Due to a family emergency of our regular correspondent in Managua, there was no News Service last week. Please accept our apologies. Nicaragua News Service May 28 - June 4, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 23 by Donna Vukelich Major News Stories for the week: 1. Executive-Legislative Dialogue Begins. 2. Economic Pressure On. 3. Electoral Deadline Nears. 4. Transport Union Accuses Government in Deaths. 5. Agricultural Workers Protest. 6. Army Changes. 7. Survey on Corruption. 8. Mother's Day and Day of the Child 9. Volcano Heats Up. ______________________________________________________________________ Introduction: Tension in the country continues to build, with a showdown brewing for early next week in the ongoing constitutional- institutional crisis. Meanwhile, the national baseball tournament continues, with some fans hinting that the key fifth game may have been thrown. Other fans religiously make offerings to the Virgin Mary so that their team will win. 1. Executive-Legislative Dialogue Begins. The much-heralded dialogue between the long-embattled executive and legislative branches finally began this week. President Violeta Chamorro finally agreed to the talks with Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo serving as mediator. Almost immediately, however, the talks hit a snag when the two sides differed on their deadlines for reaching an accord. The executive branch holds to its June 30 deadline. However, Luis Sanchez, one of the legislators who will be participating in the talks, said that an agreement must be made before the upcoming June 19 donors' meeting in Paris. Sweden and some of the other Nordic countries have said they want to see the institutional crisis resolved before the meeting, while the World Bank, IMF, et al., have publicly supported the executive branch, although reports are that privately they are skeptical of the executive branch's ability to see the country through this crisis. 2. Economic Pressure On. It now seems quite likely that Nicaragua will not be able to keep the agreement made in early March in meetings with the international financial institutions that are shepherding the country through its maze of structural adjustment measures. The Chamorro government said that it would increase international reserves by $28.6 million by this July. Failure to comply will result in greater restrictions on credit, further tightening up a situation in which there is already little room to maneuver. Nicaragua plans to ask for $400 million at the donors meeting on June 19, both for infrastructure renovation and debt servicing. 3. Electoral Deadline Nears. As part of the continuing and generalized institutional crisis, a showdown is brewing for the coming week, as the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) authorities step down upon completion of their terms. Current CSE head Mariano Fiallos said on Sunday that it was "virtually impossible" for an accord to be reached this week that will allow for a legal transfer of authority to new elected CSE officials. They are to be elected by the Supreme Court which is in crisis because the National Assembly has named new Justices under the amended constitution not recognized by the Court or the Executive branch. Fiallos declared that, "We will not accept any appointments that are not completely legitimate and legal," since that would jeopardize the legitimacy of the Electoral Council and, as a consequence, the upcoming elections including the ongoing issuing of voter cards. The CSE, according to Fiallos, has prepared an interim chain of command, to be headed up by Rosa Marina Zelaya. He foresees this interim group running things for up to two months, but stresses that the longer the country goes without an agreement, the more negative consequences will be felt, adding that "We are in no way responsible for this constitutional crisis," but if things continue as they are and the naming of new CSE representatives is thwarted, the potential for clean, fair elections in 1996 will be jeopardized. 4. Union Charges Government. The Parrales Vallejos transportation cooperative announced that it will bring criminal charges against the Nicaraguan government for the recent deaths of two Parrales Vallejos members, Enrique Montenegro and Franklin Borge. The two died May 17, when tensions mounted during the recent transportation strike and police moved in. The official police report holds that Parrales Vallejos sharpshooters, firing from the roof of the cooperative's headquarters, were responsible for the deaths, but the union denies that. The Nicaraguan Human Rights Commission, headed by Dr. Vilma Nunez, issued a report on the events of May 17-18 that implicates the police forces present at that time, while ballistics experts testifying for the Parrales Vallejos cooperative said that it is impossible that the bullets could have come from the roof, as the police argue. In related news, Nunez denounced what she called a campaign of "personal persecution" against her being carried out by members of the National Police. Also this week, the wife of the police officer killed charged that it was "friendly" fire that killed him, and not union bullets as the police claim. 