From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: NY Nica News Update #141, 10/11/92
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 02:36:43 GMT

/** reg.nicaragua: 132.0 **/
** Topic: Weekly News Update #141, 10/11/92 **
** Written  9:35 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

     NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
   339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
       WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE #141, OCTOBER 11, 1992

In This Issue: (articles posted as responses to this message)

     1. Nicaraguan Government Branches Battle for Power
     2. Nicaraguan Bishops Side Against Chamorro
     3. Bush Wants Sandinistas "Contained"
     4. Nicaraguan Labor News
     5. Other Nicaragua News
     6. Brazil: Workers Party Gains After Collor Impeachment
     7. Military Police Massacre At Least 111 in Brazilian Prison
     8. Mexican Ruling Party Backs Down in Michoacan
     9. Haiti: De Facto Government Plans New Elections
    10. Former Marxist Wins Guyana's Elections
    11. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area

These updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is
$25. Back issues and source materials are available on request.
(Many of our source materials are available on Peacenet.) Feel
free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information from
them, but please credit us. We welcome your comments and ideas:
send them via Peacenet to <nicanetny>.

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

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** Written  9:35 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

1. NICARAGUAN GOVERNMENT BRANCHES BATTLE FOR POWER
The struggle continues between the Nicaraguan government's
executive and legislative branches. National Assembly President
Alfredo Cesar is still ignoring a Supreme Court ruling--backed by
Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro--ordering him to respect an
earlier court decision which rendered null and void elections
held Sept. 2 for Assembly first and third secretaries. Despite
the lack of a quorum, Cesar claimed those elections--won by two
close allies of his--were valid, and that the judicial branch has
no jurisdiction over the Assembly. (See Updates #138 and #140) In
defiance of the court decisions, Cesar held an Assembly session
on Sept. 25 and managed to get the 47 delegates needed for a
quorum by using six alternates to delegates of the ruling UNO
coalition's small "center group" who (along with the entire
Sandinista bloc) were boycotting the Assembly's proceedings.
Cesar based his right to use alternates on an internal by-law
that allows that move when full members fail to attend for 21
days. During that session, the Assembly passed a resolution
rejecting court interference in internal problems of government
branches.
 
On Sept. 27, Cesar got a quorum for another legislative session
(he got one full member out of a hospital bed to attend) and
passed a bill of nine reforms to Assembly by-laws. The reforms
give greater powers to the Assembly president and establish that
the directive board may be elected by a majority of members
present at that session, not a majority of all Assembly
representatives as was previously required. This move could
guarantee Cesar's reelection for the post of Assembly President
when his term expires this December. A last-minute additional
reform by Cesar allows party-appointed alternates to be called if
the full member's alternate does not appear. [CAHI Memo #246,
9/24-30/92] On Oct. 1, Cesar used this last reform to again get a
quorum for a legislative session. According to the pro-Sandinista
daily Barricada, Cesar even had to stretch these regulations a
little and count three deputies and their alternates as separate
individuals with voice and vote. After that session, Cesar led a
march of 35 deputies (he had threatened 45--See Update #140) to
the offices of the Supreme Court, where they delivered a protest
statement. 
 
Meanwhile, the majority (48) of elected deputies signed a letter
made public on Oct. 5 which called on UNO leaders to respect the
rule of law and abide by the Supreme Court decision. [CAHI Memo
#247, 10/2-8/92]
 
Cesar insists that he will keep sending legislation to Chamorro's
desk for signing, and that if she fails to sign or veto the bills
within the required 15-day period, he will promulgate them anyway
by having the text of the bills published in national newspapers.
In comments broadcast over a local radio station on Oct. 6, Cesar
cited the example of Brazil, where massive street demonstrations
led to the removal from office of President Fernando Collor de
Mello. Cesar said that just like Brazilians, who demonstrated
they were "not willing to tolerate being fooled," Nicaraguans who
feel betrayed by their government should take to the streets and
"express their discontent in mass form."  [LADB 10/9/92 from IPS,
AFP] It seems unlikely that a large part of the population will
rally behind Cesar; according to Barricada's Oct. 4 edition, he
and Vice President Virgilio Godoy staged a rally recently in the
rightwing stronghold of Juigalpa, in central Nicaragua, and only
managed to draw about 100 people. [CAHI Memo #247, 10/2-8/92]
 
