Nicaragua Network Hotline - Forged email "death threats"

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source - "NicaNet" <NicaNet@afgj.org>

Nicaragua Network Hotline - April 22, 2002

Topics covered in this Hotline include:  Enormous Crowds in DC Demand
Peace; Vilma Nunez defends Nicaragua Network; Conflict between
legislative and executive branches of Liberal Party continue

Topic 1: Enormous Crowds in DC Demand Peace

Estimates of the numbers varied from 75,000 to 300,000, but no one
could doubt the enthusiasm of the crowds of protestors that flocked
to Washington for marches, rallies, vigils and teach-ins from Friday
to Monday.  The main event was undoubtedly the Saturday anti-war
protest which brought together four different marches (including one
protesting the IMF and World Bank spring meetings) to a giant unity
rally on the National Mall near the Capitol.  Thousands of
Palestinian, Arab and Muslim families, with children of all ages,
including babies in strollers, joined with other peace and justice
activists.  Signs said "Not in my name," and "Peace Is Patriotic" and
"All War Is Terror." Palestinian flags were everywhere and the slogan
repeated over and over was "Free, free Palestine!" Jackie Captain of
Fitchburg, Wisconsin, said "I met people from Illinois, Minnesota,
California--young and old. Palestinians and Midwesterners alike,
standing together for peace and justice. It was wonderful. Everybody
was talking to everyone, you had to be there to feel the atmosphere;
it was inspiring."

The weekend began on Friday with a vigil and lobbying day by
activists seeking to close the School of the Americas (now known as
the Western Hemisphere School for Security Cooperation) and to end
U.S. military aid of all kinds to Colombia.  People gathered at the
vigil near the Capitol signed the petition sponsored by the Nicaragua
Network, SOA Watch and Quest for Peace calling on the Head of the
Nicaraguan Army, General Javier Carrion, to stop the training of
Nicaraguan officers at the school.  A group of bicyclists known as
"Critical Mass" joined the gathering and were sent off by activists
to ride "against state terror" through rush hour traffic.  Forty of
the riders were arrested by local police when they committed civil
disobedience by riding against traffic on Rock Creek Parkway.

On Sunday, hundreds of hardy souls braved rain and suddenly cold
temperatures to attend the Colombia Mobilization's Festival of Hope
and Resistance at the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument. 
Puppets, speakers, and music brought people together to learn more
about the worsening human rights situation in Colombia's civil war
that has been aggravated by increased levels of U.S. military aid to
the government and indiscriminate fumigation of crops, which far from
helping decrease drug production, damages food crops of Colombian
small farmers.  Bumper stickers were available which said, "If you
liked Vietnam, you'll love Colombia!"

On Monday morning, about 2,000 activists joined in the final action
of the Colombia Mobilization in which 37 people were arrested in a
civil disobedience action protesting U.S. involvement in Colombia.
They sat down in the streets near the Capitol, held hands and sang. 
Police arrested them for obstructing traffic.  Carol Richardson, a
Methodist minister who works with Witness for Peace, said she was
sorry "if people are inconvenienced" by the march, but added that "we
do want people to pause a minute and understand that their tax
dollars are being used in a way that they would not support."

The weekend of protests ended on Monday afternoon with 2,500 people
protesting the meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee--a group that has traditionally been identified with
support for the right in Israel--at the Washington Hilton Hotel. 
Three former Israeli prime ministers spoke and current Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon addressed the gathering by closed circuit television. 
One protester, Eric Brim from Illinois, asked, "Doesn't the United
States or Israel have a speck of conscience?"

Topic 2: Vilma Nunez defends Nicaragua Network

Vilma Nunez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights
(CENIDH), rejected Peter Tsokos' allegations that the Nicaragua
Network was sending him death threats by e- mail. Nunez added that
CENIDH was a partner organization of the Nicaragua Network.

According to Tsokos, a U.S. resident of Greek origin who claims to be
the "ex-owner of the Pearl Cays" in the South Atlantic Autonomous
Region (RAAS), recently protested in the local newspapers that
"Nicaragua Network, a member of the Alliance for Global Justice,"
sent him an electronic mail that said: "We hope to take you out dead
from Nicaragua."

In defense of the Nicaragua Network, Nunez said that this
organization is composed of more than a 150 committees that do
serious work. "Someone is trying to implicate this network which is
concerned about human rights and supports social struggles such as
that led by women working in maquilas," stated Nunez.  Also, she
commented that, in the case of the threats, CENIDH will investigate
the origin of the electronic mail to know who specifically was
responsible for sending it to Tsokos, in order to take the necessary
actions.
 
Dr. Nunez also reported that, on April 11, the Nicaragua Network
Emergency Response Network sent a letter to President Enrique Bolanos
in which supporters expressed their consternation over the murder of
Francisco Garcia, the husband of Dr. Maria Luisa Acosta. They
considered that the murder was intended to intimidate Dr. Acosta, a
defender of the rights of indigenous communities in the Atlantic
Coast.  The letter noted that in the past she had received death
threats.

Dr. Nunez commented that on Wednesday the 17th she talked with Police
Commissioner Edwin Cordero, who said that at the present time Dr.
Acosta is being protected by police agents in Bluefields.  At the
same time, the investigations are advancing.

Dr. Acosta has now given her deposition to the authorities.  She has
stated that she told them that she believes that Peter Tsokos and his
lawyer Peter Martinez are the intellectual authors of the crime.
Authorities have also inspected the site of the murder and Tsokos has
made his statement as well.

Topic 3: Conflict between legislative and executive branches of
Liberal Party continue

The first 100 days of President Enrique Bolanos' government have been
completed and the most remarkable evidence of its change towards a
more transparent government has been the constant denunciation of
acts of corruption by the previous government.  Officials of the
administration of Arnoldo Aleman have been taken to court accused of
being involved in corruption scandals, such as money laundering and
defrauding the government.  The latest scandal involves Aleman and
other former government officials, who have been accused by the
Attorney General's office of defrauding the government-owned
television station Channel 6 of US$1.3 million.
 
The deterioration in the relationship between current President
Bolanos and former chief executive Aleman, who is now the President
of the National Assembly, has affected the structures of the Liberal
Party (PLC), as well as the coordination between the Executive and
Legislative branches.  The national executive committee of the PLC
has threatened to become "an opposition party" if President Bolanos
continues in his apparent efforts to prosecute Aleman.  The party has
already begun a series of protests against the President and in
support of Aleman.

The leader of the liberal bench in the National Assembly, Pedro
Joaquin Rios, said that those who meant to harm Aleman would "feel
the force of liberalism." This "legislative" branch of the liberal
party has already begun lobbying judges in order to obtain a reversal
a recent judge's ruling that Aleman is implicated in the Channel 6
scandal and leaves the door open for bringing him to trial.

Bolanos himself has publicly stated that, "It would be beneficial if
Arnoldo Aleman would leave the National Assembly," which would mean
abandoning his parliamentary immunity that protects him from going to
jail.  Bolanos said that the liberal deputies in the leadership of
the National Assembly who have opposed him "do not control all of the
National Assembly and, on the contrary, most of the deputies are
against those who are corrupt."

Among his achievements during these 100 days, Bolanos mentioned his
fight against corruption, the presentation of his legislative agenda,
the reforms to the Penal Code, and the good communication with NGO's
and other branches of government.

U.S Ambassador to Nicaragua Oliver Garza stated that his government
felt very pleased by the achievements of the first hundred days that
President Bolanos has been in office. Garza said that, during this
period, the president has put together an excellent staff that has
begun working on a series of complicated problems.

Garza said that Bolanos had inherited an extremely difficult
situation. "I had the opportunity to sit down with the
representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and we began
to see the internal debt that had accumulated as well as the
inheritance of a difficult foreign debt." According to Garza, the
government's agreements with the IMF represent a good start and
ensure an improvement in the economic situation of the country.  But,
according to other Nicaraguan commentators, the IMF's continued
insistence on privatization of government owned companies and cuts in
social spending will not help the majority of the population of the
country which has seen no improvement in their standard of living in
more than a decade of neoliberal policies.
 
The ambassador praised President Bolanos's leading role in the
negotiations of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the
U.S. "For me those topics are the most important," said Garza.  The
diplomat said that the results of the employment projects that
President Bolanos has promised will be seen in the long term. "The
U.S. will continue to support the president, who was elected in a
democratic and open process," affirmed Garza, avoiding mention of the
overt intervention of the United States in the elections of November
2001.  [Bush administration officials carried out an unrelenting
campaign of threats of a cutoff of aid and even of military
intervention if Nicaraguan voters returned the FSLN to the
presidency.]
 
Garza was asked whether the Helms-Gonzalez waiver would be extended
this year.  The Helms-Gonzalez amendment was passed by Congress in
the 1990s to force the Nicaraguan government--under pain of a
withholding of U.S. aid--to return property confiscated under
Sandinista land reform in the 1980s to owners who had become U.S.
citizens.  A waiver must be extended in July by the U.S. President to
allow U.S. aid to continue if all property conflicts have not been
resolved.  It has been done every year since the law was passed.  The
ambassador said that he was impressed with the willingness to solve
the problem of the confiscated properties on the part of the new
Bolanos administration. "I don't see a problem [this year] for the
approval of the waiver by the United Sates government."

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. Our web site is: www.nicanet.org
 
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