Nicaragua News Service November 26 - December 2, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 48 Major news stories for the week: 1. Cerro Negro volcanic eruption forces evacuations. 2. TELCOR Privatization and Property Laws pass; strikes continue. 3. Divisions arise in "National Project" Party. 4. Nicaraguan is world featherweight boxing champion. 5. U.S. Ambassador comments on Nicaraguan elections. 6. Death in prison system calls attention to bad conditions. 7. 350,000 children have no possibility of attending school. 8. Vote for citizens living abroad approved in principle. ____________________________________________________________________ 1. Cerro Negro volcanic eruption forces evacuations. Over 2,000 people have been evacuated from the villages closest to the volcano Cerro Negro according to information released by the National Emergency Committee. The town of Malpaisillo was declared an emergency zone due to the fact that it is that town which is receiving the majority of those evacuated from such villages as Rota, El Pastal, Los Caleros and Communities 16 and 18. The city of Leon and the surrounding communities pressured the central government all last week to declare the area a national disaster. The government, however, did not do so, allegedly because there were no resources to respond to the needs. This, in spite of the fact that the Minister of Social Action, William Baez, stated that the government had destined $125,000 for the first stage of the emergency. Last Friday President Chamorro made a quick trip to Leon to meet with the Emergency Committee there. The President asked the committee to "wait and have patience." Apart from the emergency needs for food, shelter and medicine for the evacuees, the greatest effect of the volcanic eruption has been and will be the effect on the area's agriculture and ranching activities. The Minister of Agriculture, Dionisio Cuadra, stated that over 4,250 acres of farmland had been affected by the sand and ashes thrown out by the volcano and that that number could drastically increase if the eruption activity continued much longer. Most affected are the crops of sesame seeds, beans, cotton and peanuts. Volcanic activity was at an all time high by the middle of last week, but according to Cesar Aviles, head of the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER), seismic activity was falling off although the emission of sand and ash continued. By the end of Saturday, this 24th eruption of the volcano [Editor's note: Cerro Negro is very young, having emerged as a bump in the ground in the middle of the last century] and the seismic movements which accompanied it had calmed down substantially. 2. Telcor and Property laws pass; strikes continue. The law to privatize TELCOR, the nation's telecommunications network, and the law to stabilize property were passed last week by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Chamorro. Few think, however, that the passing of the two laws will facilitate the stability that Nicaragua so desperately needs to begin to overcome its economic problems. The president stated that her government was ready to assume the political costs of passing the laws because, as stated by Luis Humberto Guzman, president of the National Assembly, "it would not be possible to reach social peace without resolving these two problems." Meanwhile, at the end of last week, the Ministry of Labor declared the strike at the Nicaraguan Energy Company (ENEL), to be illegal. Earlier in the week, the strike organized by the union at TELCOR had also been declared illegal. The reasoning of the Ministry of Labor was that both strikes involved work places where strikes affected the general public interest and therefore were illegal according to the present labor code. An increase in strike activity is expected for the coming week as well as an increase in government repression against the strikers. Meanwhile, presidential candidate Haroldo Montealegre of the Party for Liberal Unity (PUL) announced a campaign to get a million signatures to force the government to hold a plebiscite where the population could decide just exactly how they would like to see private capital incorporated into Telcor. (La Prensa, Nov. 30; La Tribuna, Dec. 3) LAST MINUTE: 12/04/95 Both strikes have been settled. More detail in next weeks News Service. It appears that most demands from the energy workers were agreed to. TELCOR workers will probably introduce a law suit in the Nicaraguan Supreme Court alleging that the privatization of TELCOR is unconstitutional. (Barricada, Dec. 4) 3. Divisions arise in "National Project" Party. The newly formed "National Project" political party (PRONAL), organized by the former Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Lacayo, declared last week that it was true that there had been desertions from within the party. The division came after a meeting on November 28 when PRONAL members were to evaluate the situation of the party. Those organizations that left PRONAL after that meeting were: the Social Democratic Party, the Social Christian Party, and the Democratic Nicaraguan Movement (MDN). The leadership of those three parties blamed Antonio Lacayo for completely personalizing the activities of the party while not giving them any room to stay involved. One of those involved in the split stated, "Lacayo and his party are in crisis because he has only been working to form a party of ministers and bureaucrats." One of the best known personalities to leave PRONAL was Marta Palacios, the former Minister of Health, who was to have been PRONAL's candidate for Mayor of Managua until Lacayo decided to run Carlos Solorzano, present director of the Institute of Sports