On Oct. 9, President Chamorro told a group of 24 US senators that
her government "will not violate" or ignore the decisions of the
Supreme Court of Justice. Chamorro was responding to a letter
sent by the senators in which they expressed their "profound
concern" for what they said was the growing division between her
government and the Nicaraguan National Assembly. According to a
communique released by the Foreign Ministry, Chamorro told the
senators that "the government of Nicaragua respects the state of
law, and it is going to obey the decision the Supreme Court
makes..." She added that "just like in the United States, the
Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua is the Supreme Judge of
Justice in this country." [ED-LP 10/11/92 from AP]
 
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2. NICARAGUAN BISHOPS SIDE AGAINST CHAMORRO
On Oct. 7, Nicaragua's bishops made a formal statement condemning
"corruption and social decay" in Nicaragua, and asserting that
the population was clamoring for "the promised change not only in
the economic and social policies but also... in the helm of the
governing team." The bishops of Nicaragua's Episcopal Conference
said they see "with much pain the hard situation of misery in
which... large sectors of the population live," due to high
unemployment and corruption of "new privileged groups." Speaking
of the power struggle between the executive and legislative
branches of government, the bishops called "indispensible" the
separation of powers and stressed that "the executive has to
respect the independence of the other powers." The bishops also
warned of violations of human rights, citing as an example the
deaths of members of the Nicaraguan Resistance (contras). The
International Commission of Support and Verification (CIAV) of
the Organization of American States (charged with monitoring the
demobilization of the contra forces) said recently that since the
US-sponsored contra war against Nicaragua officially ended two
years ago, about 104 ex-contras and 180 Sandinistas have been
murdered. [ED-LP 10/8/92 from AP] 
 
Sandinista Front (FSLN) General Secretary Daniel Ortega called
the bishops' statement "positive" and "full of good intentions."
[CAHI Memo #247, 10/2-8/92 from Barricada]
 
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3. BUSH WANTS SANDINISTAS "CONTAINED"
While the disbursement of $104 million in US aid to Nicaragua
remains blocked by the State Dept., Foreign Cooperation Minister
Erwin Kruger reports that European nations have agreed to
"flexibilize" their aid in order to "rescue" the economic and
democratic model of Nicaragua. [CAHI Memo #247, 10/2-8/92 from La
Prensa] Meanwhile, on Oct. 7 daily Barricada cited US President
George Bush as saying that relations between his country and
Nicaragua have never been better, and that the US should support
the Chamorro government since it was elected democratically. But
he added that "we would like to see signs that the Sandinistas
are contained." [CAHI Memo #247, 10/2-8/92 from Barricada, quote
retranslated from the Spanish]
 
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** Written  9:35 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

4. NICARAGUAN LABOR NEWS
Oct. 6 marked the 31st day of a hunger strike by 11 workers of
state telecommunications company (Telcor) who are demanding the
reinstatement of their fired co-workers. Also on Oct. 6, Telcor
Minister Pablo Vigil said the fired workers would not return to
their jobs... Railroad workers blocked the main highway along
Managua's lakeshore on Oct. 2 to protest the government's move to
close down the state railway system. Though the workers were
dislodged violently by police, the protests continued and spread
on Oct. 7 to different areas of Nicaragua. The government says it
does not have the $20 million investment necessary to make the
railroad function.... Banana workers in Chinandega province (in
northwestern Nicaragua) are on strike to demand the reinstatement
of 236 fired workers and compliance with agreements about
privatization reached at the end of 1991 that promised 25% shares
to the workers... Workers at the San Antonio sugar mill--
Nicaragua's most important--began a strike just 15 days before
the sugar harvest is scheduled to begin, demanding implementation
of a wage scale reordering. The San Antonio mill was recently
returned to its former owner and all the workers were dismissed.
[CAHI Memo #247, 10/2-8/92 from Barricada]... 
 
