NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5269

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Nicanet Hotline 7/20/92
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/** reg.nicaragua: 101.0 **/
** Topic: NICANET HOTLINE -- 07/20/92 **
** Written  2:31 pm  Jul 20, 1992 by nicanet in cdp:reg.nicaragua **
            NICARAGUA NETWORK HOTLINE ** 202-544-9360

                         July 20, 1992

You have reached the Nicaragua Network Hotline recorded Monday,
July 20, 1992.   To reach our office, call: 202-544-9355.

Topics covered in this hotline include: Evictions of peasants in
Matagalpa region continue; US aid still held up and Chamorro
appears to be caving in to US demands; New anti-sodomy law still
in limbo; Crisis in agriculture denied; and cholera continues to
spread.

As the Chamorro government's review of claims for return of
property confiscated by the Sandinista government draws to an
end, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of court
ordered returns of property.  It is alarming and discouraging
that not only are properties being returned which were
confiscated because their owners abandoned them, but properties
of some of the most notorious Somocistas are being returned as
well, in violation of the Constitution.  For instance, four farms
have been returned to the family of Daniel Somarriba whose call
to Somoza's National Guard in August 1978 resulted in the
slaughter of 18 young people in San Dionisio, Matagalpa.
According to the Farmworkers Union (ATC) 11 of the 21 farms
recently returned in the Matagalpa area were previously owned by
close collaborators of Somoza, and some of the other 10 former
owners received compensation when their farms were confiscated.
The Chamorro government has ignored the national dialogue
agreement that workers are to receive at least 25% of privatized
enterprises and in some cases peasants who hold legal title to
their homes and garden plots are being evicted as well.
Peasants, including ATC organizers who have opposed the evictions
have been jailed.  As of last Friday, 13 were still being held.
     At the request of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights,
the Nicaragua Network Education Fund has activated its Emergency
Response Network to protest the evictions.  The demands are:
Release of the remaining agriculture workers; Respect and enforce
collective bargaining agreements with farmworkers on farms being
privatized; Respect the laws forbidding return of property to
close collaborators of Somoza; Respect the democratization of
property ownership brought about under the Sandinista
Revolution.; End the use of the police and army for forced
evictions; Resolve land ownership problems by political means;
and, Respect the collective property rights of agricultural
workers including especially houses and family gardens.  You can
fax your own letter to Chamorro at 011-505-2-627911.
     Orders to carry out the evictions put the police and army
in a difficult position.  If they refuse they play into the hands
of Jesse Helms and the right wing who want to purge Sandinistas
from the army and police.  If they carry out the evictions they
are committing human rights violations.  Daniel Ortega has called
on people not to blame the police, but rather the judges who are
ordering the property returns.  And National Police Chief Rene

Vivas, at a meeting of Central American police chiefs said, "The
police is not an armed band at the service of the landlords."
However, there are fears that that is exactly what they may turn
into.  Due to the failure of the government to provide an
adequate police budget, the former owners are paying the cost of
the evictions which certainly gives the police the appearance of
a conflict of interest.

$116 million in already appropriated US aid to Nicaragua
continues to be held up by Sen. Jesse Helms and other right-wing
Senators.  Nicaraguan officials who met with Helms' staff last
week failed to sway the Senator.  Violeta Chamorro is talking
tough.  In Germany she said she "receives pressures from no
one..." and that as president of Nicaragua she can do whatever
she feels like doing.  However, it appears she is beginning to
feel like doing what the right wing wants her to do.  Her
Minister of Government has promised a restructuring of the police
by August, land is being given back to Somocistas, and by
presidential decree, she is revamping the central bank along the
lines that US Aid for International Development (AID) has been
demanding.
     Chamorro took everyone by surprise last week when by
Presidential Decree she repealed the 1960 Organic Law of the
Central Bank.  One of the things her decree accomplished was to
remove the requirement that the political party which comes in
second in an election, in this case the FSLN, will have seats on
the Central Bank Board.  The Central Bank is also prohibited from
making loans to the government.

We had reported previously that Chamorro had until July 11 to
sign or veto Latin America's most repressive sodomy law which was
passed by the National Assembly over the unanimous opposition of
the FSLN on June 11.  According to the International Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission, for reasons unknown the National
Assembly did not forward the law to Chamorro before it recessed
until the end of July.  When they finally do forward the law to
her, Chamorro will have 15 days to sign, veto, or let the law go
into effect without her signature.  Unlike in the US, the
Nicaraguan constitution allows a Presidential veto to be
overridden with a simple majority, meaning that unless some UNO
delegates change their vote, her veto would be overridden.

The "wake up and smell the coffee" award this week goes to
Central Bank President Silvio de Franco who denied that there is
a crisis in this year's agricultural cycle.  The National
Federation of Cooperatives and the National Coffee Commission had
issued a report that the area of land under cultivation has
decreased drastically due to lack of credit.  De Franco said,
"Effectively, there has been a slight fall in production because
credit isn't what it was before."  He went on to claim that the
reason there were fewer agricultural loans by the Central Bank
was because of the growth of the informal credit market.  This
so-called informal credit market is made up of spot lenders who
charge usurious interest rates.  Agricultural producers are

driven to these loan sharks because the Central Bank is not
providing enough credit.  It is absurd to claim as de Franco does
that it is the other way around.

And finally, Ministry of Health authorities are taking special
measures to combat cholera along the north shore of Lake
Nicaragua where over the week-end of July 11 alone, 39 new cases
of the disease were reported.  The national cholera count is now
up to 382 and rising rapidly.

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: [phone].
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **