NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9817

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Nicanet Hotline 1/4/93
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/** reg.nicaragua: 48.0 **/
** Topic: NICANET HOTLINE -- 01/04/93 **
** Written 11:31 am  Jan  4, 1993 by nicanet in cdp:reg.nicaragua **

            NICARAGUA NETWORK HOTLINE ** 202-544-9360

                         January 4, 1993

You have reached the Nicaragua Network Hotline recorded Monday, January
4, 1993.   To reach our office, call: 202-544-9355.

Topics covered in this hotline include: Chamorro blockades National
Assembly, Nicaragua has no budget for 1993, army announces new offensive
against recontras; UN Secretary General visits Nicaragua; and,
privatization progress reported.

Our regular news service from Nicaragua is still on vacation.  The
sources for these stories come from the New York Weekly News Update, the
NY Transfer News Service, and the Inforpress Central America Report.

One of President Chamorro's last acts of 1992 was to close down the
National Assembly in the face of Assembly President Alfredo Cesar's
continued refusal to accept a Supreme Court decision that all actions of
the Assembly since September 2 have been illegal.  The UNO Center Group
and the FSLN walked out of the National Assembly on September 2 and
Cesar has been continuing to hold sessions with his right-wing allies
without a legal quorum.  Chamorro named a provisional board of directors
to take custody of the installations and documents of the National
Assembly and ordered the military to occupy the building.  Minister of
Government Alfredo Mendieta said no one will be allowed in the National
Assembly building until the Assembly holds new leadership elections.
The terms for the present leadership, including Cesar expired with the
end of the 1992 legislative session.  New elections are scheduled for
January 9 and will presumably be held somewhere other than the National
Assembly building.
     Members of the UNO bloc allied with Cesar announced that they would
hold talks with the FSLN before the year's end.  Luis Humberto Guzman
told the press that most UNO legislators have finally accepted that
negotiations were "the only way out" of the constitutional impass.
However, he rejected including members of the UNO Center Group in the
discussions.  FSLN bench leader Sergio Ramirez said any negotiations
would depend on UNO acceptance of the Supreme Court ruling and that the
Center Group would not only have to participate in negotiations, but
also receive seats on the new Assembly Directorate.  Ramirez said, "We
would prefer a broad directorate that reflects the true composition of
the forces in the National Assembly." And he warned that the FSLN "will
not tolerate one more caprice" in the legislature.  We do not know if
the negotiations took place.  It should be noted that since the
defection of the UNO Center Group, neither the remaining UNO parties,
nor the FSLN hold a working majority in the National Assembly.  The
eight members of the Center Group hold the balance of power and will
figure heavily in the election of new officers.

A major effect of the Assembly deadlock is that Nicaragua starts 1993
without an adopted budget.  Chamorro refused to submit a budget to the
rump Assembly and has not signed any bills into law since September 2.
Last year's $330 million budget has been extended for the first four
months of 1993, in a manor similar to the way the US uses continuing
resolutions to keep the money flowing when appropriations bills have not
been passed by the beginning of the fiscal year.  The critical factor
involved in extending last year's budget is that the Chamorro government
has admitted that the neo-liberal economic measures forced on them by

the US and international lenders have not worked to rebuild the economy
and have instead lead to greater unemployment and suffering.  It will be
difficult for them to change the thrust of their economic policy until a
new budget is passed to reflect changed priorities.

Three days before Christmas Gen. Humberto Ortega announced a new army
offensive to "neutralize definitively" all rearmed contras and rearmed
Sandinistas.  The day before recontras had murdered a peasant family in
Northern Nicaragua and on Christmas day recontras killed a rancher and
his 16 year old nephew.  Over 10 producers were killed in Northern and
Central Nicaragua in 1992 by the approximately 400 former contras who
have been living as criminals.  The agricultural producers have called
on the government and the army to protect them.  Gen. Ortega met with
Cardinal Obando y Bravo and the producers, many of whom supported the
contras during the war.  They discussed plans for the military
operation.  Ortega also called on the government to develop programs to
serve the peasants so they will not join the ranks of the rearmed.

On December 16 UN Secretary General Butros Butros-Ghali visited
Nicaragua and called on the international community to continue
providing economic aid for peace and reconstruction.  He told reporters,
"Nicaragua should not be financially punished solely because it happens
to be no longer a scene of conflict."  He praised Nicaragua for moving
from "military confrontation to full democracy" but said "it is
necessary to reconstruct the country."

According to Ivan Saballos, the chief Chamorro government official in
charge of privatization, the conversion of government enterprises to
private ownership will be completed on schedule in 1993, despite what he
characterized as pressure from labor unions.  According to Saballos, 97
enterprises have been leased or sold on credit to Nicaraguan investors,
workers in the businesses, and former army members and contras.  64
businesses have been returned to their former owners, and 36 companies
have been dissolved.  Among those dissolved were the three large textile
plants Texnicsa, Fanatex and Cotexma.  Saballos claims that in a
majority of the privatizations the workers got the 25% ownership they
were guaranteed under the national dialogue agreements.  Of course
workers were supposed to be able to buy 25% ownership of all privatized
companies, not a majority.  National Workers Front leader Lucio Jimenez
has accused the government of failing to comply with the agreements and
has charged that the government is trying to bankrupt worker owned
companies by denying them credit.  The Nicaragua Network Education Fund
provides material aid to the El Caracol powdered beverage factory in
Managua which is 100% worker-owned.  Even though the government sold the
plant to the workers months ago, they have yet to grant them an import
license which more than doubles the cost of buying their packaging
materials through middleman companies.  There seems to be no reason for
the holdup other than to harass the worker-owners and prevent them from
producing a profit.

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 **