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5. OTHER NICARAGUA NEWS
A 29-day hunger strike by 19 laid-off army soldiers ended Sept.
23 with a government agreement to give ex-army members plots of
land in Lomas de San Judas in Managua. While a bilateral
commission was set up to oversee compliance with the agreement,
extreme rightwing Managua mayor Arnoldo Aleman gave the same land
to a group of ex-contras through his Communal Works and Progress
Boards (JCOP). The ex-contras are now clearing the land and
building houses; the ex-army organization said it would set a
final date for the expulsion of the former contras. [CAHI Memo
#247, 10/2-8/92]... On Oct. 5 in Washington, Nicaragua and Israel
jointly announced the reestablishment of diplomatic relations,
broken off by the Sandinista administration in 1982 following
Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry
spokesperson David Silva said on Oct. 6 that it was still not
clear whether Israel would open an embassy in Managua or if
relations would remain at the level of commercial attaches. [LADB
10/9/92 from EFE, AFP]... Argentina's government forgave 93% of
Nicaragua's $70 million debt with Argentina. [CAHI Memo #247,
10/2-8/92 from La Prensa]... According to the public sector union
(UNE), Norway has suspended disbursements of its aid to
Nicaragua's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock because of the
ministry's administrative handling of the aid. [CAHI Memo #247,
10/2-8/92 from Barricada]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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** Written  9:35 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

6. BRAZIL: WORKERS PARTY GAINS AFTER COLLOR IMPEACHMENT
Despite a high rate of voter abstention, the Workers Party (PT),
Brazil's main leftist party, made important gains in the Oct. 3
elections for 4,964 municipalities, forcing runoffs in four of
the country's major cities. In Rio de Janeiro's mayoral race,
preliminary returns showed the PT's Benedita da Silva, a black
woman from a favela (shantytown), with 30% of the votes against
18% for Cidinha Campos of the populist Democratic Labor Party
(PDT). PT candidate Eduardo Suplicy won 26% in Sao Paulo,
Brazil's largest city, with conservative Paulo Maluf from the
Social Democratic Party (PDS) taking 40%. The PT will also
compete in runoffs for Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte.
 
The PT's new strength comes in part from its consistent
opposition to Fernando Collor de Mello, the neo-liberal president
impeached on corruption charges Sept. 29. The PDT lost much of
its following in Rio because its leader, Rio governor Leonel
Brizola, gave only tepid support to the impeachment drive, while
Maluf lost votes in Sao Paulo when the PT plastered the city with
photographs of the rightist candidate as best man at Collor's
wedding. "Post-impeachment Brazil has a left to center-left
face," Folha de Sao Paulo announced on Oct 5, as the city's stock
market dropped another 5%. The runoffs will be held Nov. 15. [New
York Times 10/6/92; Folha do Brasil, weekly supplement in El
Diario-La Prensa (NY), 10/6/92; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/4/92 from
Reuter, Ansa, AP, Xinhua, EFE, DPA and AFP]
 
Meanwhile, the Federal police questioned Collor de Mello's first
finance minister Zelia Cardoso de Mello for three hours on Oct. 8
concerning irregularities in the privatization of Sao Paulo's
state airline during the late 1980s; she has also been accused of
taking $236,000 from an influence-peddling ring while she was in
Collor's government. [ED-LP 10/9/92 from AFP] Cardoso de Mello,
who is Collor's cousin, was the architect of the severe economic
shock program Brazil went through in early 1990.
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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** Written  9:36 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

7. MILITARY POLICE MASSACRE AT LEAST 111 IN BRAZILIAN PRISON
On the night of Oct. 2, just hours before nationwide municipal
elections, the Military Police swept into the Sao Paulo's
Carandiru Prison, Latin America's largest, and killed a still
unknown number of inmates. Officials originally put the death
toll at 111; on Oct. 7 the federal Justice Ministry said about
200 had died; based on prisoner lists for the cellblock, a
surviving prisoner calculates that a total of 284 inmates are
missing and should be presumed dead. [NYT 10/7/92; NYT 10/9/92
from AP]
 
