Nicaragua News Service August 20 - Sept. 2, 1995 Vol. 3, Nos. 35 & 36 Major news stories for the week: 1. Ads for West Point appointments appear in local papers. 2. New border problems with Colombia develop. 3. Antonio Lacayo goes but stays. 4. Increase in violence alarms nation. 5. "Marxist" orientation in private school worries Ministry of Education. 6. Excessive rain damages crops. 7. Ministry of Health declares dengue emergency. 8. Third Sandinista group appears in National Assembly. 9. National Assembly alternates charged in Miami. ________________________________________________________________________ 1. Ads for West Point appointments appear in local papers. How times have changed! Local newspapers last week published advertisements calling on interested students to send in their applications in order to be considered for scholarships to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and to the two other U.S. military academies. 2. New border problems with Colombia develop. According to generally accepted maps, the country of Colombia borders Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Brazil and Venezuela, but according to a new official map published two weeks ago by Colombian authorities, the country has six other neighbors. They are Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, the U.S.A. and Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry has protested vigorously against the new map which claims over 2,000 square kilometers of Nicaraguan territorial waters. Venezuela's Foreign Ministry has also protested the new map. Nicaragua has indicated that it will take the case to the International Court of Justice at the Hague. Colombia, meanwhile, has sent war planes to San Andres Island, which is claimed by Nicaragua and has threatened to kick out all Nicaraguan "illegal aliens." The border dispute is not just over a matter of national pride. The territorial waters in dispute are rich in sea life for fishing and probably in petroleum as well. The waters are also a door onto the Caribbean sea lanes. (La Prensa, Sept. 2) 3. Antonio Lacayo goes but stays? Last week at the re-inauguration of a power plant in Managua, Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo announced that he would be resigning his government position as of September 7 in order to be eligible to run for President. He said, however, that he would be available to advise the government stating that "I will be there 24 hours a day at the service of the government, if the government says to me, "Antonio, what do you think of this?" One name mentioned as a possible substitute for Lacayo as President Chamorro's Minister of the Presidency is Julio Cardenas. Lacayo, however, is still not eligible to run for president at this moment even if he does step down from his present position one year before the elections, as the recently promulgated constitutional amendments require. He still cannot run because he is related by marriage to the present president. However, several members of his political movement, the "National Project," have introduced legal suits against the constitutional provision stating that their individual rights as citizens are being damaged. The National Project members are all Ministers and Vice-Ministers of the Chamorro government. Lacayo had stated soon after the suits were filed that he would not file suit, considering that his interests were also represented in the cases already filed. True to his word, Lacayo has not filed suit; instead his wife Christina Chamorro, daughter of the President, filed at the end of last week claiming that her rights as a citizen were being denied because she could not run for President. She said that the reasons for prohibiting re-election and election of relatives expressed by her father, anti-Somocista newspaperman Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, over 25 years ago were valid then when the government in power was a dictatorial dynasty. But, she said they were not valid now under her mother's democratic government. The Supreme Court has not decided whether it will hear all the cases brought against the Constitutional amendments. Some members of the National Assembly have stated that the cases cannot be heard because the Constitution itself cannot be challenged. Lacayo came under heavy criticism after his associates had filed their first challenges to the amendments but Lacayo defended himself by stating that the different sides in the recent constitutional crisis had agreed that some differences, such as the inhibition clause, would be settled by the Supreme Court. (La Prensa, Sept. 1, 2; El Nuevo Diario, Sept. 2) 4. Increase in violence alarms nation. Two policemen were shot down by an armed robber while on duty on August 30 in Managua. The officers were Sergeants Roberto Montenegro and Julio Blenk. The man who shot them was later shot and killed but not before he had wounded two more officers, one of whom is in critical condition. The deaths of the officers is seen by many, including newspaper columnists and editorial writers, as symptomatic of the violence prevalent in Nicaraguan society today. A Barricada editorial blames the government for the conditions under which the police and the whole justice system have to work: low salaries, buildings and vehicles in disrepair, shortage of weapons, lack of money for gas for police cars, overcrowded prisons and insufficient food for prisoners, etc., etc. The editorial calls Nicaragua "a delinquent's paradise." (Barricada, Sept. 1) 5. "Marxist" orientation in private school worries Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education is investigating a local Catholic girls' school where a small number of parents have complained that the nuns who run the school are teaching their daughters "class hatred." The Student Council at the Colegio Teresiano, however, wrote a letter in support of the nuns signed by 95% of the student body. The students' letter asked why it is that "now when we are trying to put our feet on the ground and understand the problems of others, it is called Marxism." The letter added that the students were being asked to reflect on the teachings of "our Lord Jesus Christ and Saint Teresa of Jesus" (the