NY Nica News Update #86, 9/22/91

[Rich Winkel]

/** reg.nicaragua: 97.0 **/
** Topic: NY Nica News Update #86, 9/22/91 **
** Written 3:49 am Sep 23, 1991 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua **
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE #86, SEPTEMBER 22, 1991

In This Issue:

1. Nicaragua Drops World Court Suit
2. More Recontra Violence in Nicaraguan Countryside
3. Israeli Government Aiding Rearmed Contras?
4. Nicaragua Pays Old Loans, Gets New Ones
5. National Assembly Passes Law to Rename Roads, Buildings
6. Cuba Asks US Troop Withdrawal as US Increases Pressure
7. Coverup: North Walks, Gates Heads for Confirmation
8. Panamanian Workers Protest Economic Policy
9. In Other News: Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador

1. NICARAGUA DROPS WORLD COURT SUIT
At a press conference on Sept. 17, Foreign Minister Enrique
Dreyfus announced the withdrawal of Nicaragua's claim against the
US at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Court
ruled in 1986 that the US had violated international law in its
war on Nicaragua and must pay damages; the US never acknowleged
the case and the amount of indemnity was never set, though the
Sandinistas say it amounts to $17 billion. Dreyfus justified the
withdrawal of the suit by saying that the US has granted
Nicaragua $800 million in aid since the change in government last
April "without conditions or any pressure." The claim was in fact
officially dropped Sept. 13, five days before the announcement.
When asked by Barricada if the decision was related to the end of
negotiations for the payment of Nicaragua's foreign debt--which
was announced Sept. 14--Dreyfus responded that it was a
"coincidence." A Foreign Ministry communique explained that after
dropping the World Court suit "will allow cooperation between the
US and Nicaragua to develop even more, and on all levels, and to
enter a new phase of bilateral history characterized by
friendship and mutual respect..." [Barricada Internacional Update
from Managua #50, 9/18/91; CSUCAPAX Weekly Summary 9/20/91]

Former president Daniel Ortega reacted to the withdrawal of the
World Court suit by calling on the Nicaraguan people to demand
the payment of indemnity. Ortega also called on the people of the
United States to "sensitize" the Bush administration into
repaying Nicaragua for the costs of the war. [CSUCAPAX 9/20/91]

During an official two-day visit to Honduras last week, President
Chamorro expressed the hope that the National Assembly will
approve as soon as possible the withdrawal of Nicaragua's 1986
World Court suit against Honduras, which charged that country
with allowing the US-backed contras to use its territory during
the 10-year war against Nicaragua. Honduras formally requested
the withdrawal of the complaint in January of this year.
[CSUCAPAX 9/20/91]

2. MORE RECONTRA VIOLENCE IN NICARAGUAN COUNTRYSIDE
Reports of violence in the countryside seems to be increasing. On
Sept. 3 in Comalapa, Chontales department, "recontra" rebels shot
to death Victor Manuel Garcia, a Sandinista campesino, after
cutting off his hands and testicles. Area residents told police
the recontras also visited other houses looking for people on a
list. Recontra commanders "Tigrillo" and "Bolivar" say there are
currently 3,000 armed recontras grouped in six different fronts
in Nicaragua. They say the recontras have reserves of arms and
could begin to act in the cities as well as the countryside.
[Central America Historical Institute Memo #196, 9/12/91]

Witness for Peace volunteer Mark Aumann writes in an August
letter to friends and supporters that he and a group of
volunteers from Habitat for Humanity met with contra commander
"Earling" last May in the Atlantic Coast community of Haulover,
near Bluefields. Earling told the group he could have his troops
fully armed and fighting in three days time. Asked why he would
fight again, he said it would be to overthrow Chamorro and
install (ultra-rightwing) Vice President Virgilio Godoy.

3. ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AIDING REARMED CONTRAS?
On Sept. 10, French news agency AFP cited a former contra saying
that the Israeli government was providing military and financial
assistance to the recontras. The source said the aid was being
channeled through a son of former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio
Somoza. The next day Vice President Godoy dismissed the rumors of
Israeli aid as "totally absurd." [Latin America Database 9/18/91,
from AFP, Notimex] The recontras have other arms sources: on
Sept. 6, a group of 25-40 armed men who said they were linked to
recontra commander "Indomable" stole a small arsenal of weapons
from a police unit in El Tortuguero, on the Atlantic Coast. The
weapons included seven Soviet-made AK47 machine guns, a Soviet-
made rocket-launcher and several crates of hand grenades. [CAHI
Memo 9/12/91]

4. NICARAGUA PAYS OLD LOANS, GETS NEW ONES
Nicaragua is now eligible for new loans from the World Bank and
the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) since the government
has paid the two institutions $327 million it owed in arrears,
Central Bank president Raul Lacayo announced Sept. 13. On Sept.
18, it was announced that Presidency Minister Antonio Lacayo and
US Ambassador Harry Shlaudeman had finalized agreements on the
dibursement of $19.2 million in US aid, earmarked in part for
ecological preservation and job creation programs. And the next
day, International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokespersons announced
approval of a $55.7 million stand-by loan for Nicaragua.
According to the IMF, the government's economic reforms are
beginning to show positive results, including lower consumer
price inflation and fiscal deficits, increased foreign exchange
reserves, and growth in agricultural and manufacturing output.
[LADB 9/18/91, from AFP; 9/20/91, from AFP and ACAN-EFE]

Privatization of Nicaragua's 351 state-owned industries is the
next step in the government's economic program, and Presidency
Minister Antonio Lacayo says it must be swift and flexible. On
Sept. 17, Lacayo expressed his disapproval of a proposed
privatization law submitted to the National Assembly by five UNO
deputies, saying that it "could paralyze" the process by
requiring that each privatization be decided through a judicial
process. Lacayo suggested that the National Assembly collaborate
with the executive to reach an agreement that would speed up
privatiza-tion, thus preventing confrontation between the two
branches of government. Finance Minister Emilio Pereira says
privatization is necessary; he claims that all state-run
companies to be privatized are bankrupt, and the government
cannot afford to continue subsidizing them. [BI Update 9/18/91;
LADB 9/20/91, from ACAN-EFE, AFP]

5. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PASSES LAW TO RENAME ROADS, BUILDINGS
On Sept. 11, the National Assembly voted 44-36 (with 5
abstentions) for a law which--if signed by President Chamorro--
would require the renaming of all roads and public buildings
named after heroes and martyrs of the Nicaraguan revolution.
[Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 9/17/91] The law was passed
despite the uninvited presence in the Assembly of a group of
mothers of heroes and martyrs opposing the legislation, a plea
from President Chamorro to reject it, and a well-received
proposal by FSLN deputy Dora Maria Tellez to submit the proposed
law to committee to work out a compromise. One of the five UNO
deputies who abstained from voting was former Sandinista and
former Managua mayor Moises Hassan; another was Roberto Urroz--
brother of Sandinista comandante Julio Buitrago. [BI Update
9/12/91] Buitrago became a hero in the struggle against dictator
Anastasio Somoza in 1969, when he was killed after single-
handedly holding off 300 of Somoza's National Guardsmen for hours
from inside a Managua safehouse.

Meanwhile, several Nicaraguan students were temporarily detained
by police for waving a red and black Sandinista flag across from
President Chamorro during a parade celebrating Sept. 15, the day
Central America gained its independence from Spain. [El Diario-La
Prensa (NY) 9/16/91, from AFP]

6. CUBA ASKS US TROOP WITHDRAWAL AS US INCREASES PRESSURE
The US will not abandon its naval base on Cuba's Guantanamo Bay
despite Soviet requests to do so, US Secretary of Defense Dick
Cheney told the British Jane's Defence Weekly. The Soviet Union
has asked for the US withdrawal to reciprocate its own withdrawal
of troops from Cuba--which Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
promised US Secretary of State James Baker on Sept. 11--and to
"reestablish stability in the region," according to Soviet
Foreign Ministry representative Evgeni Primakov. [ED-LP 9/19/91,
from AFP] Despite the US rejection, Soviet envoy Valery
Nikolaienko left for Cuba on Sept. 19 to negotiate the withdrawal
of a 3,000-member Soviet training brigade. [ED-LP 9/20,91, from
AFP] The USSR has also proposed that the Pentagon reduce its
presence in Central America, with similar results: Elizabeth
Adair, spokesperson for the US Embassy in Honduras, told
reporters on Sept. 17 that Washington has no plans to withdraw
1,100 troops from the Palmerola air base or to cut back joint US-
Honduran military maneuvers. [LADB 9/20/91, from ACAN-EFE
9/17/91]

The US government continues to step up pressure on Cuba's
government. The Miami Herald reports that the US Treasury
Department is likely to put restrictions on how much Cuban
families in this country can pay to have their relatives from the
island visit them; these payments are a source of hard currency
for Cuba. [ED-LP 9/22/91] And the US is planning to impose a
naval blockade around Florida if economic deterioration in Cuba
leads to an influx of refugees like the Mariel boatlift in 1980.
"Our plan is secret," Coast Guard spokesperson Jim Howe told the
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. "What I can tell you is that we're
ready." [ED-LP 9/20/91, from AP] Forces in the US hope that
restricting immigration from Cuba will help build pressures on
Havana. [NYT 8/4/91]

