Nicaragua News Service April 2-8, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 15 by Coleen Littlejohn Major stories for the week: 1. Two Constitutions, two Supreme Courts. 2. Council of "Notables" to mediate in teachers' strike. 3. ESAF demands 4000 more layoffs in public sector 4. Cattle ranchers and government come to agreement. 5. Price of cooking gas goes up. 6. UNAG and Community Movement say, "Nothing for Somoza family." 7. Colombian airplanes harass Nicaraguan fishing boats. _______________________________________________________________________ 1. Two Constitutions, two Supreme Courts. The undeclared war between the Legislative Branch and the Presidency became even more evident last week when the National Assembly elected six new members to the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. Only one of the new justices, Roberto Arguello Hurtado, was one of the candidates that had been proposed last year by President Chamorro. Under both the 1987 Constitution and 1995 amended Constitution, the President has the prerogative to nominate candidates to the nation's highest court. Under the amended Constitution [not accepted by the Executive Branch], there are 12 justices, whereas under the 1987 document there were only nine. President Chamorro had declined to name candidates under the amended Constitution, which left to the National Assembly that faculty. The other new judges sworn in last week by the Assembly, without the presence of the Executive Branch or any representative of the Supreme Electoral Council, are: Francisco Plata, Julio Ramon Garcia Vilchez, Clair Harlan Kent, Rodolfo Sandino Arguello and Josefina Ramos. Clair Harlan Kent is the first justice ever from the Atlantic Coast. According to Barricada, diplomatic representatives of the "Friends of Nicaragua" were not present at the swearing in ceremony either. Twenty-one members of the National Assembly, including nine representatives of the FSLN, decided not to participate in the elections of the justices because of questions about the process by which the judges were elected. The President, through Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo, declared one day earlier that the Executive branch would not recognize the legitimacy of the new appointees. The Executive Branch has been waiting for the Nicaraguan Supreme Court to rule on the legitimacy of the amended Constitution, via several cases filed against the amendments. The situation was made even more complicated last week due to the death of one of the present Supreme Court Justices, Rodolfo Robelo. According to some jurists, the Court, without its latest members, does not have sufficient quorum to hear the amendments appeals case. Others disagree, making it virtually impossible for the Court to come to an unanimous agreement. The President of the Court, Orlando Trejos, insinuated as much at the end of last week when he stated that the problem of the Constitutional amendments needed a "political solution." (Barricada, April 7, La Prensa, April 3) 2. Council of "Notables" to mediate in teachers' strike. The Nicaraguan government has accepted the formation of a council of well known people to serve as mediator in the now six-week-old teachers' strike for better wages. The last two weeks of the strike have been characterized by several incidents of police repression against the strikers. The members of the mediating team include the directors of Nicaragua's three principal human rights groups, Violeta Granera of the Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association (ANPDH), Lino Hernandez of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), and Vilma Nunez of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH). They are joined by Fr. Juan Bautista Arrien of UNESCO, Gilberto Aguirre of CEPAD (Protestant pastoral and development organization) and Fr. Silvio Fonseca for the Catholic Church. Fonseca will serve as coordinator of the group. The government negotiating team is being coordinated by Julio Cardenas, advisor to President Chamorro. Cardenas stated that "the government is very willing to meet with the Commission to see if we can reconcile our positions and find a solution to the strike as quickly as possible." The government is offering a 25% wage increase while the teachers' unions are holding out for a 40% increase [down from their original demand of 80%] in an attempt to make more flexible their position. Meanwhile, last week in Managua, thousands of teachers and parents "united without political colors or parties" marched to the National Assembly to express their determination to continue with the strike until their demands are met. The government has blamed the National Assembly for not budgeting more money for teachers' salaries but the National Assembly assured the marchers that they had increased funding above that requested by the Ministry of Education. Meanwhile, Ernesto Medina, of the National Council of Universities, stated that now is the moment to look for a constructive solution to the problems of the teachers. All of Nicaraguan society, he said, is convinced that their struggle is just. Nicaraguans also think that the government can no longer keep sacrificing