Bayardo Arce of the FSLN, Sergio 
Ramirez of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and Arnoldo Aleman 
of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC).
 
One of the Spanish leader's agenda items was the situation of Spanish 
citizens reclaiming their properties confiscated by the Sandinista 
government.  Gonzalez commented on the fact that some of those 
affected tried to influence his government to condition aid to 
Nicaragua on the successful resolution of these problems, but Gonzalez 
stated that the Spanish government rejected such conditioning of their 
aid on the grounds that it would be the Nicaraguan people and not the 
government who would be the most affected by such pressure.
 
During his visit, Gonzalez authorized a 2.8 million dollar loan to 
support the registration efforts of Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral 
Council, as well as another loan for 15 million to complete the 
construction of a new modern hospital for the city of Esteli.  He 
announced that aid from Spain would continue at the same level 
presently, but with tendencies to increase in the future.
 
Gonzalez would not answer direct questions on the problem of the 
Constitutional amendments, stating that he was not sufficiently 
informed about their content, and that even if he were, it would not 
be appropriate to comment on the constitutional processes of another 
sovereign country.  He did, however, make an allusion to the problem 
in a speech to the National Assembly when he called on the Nicaraguan 
Assembly members to "make a special effort of political generosity and 
look for a consensus on content."  Gonzalez stated that the process of 
economic reactivation demands a context of political stability in 
which the different political and social forces reach an agreement 
about the rules which will define the political and economic framework 
of the country for the next several years. (Barricada, Feb. 18, 19)
 
5.  Agricultural producers strike settled.
 
The strike by large farmers and ranchers protesting the government's 
decision not to renegotiate their debts with the national banking 
system has ended.  The strike in its last days had provoked serious 
conflicts between the producers and intermediaries who, by the last 
days of the strike, were announcing that they would not allow the 
farmers to block their shipments of farm products to market.
 
The problems that the farmers and ranchers had with the government 
have evidently not been solved to the satisfaction of anyone, but the 
participants recognized the need for better organization the next time 
they call for a national strike.  It is not known yet if the 
government will foreclose on any of the large farms whose owners have 

not paid their debts to the banks.  (Barricada, Feb. 13)
 
6.  National University students protest hike in registration fees.
 
Four students from the National Autonomous University are in the 
second week of a hunger strike to protest the registration rate 
increases announced by that institution on January 18th.  Registration 
fees were raised from $7 to $14.  Meanwhile, other students, 
organized in the Committee for the Defense of Student Rights are 
blocking entrance to the university to prevent student registrations 
until the problem is solved.  Only 50 of a total of 1,800 Saturday 
students were able to register last week.  The students have also 
threatened to take over all regional installations of the university.  
(Barricada, Feb. 19)