as his candidate for Managua's top job. Palacios will run instead as the candidate for the MDN. Last week Lacayo met with the president of Mexico and the head of the PRI, both of whom are supposedly interested in helping to finance Lacayo's presidential campaign. Lacayo, however, is still prohibited by the Constitution from running for President because he is related by marriage to the current President. It is expected that the Supreme Court will rule on several cases where current Ministers of the government are challenging the Constitutional reforms in order to pave the way for a legal Lacayo campaign. (La Prensa, November 30) 4. Nicaraguan is world featherweight boxing champion. Over the past weekend, most of the principal newspapers in Nicaragua devoted the major part of their weekend editions to broadcasting the fact that 25 year old Rosendo Alvarez has become the new Featherweight Boxing Champion of the World after beating the current champ, Chana Porpaoin of Thailand, last Saturday in a city 150 miles north of Bangkok. Alvarez now joins two other Nicaraguans who have held this boxing title. The previous champions were Alexis Arguello in 1974 and Eddy Gazo in 1977. Apart from the normal enthusiasm that would come from any Nicaraguan placing first in world class competition in a sport, there is particular affection for Alvarez because of his extremely humble background. His wife and two children live with his mother in the poor neighborhood of Ciudad Sandino, just outside of Managua. Alvarez moved to that area in 1972 after he and his family lost their home in Managua due to the 1972 earthquake. Ciudad Sandino, then known as Open Tres, was basically a dumping ground for earthquake refugees, and came to symbolize misery in Nicaragua during the time of the Somoza dictatorship during the 1970s. When he was fifteen years old in 1985, Alvarez volunteered for military service and because of his love for boxing, was able to receive training during his two year stint. (All newspapers, Dec 3) 5. US ambassador comments on Nicaraguan elections. The US ambassador to Nicaragua, John Maisto, declared last week that his country would respect the results of the 1996 elections, no matter who won, as long as the elections were "transparent". He stated that the US government was interested in strengthening democratic processes in Nicaragua, and this included a rigorous respect for the decisions that Nicaraguans will make in next year's elections. Maisto also expressed satisfaction with the TELCOR and property law and stated that it sent a message to the world that Nicaragua was serious about promoting foreign investment. He stated that his government intended to continue aiding Nicaragua and that the total aid provided in the last five years has reached a level of $893 million dollars. He declared that the US government was satisfied at how the money was being used and that the audit reports were on file at the embassy if anyone wanted to see them. (Barricada, Dec 2) 6. Death in prison system calls attention to bad conditions. As a result of the death of a prisoner due to a sickness still not identified, family visits to the national prison system have been suspended and many of the prison population are being given shots of antibiotics to prevent the illness which sent another 21 prisoners to the hospital last week. The head of the prison system, Commander Marcelino Guido, had earlier warned the government that the prison system was ripe for an epidemic because of the shortage of food and crowded conditions in which the prisoners live. The Catholic Church and the Nicaraguan Human Rights Commission have expressed their concern on the situation of the prisoners. Some jails in the country have actually decided to not accept anymore inmates because they have no money to feed them. (Barricada, Nov. 27) 7. 350,000 children have no chance attending school. The Minister of Education, Humberto Belli, stated that almost 350,000 children of school age will not be able to enroll in school next year because the government does not have the money to pay the extra 3,000 teachers needed to teach these children. That figure means that only 80% of school age children will be able to attend school. Of that number, only 40% will actually finish grade school. Belli criticized the universities for demanding 6% of the national budget, stating that by fulfilling that request, thousands of rural children will not learn to read or write. (La Prensa, Nov. 29) 8. Vote for citizens living abroad approved in principle. Last week, the National Assembly voted to approve the possibility that Nicaraguans living outside the country would have the right to vote in the upcoming presidential elections in October 1996. The Assembly, however, stipulated that it will be the Supreme Electoral Council which will have the final say because that body will have to guarantee "transparent conditions", which means that overseas conditions must have the same security, control and verification procedures as any other electoral voting post in national territory. It is highly unlikely that those types of conditions would be met. It would mean having diplomatic "extraterritorial" rights (little spots of Nicaragua for each polling site), as well as having each Nicaraguan citizen outside of the country outfitted with their electoral ID card, a process that will be difficult to comply with even in Nicaragua itself. The president of the Supreme Electoral Council, Dr. Mariano Fiallos Oyanguren, was very cautious in making public declarations after learning of the Assembly's decision. "First we must wait for the Electoral Law to be totally approved and later we will evaluate the situation." (La Prensa, Nov. 30)