From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Date: 28 Dec 92 14:20 PST
Subject: Nicaragua:Weekly Update 12/27/92
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Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Dec 28 14:20:00 1992


Subject: Nicaragua:Weekly Update 12/27/92
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

from...
         Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York
       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

            Weekly News Update #152, December 27, 1992


NICARAGUAN ARMY PLANS OFFENSIVE AGAINST REBEL VIOLENCE

Sandinista Popular Army (EPS) chief Gen. Humberto Ortega
announced on Dec. 22 that the Nicaraguan army was preparing to
"neutralize definitively" all rearmed contras (recontras) and
rearmed Sandinistas. According to official sources, some 400
armed men are currently operating in Nicaragua, primarily in the
north. Gen. Ortega made the announcement the day after presumed
recontras killed a campesino family. The army chief met with
Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo and with national producers to
discuss plans for the military operations; he also called on the
government to develop programs to serve the needs of campesinos,
many of whom have joined the ranks of the rearmed. Gen. Ortega
gave no details of the military plans. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
12/23/92 from AFP]
 
Just over a week earlier, on Dec. 14, Nicaraguan President
Violeta Chamorro announced that she would carry out further
reductions in the EPS. "We will continue reducing the strength of
the army as much as possible," said Chamorro during a speech at a
gathering of municipal officials. [Inter Press Service 12/14/92]
Her statement contradicts earlier assertions she and Gen. Ortega
both made; on Nov. 5, Chamorro confirmed that the process of
reduction of the armed forces had concluded, backing up a
statement made by Ortega in an Oct. 27 speech. [ED-LP 11/6/92
from Notimex]
 
Military sources confirmed on Dec. 25 that a group of presumed
recontras had murdered rancher Domingo Castro and one of his
nephews, 16-year old Manuel Antonio Espinoza, while they were en
route to a farm in northern Nicaragua. Their vehicle was ambushed
on Dec. 23 by the rebels near the town of Paiwas, which lies at
the junction of the regions of Matagalpa, Boaco and Zelaya.
Police authorities said the attackers, led by supposed recontra
chief Ricardo Diaz, also wounded another young relative of
Castro, Harod Espinoza. More than 10 producers from northern and
central Nicaragua have been murdered this year by presumed
recontras who refused to give up their arms during the process of
demobilization sponsored by the government between January and
May of 1992. [ED-LP 12/27/92 from EFE]
 

NICARAGUAN GOVERNMENT AND SANDINISTAS AGREE ON TRUCE

The Chamorro government has accepted a "political and economic
truce" for 1993, proposed by the Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN) and designed to encourage an increase in production
and the creation of jobs. The truce was agreed on by Presidency
Minister Antonio Lacayo and FSLN Secretary General and former
Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega at the end of a private
meeting. [ED-LP 12/24/92 from Notimex]
 
In a year-end message, President Chamorro asked the Nicaraguan
people to have a "positive attitude" and leave "behind violence,
lack of understanding and intolerance" so that 1993 will be a
year of work, progress and well-being. "We must put national
interests ahead of political and economic interests," said
Chamorro." [ED-LP 12/25/92 from Notimex]
 

NICARAGUAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CRISIS: END IN SIGHT?

Legislators from the ruling UNO coalition bloc in the Nicaraguan
National Assembly announced on Dec. 14 that they would hold talks
with FSLN legislators by year-end in an effort to resolve the
current crisis in the legislature. The UNO bloc--which, under the
leadership of Assembly president Alfredo Cesar, has been
antagonistic toward the administration of President Chamorro--has
been holding illegal parliamentary sessions since Sept. 2, when
39 Sandinista legislators and eight from a dissident faction of
the UNO known as the center group joined together to boycott
Assembly proceedings in protest of Cesar's attempt to control
upcoming elections for Assembly leadership positions. The
executive branch and the Supreme Court have both backed the
FSLN/center group boycott by declaring all of Cesar's assembly
proceedings illegal (Cesar has managed to achieve a quorum of
sorts by calling alternates to the eight UNO deputies and in some
cases, alternates to the alternates.)
 