Cuba's supporters are also making themselves known. French
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alain Vivien told reporters on Sept. 16
that while France hopes for evolution toward democracy in Cuba,
it has always opposed the US trade embargo. The next day a group
of 72 deputies of the European Parliament asked the US to lift
the embargo. The Chinese Communist Party sent a delegation to
Havana to express its sympathy with the Cuban people, and
Mexico's ambassador to Havana said his country's policy toward
Cuba was "friendship, respect, and a search for the immediate
integration of this country into the inter-American system."
Venezuela has just signed four accords with Cuba, though not the
agreement on oil expected by some diplomats. [ED-LP 9/18/91, from
AFP and EFE] On Sept. 18 the UN General Assembly agreed to
discuss Cuba's proposal to end the US embargo. [ED-LP 9/19/91]

7. COVERUP CONTINUES: NORTH WALKS, GATES HEADS FOR CONFIRMATION
The Bush administration seems to have won two major victories
this week in its efforts to protect the US government's
capabilities for secret operations. On Sept. 16 special Iran-
contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh and federal judge Gerhard Gesell
agreed to dismiss Contragate charges against Col. Oliver North,
who admits to having managed illegal contra supply operations for
the Reagan administration in the middle 1980s. Last year an
appeals panel overturned most of North's 1989 conviction, saying
that testimony against him had been tainted by his televised
appearances before Congress in the summer of 1987, when he spoke
under a grant of immunity. [New York Times 9/17/91; Washington
Post 9/17/91] And by the middle of the week the CIA's Robert
Gates appeared sure to be confirmed as Director of Central
Intelligence after a first round of hearings before the Senate
Select Intelligence Committee. [WP 9/18/91]

Although Gates was presented as a peaceful analyst uninterested
in covert operations and committed to streamlining US
intelligence [WP 9/16/91], in a 1984 memo, released by Sen.
Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), Gates in fact called for a "quarantine"
of Nicaragua and "the use of air strikes to destroy a
considerable portion of Nicaragua's military buildup"--a policy
which he admitted would be "politically difficult." [NYT 9/20/91]
And he told the Senators that if confirmed he would increase the
number of CIA agents and bring still more of US intelligence
under the control of the highly secretive CIA. [NYT 9/18/91] As
for the Iran-contra scandal, Gates simply insisted that he didn't
know; in his written testimony prior to the hearings, "I don't
recall" figured 33 times and "I didn't know" 40 times, according
to Metzenbaum. [WP 9/18/91] An important factor in Gates' smooth
sailing is apparently what is described as a "close relationship"
with the Senate committee's head, David Boren (D-OK), who
intervened on Gates' behalf during the 1987 Iran-contra
investigation, at one point causing Senate lawyers to be
"outraged." [WP 9/15/91]

8. PANAMANIAN WORKERS PROTEST ECONOMIC POLICY
Some 30,000 workers in Panama's Bocas del Toro province held a
24-hour work stoppage Sept. 17 to pressure the government to fund
reconstruction of the area--destroyed by a major earthquake in
April and flooding in August--and account for a missing $10
million in already-approved development aid. And 30,000
Panamanian teachers began a 72-hour strike Sept. 15, demanding
payment of back wages and changes in government economic policy.
1,000 dock workers in the Colon Free Zone threatened to join the
teachers strike, and truck drivers in the Zone held their own
one-day work stoppage on Sept. 12. More labor protests are
planned. At least 12,000 of Panama's 125,000 public employees
have been laid off so far during the government's structural
adjustment; Vice President Ricardo Arias has announced that 2,500
public employees will be dismissed before the end of this year,
10,000 next year, and another 10,000 in 1993. [LADB 9/20/91, from
AFP, ACAN-EFE, Notimex]

9. IN OTHER NEWS: GUATEMALA, HONDURAS AND EL SALVADOR
Saul Antonio Lozano Camotano, a Honduran national vacationing in
Guatemala, was found dead on a highway on Sept. 8; he had been
shot three times in the head and his fingernails were removed.
[LADB 9/18/91, from ACAN-EFE] According to the Guatemalan Human
Rights Commission, there have been 1,718 human rights violations-
-including 638 summary executions and more than 70
disappearances--since the government of Jorge Serrano took office
early this year. [ENFOPRENSA Bulletin 9/19/91]... On Sept. 16,
sanitation workers in Tegucigalpa, Honduras discovered two sets
of human remains near the state-run teaching hospital. The
corpses had been put in lime-filled plastic bags and dumped in a
sewer main. The remains of at least four others were found
elsewhere in Tegucigalpa during excavations to install sewer
pipes at the site of a new luxury housing development. [LADB
9/20/91, from ACAN-EFE, AFP, Notimex]... While talks between the
Salvadoran government and FMLN rebels continue at UN headquarters
in New York, 10,000 public employees in San Salvador launched a
general strike on Sept. 16 to demand salary hikes and an end to
mass layoffs. [LADB 9/20/91, from AFP]

These updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is
$22. Back issues and source materials are available on request.
Feel free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information
from them. We welcome your comments and ideas.

To find out about UPCOMING EVENTS, call us (NSN) at 212-674-9499.
** End of text from cdp:reg.nicaragua **