From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: NICANET HOTLINE 08/26/92
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 02:14:33 GMT

/** reg.nicaragua: 110.0 **/
** Topic: NICANET HOTLINE 08/26/92 **
** Written  1:44 pm  Aug 26, 1992 by nicanet in cdp:reg.nicaragua **
            NICARAGUA NETWORK HOTLINE ** 202-544-9360
 
                         August 26, 1992
 
You have reached the Nicaragua Network Hotline recorded Monday, 
August 26, 1992.   To reach our office, call: 202-544-9355.
 
Topics covered in this hotline include: Vivas firing not yet 
final; Sandinista Assembly meets again; US aid still held up; 
University strike ends and transport strike begins; Armed groups 
grow fewer; Continued press disinformation; and, coffee prices 
continue to fall. 
 
The reported firing of National Police Chief Rene Vivas has not 
yet been finalized.  The Miami Herald on August 20 quoted 
Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo saying, "The police 
changes haven't occurred yet.  And they are not going to take 
place until the aid comes."  Lacayo met with the National 
Police Council and reached "mutual agreements" that are to be 
announced September 5th.  Some people speculate that Vivas' 
replacement will one of the three police commanders directly 
below him.  Other people speculate that that would not satisfy 
the US since all three are long-time Sandinistas.  La Prensa 
published a story (8/8/92) that the new Police Chief will be a 
civilian.  The National Police is already under civilian 
leadership since it is part of the Ministry of Government headed 
by Alfredo Mendieta, a member of Chamorro's cabinet.
 
The Sandinista Assembly, the highest decision-making body of the 
FSLN held its second special meeting in less than a month on 
August 7.  It condemned the removal of Vivas as interference by 
the US in national affairs, called on the government to 
"definitively" resolve the property question, and demanded that 
Education Minister Humberto Belli and his vice-minister be fired.  
The charge was also made that the US is conducting "covert 
actions" the reorganize the recontras and unite them with extreme 
right-wing groups.  The report we received did not cite any 
evidence but we consider this charge to be likely since the on-
going forming of alliances between former contra and Sandinista 
peasant groups can be seen as a threat to US interests.  We will 
attempt to find out more about this claim in the weeks ahead.
 
1992 US Aid to Nicaragua continues to be held up in spite of the 
fact that Chamorro has begun jumping through hoops to please the 
US.  Sen. Richard Lugar, in a letter to then Secretary of State 
James Baker, which was co-signed by 20 Senate Republicans, called 
for a renewal of the aid flow.  However, the letter proposed 
releasing only half the aid saying "Holding back the remaining 
funds can help keep the pressure on for additional reform."  One 
of the excuses made by Sen. Jesse Helms and others for holding up 
the aid was that the Chamorro government was wasting it.  The 
USAID director in Nicaragua, Janet Ballantyne was quoted in 
Barricada (8/7/92) as saying that the aid has been well used and 
that anyone saying anything to the contrary "does not have the 
facts that I have here."
 
University students and staff have returned to the exams that 
were interrupted by the 50 day strike over the education budget.

Nicaraguan law requires that 6% of the national budget be spent 
on higher education.  The strike was over whether that figure is 
calculated from tax revenues or includes foreign aid and other 
revenue sources.  The National Assembly passed an FSLN sponsored 
bill defining the budget to be the higher amount.  The students 
were happy and the government must now find an additional $38 
million for the universities.
     As that strike ended, transport truck and inter-city bus 
drivers set up roadblocks to protest the high charges for vehicle 
permits being levied by cities throughout the country.  Although 
the strikers were allowing the free movement of passenger 
vehicles, they have blocked border crossings and the disruption 
of trade is beginning to be felt.
 
La Prensa reported (8/6/92) that a combined army-police report 
stated that 18 of 31 armed bands of "criminals" have been broken 
up in Region VI which includes Matagalpa and Jinotega. The 31 
armed groups include 184 members of which 119 have been arrested.  
Seven were killed and 5 wounded.  The army and police suffered 
two deaths.  A large number of weapons were recovered in the 
operation.  There are still some clashes in the North.  The army 
and recontras fought a half hour battle in the Nueva Segovian 
town of Ciudad Antigua when the recontras tried to take over the 
town.  Also another 180 of the original contras are disarming 
under the terms of the 1990 agreement and a plan was announced to 
disarm what may be the final 50 which will bring the total cost 
of disarming the contras to $26 million.  It was also reported 
that the government is beginning to comply with agreements 
reached last Spring with recontras and recompas.  They have begun 
receiving housing lots and construction materials.  However, 
there has not been much progress on handing out farmland for 
logistical reasons such as surveying the land, but even more so 
because the government is having difficulty identifying land that 
is not in dispute.
 
The Washington Post published a story on August 25 about the 
controversy over property ownership. The story quoted the wife 
and sons of the deceased man whose property was confiscated by 
the Sandinistas in 1979 claiming that their family has always 
been against Somoza.  Should stories such as this appear in other 
newspapers, we note for your use in letters to the editor that 
all confiscations in 1979 were properties of Somoza and his 
closest collaborators.  It was not until about 1982 that the FSLN 
began to confiscate properties of people who were decapitalizing 
them or who had abandoned them.
 
And finally in economic news the world price of coffee continues 
to plummet.  Now at $48 per hundredweight, this is down from $177 
in the mid-seventies making Nicaragua's economic recovery 
increasingly difficult.
 
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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