Nicaragua News Service
                       July 3 - August 5, 1995
                            Vol. 3, No. 32
                         by Coleen Littlejohn
 
Major news stories for the week:
 
1. Local plane hijacked; pilot murdered. 
2. Another church bombed.
3. New York Times criticizes Helms on Nicaragua; Clinton grants waiver.
4. Strikes spread across nation.
5. Relations between Central American armies become closer.
6. Aleman cracks down on car owners.
7. Baltodano talks of coming elections.
___________________________________________________________________________
 
1. Local plane hijacked; pilot murdered.
 
On Sunday, July 30th, a "Caravan" plane belonging to "La Costena" 
Airlines, was chartered by a what turned out to be a non-existent 
organization with the name "Amigos de la Naturaleza" (Friends of 
Nature).  The flight-plan included the island of Ometepe, Bluefields 
and Rio San Juan.  Two people joined the pilot in Ometepe for the 
flight to Bluefields.  Five hours later still had not arrived in 
Bluefields.  The last contact with the plane was as it flew out of 
Ometepe.  Later in the week, the pilot's body, which showed signs of 
torture, was found on the outskirts of the city of Zipaquira, 
department of Cundinamarca, Colombia, but the whereabouts of the plane 
is still a mystery.  The pilot, Captain Andres Narvaez, was an former 
Nicaraguan Army pilot who had worked at La Costena Airlines for two 
years.
 
There is much speculation about what happened and why. Possible 
motives include: 1. robbery--a plane such as the Caravan has a high 
market value for drug smugglers; 2. drug trafficking--there is a 
possibility that the flight was used to smuggle out a drug baron and 
that the pilot was murdered to leave no witnesses; and finally 3. 
revenge against the pilot and or owner of the airlines.  An August 3rd 
story in Barricada stated that both the pilot and the owner of La 
Costena, Alfredo Caballero, participated in arms trafficking to the 
contras during the war in Nicaragua in the 1980's.  The pilot's 
family, however, denied any involvement, as did Caballero.  Caballero 
HAS been cited in several U.S.-based reports including one by U.S. 
Senator John Kerry, as being involved in drug trafficking.  
(Barricada, August 3)
 
2. Another church bombed. 
 
Another church, this time the Church of San Jose in Leon, was the 
victim of a bombing last week.  Four hundred grams of dynamite were 
used to provoke an explosion that was heard throughout the city of 
Leon.  The police immediately arrested nine people who were close to 
the church at the time of the explosion but within twenty four hours 
all but three had been released.  The explosion occurred one hour 
after the police had retired a team from the area due to the need to 
reinforce other police work in the port of Corinto.  Little damage was 

done to the church but windows were blown out of several neighborhood 
houses.  (Barricada, July 29)
 
3. New York Times criticizes Helms on Nicaragua; Clinton grants waiver.
 
In the week in which U.S. President Clinton granted a waiver 
permitting U.S. aid to Nicaragua to continue, Nicaraguan papers gave 
substantial importance to an editorial in the New York Times entitled 
"Penny-Pinching on Nicaragua" which was highly critical of Senator 
Jesse Helms.  The July 28th editorial said that Helms "vindictiveness 
should not be allowed to threaten the tiny amount of foreign aid that 
Washington now sends to Nicaragua."  The Times accused Helms of 
"cooking up a bogus issue" in saying that the Chamorro government has 
not made enough progress in settling the claims of American citizens 
whose property was seized by the Sandinistas after the revolution in 
1979.  In fact, the editorial writer stated, substantial progress has 
been made in the last few months in resolving claims. Also, an 
agreement was recently reached between different groups involved in 
the property crisis within Nicaragua which promises to help resolve 
some of the issues.
 
The Times pointed out that "most of Nicaragua's land was traditionally 
controlled by a ruthless elite."  The editorial added that the 
Sandinistas' goal of redistributing land was a legitimate one" 
although the process had faults.  It turns out, however, according to 
the editorial, that some people are asking for compensation for the 
full value of properties that were heavily mortgaged or properties on 
which banks had already foreclosed.  And fewer than one-third of the 
former landowners seeking redress as U.S. citizens were American 
citizens when their property was expropriated, according to the Times.  
 
The editorial urges President Clinton to certify that Nicaragua's 
actions on settling the property disputes and on human rights is 
satisfactory so that aid can go to that country and it urges Senators 
to oppose any further conditioning of aid to Nicaragua by Helms.  
 
