From: aap@next03wor.wam.umd.edu (Alberto Adolfo Pinkas)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality
Subject: Nicaraguan Law - News
Date: 22 Jul 92 21:20:30 GMT
Organization: Workstations at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park

From soc.culture.latin-america

 From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: NICARAGUA: ANTI-GAY LAW

/* Written  8:32 pm  Jul 20, 1992 by aimlgc in cdp:ai.general */
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release, Friday, July 10, 1992 Contact: Lynn Nottage
(212) 633-4208

NICARAGUA: AI CONCERNED AT PROPOSED TIGHTENING OF LAWS ON
HOMOSEXUALITY

	Amnesty International has written to the government of
	Nicaragua to express its concern at proposed reforms to
	the Penal Code which AI fears could allow for the
	imprisonment of people for advocating homosexual rights or
	for homosexual acts in private with a consenting adult of
	the same sex.  On June 11, 1992 the Nicaraguan Assembly
	approved an amendment to Article 205 of the Penal Code
	which provides that "anyone who induces, promotes,
	propagandizes or practices in scandalous form sexual
	intercourse between persons of the same sex commits the
	crime of sodomy and shall incur 1 to 3 years
	imprisonment".  The approved amendment is awaiting
	ratification by the President, who has the power of veto.
	In a letter to President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro,
	Amnesty International stated its concern that, by
	extending the crime of "sodomy", as currently defined in
	Article 205, to cover the "promotion" of homosexual acts,
	the proposed amendment appeared to open the way to the
	prosecution and imprisonment of individuals for exercising
	their right to freedom of expression, for example by
	advocating homosexual rights or making available sex and
	health education information.  If imprisoned for this
	reason, such individuals would be considered by Amnesty
	International to be prisoners of conscience.  If ratified,
	the amendment to Article 205 could also allow for the
	imprisonment of individuals for consensual homosexual sex
	in private between adults.  Article 205 of the current
	penal code, which criminalizes acts of "sodomy which
	outrage public morals", includes provisions apparently
	aimed at outlawing sexual acts which are public, coercive,
	or involve minors.  The amendment approved by the Assembly
	replaces these provisions with an even broader and more
	undefined provision criminalizing homosexual sexual acts
	practiced "in scandalous form." Amnesty International is
	concerned that the amendment apparently offers no
	guarantee that Article 205 will not be applied to
	individuals engaging in freely consensual homosexual
	relations between adults and in private; if imprisoned for
	these reasons, Amnesty International would demand an
	unconditional release of such persons as prisoners of
	conscience.  Although the stated motivation for reforming
	certain articles of the penal code was to combat the
	perceived increase in sexual offences, the amendment
	extending the application of Article 205 appear intended
	to criminalize the expression of homosexual identity in a
	broad range of forms, in a way that could lead to the
	violation of fundamental human rights.  Amnesty
	International urged the President to clarify the intended
	scope and application of the proposed penal code amendment
	awaiting ratification, and to ensure that the Nicaraguan
	penal code will never permit the imprisonment of people
	for non-violent advocacy of homosexual rights or for
	consensual and private homosexual acts between adults.
	Amnesty International has for many years opposed the
	violation of human rights of homosexuals through its work
	to strop torture, the death penalty and extrajudicial
	execution, and by calling for the release as prisoners of
	conscience of people detained because of their advocacy of
	homosexual rights.  Amnesty International has recently
	expanded its mandate to include, as prisoners of
	conscience, individuals who have been imprisoned solely
	because of their practice of consensual homosexual acts
	between adults in private.

END

by Shirley Christian

[New York Times 7/10/92]

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, July 8--Nicaragua's largely traditional
Catholicism has clashed with secular, modern reality after the
National Assembly, as part of a reform of the penal code,
strengthened the existing law against engaging in homosexuality
in a "scandalous" manner.

Gay rights groups, Nicaragua and abroad, have condemned the
legislation and demanded that President Violeta Barrios de
Chamorro veto it.

But aides to Mrs. Chamorro expressed doubts that she would do
that, noting that she felt her religion very deeply and would do
nothing that would offend the church.

Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, a trusted confidant of the
President's, said in a recent Sunday homily that "any sensible
and responsible Christian ought to be in agreement" with the
tougher law.

Vague Meaning of Scandalous

As revised by the legislative vote on June 11, the law provides
for one to three years in prison for "those who induce, promote,
propagandize or practice concubinage with those of the same sex
in a scandalous form."

The penal code had already provided for the one-to-three year
jail term for engaging in homosexuality in a "scandalous" manner,
but now it has been expanded to cover inducing, promoting and
propagandizing it in a scandalous way as well.

The law in question, Article 205 of the penal code, does not
declare that homosexuality as such is a crime.

But critics of the legislation and some Government officials
speaking privately said it was impossible to interpret a word as
vague as "scandalous."  Further, the critics say the reference to
not "propagandizing" in a scandalous way could inhibit
journalists and commentators from writing or speaking on the
subject.

Sandinista Criticism

On many issues, the United National Opposition, the coalition
that backed Mrs. Chamorro for election in 1990 and has a small
majority in the assembly, has ceased agreeing with Mrs.
Chamorro's Government because of the policy of her chief
minister, Antonio Lacayo, of governing the country in close
association and consultation with leaders of the defeated
Sandinista Front.

But on this one they found common ground.

While leaders of the Sandinista Front have had little to say
publicly about Article 205, Sandinista intellectuals and
journalists have taken a strong lead in writing on the anomolies
[sic] and discrepancies in the law and attacking it as
repressive.

An anonymous group that maintained that it included the leaders
of a gay organization threatened to start revealing the names of
members of the Government and assembly who are homosexual or
bisexual if the law is allowed to stand.

Right to Preferences

Another group said it would challenge the law in the Supreme
Court if Mrs. Chamorro does not veto it.

One of the United National leaders, Luis Sanchez Sancho, a
Socialist who normally expresses liberal social views, rose to
the defense of the legislation, noting that it did not outlaw
homosexuality and that homosexuals "have no reason to worry about
their right to their amorous preference."


                              July 14, 1992

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43 Street
New York, N.Y. 10036

To the Editor:

"Newest Storm in Nicaragua: Anti-Gay Law" (news article, July 10)
is unclear on one important point: how the various Nicaraguan
political parties voted when the National Assembly passed Article
205 of the revised penal code on June 11.  All 39 members of the
Sandinista bench voted against Article 205, under which lesbians
and gays can be penalized even for exercising their right to free
speech, while most members of the governing United National
Opposition (UNO) coalition supported the law.  In other words,
the Sandinistas, generally depicted in this country as anti-
democratic totalitarians, opposed anti-gay legislation; the UNO
legislators, elected in 1990 with millions of our tax dollars in
a supposed effort to "restore democracy" to Nicaragua, supported
the restrictive law.  Is this what our government and media mean
when they talk about democracy--repression of lesbians and gays?


                              David L. Wilson
                              Nicaragua Solidarity Network
                              of Greater New York

[For more information, contact the Nicaragua Solidarity Network
of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette Street #8, New York, NY 10012. 
Phone: 212-674-9499.  PeaceNet: nicanetny.

[We also have special temporary hotline on the Nicaraguan sodomy
law: 212-475-7159.

[Please note that information on the sodomy law is available on
PeaceNet in two conferences: queerplanet and reg.nicaragua.]
Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality