NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8269

Text File | 1992-11-10 | 7.7 KB | 150 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: NICANET HOTLINE -- 11/09/92
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/** reg.nicaragua: 86.0 **/
** Topic: NICANET HOTLINE -- 11/09/92 **
** Written  2:24 pm  Nov  9, 1992 by nicanet in cdp:reg.nicaragua **
            NICARAGUA NETWORK HOTLINE ** 202-544-9360

                         November 9, 1992

You have reached the Nicaragua Network Hotline recorded Monday,
November 9, 1992.   To reach our office, call: 202-544-9355.

Topics covered in this hotline include: Renewal of effort to
release aid to Nicaragua urged; fallout from Humberto Ortega
speech continues; Chamorro will not submit budget to illegal
National Assembly; Alleged Sandinistas attack ex-contra leader;
and cholera cases continue to rise.

Now that President Bush has lost the election, the prospect of
securing the release of US aid to Nicaragua may have improved.
$104 million in FY92 aid to Nicaragua continues to be held up at
the request of Sen. Jesse Helms.  FY92 ended October 31, 1992.
Helms has routinely blackmailed Republican administrations with
threats of holding up ambassadorial nominations.  He no longer
has that leverage because Bush will be making no more
nominations.

The Nicaragua Network recommends that activists call the State
Department at [phone] and the White House Comment Line at
[phone] with the message that the aid should be released.
At the State Department ask for the office of Acting Secretary of
State Lawrence Eagleburger.  The Nicaragua Desk is in agreement
with our position, but the aid is being held up at a higher
political level.  Explain that continuing to hold up the aid only
further weakens Violeta Chamorro's already shaky government.
Note also that Chamorro has been forced to increase the value
added tax, a form of sales tax, from 10% to 15% and to apply it
to many areas of the economy to which it did not previously
apply.  It is to go into effect January 1, 1993.  Unless
negotiations with the government are successful, the tax will
also apply to humanitarian aid from non-governmental
organizations (NGO's), Sister Cities, etc.  This will result in
less aid reaching the intended recipients and probably make it
more difficult for organizations to raise humanitarian aid gifts
from their supporters.  The tax would apply not just to money
gifts, but to medicine, clothing, and other material aid making
it necessary for groups to also raise money to pay the taxes on
their material donations.  If the US aid is released, it is
unlikely that Chamorro will find it necessary to tax these gifts,
so include that argument in your message.  Those phone numbers
again are: the State Department, [phone] and the White
House Comment Line, [phone].

Army Chief Humberto Ortega continues to be criticized from both
sides for a speech he gave October 27.  In the speech he
reiterated the army's support for the Chamorro government's
efforts to resolve the property issue, called for a "pact against
poverty, a national dialogue agreement," and called for an end to
right-wing efforts to topple Chamorro's government.  He also

said that there will be no further reductions in the army which
is now concentrating on modernization, and that he would stay in
office until 1997 when the modernization is scheduled to be
completed.  We reported last week that Chamorro rebuked Gen.
Ortega for saying he would stay in office until 1997.  The full
text of her quote sounds like a definite commitment to replace
Ortega before she leaves office.  What she said was, "General
Ortega is going to go today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or
before '96, because I don't go back on my word."  The expected
cacophony of right-wing calls for his immediate replacement
resulted, but Ortega also came under criticism from Barricada,
the Sandinista newspaper.  Barricada called his pact against
poverty a "mistaken approach" since what is required are "deep-
going modifications to the present economic policy, and not just
social palliatives."  Carlos Fernando Chamorro, editor of
Barricada suggested that the controversy over Ortega's tenure be
resolved by changing the Law of Military Organization to
stipulate the term of the top-ranking officer.  In an effort to
defuse the tension between the army command and President
Chamorro, who incidentally is also Minister of Defense, Ortega
and members of the army high command met last week with Chamorro
and her Ministers of Presidency, Finance, Labor, and Foreign
Affairs.  After the meeting Chamorro acknowledged that the army
will not be reduced further, and appeared to adopt Carlos
Fernando Chamorro's proposal to establish terms of office for the
high command within the Military Law.

Finance Minister Emilio Pereira announced that the Chamorro
administration will not submit the 1993 budget to the National
Assembly as long as the present situation exists in which
Assembly President Cesar is holding sessions that the Supreme
Court has ruled are illegal and the FSLN and UNO Center Group
delegates are boycotting.  This may result in what in the US
would be the equivalent of a continuing resolution under which
gencies of government receive the same budget they had the
previous year when Congress has not yet passed a budget.  The New
York Weekly News Update, citing several Spanish language press
sources reported this week that Chamorro's 1993 budget will
include another 2,500 layoffs of government employees, chiefly in
the areas of the central government, the national financial
system, and the state enterprises.  The government plans to
concentrate its reduced spending in the areas of health and
education, although it must be noted that those levels are far
below the resources the Sandinista government dedicated to the
health and education of the Nicaraguan people.

The New York Weekly News Update, citing Spanish language press and
contra sources in Miami, reported that two alleged Sandinistas
attacked an wounded former contra commander Bigote de Oro.
Bodyguards returned fire killing one man and wounding another who
is now in prison.  Miami contra's say this is evidence of an
extermination squad in what they call the Sandinista Front's
"secret services."  Revenge killings are taking place by both
former contras and former members of the Nicaraguan army

according to the OAS Verification Force.  We have no independent
information on this story, but the Sandinistas did not use
assassination as an instrument of policy during their years in
power, and it is our belief that, besides the moral argument
against it, Sandinista leaders are too vulnerable to the same
tactic to be using it themselves.

And finally, although cholera has not turned out to be the
scourge many had feared, it continues to take its toll.  By the
end of October, 25 victims had died and 2,294 people had
contracted the disease according to the Ministry of Health.  On
the positive side, members of our recently returned delegation to
Nicaragua were told that fear of cholera have made people much
more willing to learn sanitation and safe food preparation
techniques that will have a long-term effect on people's health.

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 **