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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: NICANET HOTLINE 08/26/92
- Message-ID: <1992Aug29.021433.984@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: PACH
- Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 02:14:33 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 123
-
- /** 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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