Nicaragua Network Hotline - June 1, 1999 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Nicaragua Network Hotline June 1, 1999 Topics covered in this hotline include: US war on Yugoslavia endangers aid to Nicaragua; Sandinista Assembly deeply divided over Ortega; Managua city council meeting disrupted by brawl, and former Dominos Pizza mogul bails out right-wing university. Topic 1 Nicaragua came out of the consultative group meeting in Stockholm last week with pledges for $1.3 billion in aid over the next several years. However, thanks to the US/NATO war against Yugoslavia, little of that money may actually be forthcoming. Interamerican Development Bank head Enrique Iglesias cautioned the Central America countries, The crisis that is underway in Kosovo has upset the European situation and captured the attention of the cooperants in this region, such that there is no security that aid [to Central America] will continue. This provides one more reason that Central America activists should participate in the June 5th March on the Pentagon in Washington, DC or the sister march in San Francisco. In DC demonstrators will gather at the Vietnam Veterans memorial at noon and then march to the Pentagon demanding an end to the bombing of Yugoslavia. The Nicaraguan press reported that President Aleman returned from Stockholm with his hands tied. The donor countries made very clear that transparency in the use of aid and the involvement of civil society is crucial to their continuing assistance. They also rebuffed Alemans attempt to undermine the authority of Comptroller General Agustin Jarquin. After the Nicaraguan government presented its request for aid last Wednesay, Denmark and Sweden both demanded that Jarquins investigation into the personal finances of President Aleman be followed up through due legal process. Aleman has been conducting a smear campaign against Jarquin in an effort to derail his investigation. The Comptroller Generals office has sole auditing power under the Nicaraguan constitution to investigate spending by the executive branch. Aleman was foiled several months ago when he tried to set up an agency with parallel authority. In Stockholm he tried again to undermine Jarquin by proposing that Nicaragua hire a private auditor to monitor aid spending but the donor countries created a committee including the United States, Canada, Spain, Germany and Sweden to work with the Comptroller General. The Nicaraguan press treated Stockholm as a victory for Jarquin and a defeat for Aleman. Aleman also came under severe criticism in Nicaragua for the bloated Nicaragua delegation. The delegation included Alemans two daugters and their husbands, Alemans fiancee, and his brother who lives in Wisconsin. Alemans fiancee, Maria Fernanda Flores, recently began work in the Education Ministry and has not yet earned vacation time. Education Minister Jose Antonio Alvarado claimed Flores was in the US for eye surgery, but a photograph of her on the street in Stockholm with her arms full of shopping bags proved him a liar. TOPIC 2 The Sandinista Assembly met last week in a chaotic meeting that further widened the chasm between those loyal to Daniel Ortega and the rest of the party. National Assembly Deputy Jose Chepe Gonzalez accused the party leadership of negotiating quotas of power behind the backs of the people. Gonzalez told the Assembly not to give the leadership a blank check since all that had been accomplished by past negotiations with the Aleman government was for the FSLN to earn the distrust of huge sectors of the population. For his comments Gonzalez earned a public scolding from Tomas Borge the following day. Debate on authorizing the leadership to negotiate with the government was cut off with 20 speakers remaining. Though some participants questioned the existence of a quorum, the Sandinista Assemby gave a partial backing for the leadership to continue to negotiate with the government about changes to the electoral law. There was no consensus however on negotiating constitutional changes, and the cut-off of debate kept that issue from being voted on. An interesting moment came during the meeting when Gloria Martinez, a well known militant who is active in the Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs, rose and gave her full support to Daniel Ortega. She then asked who was NOT going to support Ortega as a presidential candidate. Nobody raised their hand. Then she called on all who will support Ortega as a candidate to raise their hands, and was shocked when again no one raised their hand. Ortega has announced that he intends to seek the FSLN nomination for president in the 2001 election. In 1995 when former Vice-President Sergio Ramirez did the same thing, Ortega took the postion that by announcing his candidacy Ramirez disqualified himself from consideration. Ramirez soon after left the FSLN and started his own party. Few but the most loyal Danielistas are anxious to see the two-time electoral loser, who still has unanswered rape and child abuse charges hanging over his head, run yet again as the FSLN standard bearer. However, Ortega has firm control of the party machinery and has rolled back most of the steps toward internal democracy taken by the FSLN since 1990, so there are few observers who believe that an alternative candidate will be able to rise up from within Sandinismo. TOPIC 3 The corruption of Managua Mayor Roberto Cedeno has become so blatant that even his Constitutional Liberal Party cronies have criticized him. Last week that corruption was the proximate cause of a brawl in the city council that left four council members injured and six in detention. Sandinista member Carlos Guadamuz called Cedeno a thief for, among other things, having the city pay for the electricity in several of his personal properties. Other Sandinista council members tried to put an item on the agenda to consider removing Cedeno from office. Pushing and shoving escalated into a full-scale battle as council members swung metal folding chairs and other furniture at each other. Most of the four injured members were Sandinistas, who are outnumbered on the council. TOPIC 4 Detroit mogul Tom Monaghan from whom little has been heard since he sold Dominos Pizza, surfaced last week in Nicaragua where he agreed to bail out Mobile University with more than $1 million in financing. Mobile University in San Carlos, Nicaragua is affiliated with a university of the same name in Mobile, Alabama. The Nicaragua campus, which was founded during the Chamorro government, has become a haven for the right-wing Catholic sect Word of God or Opus Dei in which Monaghan is an activist. Another Word of God member, Humberto Belli, who was Education Minister under both Chamorro and Aleman, was recently named rector of the university. However, due to serious financial scandals in both Alabama and Nicaragua, the university was in danger of closing until Monaghan stepped in and saved it. Belli has vowed to transform Mobile into a Catholic university, and Monaghan, who also financed the most astoundingly ugly cathedral in Managua, came to the rescue. Monaghan told the Nicaragua media that the US is an empire of evilbecause of pornography, homosexuality, abortion, birth control from the UN, godless media and a prohibition on mentioning God in public schools. While we agree with Monaghan that the US is an evil empire we would attribute that to a history of racism, ethnic cleansing, genocide, economic imperialism and military aggression. This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources. 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