patroness of the School). In the National Assembly, Deputy Luis Sanchez stated that "The Ministry of Education and the Catholic Church should release statements about what is happening at the Colegio Teresiano where they are promoting the culture of death and the disrespect of the law among the students." (La Prensa, Sept. 2) 6. Excessive rain damages crops. Ironically, with the end of the El Nino phenomenon which provoked drought in the Central American region for ten years, this year's number one agricultural problem (not including, of course, man-made problems such as property rights) is excessive rainfall. First reports indicate that the onion harvest in the Sebaco valley has been damaged. The bean crop in the Jinotega area has also been affected as has the sesame seed crop in the western part of the country. Fortunately, this first growing season is generally not the major growing season for basic grains because farmers expect losses from drought. They therefore wait until the second planting (the "postrera") to sow most of their basic grains. Consumers are being affected, however, because the price of beans is already starting to rise. The excess rain has, none the less, been beneficial to cattle ranchers and dairy farmers and has also replenished water supplies in areas that had been severely affected by drought during the last few years. On the whole, despite too much rain, the Nicaraguan government projects a 6% growth in the agricultural sector this season. (La Prensa, August 31, Sept. 1) 7. Ministry of Health declares dengue emergency. The Ministry of Health (MINSA) has declared a state of epidemiological alert due to the advance of hemorrhagic dengue fever in the city of Managua. There are more than three times the number of cases reported this year than in the same time period during 1994. Compared to the 519 cases last year, this year over 1,978 cases have been reported in Managua, leaving one dead. It is presumed that at least several hundred cases have not been reported. Nationwide, there have been 6,898 cases of dengue reported. MINSA announced a door-to-door campaign to eradicate the mosquito which carries dengue. In other parts of the country, other measures are also being taken. For example, in Potosi, in the western part of the country near the Gulf of Fonseca, a field hospital is being set up to deal with the emergency. Dr. Alvaro Ramirez, Director of Epidemiology in Managua, stated that the country is "not prepared to handle a dengue epidemic." He added, "I say this although it may cost me my job." The week before making this statement Ramirez had received an award from the Health Ministry for his efforts at identifying and repatriating the Nicaraguans killed in the AVIATECA plane crash. Ramirez stated that MINSA and the Nicaraguan Army have done everything possible to contain the epidemic by fumigating house by house but that the principal problem facing the Health Ministry is lack of budget. Nicaragua leads Central America in the number of cases of dengue reported. Cuba has offered to help the Central American Health Ministries in confronting the dengue epidemics. (Barricada Sept. 2) 8. Third Sandinista group appears in National Assembly. According to an article in La Prensa, there will be a third group of Sandinistas in the National Assembly which will not respond automatically to either the MRS or the FSLN. According to the article, the new group is being promoted by Doris Tijerino, together with Luis Enrique Figueroa, Marcia Quezada, Leticia Herrera and Manuel Morales, for a total of five members. The "orthodox" group of the FSLN would then have a total of eight: Damaso Vargas, Francisco Rivera, Roberto Laguna, Benigna Mendiola, Gladys Baez, Omar Cabezas and Nathan Sevilla, while the MRS would remain with a total of 26 to complete the 36 seats that the FSLN won in the 1990 elections. Tijerino stated that "Both groups (MRS and FSLN) at times maintain very inflexible positions. However, one must recognize that certain leaders in each group have more flexible positions." She insisted that even though there have been separations, that "in the last instance, the three groups are still Sandinista, even though some may not like to admit it or see it as such, since no one has said they do not want to be Sandinista. It is an identity that the three groups have in common." She continued: "We who have not renounced our militancy in the FSLN have a clear position with respect to the two Sandinista branches, because of which we are trying to find, through the recognition of our common identity, the unity of the two fractions." An article in Barricada on the same subject emphasized Tijerino's statement that she will remain within the FSLN. At the same time, however, Tijerino criticized both the FSLN (for intolerance) and Sergio Ramirez of the MRS for declaring his candidacy for the presidency before it was appropriate. The new group's existence was denied by Nathan Sevilla, the coordinator of the FSLN deputies. He stated that the five deputies were leaving the MRS because they were not in agreement with its political positions adding that unity of the Sandinista family has not been possible because of the intransigence of its main leader, Sergio Ramirez. (Barricada, August 25; La Prensa, Sept. 2) 9. National Assembly alternates charged in Miami. Two FSLN alternate members of the National Assembly were detained last week and imprisoned in Miami under charges of "illegal trafficking of persons and visa fraud." The two alternate deputies, Silvia Fox Lewis and Berta Rosa Flores, were arrested at a lawyer's office when they were in a meeting with the father of the two children whom the women brought to the U.S. The parents live illegally in Miami. The Nicaraguan consul in Miami communicated immediately with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Managua which office in turn was in contact with the National Assembly. The two deputies were traveling with diplomatic passports but were not on official business. Although it is not clear exactly what happened, one newspaper article mentioned that the women were bringing the two children to their parents, who now face deportation from the U.S. (La Prensa, Sept. 1){{[w3/+{