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| Central American University - UCA |
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Number 133 | Agosto 1992 |
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Nicaragua
NICARAGUA BRIEFS
Envío team
NEW LEGISLATION: A CRIME TO BE GAY
In mid-June, the National Assembly approved penal code reforms that, among other things, would make homosexuality a crime. Article 205 of the revised code would subject anyone "who induces, promotes, propagandizes or practices in scandalous form concubinage between two people of the same sex" to up to three years in prison. Cardinal Obando y Bravo supported the law in his Sunday homily, referring to such practices as "immoral."
President Chamorro, who must sign the new legislation before it can be put into effect and is known to be a conservative Catholic, was slow to back the position of her presidential minister and son-in-law Antonio Lacayo, but she did so. Lacayo had promptly stated that "homosexuals have certain rights in every society, even in Italy, where the Vatican is located, and I don't see why we should persecute them." He hinted that President Chamorro might veto the legislation.
Article 205 has caused a major uproar in other circles. The Carlos Nuñez Center for Constitutional Rights pledged to fight the article right up to the Supreme Court if it is not vetoed. The four main groups of gay and lesbian activists in Managua (Sexuality Network, Commission for Lesbian Pride, the S-Homos gay collective, and the Nosotras lesbian feminist collective) backed that idea and added that they would begin a petition campaign to collect 29,000 signatures against the legislation.
S-Homos (the name is a play on the verb somos, which means "we are"), denounced the article to Amnesty International as a human rights violation. "This is an attack against our human and civil rights and will justify any police action." In fact, police in Managua told La Prensa that if motel owners accept gay couples, their business permit will be temporarily confiscated. They added that gays have disappeared from the central park and around the cathedral, where they used to meet.
S-Homos also fears that the legislation could hurt the AIDS education campaigns that it and other groups are carrying out. "It makes us victims of machismo and the phobia of some National Assembly representatives," S-Homos charged. The gay community has threatened to publish a list of gay or bisexual National Assembly representatives.
Later in the month, a number of forums were held to discuss Article 205 as part of a campaign for freely chosen sexuality. The campaign culminated in a weekend cultural event celebrating lesbian and gay pride.
OTHER PENAL CODE REFORMS FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE
Another article in the penal code reforms makes rape a public rather than private crime and gives it a much heavier sentence. Convicted rapists of minors would receive a 20-year prison term, and rapists of adults 15 years. Neither would be eligible for bail, house arrest or other alternative sentencing. The harsher sentence was seen as positive by women's groups, which have been lobbying around this issue due to an alarming increase in reported rapes since 1985. According to the police, an average of 1.1 rapes were reported per day in 1991, an increase over 1990. That statistic is still considered an extreme under-representation of reality since social mores against public acknowledgement of rape and sexual abuse are only changing slowly.
The issue has been in the news almost daily since the rape and beheading of an as-yet unidentified young girl in Managua two months ago. Then, in June, an 11-year-old was raped and savagely beaten in Chinandega; she was sent to a Managua hospital in a coma. As with adult rape, analysts are unsure whether the serious increase of reported child rapes reflects a real increase or less reticence in reporting cases due to greater public discussion of the issue by women's groups.
These cases have stirred up heated debate about what to do about sexual aberrants. President Chamorro has come out in opposition to one frequently heard proposal, the reinstating of the death penalty. A neighbor accused of the crime against the Chinandega girl was released when evidence indicated his innocence, but not before police had to protect the man from lynch mobs, whipped into hysteria by sensationalist news coverage.
Unfortunately, such media contributions do little to illuminate the discussion of sexual abuse. Among other limitations, the debate seldom acknowledges the fact that the vast majority of such abuses are not these savage street rapes, but are those committed in the victim's home by relatives or friends of the family.
Another reform to the penal code that created nearly as much controversy as article 205 was 208, which states that "the author of the crime of rape or illegitimate seduction will be considered the father of the child born to the offended woman as regards the child's nutritional needs and other effects, as long as the woman demands it and the birth occurs 180 days after and within 300 days from the date the crime occurred."
An earlier version of article 208, which was proposed by women's groups and would have legalized abortion in rape cases, was rejected at the insistence of the Vatican representative in Managua. Jurists who defend the approved version of the article argue that if the state is going to force the woman to have the child, it should force the father to support it. Clinical psychologist Irene Pineda, however, opposed the article in an op-ed piece in Barricada, the FSLN daily, on the grounds that it "attempts to convert an isolated act into a permanent relationship." She warned of the dangerous psychological consequences that such an "institutionalization" of the rapist-victim relationship could have on women who had been assaulted. Barricada's own editorial summed up the views of many about both articles 205 and 208: "Regarding sexual matters, they put Nicaraguan legislation on the dubiously honorable level of being the most backward on Planet Earth."