Prisoners and official sources agree that the incident started
with a knife fight among inmates during the afternoon; the
official version is that there was also a plan for a mass
jailbreak. Sao Paulo State Security Secretary Pedro Franco de
Campos says that guards attempted negotiations but gave up
"because it was getting dark. We couldn't have a mass escape from
that prison the day before elections." [Washington Post 10/4/92]
The Military Police claim the prisoners attacked them as they
entered the cellblock, but a prisoner reports that "[t]he
soldiers shot each other [in the dark] and they became furious
when they saw their companions wounded." Prisoners, lawyers, and
religious and human rights workers all describe a brutal massacre
in which guards beat and knifed some prisoners, machine-gunned
others, and unleashed police dogs on the rest. Many prisoners
were shot in the back of the head after surrendering; some were
killed after being compelled to carry away the bodies of other
prisoners. "The police said they couldn't leave witnesses. The
ones who survived the shootings and knifings were murdered by the
dogs," a prisoner said. [ED-LP 10/7/92 from EFE] The next day a
police officer told a prisoner's mother that "the dogs had fresh
meat last night." [NYT 10/5/92]
 
"The brutality...surpasses the atrocities of the war between
Serbs and Croats," said one lawyer associated with the PT. [ED-LP
10/6/92 from AFP] Sao Paulo State Governor Luiz Antonio Fleury
Jr. dismissed security chief Campos on Oct. 8 and put the prisons
under the control of a new prison affairs department. [NYT
10/9/92 from AP] The Oct. 2 incident is the worst of a number of
massacres in Brazilian prisons. Thirty-two prisoners died in a
1987 disturbance, also in Sao Paulo. [NYT 10/5/92] Last year,
guards in Rio de Janeiro used an incendiary bomb to murder 25
inmates of a subterranean prison. (See Update #92) A police
captain involved in the latest assault, Wanderley Mascarenhas de
Souza, was already known in the local press as one of the city's
"five biggest killers," with a total of 34 killings in supposed
shoot-outs with criminals. [ED-LP 10/6/92 from AFP]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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** Written  9:36 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

8. MEXICAN RULING PARTY BACKS DOWN IN MICHOACAN
Following months of protest by Mexico's center-left Democratic
Revolution Party (PRD), Michoacan State Governor Eduardo
Villasenor announced on Oct. 6 that he would take a one-year
"leave of absence" from his post, which he won in July 12 
elections the PRD considers fraudulent. Villasenor was the
candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which
has controlled the federal government and most state governments
for the last 60 years; in the past year PRI governors from three
other states--Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi and Tasbasco--have left
office after electoral disputes. PRI officials in Michoacan named
a local party leader, Ausencio Chavez, to be interim governor.
[NYT 10/06/92; ED-LP 1/7/92 from AP]
 
PRD militants have blocked government buildings in Michoacan's
capital, Morelia, since August. They protested Villasenor's Sept.
15 inauguration by inaugurating their own candidate, Cristobal
Arias Solis; since taking office Villasenor has been kept from
entering the governor's office, and protestors and PRD-affiliated
Michoacan officials prevented him from attending public events.
The federal government finally scheduled negotiations with PRD
representatives for Oct. 6. [La Jornada (Mexico) 10/4/92]
Privately, PRD negotiators indicate that they have settled for
the removal of Villasenor and a plan for further electoral
reforms, especially in relation to municipal elections on Dec. 6,
in exchange for calling off the protests. [NYT 10/6/92] This
compromise evidently didn't satisfy anonymous sources used by the
US media, who insisted that the PRD had been losing ground and
that Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari "totally caved
in on this. Salinas holds firm on economic issues, but he's a
babe in the woods when it comes to politics." But PRD
spokesperson Ricardo Pasco Pierce said the PRI's response "is a
result of the state of ingovernability in Michoacan." Hundreds of
federal troops had been moved into the state, and apparently the
PRI had a stark choice between compromise and violence.
[Washington Post 10/7/92]
 
The PRI had less trouble when Francisco Barrio Terrazas of the
conservative National Action Party (PAN) was inaugurated governor
of Chihuahua on Oct. 3. This is the second time the PRI has
accepted the election of a PAN candidate as governor. [LJ
10/4/92] But within days nine PAN militants, including long-time
party leaders, resigned, charging that the PAN has "acted not as
an opposition party but as one more sector of the system." There
is speculation that the dissidents may form a new party on the
Christian Democratic model. [NYT 10/11/92]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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** Written  9:36 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

9. HAITI: DE FACTO GOVERNMENT PLANS NEW ELECTIONS
Marc Bazin, Prime Minister of the de facto government imposed on
Haiti by a military coup last year, issued a decree on Sept. 28
calling for local assemblies to meet from Oct. 4 through Oct. 11
to establish a permanent electoral council. The new electoral
council would replace the electoral commission that oversaw the
December 1990 vote that elected deposed President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, and is seen as an effort to finish with the Aristide
administration's claim to be the legitimate government of Haiti.
Pro-Aristide forces see Bazin's move as an effort to outmaneuver
groups to his right. The rightists generally have tolerated
Bazin, long a favorite of the US government, in an effort to get
the de facto government international recognition and to bring an
end to the OAS (Organization of American States) trade embargo
against Haiti. With Bazin making little headway in this effort,
the rightists have indicated that they are ready to replace him
in the near future. [Haiti Progres 10/7-13/92; Haiti en Marche
10/7-13/92]
 
Some of the political forces around Aristide seem to be counting
on a victory in the US presidential elections by Gov. Bill
Clinton (D-AK) to open up possibilities for Aristide's return to
power. Clinton has strongly condemned the Bush adminstration's
"cruel policy of returning Haitian refugees to their executioners
in Haiti without even giving them the chance to ask for political
exile." He has promised to reverse this policy, and insists that
"the best solution to the Haitian crisis is the restoration of
democracy"--without clarifying how a Clinton administration would
accomplish this. [HEM 10/7-13/92, quotations retranslated from
French] 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-------Nicaragua Solidarity Network
of Greater New York
339 Lafayette St.
New York, NY 10012
 

 

 

 

Bush administration officials, meanwhile, are furious at
statements by Aristide supporters--aired in a documentary on the
Public Broadcasting System Sept. 29--that the US played a role in
the coup. "This accusation is simply scandalous," said State
Department spokesperson Richard Boucher. "This comment is
completely false and we will make our position known to
representatives of President Aristide." [Haiti: Resistance and
Democracy, Bulletin #148 10/1/92 from AFP]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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** Written  9:36 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

10. FORMER MARXIST WINS GUYANA'S ELECTIONS
On October 5th, former Marxist Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan,
leader of the People's Progressive Party (PPP), won elections in
Guyana with 54% of the vote; after 28 years, he will now return
to power, replacing current Prime Minister Desmond Hoyte. Mobs
shouting charges of fraud went on a looting rampage and one
person was killed when thousands of eligible voters could not
find their names on the voting lists, or were being misdirected
to or faced with slow processing at some of the 988 polling
stations. Between 100-200 international observers (including
former US President Jimmy Carter) blamed the problems on
inexperienced election clerks and noted no serious election
irregularities.
 
A country with 750,000 mostly poor inhabitants, Guyana's politics
have traditionally been divided along racial lines with the PPP
representing the rural East Indian population descended from
indentured servants and the People's National Congress (PNC)
representing the 40% urban black population descended from
African slaves. Traditionally the PPP is said to have been
supported by Moscow and the PNC by the U.S. and the C.I.A.
Although newly elected President Jagan has moderated his Marxist
views on a free market economy, he still has some reservations
about full private enterprise. [AP 10/5/92 from NY Transfer, NYT
10/7/92 from Reuters, NYT 10/6/92 from AP, IPS 1/18/92]
 
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **

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** Written  9:36 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

11. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA
10/16 FRI, 7:30 PM - Videoteca Del Sur presents videos from
Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Costa Rica & the US. $5. DCTV, 87 Lafayette
St (2 blocks south of Canal). 212-334-5257.
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **