Nicaragua News Service January 28 - February 3, 1996 Vol. 4, No. 5 Major news stories for the week: 1. Students takeover Foreign Ministry. 2. Fiallos returns to Supreme Electoral Council. 3. Preparations in full swing for Pope's visit. 4. FSLN campaign continues to heat up. 5. News Briefs _______________________________________________________________________ 1. Students takeover Foreign Ministry. Some 150 students, still pressuring the government to allocate 6% of the national budget to the universities, took over the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MINEX) on Wednesday. The students said they had targeted MINEX as a way of making their demands known internationally. They originally told news media they planned to stay for at least 24 hours. When the students entered MINEX, Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal was present, as were several diplomats and a number of workers. Leal and others were held, effectively as hostages, in an attempt to ensure more even-handed police treatment. Upon taking over the Foreign Ministry, the students demanded that the government begin immediate negotiations with university community representatives. Leal, however, steadfastly refused to agree to that until the students left the building. The initial police attitude was one of marked calm, in stark contrast to the bloody events of mid- December when two members of the university community were shot and killed by police and 35 wounded. Around 4:00 a.m. however, the police carried out what they called a "lightning strike operation," sending dozens of officers into the building to clear it of students. They arrested 105 students along with 2 university professors. A number of those taken into custody were beaten by police officers. The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), strongly criticized the police actions. The Police said they had captured a "huge arsenal" from the students taken into custody, including 27 mortars, 520 homemade bombs and 48 steel pipes. In the early afternoon hours, the police released 23 students, at which point Dr. Gustavo Parajon, President of CEPAD, the Protestant development organization, called National Police Chief Fernando Caldera in an attempt to secure the freedom of the other students, including several students from the Baptist-run Politechnical University (UPOLI). A number were freed, but dozens more remained in jail. Police officials later began meeting with representatives from the National Council of Universities. As the day dragged on, and students remained in custody, dozens of other students congregated at police headquarters to pressure for the release of those still detained. Students briefly occupied and held a bus with 16 police officers on board, but the officers were quickly released. Mothers and relatives of the students held a vigil of sorts outside police headquarters, and complained to the press of the harsh treatment meted out to the students by the police. With the release of the last student on Friday, National Student Organization (UNEN) President Julio Orozco announced a "truce", saying that all pro 6% activity will be suspended until after the Pope leaves Nicaragua. The harsh police response to the student takeover was attributed to the fact that the government is extremely nervous that any kind of instability could tarnish the country's image in the days leading up to the Pope's visit. (Barricada, Feb. 1, 2, 3; La Primerisima Radio, Jan. 31; La Prensa Feb. 1, 2) 2. Fiallos returns to Supreme Electoral Council. Mariano Fiallos, President of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), resigned from his post in late January, declaring that the reforms to the electoral law were "incompatible" with the low budget earmarked for the electoral process by the National Assembly. A condition of his continued presence on the CSE, Fiallos said, would be a few key changes to the Electoral Law. His resignation announcement caused small shock waves in a number of sectors, since Fiallos has functioned as the CSE's heart and brain, and many feared that in his absence, a wholly honest electoral process would be out of reach. Others, however, including Assembly Deputy Luis Sanchez (writing in La Prensa), essentially said "good riddance" and scoffed at the idea that Fiallos is so central to the whole electoral process. The remaining CSE members offered full support for Fiallos. Christian Democratic Party (UDC) leader Luis Humberto Guzman (who is former president of the National Assembly) said he did not think it would be possible to pass any further changes to the electoral law in the Assembly, declaring simply "the votes aren't there." By the middle of last week, however, Fiallos had sent another letter to the National Assembly, asking that the Assembly not process his resignation. According to Barricada, Fiallos' resignation had not gone through all the channels, and thus he remains at the head of the CSE. However, the move did spark another small political storm, as La Prensa dedicated several front page stories to Fiallos' "vacillation" and reported one Supreme Court Justice recommending that Fiallos be prosecuted, as "stipulated by Nicaraguan law." Fiallos said he will work, as head of the CSE, to ensure that the necessary changes to the electoral law are made. It is not clear what provoked his initial resignation announcement and relatively quick withdrawal of that, without his own declared conditions having been met. (La Prensa Jan. 29, 30; Barricada Jan. 29, 31, Feb. 1; 3. Preparations in full swing for Pope's visit. With the Pope's visit only days away, much of the country