Nicaragua News Service October 8 - 14, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 42 Major News Stories for the Week: 1. Hillary Clinton Visits Nicaragua. 2. Property Debate Continues. 3. Electoral Regulations Hammered Out. 4. Dispute Over Banades * News Briefs _______________________________________________________________________ 1. Hillary Clinton Visits Nicaragua. On October 12, celebrated in Nicaragua as "el dia de la raza", US First Lady Hillary Clinton was in the country for a whirlwind 6-hour tour. Coming on the heels of the women's conference in Beijing, her visit was an affirmation of the increasingly broad-based women's movement here in Nicaragua. Clinton, met at the airport by the President's daughter Cristiana Chamorro, ate lunch at President Violeta Chamorro's residence, visited a health care center and spoke to some 1500 women representing different organizations--both governmental and non-governmental--that are working on women's issues in the country. After a visit to FINCA, an AID-sponsored women's small revolving loan fund, she stressed that women's economic independence is the key to stronger, more stable families, which was seen as a gentle dig at those, both stateside and in Nicaragua, who see independent women as somehow threatening cohesive families. Clinton said that Nicaragua's friends must continue to aid the country, rather than turning their backs at this time when Nicaragua still urgently needs help. She was also the bearer of a note from her husband, assuring President Chamorro that all cases of Nicaraguans who face deportation will be considered on an individual basis, and that there will be no mass deportations. 2. Property Debate Continues The property bill now on the floor of the National Assembly continues to spark heated debate. La Prensa gave front page coverage to continued opposition to the legislation by the Association of Confiscated Property Owners. Their spokesperson, Ariel Solorzano, essentially blamed former US President Jimmy Carter for his role in hammering out the agreement that served as the law's framework in early July. Fabio Gadea, of Radio Corporacion and now also representing the Party of the Nicaraguan Resistance (PRN), said the PRN is very much against the legislation. Nicaraguan Democratic Movement (MDN) representatives said they are against the "pinateros" benefiting from the law, but supported it insofar as it offers legal backing to poor peasants and urban dwellers. Barricada again gave top billing to Daniel Ortega's support of the legislation, and also ran a two-page spread at the end of the week, with short op-ed pieces by several people, including former Agriculture Minister Jaime Wheelock, who warned against a "counterreform" in the countryside, and the consequences that would have in terms of social stability. He noted that the political goal is to return to the extremely inequitable state of land distribution that held sway under the Somoza regime, and said that the former owners are particularly bent on dismantling the cooperative movement in the Nicaraguan countryside. Other commentators demanded that a list of the former owners still demanding the return of land or other properties be published in the media. By the end of the week, the National Assembly had decided to suspend floor sessions in order to continue consultations with different groups, including political parties, the Association of Farm Workers (ATC), and demobilized soldiers from the Sandinista Army, the Ministry of the Interior and the Nicaraguan Resistance ("contras"), etc. regarding the proposed legislation. The Sandinista bench in the National Assembly unanimously voted to approve the bill in general on first reading even though it includes a number of items they hope to change before final passage. These deal, for example, with privatized property, confiscated properties currently in the hands of humanitarian organizations, a clause dealing with police action, and the agrarian titles given out for land in Managua, among others. The FSLN bench also promised to work for consensus with other sectors around the legislation. According to FSLN representative Omar Cabezas, "It is a question of voting in a united bloc for a balanced law that recognizes the rights of thousands of peasants, workers, urban and rural dwellers, one that would compensate those who were confiscated and punish the abuses... We want to persuade all the Assembly representatives to act as statesmen and women and give this country a law that would bring with it economic, social and political stability." 3. Electoral Regulations Hammered Out. Along with the property issue, the National Assembly is also dealing with the controversial electoral law. Though the Assembly did approve voting abroad (not through absentee balloting, but through the setting up of polling places in Miami, and perhaps some areas in California as well), they left it up to the Supreme Court to determine if there are sufficient conditions abroad to actually be able to carry out the elections. FSLN representative Danilo Aguirre says he thinks that the conditions required by law would be impossible to guarantee abroad, and others have said it would amount to a true "logistical nightmare" to try and pull off such a large-scale operation. The executive branch has already told the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) that it has very little money with which to fund the 1996 elections. The National Assembly therefore decided that all extra- parliamentary parties who wish