teachers in order to buoy up a failing economic policy that has only brought misery to the majority of the people of the country. The dean of the University of Central America, Fr. Xabier Gorostiaga, also stated that he agreed with others who maintain that there are resources within the government to meet the demands of the teachers. Gorostiaga spoke of the possibility that funds could be used from those destined for the interest payments of the recently forgiven part of the country's foreign debt. (Barricada, April 6, 7, El Nuevo Diario, April 3) 3. Structural Adjustment Programs demand 4,000 more layoffs. The President of the Nicaraguan Central Bank, Evenor Taboada, confirmed last week that several thousand more state workers must be laid off before June in order for the Nicaraguan government to get a good report card from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Taboada stated that the members of the IMF-World Bank mission, which last month came to evaluate progress with relation to the most recent Economic Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) agreement, gave Nicaragua a mark of "satisfactory." However, their final instructions to the government were to reduce the number of state workers by 4,000 (originally Taboada had stated 11,000 but called the newspaper Barricada back to correct the number), to privatize the state-owned telecommunications system (TELCOR), and "make other corrections." In the past few years, more than 3,500 workers left their jobs under the so-called "voluntary" retirement plan. In the next few months, 4,000 more will be pressured to go, lured by receiving up-front 18 months salary. This, according to Taboada, will be financed from the government's annual budget, from the savings on interest payments on the foreign debt forgiven last month by the Paris Club, and $3.7 million dollars from the country's international reserves, use of which was authorized by the IMF. Barricada reported that National Assembly President Luis Humberto Guzman promised the IMF-World Bank mission that the law to privatize TELCOR would be passed in May of this year by the National Assembly. The next multilateral evaluation mission will be in the country on June 6th to evaluate how these emergency ESAF measures have been implemented. Their okay is needed to open the door for more multilateral financing for the country. (El Nuevo Diario, April 3, Barricada, April 7) 4. Cattle ranchers and government come to agreement. Nicaraguan cattle ranchers, who last week had threatened to start another nation-wide strike, came to an agreement with the government at the end of the week. Only about 30 ranchers are to be left out of the agreement, which involves restructuring of pending obligations. It also includes the promise of fresh loans at more reasonable interest rates and more flexible repayment periods. (Barricada, April 7) 5. Price of cooking gas goes up. On the first of April, the Nicaraguan government made formal its commitment to break the state monopoly PETRONIC which controlled the prices of petroleum products. Supposedly the measure was to result in the lowering of prices, but the first reaction has been a 30% increase in the price of bottled gas, a common source of fuel for cooking in the urban areas of the country. A 100 pound tank which last week cost $21 now sells for $29. Ironically, the government has wanted to stimulate the use of cooking gas to replace firewood, the main fuel source for approximately 90% of the population. Firewood cutting has become a major income source for many rural residents who have no other alternative for survival, but the constant deforestation is having a devastating effect on water resources in rural and urban areas. (Barricada, April 7) 6. UNAG and Community Movement -- Nothing for Somoza family Enrique Picado, National Coordinator of the Community Movement, demanded last week that the government not give back even one inch of the properties that belonged to the Somoza family or its associates. He also went on to add that the government should not even let Somoza family members into the country, much less give them access to the judicial system. Picado said, "Just letting them in goes against national stability, but the Chamorro government not only lets them enter Nicaragua but also allows them to go to court in order to demand the return of properties that were confiscated from them." Picado stated that due to the rash of court cases that Somoza family members are filing, it is urgent that the government give final land titles to all those new owners who benefited under Laws 85 (urban homes), 86 (urban lots), and 88 (rural properties). Especially important, he said, were those whose properties were affected by Decrees 3 and 38. These were the decrees emitted in 1979 that confiscated all properties of the Somoza dictatorship and of its closest collaborators. National leaders of the Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG) also made known their protest against any recovery of property by Somocistas. Gustavo Toruno, a member of the UNAG National Board of Directors, stated that the Somoza family and its allies want to recover over 93,500 acres of confiscated land. UNAG's