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| Central American University - UCA |
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Number 162 | Enero 1995 |
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Nicaragua
NICARAGUA BRIEFS
UN REPORT ON NICARAGUAIn mid November, the Secretary General of the United Nations presented his annual report on Nicaragua's current situation to the UN General Assembly, a follow up on the issue of "international assistance for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Nicaragua." The report says that "75% of Nicaraguan families live below the poverty line" and that 44% are in "extreme poverty." The UN notes "the growing social disorganization" and makes the following reflection: "It is significant that the difficult social conditions have not occasioned social explosions. A probable determining factor may be the well rooted tradition of organization, social discipline and solidarity of Nicaraguans."
II PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF BISHOPSNicaragua's bishops have made public the final document of the II Provincial Assembly of Bishops celebrated by the religious organization throughout 1993. The text, turned over to top representatives of the four branches of the state on November 21 in the Managua Cathedral, reiterates already known perspectives and judgments about the errors of the Sandinista government as well as of the incumbent one. The Assembly blames the current errors mainly on what it calls the co government between Chamorro and the FSLN.
MEXICO BUYS INThe Nicaraguan government announced that Mexico will buy 50% of the assets of the Momotombo volcano geothermal plant and 100% of the national cement factory. The purchase is part of the program of swapping Nicaragua's foreign debt for assets of state owned companies. This $55 million in Mexican investment will cancel $440 million of the $1 billion that Nicaragua owes Mexico. The geothermal plant is valued at $130 million and was built during the Sandinista administration with cooperation from Italy and Canada. The cement plant is valued at $20 million.
The government decision was unilateral, with no communication to or consultations with the union members of the two profitable companies and without any public bids requested for the privatization.
TEACHERS' SALARY DEMANDSThousands of Managua teachers held another march on December 1 to demand an 80% increase in their miserly salaries. "Salary increase or national strike" was the slogan this time, in which the teachers threatened not to show up for the start of the school year next February if they do not receive the pay hike.
ANOTHER CHOLERA OUTBREAKIn mid November, Nicaragua experienced another serious upsurge in the cholera epidemic, with 100 120 cases daily. The rising epidemics of malaria and three kinds of dengue one of them the dangerous "dengue 3," which can take a hemorrhagic form and was supposedly eradicated from Central America in 1978 made the country's tottering health situation even more precarious.
A CLEAN LAKE XOLOTLÁNMinister of the Economy Pablo Pereira announced that the Interamerican Development Bank will provide technical and financial support to clean up Lake Managua (Xolotlán), although he did not mention a starting date. The cost of this transcendental project is calculated at $120 million.
Managua's sewers have been emptying into the lake on the north shore of the capital since the 1920s, and the high levels of contamination now threaten the lake with environmental "death".
NICAS AND PROPOSITION 187Some 60,000 Nicaraguans could be affected by the application of the recently passed proposition 187 in California. Of the 400,000 Nicaraguans living in the United States, some 250,000 live in Miami, where they are the second largest Latin American community after Cubans. The rest live mainly in California. More than $200 million in family remittances come into Nicaragua annually from these emigrants.
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a monthly magazine of analysis on Central America