is focused on that visit, to the exclusion of almost anything else. At this writing, the costs (according to published reports) include over $375,000 in security costs, $125,000 to install new streetlights along a long stretch of the North Highway from the airport into the city and nearly $125,000 to refurbish the installations at the Plaza of the Revolution. As part of stepped up security in Managua, the police carried out several searches in the neighborhoods along the roadside of the North Highway. The police arrested almost 400 people they dubbed "anti- social," also confiscating a number of guns, fragmentation grenades and other weapons. Cardinal Miguel Obando said that violence could well mar the Pope's visit, denouncing the serious student demonstrations. The big news this week was the arrival last Sunday of the "Popemobile," from Chile. It came complete with a Chilean "carabinero" (police) officer who is to train a Nicaraguan to drive the Pope on February 7. According to reports in the media, the Pope will be accompanied only by Cardinal Miguel Obando. There is virtually no news or information that could be interpreted as even remotely critical of the Pope. In a country cut every which way by political conflicts and differences, there is at least public unanimity regarding the Pope's visit. Politicians of every stripe work the Pope into speeches; news media across the board have devoted dozens of column inches to his impending visit; and there has been not a word about the serious struggles going on inside the Catholic Church around the world. What some politicians, not surprisingly perhaps, have done is to attack the Sandinistas for the problems caused during the Pope's 1983 visit. These attacks (including a particularly harsh one by Erick Aguirre, El Seminario editor and son of Nuevo Diario editor Danilo Aguirre) place all the blame for problems between the Church and the Sandinistas squarely on the FSLN, and gloss over the long history of liberation theology and the Church's extremely politicized role in Nicaragua during the 1980s. The Vatican recently asked the Nicaraguan Council of Bishops to choose the theme that would be most appropriate for the Pope's message to Nicaragua. They decided on "family and reconciliation", so family and reconciliation it will be. In other news about the Pope's visit, a group of nuns in Granada are busily baking thousands of hosts to be used during communion which will be offered by some 400 priests on February 7. (Barricada, Jan. 28-Feb. 3; La Prensa, Jan. 29-Feb. 3) 4. FSLN campaign continues to heat up. In ongoing campaign news, the FSLN continues to hold rallies and meetings around the country in preparation for the February 18 "popular consultation" or primary election. Vilma Nunez, who announced her presidential candidacy a month ago, has been virtually blacked out by the Sandinista media, receiving coverage only for attempt (as CENIDH president) to mediate the student-police conflict in the wake of the MINEX takeover. Tomas Borge said this week that he is not interested in being a vice-presidential candidate, insisting that picking a vice presidential candidate should be the prerogative of the party's chosen presidential candidate. This was seen by some as a slap at Miguel Angel Casco who is running to fill the vice-presidential slot. Perhaps more to the point, however, it may be the FSLN's way of trying to keep the Veep position open, with an eye towards that being a key bargaining chip in any negotiations towards an FSLN alliance with other political parties. Though much of the FSLN's official discourse stresses the Sandinista commitment to running women candidates at every level, one FSLN rally in the department of Leon this past week featured 28 candidates: 26 men and 2 women. (Barricada, Feb. 3) News Briefs -- The lottery ticket vendors' strike continues, and 11 of the vendors began a hunger strike this week. One of the hunger strikers is a woman who has been selling lottery tickets for 50 years. This week's drawing was done in semi-secrecy at the Ajax Delgado police installations. -- A new study carried out by the University of Engineering's Air Quality Monitoring Program warns that air quality in Managua has declined precipitously in recent years, with many key landmarks in Managua becoming focal points of dangerously high levels of contamination. The number of cars in Managua today is about 150,000, up from just half that 5 years ago. The Pan-American Health Organization states 9 p.m. (particulates per million) is an acceptable level of carbon monoxide in the air. Thirteen of 15 areas that were tested in Managua (mostly intersections throughout the city) exceeded this limit by over 300%. A number of the areas underscored as the most polluted in the entire city are full every day of all sorts of street vendors, many of them young children, who spend hours each day breathing in the noxious fumes. -- The businesspeople grouped in Nicaragua's Confederation of Chambers of Commerce, with Roberto Teran as their spokesperson, said this week that the current 15% national sales tax is "unpayable" and demanded a reduction to 10%. Finance Minister Emilio Pereira insists that a reduction is not feasible and said it won't happen. -- The retail prices of both imported and nationally produced pharmaceuticals have gone up by 7.4%. The Ministry of Health criticized the governmental move that allowed prices to rise. -- Daniel Ortega is currently in Cuba receiving medical treatment. -- Nicaraguan ex-model Bianca Jagger was in Managua last week, appearing at the National Assembly in support of stringent environmental regulations.