Nicaragua News Service November 19 - 25, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 47 Major News Stories for the Week: 1. TELCOR and ENEL strike as privatization nears. 2. Cerro Negro eruption blankets Leon with ashes. 3. Church bombings investigation continues. 4. Huge debt payment due in December. 5. Tremors terrorize small towns. 6. University students demand 6% of budget. 7. Ten more deaths from leptospirosis. 8. Health workers threaten strike. ______________________________________________________________________ 1. TELCOR and ENEL strike as privatization nears. As of November 25, workers from TELCOR, the state-owned telephone, telegraph and postal service company in Nicaragua, which is now one of the most modern on the continent, were in their sixth day of strike protesting the imminent privatization of the company. Passage by the National Assembly of the law privatizing 50% plus one share of TELCOR was expected to be completed next week. Union leaders declared that 80% of TELCOR workers were supporting the strike while TELCOR officials claimed that the strike had less than 30% support. What was evident, however, were the demonstrations and tire burnings in front of every office of TELCOR or post office in Managua. Police were sent to protect TELCOR installations and General Joaquin Cuadra, head of the army, stated that troops would be used as needed to protect telecommunications equipment. According to the government, part of the money to be received from the sale of TELCOR will be used to pay off those confiscated during the Sandinista government. Another $1.5 million will be destined for the construction of a new building for the National Assembly. Meanwhile, union leaders from the Nicaragua Energy Company (ENEL) announced that electrical workers would join forces in the strike in a joint effort to thwart the government's privatization plans, plans that are being imposed by the IMF and the World Bank. Mario Malespin, Secretary General of the TELCOR union and Ronaldo Membreno, Secretary General of the Energy Worker's Federation, announced that they had formed a joint strike committee "in order to fight against the privatization of the state companies." Daniel Ortega, former President of Nicaragua, urged the present government to veto the privatization law and thus initiate a new process of dialogue and concertation over the privatization of TELCOR. He stated, "I think that the Executive, as it has done on other occasions to promote the stability of the nation, should veto this law and open up a process of discussion that would result in a law based on consensus between the government, the workers and the international community." The bill which would privatize TELCOR has gone hand in hand with the discussion of the Property Stability Bill, also to come out this week from the National Assembly. One of the more controversial articles in the property bill is one which invalidates agrarian reform titles for individuals and cooperatives within the city limits of Managua. Over 50 cooperatives will be affected and many think that the lands will then be turned over to developers for the construction of high income housing, a phenomenon already seen along the Masaya highway. (Barricada, Nov. 24; El Nuevo Diario, Nov. 25) 2. Cerro Negro eruption blankets Leon with ashes. Fine ashes are again raining down on the city of Leon as a result of the increased activity of the volcano Cerro Negro (Black Hill). If that activity continues, over 4,250 acres of crops including cotton, sesame seed, yuca, and millet as well as cattle pasture, will be lost. Lava is now flowing out of one side of the volcano and huge rocks are being expelled from the crater itself. Civil Defense authorities in the area have not yet declared a state of emergency but are making plans for the eventual evacuation of the 12,000 people who live near the volcano and who would be in danger in the event of a full scale eruption with damage similar to that suffered in 1992, the last time the volcano erupted. (El Nuevo Diario, Nov. 25) 3. Church bombings investigation continues. Commander Eduardo Cuadra, acting National Police Director, confirmed last week that the authorities have put together a list of top suspects in the case involving bombings of several Catholic churches around the country this past year. Cuadra also revealed that investigators from the U.S., evidently not the FBI, also took samples of evidence back to the U.S. to analyze at the same time that similar tests were being done here in Managua. (El Nuevo Diario, Nov. 24) 4. Huge debt payment due in December. On December 14, Nicaragua will pay over $87 million to private international banks in order to honor its commitment to buy back part of its foreign commercial debt with these banks, a debt with a face value of over $1.3 billion. Most of the international banks accepted Nicaragua's offer to pay 8 cents on the dollar to buy back its own debt. Edwin Kruger, Minister of Foreign Cooperation, announced that this operation, which covers approximately 80% of Nicaragua's debt with international banks, will open up the possibility that those banks will again begin to lend to Nicaragua and that some may even set up offices here. He stated that the arrival of foreign banks will bring the cost of internal credit down. In recent days, local banks, both private and state have announced 2% increases in interest rates. (El Nuevo Diario, Nov. 24) 5. Tremors terrorize small towns. The small towns outside of Masaya have been experiencing an alarming number of sharp tremors over the past couple of weeks and last week the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies, INETER, sent a team of experts to install specialized equipment to detect the origins of the earth movements. The seismic activity is most strongly affecting the area of Masaya, Catarina, and Granada. That area is close to several active volcanoes, including Pacaya, Mombacho and the Apoyo crater lake which is of volcanic origin. Community organizations are forming emergency committees to be prepared for an earthquake if one were to occur. (La Prensa, Nov. 24) 6. University students demand 6% of budget. Over 10,000 students participated in a march last week demanding that the government respect the article in the Constitution which requires the appropriation by the central government of 6% of the national budget for the national university system. The students marched from the Central American University (UCA) to the National Assembly, shouting a common slogan: "Once more, either drink it or spill it, 6% now!" Father Xavier Gorostiaga, S.J., President of the UCA, stated, "We have been demanding honest figures on the national budget now for the past four years; the IMF and the World Bank are now demanding the same. We refuse to pay the price for that lack of honest figures in the first years of this government." The students are demanding a solution from the National Assembly before that body recesses for Christmas vacation on December 15. More demonstrations are planned, including the participation of high school students. The students are thinking of demanding that final semester exams be held in 1996 instead of in December so they will not interfere with the protest but it is not clear if all students support that measure. (La Prensa, Nov. 25) 7. Ten more deaths from leptospirosis. Leptospirosis, a disease that first appeared in Nicaragua last month, is still not completely controlled and has, to date, caused the death of at least 26 persons, with another 2,056 still sick. The new disease appeared October 12 in the small town of Achuapa but was only identified on November 6 by scientists from the Center for Disease Control in the US and specialists from Cuba. Four people in Honduras have also died from the disease the symptoms of which are high fever, muscle aches, headache, low blood pressure and bleeding in the lungs. Specialists have reported that the last time this disease appeared in Nicaragua was in 1980, after a time of intense flooding. It is thought, but not confirmed, that the bacteria which causes Leptospirosis is carried in the urine of rats. The government of Nicaragua is about to import 50 tons of a special rat poison from Cuba and specialists from Cuba are in Managua to advise the government on the proper use of the poison. This year, Leptospirosis, along with other diseases such as cholera, malaria and dengue, have claimed over 200 lives. (La Prensa, Nov. 25) 8. Health workers threaten strike. Health workers are also up in arms this week in defense of three of their colleagues who were sentenced to one year each in jail as a result of a successful malpractice suit brought against them by the family of a little boy who lost his leg to an infection caused by an injection. The Ministry of Health has not officially made a statement about the case. Doctors in the major hospitals in Managua are beginning to join the over two hundred health workers in Esteli that have been on strike for the last several days. The doctors claim that the young boy suffered from a rare allergic reaction to the antibiotic administered and that an investigation in MINSA had absolved them from responsibility. They criticized the fact that the judge who decided the case did not call any medical experts to testify and that one of the accused doctors, the director of the hospital, had not even seen the patient. (El Nuevo Diario, Nov. 25)