UNO's Luis Humberto Guzman told journalists on Dec. 14 that after
much debate, reticent UNO legislators finally accepted that
negotiations were "the only way out" of the crisis. The aim of
the planned talks is to remove hurdles blocking the Jan. 9
election for a new Assembly president and other legislative
officers. Guzman did not specify what points would be discussed
with Sandinista deputies, and he ruled out the possibility of any
negotiations with the eight "center group" members. According to
UNO deputy Eli Altamirano of the Nicaraguan Communist Party,
"this group is something strange within UNO and has nothing to do
with the solution."
 
Former Nicaraguan vice president Sergio Ramirez, current head of
the Sandinista bloc in the National Assembly, said on Dec. 15
that any negotiations would hinge on UNO acceptance of the court
ruling. Ramirez stressed that the center group must participate
in and receive seats on the new ruling directorate, as they
represent a new parliamentary force that cannot be marginalized.
"We would prefer a broad directorate that reflects the true
composition of the forces in the National Assembly," said
Ramirez. "It is better to run the risk than to legislate
illegally." He added that the FSLN "will not tolerate one more
caprice" in the legislature. 
 
On Dec. 15, Presidency Minister Antonio Lacayo said that only
through a return to normalcy in the Assembly can Nicaragua begin
a national dialogue and achieve political stability in 1993.
"What has happened in the Assembly since last Sept. 2 is a
shame," said Lacayo. "This [legislative] state power has not been
functioning legally and that is not good for the country." [IPS
12/14/92; 12/16/92] 
 

UN CHIEF VISITS NICARAGUA

On a Dec. 16 visit to Nicaragua, UN Secretary General Butros
Butros-Ghali called on the international community to continue
providing the country with economic aid for peace and
reconstruction. "Nicaragua should not be financially punished
solely because it happens to be no longer a scene of conflict,"
the UN chief told journalists at a press conference following his
meeting with President Chamorro. "The international community
must not forget Nicaragua."
 
Butros-Ghali suggested social measures to fight poverty, and said
that while the United Nations had only limited resources, it
could act as an "intermediary" for international financing
agencies that were able to provide economic aid to Nicaragua and
El Salvador. The UN leader stopped in Nicaragua briefly after
attending the ceremonies marking the end of the 12-year war in
neighboring El Salvador. Butros-Ghali praised Nicaragua's advance
from "military confrontation to full democracy," but said that
"it is now necessary to reconstruct the country." Losses to
Nicaragua's economy from the war have been estimated by UN
agencies at $15 billion. Chamorro invited Butros-Ghali to visit
Nicaragua again. [IPS 12/16/92]


FORMER NICARAGUAN SOLDIERS STILL ON HUNGER STRIKE

A hunger strike by 37 former EPS soldiers was continuing as of
Dec. 18 after seven weeks, with four of the protesters in
"dangerous" condition according to doctors. The hunger strikers
are demanding layoff compensation in the amount of $1000,
equivalent to three months' salary. On Dec. 17, EPS head of
public and international relations Ricardo Wheelock Roman said
the protesters had no right to claim compensation because they
"do not meet the legal requirements," adding that "those who make
claims to the contrary are misleading them." Wheelock said the
army could not be held responsible "if any of them die"; he
argued that only soldiers who "did not abandon the ranks after
the Sandinista Front lost the elections and did not have pending
court cases" qualified for retirement benefits. 
 
Vilma Nunez de Escorcia, director of the Nicaraguan Center for
Human Rights (CENIDH), called the army high command's attitude
toward the hunger strikers "inhuman, insensitive and worrying."
Nunez, who also chairs the Central American Human Rights
Commission (CODEHUCA) explained that "today they do not meet the
conditions, but when they were recruited for war, they fit the
bill. They were good soldiers, now they swim in misery." She
added, "I do not see how the high command can go on vacation to
celebrate Christmas, leaving their former comrades on the brink
of death." [IPS 12/18/92]
 

                               -30-

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