Nicaragua News Service June 25 - July 1, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 27 by Coleen Littlejohn Major news stories for the week: 1. "Framework Law" signed by President. 2. Candidates nominated for Supreme Electoral Council. 3. Short Life of the Republic of Airrecu. 4. Economists: foreign aid promised in Paris will not improve economy. 5. OAS international elections advance team arrives. 6. FSLN celebrates 16th anniversary of "El Repliegue." 7. Workers return to "La Fosforera." 8. Peasants stand firm in protests at National Assembly and UCA. 9. CENIDH celebrates 5th anniversary. ______________________________________________________________________ 1. "Framework Law" signed by President. "These agreements do not have winners or losers. The great victor is the people of Nicaragua," were the words of President Chamorro minutes before she signed the "Framework Law for the Implementation of the Constitutional Reforms." Witnesses to the signing included the President of the National Assembly, Luis Humberto Guzman, and Cardinal Obando y Bravo who had served as mediator during the latest negotiating process. The "Framework Law" must now be submitted to the National Assembly where it requires a total of 56 votes to pass. The agreement negotiated between the Executive and the Legislature is that one day after the vote the President will publish and thus make effective Law Number 192, the Law of Partial Reforms to the Political Constitution of Nicaragua. As of last week, the exact contents of the "Framework Law" had still not been published in local daily newspapers but it is assumed to include a time table for the rest of this year of legislative activities to legalize the agreements made between the two branches during the recent negotiations. The timetable would include the privatization of TELCOR, the passing of a Labor Code, and reforms to the electoral law. The law also included the agreement to hold a second round of elections if in the first no one candidate for president receives 45% of the vote. After the agreements were finalized for the "Framework Law," negotiations began to choose the rest of the justices who will join the Nicaraguan Supreme Court, now to be enlarged to 12 justices. In the new agreement, the election of the Supreme Court justices is the exclusive faculty of the National Assembly, agreement reached in exchange for letting the Executive name the Comptroller of the Republic. All nominations, however, should be consulted with the other branch. (La Prensa, July 1) 2. Candidates nominated for Supreme Electoral Council. The Executive and the Legislative branches agreed last week on a list of candidates for the Supreme Electoral Council, the fourth power of government in the country. The nominees selected are: Mariano Fiallos and Rosa Marina Zelaya for the FSLN, Alfonso Callejas Deshon of Liberal ideology and linked to the former Somoza regime but not affiliated with a specific liberal party, Braulio Lanuza of the Popular Conservative Alliance and Roberto Rivas of the Verification Commission of Cardinal Obando y Bravo. Fiallos and Zelaya's terms on the Council recently expired. Two parties, the National Conservative Party (PNC) and the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) consider that they were left out of the picture with the above-mentioned nominees and several of their deputies in the National Assembly have promised strong debates when the candidates are voted on in this week's Assembly sessions. The president of the PNC, Adolfo Calero, declared that the composition of the Council represented personal interests rather than the interests of the majority of the people of Nicaragua. Leaders of the PLC complained that the Council was overloaded with Sandinistas. (La Prensa, July 1) 3. The short life of the Republic of Airrecu. Costa Rican attempts at colonizing parts of southern Nicaragua reached a new high last week when Nicaraguan troops were sent to the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border to escort a number of Costa Rican families back to their native territory. The families, represented by the leadership of a fellow citizen, Augusto Rodriguez, requested last week that the United Nations recognize the "Republic of Airrecu" in the area of 213 square kilometers near the community of Jumusa located between Lake Nicaragua and the Costa Rican border. Rodriguez had even proclaimed himself president of the new republic and warned that he would have 5,000 troops in arms if the Nicaraguan government tried to invade his territory. Rodriguez fled to Costa Rica where he is being sought by that country's authorities. Nicaraguan officials stated that he would not be arrested here but that he would be immediately deported the next time he tried to enter Nicaraguan territory. Apparently, the patriotic aspirations of Rodriguez and several large landholders who supported him, was motivated by a desire to establish a "duty free" zone in the border area which would facilitate their illegal extraction of precious wood from the nearby Nicaraguan rain forests, and also make easier their cattle rustling operations. Nicaraguan peasant farmers in the area, of whom over 70% are illiterate, had no idea that they were