position is that the government should not even sit down to negotiate with the Somocistas and that their confiscations under the Laws 3 and 38 were perfectly legal. Toruno said that he held the government to the word of Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal, who stated that nothing would be given back to them. (Barricada, April 4, 7) 7. Colombian airplanes harass Nicaraguan fishing boats. At least three and possibly five Colombian aircraft penetrated Nicaragua's territorial waters last week and came very close to attacking a Nicaraguan Coast Guard vessel and several fishing boats which were fishing about 80 miles off Puerto Cabezas in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). According to one of the captains of the fishing boats, the Colombian military was trying to force the Nicaraguans to leave the zone but the fishermen instead called for help from the Coast Guard. A spokesperson for the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry stated that Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal had sent a note of protest to the Colombian government calling for a "friendly resolution to these incidents so that they will not be repeated." The Columbia air incursion was a reaction to the detention last week by the Nicaraguan Coast Guard of several Colombian fishing boats for fishing in territorial waters claimed by Nicaragua. The incident was settled by the end of the week when the Colombian boats paid a symbolic $600 fine, instead of the $75,000 fine originally imposed by Nicaragua. This latest incident is part of a longer territorial dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia over the island of San Andres. San Andres was taken from Nicaragua in 1920, but Nicaragua still considers the island her territory. The Colombian planes left from San Andres and were operating in the 200 mile territorial limit which Colombia says belongs to that nation. In 1994, the then-President of Colombia made a special trip to the island to ratify Colombia's rights over the island and to announce an increased military presence in the zone. (Barricada, April 6) Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (cdp.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.1]) by mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu (8.6.12/8.5) with ESMTP id JAA82059; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 09:15:35 -0500 Received: from igc2.igc.apc.org (igc2.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.39]) by cdp.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.196 ) with SMTP id HAA07478 for ; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 07:12:37 -0700 Received: (from nicanet) by igc2.igc.apc.org (8.6.11/Revision: 1.11 ) id HAA24514 for pbary@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu; Fri, 14 Apr 1995 07:12:33 -0700 Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 07:12:33 -0700 From: Nicaragua Network Message-Id: <199504141412.HAA24514@igc2.igc.apc.org> To: pbary@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu Subject: nica news v. 3, no.15 Status: O Nicaragua News Service April 2-8, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 15 by Coleen Littlejohn Major stories for the week: 1. Two Constitutions, two Supreme Courts. 2. Council of "Notables" to mediate in teachers' strike. 3. ESAF demands 4000 more layoffs in public sector 4. Cattle ranchers and government come to agreement. 5. Price of cooking gas goes up. 6. UNAG and Community Movement say, "Nothing for Somoza family." 7. Colombian airplanes harass Nicaraguan fishing boats. _______________________________________________________________________ 1. Two Constitutions, two Supreme Courts. The undeclared war between the Legislative Branch and the Presidency became even more evident last week when the National Assembly elected six new members to the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. Only one of the new justices, Roberto Arguello Hurtado, was one of the candidates that had been proposed last year by President Chamorro. Under both the 1987 Constitution and 1995 amended Constitution, the President has the prerogative to nominate candidates to the nation's highest court. Under the amended Constitution [not accepted by the Executive Branch], there are 12 justices, whereas under the 1987 document there were only nine. President Chamorro had declined to name candidates under the amended Constitution, which left to the National Assembly that faculty. The other new judges sworn in last week by the Assembly, without the presence of the Executive Branch or any representative of the Supreme Electoral Council, are: Francisco Plata, Julio Ramon Garcia Vilchez, Clair Harlan Kent, Rodolfo Sandino Arguello and Josefina Ramos. Clair Harlan Kent is the first justice ever from the Atlantic Coast. According to Barricada, diplomatic representatives of the "Friends of Nicaragua" were not present at the swearing in ceremony either. Twenty-one members of the National Assembly, including nine representatives of the FSLN, decided not to participate in the elections of the justices because of questions about the process by which the judges were elected. The