From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: NICANET HOTLINE -- 11/09/92
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 00:48:14 GMT

/** reg.nicaragua: 86.0 **/
** Topic: NICANET HOTLINE -- 11/09/92 **
** Written  2:24 pm  Nov  9, 1992 by nicanet in cdp:reg.nicaragua **
            NICARAGUA NETWORK HOTLINE ** 202-544-9360
 
                         November 9, 1992
 
You have reached the Nicaragua Network Hotline recorded Monday, 
November 9, 1992.   To reach our office, call: 202-544-9355.
 
Topics covered in this hotline include: Renewal of effort to 
release aid to Nicaragua urged; fallout from Humberto Ortega 
speech continues; Chamorro will not submit budget to illegal 
National Assembly; Alleged Sandinistas attack ex-contra leader; 
and cholera cases continue to rise.
 
Now that President Bush has lost the election, the prospect of 
securing the release of US aid to Nicaragua may have improved.  
$104 million in FY92 aid to Nicaragua continues to be held up at 
the request of Sen. Jesse Helms.  FY92 ended October 31, 1992.  
Helms has routinely blackmailed Republican administrations with 
threats of holding up ambassadorial nominations.  He no longer 
has that leverage because Bush will be making no more 
nominations. 
 
The Nicaragua Network recommends that activists call the State 
Department at (202) 647-4000 and the White House Comment Line at 
(202) 456-1111 with the message that the aid should be released. 
At the State Department ask for the office of Acting Secretary of 
State Lawrence Eagleburger.  The Nicaragua Desk is in agreement 
with our position, but the aid is being held up at a higher 
political level.  Explain that continuing to hold up the aid only 
further weakens Violeta Chamorro's already shaky government.  
Note also that Chamorro has been forced to increase the value 
added tax, a form of sales tax, from 10% to 15% and to apply it 
to many areas of the economy to which it did not previously 
apply.  It is to go into effect January 1, 1993.  Unless 
negotiations with the government are successful, the tax will 
also apply to humanitarian aid from non-governmental 
organizations (NGO's), Sister Cities, etc.  This will result in 
less aid reaching the intended recipients and probably make it 
more difficult for organizations to raise humanitarian aid gifts 
from their supporters.  The tax would apply not just to money 
gifts, but to medicine, clothing, and other material aid making 
it necessary for groups to also raise money to pay the taxes on 
their material donations.  If the US aid is released, it is 
unlikely that Chamorro will find it necessary to tax these gifts, 
so include that argument in your message.  Those phone numbers 
again are: the State Department, (202) 647-4000 and the White 
House Comment Line, (202) 456-1111.
 
Army Chief Humberto Ortega continues to be criticized from both 
sides for a speech he gave October 27.  In the speech he 
reiterated the army's support for the Chamorro government's 
efforts to resolve the property issue, called for a "pact against 
poverty, a national dialogue agreement," and called for an end to 
right-wing efforts to topple Chamorro's government.  He also 

said that there will be no further reductions in the army which 
is now concentrating on modernization, and that he would stay in 
office until 1997 when the modernization is scheduled to be 
completed.  We reported last week that Chamorro rebuked Gen. 
Ortega for saying he would stay in office until 1997.  The full 
text of her quote sounds like a definite commitment to replace 
Ortega before she leaves office.  What she said was, "General 
Ortega is going to go today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or 
before '96, because I don't go back on my word."  The expected 
cacophony of right-wing calls for his immediate replacement 
resulted, but Ortega also came under criticism from Barricada, 
the Sandinista newspaper.  Barricada called his pact against 
poverty a "mistaken approach" since what is required are "deep-
going modifications to the present economic policy, and not just 
social palliatives."  Carlos Fernando Chamorro, editor of 
Barricada suggested that the controversy over Ortega's tenure be 
resolved by changing the Law of Military Organization to 
stipulate the term of the top-ranking officer.  In an effort to 
defuse the tension between the army command and President 
Chamorro, who incidentally is also Minister of Defense, Ortega 
and members of the army high command met last week with Chamorro 
and her Ministers of Presidency, Finance, Labor, and Foreign 
Affairs.  After the meeting Chamorro acknowledged that the army 
will not be reduced further, and appeared to adopt Carlos 
Fernando Chamorro's proposal to establish terms of office for the 
high command within the Military Law.  
 
Finance Minister Emilio Pereira announced that the Chamorro 
administration will not submit the 1993 budget to the National 
Assembly as long as the present situation exists in which 
Assembly President Cesar is holding sessions that the Supreme 
Court has ruled are illegal and the FSLN and UNO Center Group 
delegates are boycotting.  This may result in what in the US 
would be the equivalent of a continuing resolution under which 
gencies of government receive the same budget they had the 
previous year when Congress has not yet passed a budget.  The New 
York Weekly News Update, citing several Spanish language press 
sources reported this week that Chamorro's 1993 budget will 
include another 2,500 layoffs of government employees, chiefly in 
the areas of the central government, the national financial 
system, and the state enterprises.  The government plans to 
concentrate its reduced spending in the areas of health and 
education, although it must be noted that those levels are far 
below the resources the Sandinista government dedicated to the 
health and education of the Nicaraguan people.
 
The New York Weekly News Update, citing Spanish language press and 
contra sources in Miami, reported that two alleged Sandinistas 
attacked an wounded former contra commander Bigote de Oro.  
Bodyguards returned fire killing one man and wounding another who 
is now in prison.  Miami contra's say this is evidence of an 
extermination squad in what they call the Sandinista Front's 
"secret services."  Revenge killings are taking place by both 
former contras and former members of the Nicaraguan army 

according to the OAS Verification Force.  We have no independent 
information on this story, but the Sandinistas did not use 
assassination as an instrument of policy during their years in 
power, and it is our belief that, besides the moral argument 
against it, Sandinista leaders are too vulnerable to the same 
tactic to be using it themselves.
 
And finally, although cholera has not turned out to be the 
scourge many had feared, it continues to take its toll.  By the 
end of October, 25 victims had died and 2,294 people had 
contracted the disease according to the Ministry of Health.  On 
the positive side, members of our recently returned delegation to 
Nicaragua were told that fear of cholera have made people much 
more willing to learn sanitation and safe food preparation 
techniques that will have a long-term effect on people's health. 
 
To become a supporter and receive our publications and mailings, 
please contact us.  The Nicaragua Network's address is: 1247 E 
St., SE, Washington, DC  20003; our phone: 202-544-9355.

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

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