Nicaragua News Service April 30 - May 6, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 19 by Coleen Littlejohn Major news stories for the week: 1. Statistics released on hunger in children. 2. Supreme Court President's head on block? 3. Rainy season begins in Nicaragua. 4. Protest over rise in energy bills to begin May 8. 5. U.S. worried about Nicaraguan political crisis. 6. ESAF extended until June 1997. 7. International Workers' Day: FSLN calls for unity. 8. Bishops publish pastoral letter. 9. Aleman announces his candidacy for presidency in 1996. ____________________________________________________________________ 1. Statistics released on hunger in children. More than 60% of Nicaragua's children under the age of one year are anemic and 4% of all children under five years old suffer from irreversible mental retardation because of malnutrition, according to statistics released by the Office of Nutrition of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health. According to the Ministry of Social Action (MAS), 70% of all Nicaraguan families suffer from poverty and of these, 38% live in extreme poverty and 16% in misery. Thirty-two percent of all children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Dr. Gloria Navas, Director of MINSA's nutrition department, considers that one of the principal health problems of the country is malnutrition, both as a direct cause of death and as a causal factor, especially in children under the age of 5 years old. According to a study done by PROFAMILIA, a non-governmental organization, malnutrition as a direct cause of death of children under four years of age has increased by 35% since 1990. Infant mortality rates have increased from 62 deaths per 100 live births in 1987 to as high as 107 per 1000 in some areas such as Boaco and Chontales. The rates for children with illiterate mothers is over 138 per thousand. In 1988, more than 40,000 children received nutritional attention in government day care centers. Many of those centers have now been closed and only 7000 children are receiving the same attention. (Barricada, May 5) 2. Supreme Court President's head on block? In the latest chapter of the Battle of the Political Giants in Nicaragua, 15 members of the National Assembly have officially asked for the removal of Orlando Trejos Somarriba as President of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. The deputies are angry with Trejos for not having seated four justices nominated by the Assembly to the Supreme Court. Trejos had earlier indicated that to accept the justices would be to officially recognize the legitimacy of the Constitutional amendments being challenged by the Executive Branch of the Government. The Court, however, did accept the naming of Rodolfo Sandino Arguello since he was also a candidate proposed by the President over 10 months ago. Trejos is also being questioned for simultaneously holding the office of President of the Central American Court of Justice and President of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court, which legislators view as a possible conflict of interest. It is evident, however, that the major problem with Trejos has been his disagreement with the National Assembly over the acceptance of the new justices. The rest of the Supreme Court published a statement expressing their total agreement with Trejos. According to a weekend edition of Barricada, the Supreme Court met last week to decide on the appeals entered against the Constitutional amendments. According to Barricada's source, the amendments would be declared illegal because of a procedural error in which the amendments were promulgated by the President of the National Assembly and not by the President of the Republic. (Barricada, May 5, 6) 3. Rainy season begins in Nicaragua. Despite mixed opinions on the part of Nicaraguan meteorologists, it seems that "winter," the Nicaraguan rainy season which normally begins in May and extends to November, has arrived. Most "experts" maintain that this rainy season will be a good one given that the "El Nino" current, which had provoked severe droughts in the Central American region for the last few year, has finished its cycle. Severe rain storms last week in Managua provoked the death of a nine year old child who fell into the storm sewer system in Managua which channels run-off water to Lake Managua. Another victim of the rains was not a person but rather a part of the mayor of Managua's famous drain scheme. A canal that begins in the hills of Santo Domingo just off the Masaya Highway and that will eventually connect to the drains in the affluent Pancasan neighborhood collapsed after less than one hour of heavy rains. The design of the whole system had been severely criticized by specialists. Spectators are watching the newly-inaugurated traffic circle in Plaza Espana to see how much rain it will take to open up pot holes in the latest of Mayor Arnoldo Aleman's public works projects. Farmers are waiting to see if the state development bank, BANADES, will begin to approve credit for this year's planting. That possibility is remote, according to Dionisio Marenco, member of the Board of Directors of BANADES for the FSLN. Marenco decried the fact that small, medium and even large efficient producers are suffering from a contraction of credit at the precise moment when credit is needed to plant for the beginning of the 1995-1996 agricultural season. (Barricada, May 5, 6) 4. Protests over rise in electricity bills to begin May 8. The Nicaragua Energy Company (ENEL), announced that domestic electricity bills will rise by 5% and industrial rates will go up between 9 and 13%. This latest rise in basic prices, which will soon be felt in the rest of the economy, is the last straw for a series of organizations which have formed the "National Coordinating Committee in Defense of Credit, Property and Standard of Living." The Coordinating Committee has announced the beginning of a national slowdown on Monday May 8, with transportation slowdowns in the departments and plans to build up momentum to eventually affect Managua. Roberto Gonzalez, representative of the transport sector within the Coordinating Committee, stated that the economic slowdown will be implemented as a way of pressuring the government to live up to what it has promised different sectors of Nicaraguan society. He added that it is a response to the deterioration in standard of living that the population is suffering as a result of the increases in the cost of basic services. (Barricada, May 5) 5. U.S. worried about Nicaraguan political crisis. The U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua, John Maisto, held a two hour meeting last week with the President of the National Assembly, Luis Humberto Guzman, during which he expressed the concern of the United States about the crisis between the branches of government in Nicaragua and his hope that an agreement will be reached as soon as possible. Maisto stated that: "We think that the powers of the State should play their role and should function as independent bodies; therefore it is necessary that some agreement be reached. This country needs institutions that function normally." Maisto has held a series of meetings recently with different actors on the Nicaraguan political scene. (La Prensa, May 5) 6. ESAF extended until June 1997. La Prensa reported last week that the government of Nicaragua signed an extension of the Economic Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) agreements which will condition national economic policy until June 1997. The extension, signed at the time of the last meeting of the Paris Club in March of this year, also obliges the Nicaraguan government to privatize TELCOR and INE as well as resolve the ever- critical property problem. (La Prensa, May 5) 7. International Workers' Day: FSLN calls for unity. Edgardo Garcia, newly-elected member of the FSLN National Directorate and Vice-Coordinator of the FNT, the National Workers Front, was the key speaker at this year's International Workers Day celebration on May 1st. The celebration took the form of a march of several hundred people from an area near the Ministry of Education to the offices of TELCOR in Managua's old downtown. Garcia called for unity between workers, farmers and the business sector in order to reactivate the country's economy. He also announced that the FSLN will soon publish its recently adopted economic proposal which will include a plan for economic reactivation. The FNT also sponsored local marches in Esteli, Leon, Chinandega, Matagalpa, Rivas, Jinotega, Juigalpa, Carazo and Rivas. The FSLN released a statement greeting Nicaraguan workers on their day and stated that: "In these difficult moments when half of the men and women of our country who are able to work are suffering together with their families the effects of unemployment caused by brutal neoliberal policies that the present government is implementing and when those who have managed to keep their jobs but with hunger salaries that only make their poverty, misery and marginalization worse, the FSLN supports the demand of workers in the city and in the countryside to an immediate legalization of their properties, whether they be cooperative, individual, family plots, businesses, or houses. .... The FSLN also repeats its irrevocable commitment to remain firmly on the side of our people and to struggle with them for noble and just causes in the defense of the humble and exploited." (Barricada, May 2) 8. Bishops publish pastoral letter. The Nicaraguan Bishops Conference published a five page letter last week in which they comment on the country's institutional crisis which is hindering the creation of a state of law. The letter also warns of the danger that nepotism will once again take control of the State and of the goods of the state. The letter expressed concern about the environment, the family, and the socioeconomic situation of the country and announced that the Church would soon be celebrating a Second Eucharistic Congress dedicated to the Virgin Mary. (La Prensa, May 2) 9. Aleman announces his candidacy for president in 1996. Arnoldo Aleman, Mayor of Managua, announced last week at the celebration of his fifth year in office, that he would be resigning from his post as mayor this coming September in order to run for the presidency in the 1996 elections. Aleman will try to win the candidacy of the three Liberal parties in the country which are PLIUN (Liberal Party for National Unity), PALI (Liberal Alliance Party) and the PLC (Liberal Constitutionalist Party). The Liberal parties will hold their first joint convention next week. Under the amended Constitution, most candidates for public office must resign from public positions one year before the elections. (La Prensa, May 2)