Nicaragua News Service October 15 - 21, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 43 Major news stories for the week: 1. Government reimburses confirmed Somocistas. 2. National Assembly approves property law. 3. Vice President Godoy resigns. 4. Police abandon rural protection program for lack of funds. 5. University students demand 6% of national budget. 6. Inter-American Development Bank approves $75 million for roads. 7. Denis Martinez to pitch in World Series. 8. "National Project" inaugurates campaign headquarters. 9. National Development Bank celebrates 83rd birthday. _____________________________________________________________________ 1. Government reimburses confirmed Somocistas. Days before he left office and apparently ignoring the upcoming discussions on property in the National Assembly, the former Minister of the Presidency and right-hand man of the President, Antonio Lacayo, authorized the Minister of Finances to destine $314 million to pay off almost 1,000 Somocistas who had been confiscated by Revolutionary Decrees 3 and 38 in 1979. A select group of 17 Somocistas including members of the Somoza National Guard, are to receive $57 million although at the time of the confiscations most of their properties were mortgaged with the bank. Many of these mortgages were paid off by the Sandinista government. One of this privileged group is Donald Spencer, business partner of the Somozas and Minister in the Somoza government who was also a Major in the National Guard. He was the owner of the COPA factory which made the 500 pound gasoline bombs used by Somoza to bomb civilian neighborhoods in 1978 and 1979. Spencer received a total of almost $5.7 million. Another case involved Jose Chester Delagneau, ex-pilot of the Air Force (FAN) who participated in the aeriel bombings of Leon, Chinandega and Masaya. (Barricada, Oct. 20) 2. National Assembly approves property law. The National Assembly began to discuss and ratify the controversial Property Stability Bill last week amid accusations from the extreme right wing that "everything has been fixed" between the present government, the Sandinistas (all groups) and COSEP, the private business sector, to vote in favor of the bill. The bill was approved by 59 votes with 19 against and two members abstaining. Earlier in the week debate on the bill had been suspended in order that the majority of the members of the Assembly could reach a consensus. The exact phrasing of the approved law had not been made public as of last week but some of the aspects of the law are known including the recognition of property rights of those beneficiaries of the Law 85 whose houses are less than 100 meters square. The property rights of those ex-military personnel or ex-contras who received land up until April of 1994 will also be respected as will those of agricultural cooperatives that received their certification from the National Agrarian Reform Institute. (Barricada, Oct. 19, La Prensa, Oct. 19) 3. Vice President Godoy resigns. Last week, in a plenary session of the National Assembly, Nicaraguan Vice-President Virgilio Godoy resigned from his office in order to be eligible to run for president in the upcoming Oct. 20, 1996, elections. Godoy will be a candidate for the Liberal Independent Party (PLI). Godoy's absence will not be much noticed in the halls of the Nicaraguan government. Because of his open feud with the close advisors of President Chamorro, Godoy was never assigned any official functions as Vice-President and was not even assigned an office. Many youngsters, upon reading last week's newspapers, were surprised to find out that their country had indeed had a Vice President during the last five years. (Barricada, Oct.20) 4. Police abandon rural protection program for lack of funds. National Police officials announced last week the suspension of a special protection program for farmers in the northern region of the country. One hundred police officials had been protecting the major coffee zones. The area had been plagued by kidnappings and murders caused by armed bands who had not demobilized from the country's armed conflict. With the special farmers' protection program, the situation had improved. But now police spokespersons state that they have no more funds with which to operate the program. One high level police official even stated that if there were no more funds in the 1996 budget for police operations, the police would no longer have the obligation to arrest more criminals because there would be no place to put them and no money to feed them. Daniel Nunez, president of the National Union of Farmers and Cattle Ranchers (UNAG), stated that the suspension of police protection was an "attack against the coffee harvest." He went on to say that "farmers would now be at the mercy of delinquents." UNAG demanded an immediate response and solution from the government. Cattle ranchers from the Fifth Region which includes Boaco and Chontales are lamenting that the "kidnapping industry" is back in full swing with the recent rise in the number of bands of criminals operating in that region. Last week two cattle ranchers were kidnapped and one murdered while resisting capture. The two kidnapped ranchers were being held for ransoms of over $36,000 and $71,000 respectively. The ranchers criticized the police for not pursuing the bandits into the mountains and stated that farmers and ranchers in the region are only working at half their actual capacity for fear of being kidnapped if they remain full-time on their farms. (Barricada, Oct. 20, La Prensa, Oct. 19) 5. University students demand 6% of national budget. Students, university officials and professors from eight university centers joined together last week to demand that the government hand over the 6% of the national budget due to them for this year as well as the $400,000 still owed them from the years since 1992. The Nicaraguan Constitution mandates that 6% of the government's regular budget be allotted to higher education but in fact the government has never honored that commitment, blaming lack of funds. University students and officials from Managua, Matagalpa and Leon participated in the march which left from the Central American University under a banner which stated: "If there is money to rob, there is money to study." (La Prensa, Oct. 19) 6. Inter-American Development Bank approves $75 million for roads. Last week, the Inter-American Development Bank approved a soft loan for the amount of $75 million which will be used over the next four years to rebuild 800 kilometers (500 miles) of existing roads and improve maintenance on the country's highway and secondary road systems, especially in the rural sector. At present the state of the country's roads is deplorable. It has been made worse by the amount of rain which has fallen during this year's rainy season. The only decent road at present is the old Managua-Leon highway, rebuilt last year, which is also the principal road to the Montelimar beach resort. (La Prensa, Oct. 19) 7. Denis Martinez in World Series. Nicaraguans have some good news and something to look forward to for the next couple of weeks due the the fact that their national hero, Denis Martinez, lead pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, will be a major actor in the Baseball World Series. It was Martinez's win against the Seattle Mariners that allowed the Indians to make it to the World Series. The Indians haven't gone to a World Series in 41 years. If Cleveland were to win, it might even influence some political parties to look to Martinez as a possible presidential candidate. With the disenchantment with politicians that exists in Nicaragua, Martinez would probably have an excellent chance of winning. However, he has already said that he is not interested in running. 8. National Project inaugurates campaign headquarters. Antonio Lacayo, former Minister of the Presidency and now head of the political organization "National Project," inaugurated his organization's presidential campaign headquarters last week in the presence of the majority of the current political leaders of the Chamorro government. Among those present was the ex-Minister of Health, Marta Palacios who would like to be the party's candidate for mayor of Managua. The headquarters, which is located only a few blocks from the presidential offices of Lacayo's mother-in-law, President Chamorro, was blessed by the principle advisor of Cardinal Obando y Bravo, Monsignor Eddy Montenegro. (El Semanario, Oct. 20-26) 9. The National Development Bank celebrates 83rd birthday. The National Development Bank of Nicaragua (BANADES), the controversial state development bank which the government is under pressure by the international lending institutions to privatize, celebrated its 83rd birthday last week. BANADES was the first national Nicaraguan bank, although ironically it was actually founded by the New York firm of Brown Bros. in 1912 after the U.S. Marine intervention of that year. Brown Bros. gave 49% of the stock to the government of Nicaragua whose president at the time was U.S. puppet Adolfo Diaz. In 1924, the bank was completely nationalized when the then president, Bartolome Martinez, purchased for the government the 51% still held by the U.S. firm. However, the bank was still incorporated in the state of Connecticut. It was not until 1941 that the bank was officially named the National Bank of Nicaragua and disolved its incorporation in the US. The bank was the first to hire a women stenographer, Margarita Brown, who paved the way for other women to leave their homes to find jobs in the marketplace. BANADES has been severely criticized in the last year for offering credit to only a select few large producers who have not been repaying their loans. Meanwhile, Luis Morales Uriarte, president of one of the country's newest banks, Banco de Campo, stated that the operations of his bank, after 14 months of functioning were entirely satisfactory. The bank began operations with capital of $2.8 million and has grown to the point where it has been able to lend out more than $20 million in loans, of which 80% have been directed to agricultural cooperatives. (La Prensa, Oct. 19)