5. Agricultural Workers Protest Declaring that they will stay until the government responds to their plight or they die of hungers, hundreds of agricultural workers from around the country began their second week of protest, camped out on the campus of the Central American University (UCA) in Managua. They were joined mid-week by several thousand more, and night classes were suspended for at least two days as workers virtually "took over" the UCA installations, with permission of Jesuit authorities there. The workers, most of them members of the Farm Workers Association (ATC) and UNAPA, are demanding that the government give them legal title to their lands, establish a minimum wage for the agricultural sector and address the substandard health care available to workers and peasants in the countryside. In addition, workers from a number of the banana plantations in Nicaragua's northwest are demanding the 25% of stock which they received legal right to purchase as part of the "concertacion" accords made in 1990 and 1991. In related news, the Community Movement is calling for a protest by residents of the neighborhoods and settlements that dominate Nicaragua's major cities. The national leadership of the Movement had originally scheduled a national march for March 24, but then called it off in the wake of the three deaths during the transportation strike. Some regional and local leaders said they were dismayed by that decision, and there are signs of conflict within the movement, which may respond more to ongoing animosity between the FSLN and the MRS than to any internal politics specific to the Community Movement. Barricada has published a series of reports criticizing what it calls the "passive" and "cold" leadership style of the current Community Movement leaders at the national level. Meanwhile, the largest urban workers' union federation, the FNT, is supporting the agricultural workers at the UCA and has also announced that it will begin talks in the coming weeks with a number of different social sectors to respond to what it called a "new stage of struggle." 6. Army Changes. In his first major move as head of the Nicaraguan Army, General Joaquin Cuadra announced personnel changes early this week. Most news focused on Colonel Lenin Cerna, a lightning rod for both national and international criticism after his transfer to the army from the former Ministry of the Interior during the post-election transition in 1990. Cerna, who had been the army's General Inspector, was demoted to the level of adviser to Cuadra. Cerna's former post will be filled by Colonel Osvaldo Lacayo. Also brought down several pegs was Lt. Colonel Ricardo Wheelock, head of Public Relations. He will be directed of a newly formed Center for Military History. In addition, Colonel Alvaro Baltodano, will be sent to Mexico as military attache and Lt. Col. Ramon Arnesto Soza replaces Captain Guillermo Guevara as head of Civil Defense. 7. Corruption. Two public opinion research firms, Centroamerica 2000 and MIR, released a survey this week regarding popular sentiment towards corruption. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming sentiment is that the government is riddled with corruption at all levels and that, while stricter laws, regulations and oversight mechanisms are important, political will is perhaps equally as crucial. The survey, carried out in all of Nicaragua's Pacific provinces, showed that nearly 93% of respondents say there is "a lot" ("muchisimo") of corruption in the country as a whole, while 75% said it is particularly serious at high levels of government. Almost 60% say it is a problem among public employees, while 50% feel it is serious among the legislature. Only 15% felt that the churches are corrupt, making them the least tainted institutions within the country. 8. Mother's Day celebrations. Celebrations in Nicaragua this past week for both Mother's Day (May 30 in Nicaragua) and the International Day of the Child underscored the increasingly precarious situation facing many women and children in the country. The first woman to give birth in Nicaragua on Mother's Day was a 16 year old, highlighting the fact that births among teen-agers are many as well as often very risky for both mother and child. Different organizations that work with children, including UNICEF, INSSBI and a number of non-governmental organizations, issued statistics indicating that more than half a million children (more than 25% of all children in the country) live in "particularly difficult" circumstances and some 107,000 children live on the streets. In addition, over 16,000 children are currently institutionalized in centers which have undergone draconian budget cuts and cannot meet all of the children's basic needs. 9. Volcano Heats Up. The small but active Cerro Negro volcano, in the Los Maribios volcanic range east of Leon, is again spewing ash and gasses into the sky, and a full-fledged eruption could take place at anytime. Eruptions from the volcano, which most recently erupted in April 1992, have traditionally hit the city of Leon and nearby rural areas very hard. This time, however, the prevailing winds threaten nearby Malpaisillo and a number of small communities, literally in the shadow of the volcano. Some 36,000 people are potentially affected. Explosions are coming every 8-12 minutes and the ash and smoke plumes are shooting some 400 meters into the air. Emergency workers are on alert, and national and international vulcanologists continue to study the situation.