CENTRAL AMERICAN SUMMIT
The days of conflictive Central American presidential summits appear to be over. With the region dominated by like-minded neoliberal governments, there is little to differ about and, for the most part, thorny issues can be avoided. Among the latter in the summit hosted by Nicaragua at the beginning of June was the thorny subject of regional military reductions.
A week later, however, Nicaraguan Vice Foreign Minister Jose Pallais told Barricada that, for the first time, the Central American Presidents are discussing establishing ceilings on the size of armies to maintain a "reasonable" balance in the region. Nicaragua is the only country that has fulfilled the Esquipulas accords by reducing its army; Guatemala and El Salvador have yet to even present their report listing the size of the armed forces and an inventory of their arsenal. Barricada also reported that Nicaragua will present a proposal to the rest of the region to cooperate in eliminating illegal arms trafficking.
Other issues skirted at the summit included Guatemala's worsening human rights situation and its government's failure to negotiate with the insurgent forces or comply with earlier agreements. Guatemala's President Serrano, in turn, was much less reticent than his counterparts in Costa Rica and El Salvador to criticize the then informal US aid holdup. Comparing Nicaragua's situation to that of his own country due to the conditioning of US aid for over a decade, Serrano said that a confirmation of the aid freeze would "definitely merit our condemnation."
The main discussion in the two-day meeting, which was also attended by the Presidents of Panama and Argentina, centered on greater economic integration of the region. Panama is being considered for full membership in the regional body, and Argentine President Menem's presence at the meeting was evidence of his desire for greater participation by his country in the region. Menem announced that Argentina would become an extra-regional associate of the Central American Economic Integration Bank—it has reportedly agreed to provide the bank some $57 million over several years. Menem also said that Argentina would provide technical assistance for infrastructure and reconstruction projects in what were previously war zones. He added that the Argentine private sector would join in this new relationship, through investments and participation in joint ventures.
Meanwhile, union leaders from all over Central America and Panama presented a proposal to the summit stressing the need for "real" socioeconomic concertación. The document stressed that the costs of the structural adjustment programs in the region's countries should be shared equally by all sectors of society and not just be borne by the poor. The union leaders called for a halt to the accelerated import tariff reduction that is undermining national production's ability to compete, and for an integral agrarian reform that would include credits, technical assistance and access to industrialized processing. The Presidents, however, refused to meet with the union leaders, who represent millions of workers in the region.
US SEN. DURENBERGER SEES SUMMIT AND A BONFIRE
US Senator Dave Durenberger paid a surprise visit to the summit meeting, accompanied by Nicaraguan Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo. Sen. Durenberger assured the assembled heads of state that the US aid would arrive, because "commitments are commitments," and that the desire to hold up the aid "was not from the entire Congress." He promised that on his return to the States he would inform Senator Jesse Helms, the main opponent to releasing the aid, about the current situation in Nicaragua. According to Lacayo, Sen. Helms sent a letter to Janet Ballentyne, AID director in Managua, insisting that "nothing has changed" in Nicaragua and that "Sandino-communism" continues. While in Nicaragua, Durenberger also witnessed the destruction of 6,000 weapons recovered from civilians as part of the disarmament campaign.
HELMS GETS PROPERTY DATA
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Ernesto Leal, who is heading up a special commission to prepare a report on property claims by US citizens, requested a meeting with Sen. Helms on his visit to Washington, scheduled for July 6. La Prensa reported on June 29 that in his letter requesting the meeting, Leal told Helms that the US Embassy had filed property claims on behalf of 170 US citizens, of which only 51 included all the necessary information. Leal said that 27 of those 51 are being processed, while the others were claims filed by people who obtained US citizenship after their properties were confiscated. He has since said that such cases will be treated the same as Nicaraguan claims. In his letter, Leal said that 46% of the 354 enterprises in state hands at the time of the change of government have been returned to the former owners. He also reportedly told Sen. Helms that duly compensated properties couldn’t be returned. "I’m sure you would be in agreement with us," he is cited as saying, "that these properties cannot be returned, since doing so would violate the very concept of property."
COTTON PRODUCERS OFF THE HOOK
Nicaragua's Minister of Agriculture announced that the government would restructure the 1991-92 debts of cotton producers unable to pay due to falling international cotton prices. While cotton was initially the centerpiece of the Chamorro government's economic reactivation plan, the government now wants to replace this crop with others, in part due to the ecological devastation resulting from decades of intensive cotton cropping in western Nicaragua. The debt restructuring is thus reportedly linked to a general technological transformation plan that would avoid ecological damage and excessive pesticide use—two hallmarks of Nicaraguan cotton production.
EL CARACOL WORKERS VICTORIOUS AT LAST
After nearly two years of occupying the El Caracol powdered beverage plant in Managua and running it despite constant harassment, the workers seem to have finally forced the government to reverse its initial decision to give the coffee and cocoa plant back to its original owners. Barricada announced on June 9 that the plant's 115 workers had won 100% of the shares, for which they will pay $376,000 over ten years at 6% interest after a one-year grace period.
