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| Central American University - UCA |
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Number 206 | Septiembre 1998 |
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Nicaragua
NICARAGUA BRIEFS
Envío team
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS WRUNG DRY
More than 40 of the country's 147 municipal governments run the risk of coming to a total halt due to their huge deficits. They are unable to cover their operating expenses or even to pay the salaries of their mayors.
On August 18, 80 mayors from around the country marched to the National Assembly in the capital to request support from the legislators in forcing compliance with the constitutional precept that orders the central government to transfer a percentage of the national budget to the municipalities.
President Alemán has conditioned the turning over of this percentage to the use of the resources as counterpart funds for development projects implemented through international agencies. But not all municipalities are beneficiaries of that kind of project. Nor are the poorer municipalities able to raise enough operating funds through any kind of municipal taxes, particularly with the national sales tax already standing at 15%.
The mayors propose that 3% of the national budget be transferred to the municipalities in 1999 and that this be increased one point each year until reaching 6% in the year 2002.
ELECTIONS IN THE MRS
The Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), born out of the split in the FSLN in late 1994, held internal elections on August 22. Dora María Téllez was elected president, replacing former Vice President of Nicaragua and distinguished author Sergio Ramírez, who will remain on the party's governing board. The MRS reaffirmed its "identity as a party of the democratic left," identified with "Sandino's dream: effective democracy with social justice."
YOUNG SUICIDES
The wave of suicides that has been affecting Nicaragua for some months is growing. The average now is one suicide every 28 hours. Particularly worrying is the growing number of minors who take their own lives: 24 just in the first eight months of the year. It is a new and alarming index of the national crisis and of the frustrations that Nicaraguan society is suffering.
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a monthly magazine of analysis on Central America