President, through Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo, declared one day earlier that the Executive branch would not recognize the legitimacy of the new appointees. The Executive Branch has been waiting for the Nicaraguan Supreme Court to rule on the legitimacy of the amended Constitution, via several cases filed against the amendments. The situation was made even more complicated last week due to the death of one of the present Supreme Court Justices, Rodolfo Robelo. According to some jurists, the Court, without its latest members, does not have sufficient quorum to hear the amendments appeals case. Others disagree, making it virtually impossible for the Court to come to an unanimous agreement. The President of the Court, Orlando Trejos, insinuated as much at the end of last week when he stated that the problem of the Constitutional amendments needed a "political solution." (Barricada, April 7, La Prensa, April 3) 2. Council of "Notables" to mediate in teachers' strike. The Nicaraguan government has accepted the formation of a council of well known people to serve as mediator in the now six-week-old teachers' strike for better wages. The last two weeks of the strike have been characterized by several incidents of police repression against the strikers. The members of the mediating team include the directors of Nicaragua's three principal human rights groups, Violeta Granera of the Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association (ANPDH), Lino Hernandez of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), and Vilma Nunez of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH). They are joined by Fr. Juan Bautista Arrien of UNESCO, Gilberto Aguirre of CEPAD (Protestant pastoral and development organization) and Fr. Silvio Fonseca for the Catholic Church. Fonseca will serve as coordinator of the group. The government negotiating team is being coordinated by Julio Cardenas, advisor to President Chamorro. Cardenas stated that "the government is very willing to meet with the Commission to see if we can reconcile our positions and find a solution to the strike as quickly as possible." The government is offering a 25% wage increase while the teachers' unions are holding out for a 40% increase [down from their original demand of 80%] in an attempt to make more flexible their position. Meanwhile, last week in Managua, thousands of teachers and parents "united without political colors or parties" marched to the National Assembly to express their determination to continue with the strike until their demands are met. The government has blamed the National Assembly for not budgeting more money for teachers' salaries but the National Assembly assured the marchers that they had increased funding above that requested by the Ministry of Education. Meanwhile, Ernesto Medina, of the National Council of Universities, stated that now is the moment to look for a constructive solution to the problems of the teachers. All of Nicaraguan society, he said, is convinced that their struggle is just. Nicaraguans also think that the government can no longer keep sacrificing teachers in order to buoy up a failing economic policy that has only brought misery to the majority of the people of the country. The dean of the University of Central America, Fr. Xabier Gorostiaga, also stated that he agreed with others who maintain that there are resources within the government to meet the demands of the teachers. Gorostiaga spoke of the possibility that funds could be used from those destined for the interest payments of the recently forgiven part of the country's foreign debt. (Barricada, April 6, 7, El Nuevo Diario, April 3) 3. Structural Adjustment Programs demand 4,000 more layoffs. The President of the Nicaraguan Central Bank, Evenor Taboada, confirmed last week that several thousand more state workers must be laid off before June in order for the Nicaraguan government to get a good report card from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Taboada stated that the members of the IMF-World Bank mission, which last month came to evaluate progress with relation to the most recent Economic Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) agreement, gave Nicaragua a mark of "satisfactory." However, their final instructions to the government were to reduce the number of state workers by 4,000 (originally Taboada had stated 11,000 but called the newspaper Barricada back to correct the number), to privatize the state-owned telecommunications system (TELCOR), and "make other corrections." In the past few years, more than 3,500 workers left their jobs under the so-called "voluntary" retirement plan. In the next few months, 4,000 more will be pressured to go, lured by receiving up-front 18 months salary. This, according to Taboada, will be financed from the government's annual budget, from the savings on interest payments on the foreign debt forgiven last month by the Paris Club, and $3.7 million dollars from the country's international reserves, use of which was authorized by the IMF. Barricada reported that National Assembly President Luis Humberto Guzman promised the IMF-World Bank mission that the law to privatize TELCOR would be passed in May of this year by the