El Caracol's owners fled to Miami in 1980, leaving the plant in bankruptcy. Workers sacrificed three months' wages to payoff the factory's debts after the Sandinista government took it over. During the rest of the decade, it was one of the country's most productive enterprises. When the owners returned in 1990 to reclaim the plant, armed with a favorable government decision, workers threw them out, together with the plant administrator and several workers who sided with them. Since then, the workers have virtually lived in the plant to defend it from the owners. They stuck it out despite a freeze on the company's bank account, cut phone service and even the attempted hijacking of a delivery of supplies from Costa Rica by the owners, with obvious collusion by sympathetic government employees.
The only sour note came a week after the good news. The CTN-Autonomous, a union representing the small minority of workers who favored the return to the original owners, warned that the new administration planned to lay off 50 workers after having assured that there would be no layoffs.
YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS
In early June, leaders of the Banana Workers' Federation warned that a conflict between workers on the large plantation of COSEP head Ramiro Gurdián could get out of hand unless a solution was found. According to Marcelino García, head of the federation, Gurdián refused to turn over 25% of the plantation to them as formally agreed. Garcia also accused Gurdián of sending armed recontras to search the union's offices.
By the end of the month, 14 of the 15 banana plantations in Chinandega were on strike, which threatened to affect shipments to Belgium representing $5 million in export revenue. This time the issue was with the central government, which has failed to provide the $9 million in loans it promised to the plantations privatized at the end of last year. According to Roberto Ruiz Meza, vice president of the Banana Workers' Federation, the government approved the financing requested by the state enterprise BANANIC, but conditioned it on a cut in workers' wages. Ruiz said banana workers receive 11.50 córdobas a day plus a subsidy worth 5.33 córdobas (a whopping total of about $3.30). The government proposed eliminating the subsidy and fixing a minimum daily wage of 8 córdobas.
RECONTRAS REACTIVATE
Between 10 and 15 recontras again briefly took over the town of Tortuguero in the central Atlantic Coast in early June. The group seized weapons from the local police station, sacked stores and released four prisoners from the jail, one of whom was later found dead.
A week later two recontras were killed and five wounded in a battle between a group of 50 recontras and police in La Cruz de Rio Grande after an unsuccessful attempt to take over the town. The group, led by "El Matizón," is the same one that attacked nearby Tortuguero earlier. Roger Ramírez, head of Internal Order in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region, told Barricada that army troops would be helicoptered in to restore order if necessary.
Army head General Humberto Ortega recently said that some 1,000 recontras and recompas are still operating in the country and will henceforth be treated as common criminals. As part of this new intolerance with the activity of rearmed groups, four recontras were killed and two others wounded in a skirmish with the army in San Antonio, Matagalpa in the same week as the battle in La Cruz. Ten days later, a recontra group attacked a police-army barracks north of Matagalpa City. According to Barricada, one soldier was killed.
Meanwhile rumors keep surfacing with differing information on the supposed whereabouts of recontra leader "Indomable," who took exile in Miami earlier this year after receiving a sizable payoff from the Nicaraguan government. Last month he was reported to be back in Nicaragua's northern mountains; this month "Costa Rican sources" were cited as saying that he had been spotted in that country with 250 armed men.
FONSECA FLAME BURNS AGAIN
The flame atop the tomb of FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca in Managua's Plaza of the Revolution was relit on June 23, during the commemoration of his 56th birthday. Managua mayor Arnold Alemán had doused the flame in 1990 by ordering the cutting of the gas supply to the mausoleum.
DRUG USE ON THE RISE
The Patriarca Foundation, which emphasizes drug rehabilitation work, particularly with youth, estimates some 300,000 drug users in Nicaragua, which it says is a 300% increase in drug use in the past five years. The foundation reports that half of these drug users are concentrated in and around the country's high schools and universities.
ONE HAND REFUSES TO WASH THE OTHER
Cuba has reiterated its desire to continue providing free medical care to Nicaraguan patients whose problems are beyond Nicaragua's skill and equipment level, but it has had to cancel its Cubana Airline flights between Managua and Havana for lack of fuel. While critics pounced on the Nicaraguan government's unwillingness to help with the fuel bill, Health Minister Ernesto Salmerón was desperately trying to find a way to continue the care. He says he will meet with Sandinista Popular Army head Humberto Ortega to request assistance in transporting patients.
Meanwhile needy patients were trying to hitch rides to Havana on the Cubana flights returning Nicaraguan students who had completed their scholarship studies in that country.
PLANES TO PERU?
Meanwhile, President Chamorro announced that her government is negotiating with Peru to exchange the army's Soviet-built armored helicopters and tanks for items for civilian use. Perhaps she could throw in a request for some civilian plane fuel?
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a monthly magazine of analysis on Central America