From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Nicaragua: Chamorro Refuses to Bow to US
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 01:31:53 GMT

/** reg.nicaragua: 155.0 **/
** Topic: IPS:Chamorro Refuses **
** Written  3:10 pm  Sep 10, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:reg.nicaragua **
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: IPS:Chamorro Refuses

/* Written 12:18 am  Sep 10, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: NICARAGUA: CHAMORRO REFUSES TO BOW TO U.S. PRESSURE

managua, sep 7 (ips) -- nicaraguan president violetta chamorro
monday deounced attempts by the u.s. state department to force
here to appoint ''a group of advisers'' and take other measures
relayed to her by u.s. diplomat john maisto.

chamorro charged that, maisto told her during a visit he paid
to managua last week that she should appoint a ''junta of eminent
persons'' to help her run nicaragua.

''i do not accept any interference ... i accept impositions
from no one. i am well just as i am. i am the president of
nicaragua,'' chamorro said monday.

maisto, the state department's central american envoy, spent
two days in nicaragua and suggested the creation of the advisory
group during a meeting with chamorro.

''i want to be a friend of the united states,'' the president
said. but she stressed that, as head of state, she could not bow
to pressure.

''no one likes advisors or a board of eminent persons imposed
on him/her,'' she emphasized, adding that she had her cabinet and
did not have to ''set up an alien group that is not sworn in
under the national flag.

however, she declined to reveal the names proposed by the u.s.
official.

chamorro said that maisto did not say that her agreement to
designate the advisory group was a condition for the release of
104 million dollars in aid to nicaragua frozen by the u.s.
government at the request of a conservative lobby in the u.s.
congress.

''if the aid comes, it is welcome. but if it does not we have
to work harder,'' a defiant chamorro said, adding that she would
remain in power until the end of her presidential term of office,
in keeping with the 1986 constitution, and that ''after that it
will be someone else'' at the helm of the nicaraguan state.

she denied that u.s. pressure had forced here to shake up the
national police and that she had decided on the changes she
announced on saturday ''from the first day i took over the
presidency, on 25 april 1990. it was a pledge i made during my
campaign.''

on saturday she anounced the retirement of commander rene
vivas as police chief, his replacement by commander ferando
caldera and the retirement of another 12 top police officials.
(more)
----


the dismissal of top sandinista officials from the police and
other sections of the public service had been among the
conditions set by the conservative lobby in the u.s. congress for
approving the release of the aid.

the lobby's chief, republican senator jesse helms, claimed
that chamorro was governing with the help of the sandinistas (who
governed nicaragua from 1979 to 1990) and a report issued by his
office backed this and other claims.

the nicaraguan president dismissed the claims in the report,
which maisto brandished as proof of supposed ''anomalies'' in
chamorro's goverment, and his ''suggestions'' on how she should
govern in future.

''i am not going to sell my country,'' the nicaraguan
president said categorically.(end/ips/trd/so/fj-cs/kb/92)
----


** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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