National Assembly. The next multilateral evaluation mission will be in the country on June 6th to evaluate how these emergency ESAF measures have been implemented. Their okay is needed to open the door for more multilateral financing for the country. (El Nuevo Diario, April 3, Barricada, April 7) 4. Cattle ranchers and government come to agreement. Nicaraguan cattle ranchers, who last week had threatened to start another nation-wide strike, came to an agreement with the government at the end of the week. Only about 30 ranchers are to be left out of the agreement, which involves restructuring of pending obligations. It also includes the promise of fresh loans at more reasonable interest rates and more flexible repayment periods. (Barricada, April 7) 5. Price of cooking gas goes up. On the first of April, the Nicaraguan government made formal its commitment to break the state monopoly PETRONIC which controlled the prices of petroleum products. Supposedly the measure was to result in the lowering of prices, but the first reaction has been a 30% increase in the price of bottled gas, a common source of fuel for cooking in the urban areas of the country. A 100 pound tank which last week cost $21 now sells for $29. Ironically, the government has wanted to stimulate the use of cooking gas to replace firewood, the main fuel source for approximately 90% of the population. Firewood cutting has become a major income source for many rural residents who have no other alternative for survival, but the constant deforestation is having a devastating effect on water resources in rural and urban areas. (Barricada, April 7) 6. UNAG and Community Movement -- Nothing for Somoza family Enrique Picado, National Coordinator of the Community Movement, demanded last week that the government not give back even one inch of the properties that belonged to the Somoza family or its associates. He also went on to add that the government should not even let Somoza family members into the country, much less give them access to the judicial system. Picado said, "Just letting them in goes against national stability, but the Chamorro government not only lets them enter Nicaragua but also allows them to go to court in order to demand the return of properties that were confiscated from them." Picado stated that due to the rash of court cases that Somoza family members are filing, it is urgent that the government give final land titles to all those new owners who benefited under Laws 85 (urban homes), 86 (urban lots), and 88 (rural properties). Especially important, he said, were those whose properties were affected by Decrees 3 and 38. These were the decrees emitted in 1979 that confiscated all properties of the Somoza dictatorship and of its closest collaborators. National leaders of the Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG) also made known their protest against any recovery of property by Somocistas. Gustavo Toruno, a member of the UNAG National Board of Directors, stated that the Somoza family and its allies want to recover over 93,500 acres of confiscated land. UNAG's position is that the government should not even sit down to negotiate with the Somocistas and that their confiscations under the Laws 3 and 38 were perfectly legal. Toruno said that he held the government to the word of Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal, who stated that nothing would be given back to them. (Barricada, April 4, 7) 7. Colombian airplanes harass Nicaraguan fishing boats. At least three and possibly five Colombian aircraft penetrated Nicaragua's territorial waters last week and came very close to attacking a Nicaraguan Coast Guard vessel and several fishing boats which were fishing about 80 miles off Puerto Cabezas in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). According to one of the captains of the fishing boats, the Colombian military was trying to force the Nicaraguans to leave the zone but the fishermen instead called for help from the Coast Guard. A spokesperson for the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry stated that Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal had sent a note of protest to the Colombian government calling for a "friendly resolution to these incidents so that they will not be repeated." The Columbia air incursion was a reaction to the detention last week by the Nicaraguan Coast Guard of several Colombian fishing boats for fishing in territorial waters claimed by Nicaragua. The incident was settled by the end of the week when the Colombian boats paid a symbolic $600 fine, instead of the $75,000 fine originally imposed by Nicaragua. This latest incident is part of a longer territorial dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia over the island of San Andres. San Andres was taken from Nicaragua in 1920, but Nicaragua still considers the island her territory. The Colombian planes left from San Andres and were operating in the 200 mile territorial limit which Colombia says belongs to that nation. In 1994, the then-President of Colombia made a special trip to the island to ratify Colombia's rights over the island and to announce an increased military presence in the zone. (Barricada, April 6)