On July 31, Secretary of State Warren Christopher informed Congress 
that the Clinton Administration was granting Nicaragua a special 
waiver that would allow the $30 million in U.S. aid to continue on the 
grounds that Nicaragua has worked hard in recent months to resolve 
hundreds of cases of North Americans whose property was confiscated. 
State Department officials said that cutting off aid to Nicaragua 
would destabilize the country as it heads towards elections next year, 
something the officials said was not in the United States' interest. 
(Barricada, July 29; New York Times, July 28, August 1)
 
4. Strikes spread across nation.
 
A wave of strikes was reported last week which included port workers 
in Corinto, energy workers in Bluefields and textile workers in one of 
the free trade zone plants located near the airport in Managua.
 
In Corinto, the police have taken over port facilities, locking out 
the 965 workers on strike.  The head of the Port Authority, Uriel 
Arguello, has stated that no negotiations will take place while the 
strike persists.  Workers are calling for higher pay, the continued 

functioning of their health clinic, and the firing of four managers.  
They also want their strike to be declared legal.
 
The Port Authority calculates that it is losing $10,000/day in 
revenue.  But that figure will rise when other shipmasters learn of 
the strike and divert their cargoes to other ports.  Meanwhile, other 
port workers' unions in Central America have told their Nicaraguan 
counterparts that they will not unload Nicaraguan products in their 
ports until the strike is settled.
 
In Bluefields, 47 workers of the Nicaraguan Electrical Company (ENEL) 
are on strike in protest against the latest "Labor Mobility Plan" 
which will mean unemployment for at least half of the electrical 
workers in the city.  Bluefields electricity in recent years has been 
provided by a system of donated electrical generators. Now that the 
region will be connected to the National Energy System, a number of 
workers who formerly did the maintenance on the generators will be 
without jobs.  The Regional Autonomous Council of Bluefields voted not 
to allow ENEL to move the generators out of the Region stating that 
they are the property of the South Atlantic Autonomous Region.  
 
Energy workers at the Patricio Arguello geo-thermal plant located near 
Leon have stated that that they may strike in protest against the 
imminent sale of the Electricity Company.  More that 400 workers at 
the Patricio Arguello Plant face layoffs when the government 
privatizes that generating complex.
 
Finally, over 750 workers at the Taiwanese owned FORTEX factory in the 
free trade zone went on a four-hour work stoppage last week to protest 
the factory's abuse of the fringe benefits provisions of the Labor 
Code.  The stoppage was supposedly settled but Taiwanese managers 
immediately fired twenty people claiming that they were "temporary 
workers."  Franklin Parado, one of the fired, stated that the 
Taiwanese treat the workers like "dogs" with the support of the 
Ministry of Labor adding that when the workers complain to the 
Ministry, nothing happens.  (Barricada, July 29)
 
5.  Relations between Central American armies become closer.
 
General Joaquin Cuadra, head of the Nicaraguan Army, spoke last week 
of the "normalization" of relations between the Nicaraguan army and 
others in Central America and also with the army of the United States, 
relationships that have been quite cool for the last 15 years.  Cuadra 
stated that the relationships will be based on mutual confidence and 
openness.  He said that the heads of the armies agree that their 
institutions must play an important role in the strengthening of 
democratic processes.  He emphasized the importance of mutual 
cooperation in light of new challenges: the fight against drug 
trafficking and the illegal arms trade, as well as disaster 
assistance.
 
With respect to relations with the U.S. Army, Cuadra stated that a 
relationship would be formalized in the medium term and that the army 
did not believe that the U.S. would resolve the technical and material 
problems of the Nicaraguan Army.  Cuadra also said that it was 
unlikely that the old CONDECA alliance (of which Nicaragua was a key 

member under Somoza) would be revived.  (Barricada, August 3)
 
6. Aleman cracks down on car owners.
 
As part of his on-going campaign to refill the city's treasury, 
Managua Mayor Arnoldo Aleman decided to do something about drivers in 
the city who had not paid their automobile registration fees for the 
year.  With the collaboration of the National Police, all cars which 
did not have the proper stickers posted in their windows were towed to 
the national baseball stadium where they were held until the owners 
paid their fees.  One of the affected was Rene Vivas, former head of 
the National Police and now member of the FSLN National Directorate.  
Vivas has filed an appeal to the Nicaraguan Supreme Court, stating 
that the measure is illegal because Mayor Aleman is using national 
resources to enforce a city tax.  (Barricada, August 5)
 
7. Baltodano talks of coming elections.
 
Monica Baltodano, member of the FSLN National Directorate, stated last 
week in an interview that the principal adversary of the FSLN in the 
coming elections would be Arnoldo Aleman.  Baltodano also stated that 
the FSLN would not join an electoral alliance with Antonio Lacayo's 
"National Project" (PRONAL) because of its low level of popular 
support--only 10% according to recent polls which she cited.  
According to those same internal polls, the FSLN has the support of 
20% of the population.  Baltodano also cited poll results which showed 
that Aleman had 30% support but that his party, the Liberal 
Constitutionalist Party (PLC), had only 10%. (Barricada, July 31)