Nicaragua News Service
                           April 9-16, 1995
                            Vol. 3, No. 16
                         by Coleen Littlejohn
 
Major news stories for the week:
 
1. Nicaragua suspends activities for "Semana Santa."
2. Teachers' strike settled.
3. Nicaragua captures eight Honduran fishing boats.
4. Darwin Flakoll dies.
5. Cardinal Obando demands solution to crisis.
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1. Nicaragua suspends activities for "Semana Santa."
 
Nicaragua practically closed down beginning on Thursday of last week.  
Semana Santa or Holy Week is traditionally a time of devotion for some 
and trips to the beach for others and this year was no exception.  The 
week also claimed a significant number of lives, according to the 
newspapers which appeared again on Easter Monday after having stopped 
publishing the middle of the week.  According to police statistics, 
as of noon on Easter Sunday, 79 people had died in different parts of 
the country of unnatural causes, including 38 drownings, 16 in traffic 
accidents, 7 people were murdered and three were victims of fires.  
(El Nuevo Diario, April 17)
 
2.  Teacher strike settled.
 
On April 18th the 75,000 Nicaraguan children who were affected by the 
six week old teachers' strike will be back to school to begin the 1995 
school year.  The year will now be extended for them until January of 
1996.  According to the Ministry of Education (MED), only 635 schools 
were affected by the strike, out of a total of 5,917, and 3,000 teachers 
out of a total of 30,000 participated.
 
Under the settlement, the MED will pay a one-time bonus of $22.00 to 
each teacher and guarantee a monthly pay raise of $6.00 per teacher 
for the rest of the school year.
 
No more teachers will be fired for participating in the strike and all 
those who were fired will be reinstated.  (La Prensa, April 11, 
Barricada, April 11)
 
3. Nicaragua captures eight Honduran fishing boats.
 
The Gulf of Fonseca, historically shared by Nicaragua, El Salvador and 
Honduras, was the scene of an incident last week in which forces of 
the Nicaraguan Navy captured eight Honduran fisherman fishing in the 
Gulf.  The Nicaraguan Navy exchanged fire with its Honduran 
counterparts but no casualties were reported.  Fishing rights in the 
area are a constant source of tension between the three countries. 
 
The International Court of Justice (World Court) in 1992 called on the 
three countries to mutually define their borders with respect to 
fishing rights in the Pacific.  Honduras has called on the other two 
countries to sign a joint fishing agreement to avoid tension. (La 
Prensa, April 11)
 
4. Darwin Flakoll dies.
 
Darwin J. (Bud) Flakoll, a well-known and much-loved U.S.-born 
journalist, translator and solidarity activist died on Saturday in his 
home in Managua after a long illness.
 
Flakoll was a former member of the U.S. Foreign Service but resigned 
years ago because of political differences with the U.S. Department of 
State.  He began a life partnership 47 years ago with the Salvadoran-
Nicaraguan poet and novelist Claribel Alegria, and the two came to 
Nicaragua to live in 1979.
 
One of the last published works produced by the couple was the book 
SOMOZA: CASE CLOSED, which told the story of the death of Anastasio 
Somoza Debayle in Paraguay in 1981.  (El Nuevo Diario, April 17)
 
5. Cardinal Obando demands solution to crisis.
 
Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo demanded last week that the powers of 
the State come together to look for a solution to the institutional 
crisis of the country.  The Cardinal stated that "We cannot continue 
like this, because a power vacuum is dangerous."  At the beginning of 
the week, the Cardinal said that he hoped that Holy Week would help 
Nicaragua's leaders to reflect and that God would "light their way."
 
It is unlikely, however, that the nation's political leadership had 
much time to reflect.  President Chamorro was in Washington, DC, on a 
private trip and most of the country's other major political actors 
went to the seashore.  (El Nuevo Diario, April 17)