almost at a point of becoming citizens of Airrecu. (Barricada, June 29; La Prensa, June 30) 4. Economists: foreign aid promised in Paris will not improve economy. Two well-known economists, Alejandro Martinez Cuenca and Francisco Mayorga, coincided last week in their conclusion that the foreign aid for Nicaragua that was promised in Paris would not improve the macro- economic situation of the country. Martinez Cuenca doubted that the country would achieve the 3.5% growth rate projected by the government for this year and another economist, Sergio Santamaria, claimed that the government would be lucky to see a 2% growth rate and that even that estimate was optimistic because of the drastic cuts in credit available for the second half of 1995. (La Prensa, June 30) 5. OAS international elections advance team arrives. The government of Nicaragua has officially requested that the Organization of American States send international observers to monitor the 1996 elections, according to Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal. Leal stated that this would be the first time that a civilian government would give power over to another civilian government and that President Chamorro was concerned that the elections be as open as possible. In response to that request, the OAS sent an advance team composed of Elizabeth Spehar, Director of the OAS Unit for the Promotion of Democracy. Spehar was accompanied by Santiago Murray, former director of CIAV-OAS delegation in Nicaragua, who is now serving as advisor to the Unit. (La Prensa) 6. FSLN celebrates 16th Anniversary of "El Repliegue." The 16th anniversary of the legendary strategic retreat of the FSLN forces from Managua to Masaya was celebrated last week with the now traditional repetition of the "Repliegue." The commemorative march was led by Daniel Ortega who was joined at the head of the march by 400 historic combatants of the FSLN. 7. Workers return to "La Fosforera." The 52 workers who for the last six months have protested in front of "La Fosforera" match factory were reinstated in their jobs last week. The workers had been protesting against the abuses of the factory co- owner, Pedro Ortega Macho, who fled to Miami to avoid a court order for his capture. Meanwhile, Ortega had delegated representatives to continue negotiating with the workers. One of the agreements negotiated was that the factory should retain a minimum of workers to guarantee the maintenance of the equipment. Other agreements include carrying out a complete audit of the company's books in the next few weeks, a physical inventory of goods and the naming of Denis Duarte as provisional manager. Agreements will be monitored by Vilma Nunez, Director of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH). The legal advisor of the workers, Dr. Eddy Grijalba, explained to the returning workers that they are returning with all of their workers' rights intact and that negotiations will continue to assure that Pedro Ortega not return as Manager of the factory and that labor stability will be guaranteed to all workers. The judicial order to capture Ortega still holds. (Barricada, June 30) 8. Peasants stand firm in protests at the National Assembly and UCA. The peasants who are staging a sit-in at the National Assembly were visited last week by three Assembly members, Roberto Urroz, Herty Levites and Luisa del Carmen Larios who stated that they believed that the struggle of the peasants to legalize their land was just and legitimate but that a sit-in at the National Assembly was not the correct way to protest. Jose Adan Rivera of the Farmworkers Union (ATC) said in response that the peasants would leave the building if the President of the Assembly, Luis Humberto Guzman, would agree to meet with the protest participants and mediate the property problem with the government via serious negotiations. It is unlikely that Guzman will meet with the protesters while they are still in the Assembly building and the possibility that he will call in the police to vacate the building has increased now that the Assembly and the Executive have come to some kind of an agreement on the constitutional amendments. The peasant farmers and farm workers will be joined this week in the National Assembly by approximately 180 cattle ranchers protesting the credit policies of the National Development Bank. Meanwhile, peasant leaders have also been peacefully protesting in front of and inside the grounds of the Central American University in Managua. One leader said that "if the government does not give us land titles, [University President] Padre Gorostiaga can forget about us leaving here." Classes are going on as usual. (Barricada, June 26, 30) 9. CENIDH celebrates 5th Birthday. Last week, CENIDH, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights celebrated its fifth birthday with a national meeting of all the neighborhood human rights organizers that have been trained by CENIDH in the last four years. CENIDH now has an office which includes 21 people, of whom eight are lawyers. During the last five years CENIDH has investigated a total of 3,079 cases, received a total of 1,630 protests and has certified a total of 555 violations of human rights. (Barricada, June 30)