to participate in the upcoming elections would have to take out loans from the government, payable within 3 to 5 years. According to Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) representative Jaime Bonilla, if a party wins a seat in the National Assembly, its debt with the state would be forgiven. In addition, Assembly members warned that those parties polling so few votes that they do not win even one Assembly seat run the risk of losing their status as legally recognized political parties. Approved changes in the electoral law would give the country's Comptroller General a 30-day period to determine precisely how government funds would be used in campaign financing. The first round of the elections will be held on October 20, 1996, and final elections will be held either the last Sunday in November or the first Sunday in December. 4. Supporters of National Development Bank resist privatization. Employees of the state-owned National Development Bank (BANADES), along with farmers and other businesspeople, have set up a "Pro- BANADES Front" to try to thwart the government's attempt (with IMF backing) to privatize this institution. With the re-opening of a number of private banks in Nicaragua after 1990, BANADES was for a time the only bank that was oriented towards providing credit to medium-sized farmers, though it quickly began to favor large farmers and wealthy businessmen. Now, a number of newer banks are providing credit to some small and medium farmers, but the BANADES role continues to be crucial to any eventual recovery of Nicaragua's agricultural economy, particularly because it is one of the few institutions that has a presence in some of the country's more remote geographic areas, areas that are key to the nation's economic health. During the 1980s, BANADES lent to many small farmers and cooperatives, many of whom quickly ran up huge debts with the bank. Since the 1990 elections, according to economists at the Nitlapan Institute at the Central American University (UCA), a clear policy of favoritism seems to have guided decisions about credit recipients, with many large farmers receiving huge loans that have never been paid back. According to BANADES employees, ECODEPA, a peasant store set up in the 1980s and linked at that time to the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MIDINRA), owes the bank some $3 million. Another $1.5 million is owed by the relatively new Ministry of Social Action. Others with huge debts include the import-export firm run by former Minister of Government Carlos Hurtado, and a spare parts business run by the Mantica family. NEWS BRIEFS - More torrential rains, this week linked to the presence of Hurricane Roxanne in the Caribbean, continue to wreak havoc throughout the country. The Rivas area was particularly hard hit, and at least 11 deaths were reported nationwide. - A feasibility study is underway for the Program to Manage and Recover Lake Managua, a project to be funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. Lake Managua (or Xolotlan) has been on the receiving end of Managua's raw sewage for nearly 70 years, and also has been heavily contaminated by agricultural run-off and factory pollutants (the Penwalt plant, now closed, being a prime culprit). The $50 million needed to clean up the lake would be granted Nicaragua in the form of a loan to be paid off in 40 years, at a 2% interest rate, and with a 10-year grace period. Many people, particularly those living in the poorer areas near the lakeshore, regularly eat fish out of the lake, even though studies done by Nicaraguan and international experts make it clear that any fish or plant life in the lake is highly contaminated and could therefore pose a serious health threat to human beings. In the lake's favor is the fact that it is relatively shallow, subject to high winds and hot suns, the latter two natural elements that could complement a clean-up effort. - The newly privatized garbage service in Managua continues to be controversial, with garbage piling up in many neighborhoods, as the system of scattering dumpsters throughout the city's neighborhoods proves ineffectual in dealing with the large amount of garbage generated. Informal surveys down on radio talk shows have a number of people declaring that the city is the dirtiest it has ever been. - The recent announcement that Managua bus fares will go up 25% on Sundays as of November has caused an angry response from many who depend entirely on the city's inadequate public transportation system. On Sundays, people visit relatives, go to public parks, etc.--usually with the entire family--and the extra 25 centavos to be charged could soon prove prohibitive for many. - A huge finback whale washed up on the shores of the Pacific at the Penitas beach, near Poneloya in Leon. The whale, some 60 feet long (press reports varied widely), died within 24 hours, though an ad-hoc emergency committee had been put together to try and save it. Thousands came to the sea to see the whale, and after its death, many went home with meat and blubber, in spite of Ministry of Health warnings against consumption of the meat. - Police in Rivas, near the Nicaraguan border with Costa Rica, say that Rivas is now a key link in the whole drug trafficking network that runs from Colombia to the United States, and noted that poor women are increasingly being enlisted to actually transport cocaine across borders. They are usually paid several thousand dollars a job, a small fortune for a poor family in Nicaragua today.