cries@mtxinu.COM (09/02/89)
/* Written 6:07 pm Aug 30, 1989 by cries in ni:cries.regionews */
/* ---------- "Nica Campaign Trail Briefs" ---------- */
NICARAGUAN CAMPAIGN TRAIL 1989-90
PRISONERS GET OUT / OUTSIDE OF UNO / UNO TO SELECT CANDIDATE
(cries.regionews from Managua August 30, 1989
********************
CONTRA PRISONERS FREED
In line with the commitments made by the government at the
all-party negotiation session on August 3-4, hundreds of
campesino contra collaborators have been freed from prisons
in different parts of the country. This measure responds
partially to opposition demands for a general amnesty and in
part to the need to show that conditions exist in the
country for the demobilization and repatriation of contras
as agreed to in the recent Central American presidential
summit meeting at Tela, Honduras. However, the opposition
remains unsatisfied and claims that there are many more
prisoners in jail than the government is letting on.
The anti-government Permanent Commission for Human Rights
(CPDH), a US-funded organization repeatedly discredited for
its lack of objectivity, said that up to 10,000 political
prisoners are behind bars in Nicaragua. Minister of the
Interior Tomas Borge challenged this figure and stated that,
in all, there are 7003 prisoners of which 1440 are contras
or contra collaborators, 39 are former National Guardsmen,
and 239 are ex-members of the Sandinista Peoples' Army. The
remainder are common criminals. The International Red Cross
was invited to carry out a census inside the prisons in
order to determine the exact number of detainees.
**********************
NOT ALL IN UNO
UNO groups together 12 legally registered and two
unregistered parties. Eleven others, including the FSLN,
make up the rest of the political guantlet that voters have
to run in order to make a choice next February.
A possibility exists that a center bloc may form. Likely
components include the Social Christian Party (PSC) of Erick
Ramirez which was expelled a few months ago from the UNO,
the Central American Unification Party (PUCA), and the
Liberal Party of National Unification (PLIUN). The FSLN
daily "Barricada" has also reported that some leaders of the
Popular Social Christian Party (PPSC) are unhappy with their
party's participation in UNO and may split off and seek
other allies.
The FSLN would stand to benefit in two ways by the formation
of some kind of centrist alliance. It would effectively mean
that its opponents prevent themselves from uniting, and it
could constitute a kind of loyal nationalist opposition
differentiated from the rightist and pro-US positions of
many in the UNO bloc, an opposition that it could work with
within the framework of a politically pluralistic society.
Differences already exist within this embryonic potential
center bloc. When Erick Ramirez was nominated by the PSC as
its presidential candidate, he declared that he could
potentially support the unified opposition candidacy for
president of "La Prensa" director Violeta Chamorro, one of
the front runners for the UNO nomination. But Jose Santos
Rivera of the PUCA reacted strongly against Ramirez's
position, saying, "Chamorro's candidacy would put Nicaragua
at the disposition of interventionism."
This nationalist sentiment is also put forward by the PUCA.
Explaining why her party is not inside of UNO, PUCA
presidential candidate Blanca Rojas said, "We will never be
mixed up with toads and snakes. They are the same ones that
made themselves rich... and breast-fed themselves off the
table of the dictator [Somoza]." She stated, "We are
revolutionaries, we are nationalists, but we are never
quislings."
*******************
CHOOSING AN UNO CANDIDATE
The next challenge that UNO faced in living up to its name
was to select a presidential candidate and stay united
behind him or her. That could be a source of potential
friction within the bloc given the history of individualism
of the leaders, a factor which has contributed greatly to
the accustomed state of opposition divisiveness. Such
conflict may be avoided by the fact two of the three front
runners - Violeta Chamorro and former COSEP president
Enrique Bolanos - are not affiliated to any party. (A choice
was to be announced on September 1.)
The third, Virgilio Godoy, is leader of the Independent
Liberal Party (PLI). He is under fire within his own party
because of accusations that he embezzled funds coming from
the West German Naumann Foundation. His chance of winning
the nomination is also affected by the fact that he was
Labor Minister until 1984 and was an architect of the much-
criticized multi-level salary and job classification system.
Enrique Bolanos, a right-wing business leader and one of the
strongest critics of Sandinista rule, has in his favor the
fact that he has many "international contacts" according to
the opposition press. His business sense is seen by some as
a plus, but his status as a leader of big private enterprise
works against his chances of bringing in the vote from poor
working class and campesino sectors.
"La Prensa" has been openly championing its director Violeta
Chamorro. The August 25 front page ran a picture of her
sitting with US President George Bush (considered a plus by
many in the opposition camp) above the headline "UNO begins
to select candidate". Her possible candidacy has been the
center of political attention for months now and at times,
she has been compared to a Nicaraguan version of Corazon
Aquino of the Philippines.
Looking Abroad For Parallels
The comparison of Chamorro to Aquino is one example of how
the opposition constantly looks outside the borders of
Nicaragua in order to find symbols for its fight against
Sandinista rule. Last year, during the "NO" plebiscite in
Chile, they compared the Pinochet regime to the FSLN and
began calling for a similar referendum in Nicaragua. The
opposition also puts forward the need for a Soviet-style
"glasnost" and a process of "perestroika". Most recently,
the comparison of the domestic situation and its possible
outcome has been made to that of Poland where the Solidarity
union successfully contested an election with the ruling
party, resulting in a shaky parliamentary power-sharing
arrangement.
This tendency to look outside of Nicaragua for solutions to
its national problems lends credence to Sandinista
accusations that the rightist parties are inherently anti-
national and pro-intervention. Made-in-Nicaragua solutions
rarely figure into their thinking and the UNO opposition
parties defend, and to a large extent depend, on advice and
funding they receive from the National Endowment for
Democracy and its shadow organizations. Even the recently
adopted UNO program had as a basis for it the "Blue and
White Plan" which was denounced in the local media as having
been drafted in the United States.
If the UNO parties continue to bank on international support
and look outside Nicaragua's borders for examples, they run
the risk of alienating much of the strongly nationalistic
voter base inside the country which, although potentially in
disagreement with the FSLN, has shown itself to be even more
strongly against foreign domination of the country.
(We encourage feedback. Send comments, suggestions, etc. to
us via e-mail. Address cdp!ni!cries)
---
Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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