Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 19:27:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris <red-AT-iww.org>
Subject: general strike-style action in Nicaragua (fwd)


From: Casa Canadiense <casacana-AT-nicarao.apc.org.ni>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: National Protest in Nicaragua
Date: 15 Apr 1997 17:29:06 GMT
Message-ID: <5j0dt2$1aoe$1-AT-news.missouri.edu>

DAte: 15 April, 1997
From: Anneli Tolvanen <casacana-AT-nicarao.apc.org.ni>
Subject: National Protest in Nicaragua

             Nicaraguans Protest for Stability of Property and Employment

Monday, April 14th was the first day of national protest against the
policies of Arnoldo Aleman's Liberal government. The protest was
described as peaceful and civic. Throughout the different rural
departments of Nicaragua, road blocks were set up and occupied. The main
protagonists have been campesinos and agricultural producers with
support from the FSLN and their affiliated organizations.

The road blocks appear to have achieved their goal of paralyzing
national traffic. Buses on Monday were not travelling north nor
south out of Managua and many local bus routes were also suspended. On
the highway south to Costa Rica, over 30 transport trucks, carrying
loads of perishable produce, were held up.

In the cattle growing region of Chontales where Aleman's Liberals won
overwhelmingly in last October's elections, the protests were noted to
be amongst the strongest and the discontent, as loud, over this
governments' policies, as in other regions known to be FSLN supporting.

Thousands of protestors filled the streets of Matagalpa where Victor
Hugo Tinoco, FSLN deputy in the National Assembly, addressed the crowd.
He spoke of the restructuring of loans held by agricultural producers
and criticized the measures taken by the Liberal government to give only
one year to settle these when producers need 10. He called Nicaraguans
to "detain this government that is causing such instability."

The protestors are calling for the negotiation of a set of 14 demands
being placed before Aleman's government, accused of not having followed
through with election promises and only bowing to the interests of the
wealthy. Amongst the list of demands is that evictions be stopped, that
some 14,000 agrarian reform land titles be respected, that more
favorable conditions be placed on the repayment of loans and that
the rise in cost of basic food items be controlled.

In a press conference Monday afternoon, Daniel Ortega, Secretary General
of the FSLN, called the Liberal government to negotiate the 14 demands
with representation from a broad spectrum of society including
producers, transportation workers, Communal Movement, former combatants
of the Resistance and Popular Sandinista Army amongst others. On this
issue of property, so crucial to stability in Nicaragua, Ortega called
for decisions that represent a national concensus rather than laws that
are unilaterally put forward. In Tuesday's session of the National
Assembly, the Liberals are expected to present a law for the speeding up
of land title issuance for small property holders. This law has been
criticized to have problematic and regressive elements in its four
articles. Ortega also recommended the re-establishment and participation
of the Group of Countries, Friends of Nicaragua, that provided an
international presence in negotiations during the Presidency of Violeta
Chamorro.

It is hoped that the protest will continue to be as peaceful as it was
on Monday. The Chief of National Police, Franko Montealegre, commenting
on the protest said, "if the protestors are violent then the police have
no choice but to respond in kind". Just last week the police received a
shipment of thousands of new pistols from Spain and they are noticeably
much better equiped than in the past. Protestors, on the other hand,
have expressed their committment to take the protest to its "ultimate
consequences". Meanwhile, President Arnold Aleman has been in a day-long
meeting in a suite of the Hotel Intercontinental.



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