Nicaragua News Service December 17-30, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 51 & 52 Major News Stories: 1. TELCOR put up for sale. 2. Pope John Paul II to visit Nicaragua. 3. 1995: not a good year for human rights. 4. National Assembly to hold extra session. 5. "Sergio to run with Daniel!" 6. Water Ministry to be restructured. 7. 372 dead in "silent war." 8. Latest poll results released. 9. Students to continues struggle for 6%. _____________________________________________________________________ 1. TELCOR put up for sale. Executives of the Nicaraguan Telephone and Postal Service (TELCOR) announced last week that they were opening up the process of bidding for those interested in acquiring shares in the company which will be known by the acronym ENITEL (Nicaraguan Telecommunications Company). Bids must be received by February 20th for the 40% of the stock which is for sale. Bidders must be operators of international telecommunications services with at least five years of experience. They must have annual billings of $500 million per year, have at least 500,000 subscribers and at least $1 billion in stocks. The firms that have prequalified to bid are: Steet of Italy, Telefonica of Spain, GTE of the U.S., Korea Telecom and France Telecom. AT&T may participate as a partner with one of these companies. A decision will be made by June 10th, according to TELCOR officials. (La Prensa, Dec. 31) 2. Pope John Paul II to visit Nicaragua. Rev. Bismarck Carballo, Vicar of the Archdiocese of Managua, told La Prensa last week that several persons have reported to the Archdiocese offices that extremist sectors are trying to create an unstable atmosphere in Nicaragua in order to make Pope John Paul II cancel his upcoming trip to Managua. The Pope is due to visit Nicaragua for one day on February 7th. Carballo stated that, despite the wave of church bombings and the anonymous phone calls threatening church leaders, the Pope will still be coming to Nicaragua. The most recent church bombing took place on December 25th in a small Catholic church in the rural area of Nindiri. A mission from the Vatican which will work out the logistics for the visit is scheduled to arrive in Nicaragua on January 15th, according to Carballos, who did not reveal the names of those in the delegation. (La Prensa, Dec. 30) 3. 1995: not a good year for human rights. According to Dr. Vilma Nunez, President of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), 1995 has been the worst year of the past five years with respect to violations of human rights in Nicaragua, especially in the area of violations to the right to life. According to CENIDH, eleven persons were killed by the police. Four were killed in popular protests: two during the recent student demonstrations and another two during a transportation strike earlier in the year A prisoner was killed by a police interrogator during a questioning session. Three men, suspected of smuggling, were killed by police when they failed to halt their car. CENIDH stated that all eleven deaths could have been avoided if the police themselves had respected the law. Police authorities have not revealed the names of the officers involved in the deaths but have rather preferred to name commissions to investigate the incidents. The commissions have produced reports that are ambiguous. CENIDH reported that violations on the part of the Nicaraguan Army are down from last year. However, CENIDH is worried that the government is assigning the Army more and more tasks that should be under the jurisdiction of the National Police, such as the protection given to coffee farmers in the Matagalpa-Jinotega region. The information will be part of the yearly human rights report produced by CENIDH. One of the conclusions of the report is that the human rights situation of the Nicaraguan people has deteriorated severely in the past year as a result of the acute economic crisis, institutional violence and the conflicts between the branches of government. (El Nuevo Diario, Dec. 30) 4. National Assembly to hold extra session. The heads of the different political groupings in the National Assembly and the members of that body's executive committee, whose term expires on January 9th, have decided to hold an Assembly session on January 3rd in order to finish up pending issues not finished in December. The two main issues to be resolved are the election of the new Comptroller for the nation and the approval of the Christmas amnesty for certain prisoners in the National Penitentiary system. Nathan Sevilla, the head of the FSLN bench in the Assembly, stated his opinion that the January 3rd meeting would be illegal. According to Sevilla, the decision to meet is a manipulation on the part of the Executive Branch and the departing Executive Committee of the Assembly to continue the arrangement established in the Framework Law passed in June. This law, "besides being unconstitutional, continues the co- governing framework" of the two branches of government, which Sevilla maintains "violates the independence that each branch should have." Meanwhile, the principal candidates for the Presidency of the National Assembly for 1996 are Dora Maria Tellez of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and Cairo Lopez of the Christian Democratic Union (UDC). (Barricada, Dec. 23; La Prensa, Dec. 24) 5. "Sergio to run with Daniel!" Such was the headline of the newspaper Barricada on December 28th. Those who only read the headline were either overjoyed at the possibility of the reunification of the two Sandinista inspired parties (FSLN and MRS), or dismayed at the thought that the FSLN as a whole would become stronger again. Those who read on through the article were reminded that December 28th is the "Day of the Innocents" on the Catholic religious calendar and is celebrated in Nicaragua as the equivalent of April Fool's Day in the U.S. (Barricada, December 28, 1995) 6. Water Ministry to be restructured. The Nicaragua Water Ministry (INAA) will be restructured next year, according to the INAA Minister, Gustavo Martinez. One part of the new structure will regulate the sector and another company will be set up to actually provide water services. Although the restructuring is very similar to that which was carried out in the energy sector last year with a view to future privatization, Martinez assured the interviewer from La Prensa that there were no plans to privatize the water ministry. The Minister also announced that a total of $36 million has been invested in expansion of services in the last five years. Ninety percent of the funding has come from international aid agencies such as UNICEF and from Canada and the European Union. (La Prensa, Dec. 24) 7. 372 dead in "silent war" 372 persons died and another 63 were wounded during 1995 in the "silent war" being fought in the northern mountains of Nicaragua between the Nicaraguan Army and the irregular bands formed by ex- contras or ex-members of the Sandinista Army. Of the dead, 29 were members of the present Army. Over 132 battles were registered in a war whose objective, according to General Joaquin Cuadra, is to "achieve the complete pacification of the country." The Army disarmed 88 illegal bands. The total number of individuals remaining in the bands was reduced from 1,600 in 1994 to fewer than 460 at the end of 1995. Cuadra thanked the National Assembly for having approved an increase in the Army's budget that reflects "a substantial improvement in the relations between the Army and that branch of government and a recognition by civil society of the Army." (La Prensa, Dec. 20) 8. Latest poll results released. The latest survey of the Borges and Associates polling firm names Arnoldo Aleman as the candidate who would win 40.8% of all votes if the elections were held in mid-December. Although the final results were not ready, initial results were released to La Prensa, according to that newspaper. A total of 1,200 people from all regions of the country were surveyed. Results were as follows: For whom will you vote in the 1996 elections? Arnoldo Aleman.................40.8% Undecided......................23.1 Daniel Ortega..................19.7 Won't vote......................8.2 Sergio Ramirez..................3.7 Antonio Lacayo..................3.1 Virgilio Godoy..................1.3 Haroldo Montealegre.............0.3 What party do you think will win the elections? PLC............................41.8 FSLN...........................16.3 MRS.............................1.8 Don't know.....................31.9 (La Prensa, Dec. 22) 9. Students to continues struggle for 6%. Students protesting the government's refusal to allocate 6% of the total national budget for university education suspended their hunger strike the day before Christmas at the request of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), Amnesty International, university officials, and fellow students, who stated that they did not want any more students to die in the ongoing student strike. Spokespeople were referring to the death of one university worker and one student who were shot to death by police in a recent demonstration. The students, however, stated that they would resume the protest in January 1996. (Barricada, Dec. 23)