Nicanet Hotline -- 5/11/99 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Nicaragua Network Hotline May 11, 1999 Topics covered in this hotline include: Transportation strike settled; rank and file of student union rejects 6% agreement; internal debate stifled during meeting of Sandinista Assembly; first rains cause serious damage; and Nicanet endorses the Emergency Mobilization Against the War. Topic 1 The six-day transportation strike that paralyzed the country was called off last week when a settlement was reached between the government and transportation workers. Prior to the signing of the agreement, however, violence had erupted again near the Parrales Vallejos bus union headquarters between police, strikers and street gang members. Police used tear gas on the protesters, sending a score of children to the hospital with respiratory problems. They also fired on gang members at one point in the two-hour long battle. On Monday and Tuesday, police carried out illegal searches of a number of houses, seeming to go after Sandinista activists who, in most cases, were not even involved in the strike. A number of activists were detained for up to 48 hours. On Tuesday, transportation workers and government representatives sat down to talk and had hammered out an agreement by early evening. The government agreed to cut the $1.42 per gallon cost of diesel fuel by 14 cents, which is two cents more than the government had initially promised, but 28 cents less than what the strikers demanded. The government also pledged not to privatize the transportation system, and to provide more credit to transportation cooperatives. Authorities said that the thirty union leaders arrested during the strike would be released, and said that there would be no reprisals against the protesters. The transportation situation was back to normal by Wednesday. Topic 2 The rank and file members of the Nicaraguan Student Union (UNEN) rejected the accord with the government signed by its own leaders two weeks ago and promised continued protests to ensure that 6% of the national budget is allocated to public universities. Angry students say that their leaders signed onto an agreement that will tie their hands for four years and attacked their leadership for not first consulting with students as a whole. A group of students took over the UNEN headquarters on Monday. UNEN leaders Alonso Garcia and Fidel Moreno have since attacked the accord which they themselves had signed and called for renewed demonstrations over the next two weeks. Topic 3 In recent months, FSLN Secretary General Daniel Ortega has come under intense criticism from a growing number of Sandinistas, who accuse him of attempting to silence internal party debate about his continued leadership and the current path that the FSLN is taking. Observers say that last weekends meeting of the Sandinista Assembly reflected mounting and increasingly bitter tensions within the party. Ortega opened the Assembly by coming down hard on what he called those venomous voices of opposition within FSLN ranks. He railed against those who say that there is a pact between the FSLN and the Alemans Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), though he read approvingly from a statement by another FSLN leader who said that the FSLN needs to ally with the PLC because it represents opposition to the traditional oligarchical forces in Nicaragua. Lenin Cerna, former head of State Security under the Sandinistas who has recently rejoined the FSLN after retiring from the Army, made a bizarre attempt to prohibit anyone present from using the word pact, presumably in an attempt to stifle any real debate. Cerna also said that no party member should be allowed to make public criticisms of the FSLN. At the Assembly, FSLN deputy Jose (Chepe) Gonzalez took the floor immediately following Ortegas opening remarks and called on Ortega and others in the party to be tolerant and allow spaces inside the party for open and critical debate. He said that there is virtually no space for such discussion at this point and said it is urgent for the party to develop a medium and long-term strategy as well as begin to bring up a younger generation to step into leadership positions. This is a significant break because Gonzalez has been known for his loyalty to Ortega. Days before the Assembly, Orlando Nunez, one of the FSLNs foremost political thinkers, told El Nuevo Diario that the FSLNs image has collapsed, and warned that Daniel Ortega is slipping into the role of a demagogue. He urged the Assembly to take up the very serious issues of internal divisions and the rapidly deteriorating image of the FSLN within the country. Nunez said that the FSLNs confusion on a number of issues (including whether or not the party should go to the May meeting of donor nations in Stockholm) reflects Ortegas own confusion. He said the FSLNs pact with the Liberal party makes the FSLN appear, to popular opinion, as part of the countrys political elite, rather than a true political opposition representing Nicaraguas poor majority. As a result of decisions made at the Assembly, the FSLN will not attend the meeting in Stockholm, therefore forfeiting an opportunity to advocate for immediate cancellation of Nicaraguas debt. Also at the Assembly, Monica Baltodano, Tomas Borge, and Herty Lewites all announced their intentions to run for the Managua mayors post. (Lewites ran for this post in 1996 on the Sandinista Renovation Movement ticket.) Topic 4 The first heavy rains of the season fell last week in Nicaragua, wreaking havoc in several areas worst hit by Hurricane Mitch. A number of temporary bridges erected after the disaster were destroyed by the recent rains, which blocked traffic on the Panamerican highway for nearly 18 hours. Posoltega, the town that was virtually buried by the mudslide on El Casitas volcano, suffered significant flooding, and as a result, a number of bodies of hurricane victims were unearthed in the area. Many residents reported experiencing utter terror when the rains began. Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans who lost their homes in the hurricane are still living in tiny provisional shacks, with only black plastic to cover them. In San Francisco Libre, where the waters of Lake Managua (Xolotlan) remain high, one resident said, we havent even recovered from Mitch yet...were not ready for the rainy season. Meanwhile, the disaster relief aid that President Clinton promised Central America during his February trip continues to be stalled in Congress, largely as the result of partisan infighting. The latest ploy of the Senate leaders is to attach the proposal for hurricane relief to an emergency spending bill to fund the war on Yugoslavia. A number of Senators have also attached pork barrel riders to this legislation, hoping to get funding for special-interest programs that would not be funded under normal circumstances. It is reprehensible that the only way that Central America can get the humanitarian aid that it was promised months ago is to have it packaged with aid for a war responsible for the killing of innocent civilians. Topic 5 The Nicaragua Network has endorsed the Emergency Mobilization Against the War demanding that US/NATO forces stop bombing Yugoslavia, and money for jobs and education - not for war. There will be a June 5 march at noon from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Pentagon. Join thousands of activists as we demand, No more killing in our name! _______________________________________________________________________ This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources. . To receive a more extensive weekly summary of the news from Nicaragua by e-mail or postal service, send a check for $60.00 to Nicaragua Network, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. We can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.14.99-21:32:38-16470