Nicaragua Network Hotline

Nicaragua Network Hotline November 10, 2003

This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other
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Topics included in this hotline are: Powell's Heavy-Hand Irritates
Nicaraguans & Solidarity Activists, Ortega Gambling Everything to
Return to Power?, and, Nemagon Witness Claims US Transnationals
Forced Testimony Change

TOPIC 1: Powell's Heavy-Hand Irritates Nicaraguans & Solidarity
Activists

Secretary of State Colin Powell's overnight visit to Nicaragua
stirred up a hornet's nest there and in the US, especially among
progressives who thought Powell was "liberal" or a "voice of
moderation."  Even La Prensa compared Powell to Secretary of State
Philander Knox who, at the beginning of the last century delivered
a letter to Nicaraguan President Jose Zelaya requiring him to step
down.  Powell warned all "democratic forces" to get themselves
together, but without the controversial former president and leader
of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), currently in jail.
Leandro Marin, Secretary to the Presidency, revealed that the US
message had been "clear and unequivocal, dramatic and direct,"
calling on the various Liberal and Conservative political parties
to leave their differences aside and to unify their efforts in order
to defeat the Sandinistas in the coming electoral struggles. "It
was a directly political message; very clear," he said. "Mr. Powell
told us, 'Unite among yourselves. Forget about Seqor Aleman. Don't
climb up on his bandwagon. The United States will wash its hands
of anyone who does so. That person will burn'." Marin clarified
that, while Powell had called for the unification of what he termed
"all democratic forces," he stressed most particularly the bringing
together of all Liberal parties of whatever stripe. Others present
at the meeting with Powell concurred. They included National Assembly
members Jaime Cuadra, Miguel Lopez y Oscar Moncada, all from among
the Liberal tendencies, and the current president of the Conservative
Party, Mario Rappaccioli. Marin also revealed that Powell had
dismissed any idea of a electoral victory for the Sandinista Front,
"since he considered that the 'democratic forces' will strengthen
their unification and therefore carry the next elections.

On the plane home, Powell rewrote history when he told journalists,
as reported in the Washington Post, that Nicaragua "had 11 straight
years of the worst kind of leadership under the Sandinistas, with
a totally communist-oriented, state-controlled environment where
the leaders thought all they had to keep doing was printing money.
They created a society of dependency in the government and the
government funded it by debt and money." He also bragged about going
to Congress when he was deputy national security advisor and fighting
all night long with opponents of contra aid, to keep these guys
alive and going with food and ammunition." "And there was enormous
opposition: How dare us do something like this!" Powell said. "It
was a difficult period. But we got through it." Thirty to forty
thousand Nicaraguans didn't "get through it" thanks to US funding
of the contra war.

The Nicaragua Network sent out an alert on November 6 calling on
activists to call the State Department to object to Powell's
statements and to demand that the US stop interfering in Nicaragua's
democratic process.  The direct line to the Secretary of State is
202-647-9572 and the fax is 202-647-2283. The address is Secretary
of State Colin Powell, US Department of State, 2201 C St. NW,
Washington DC 20520.

In other fallout from Powell's visit, Jan Hartman, public affairs
officer of the US Embassy in Managua, has been relieved of her
duties for being a little too truthful. A briefing Hartman prepared
for foreign journalists on the eve of Powell's visit was regarded
as "damaging" for Nicaragua by the country's authorities. They were
so incensed by the contents of the release that they called on US
Ambassador, Barbara Moore, to administer an "exemplary sanction"
to Hartman.  This was just short of Nicaragua declaring her "persona
non grata."

In the briefing, Hartman described Nicaraguan daily life as, "The
majority of the people are wholly absorbed in the struggle to find
their next serving of rice and beans; in consequence, they have
little time to be thinking about the United States and/or global
matters in general." Those Nicaraguans who do look to the US, "prefer
to dress themselves in Ralph Lauren clothes, drive Ford all-terrain
vehicles, watch US movies and, when they go out, boast of eating
at TGI Fridays," she wrote. On the other hand, "Many who opposed
the Sandinistas, and who either fled to the USA while the latter
were in power or have relatives still living there who send them
money regularly, regard the US with suspicion. Many people believe
the USA betrayed the contra resistance forces by never giving them
sufficient support during the war and then dropping them like hot
potatoes once they were no longer required as fighters against
communism. They also felt deceived when the US promised a great
deal of aid to Nicaragua if the Sandinistas should lose the 1990
elections, a promise that was never realized even though the
Sandinista Front did in fact lose and was ejected from power."  The
document concluded by stating baldly, "The leaders see the United
States as an egotistical neighbor, someone who lives quite close
but drives a bigger vehicle, has a fancier house, sends the children
to the best schools, and has no time even to talk with a less
well-off neighbor, let alone concern him or herself with that
neighbor."  We at the Nicaragua Network hope that Hartman enjoys
her next posting to Lapland.

The other storm that Powell stirred up while in Nicaragua was to
increase US pressure on Nicaragua to give up its SAM-7 missiles.
Army Chief Javier Carrion made it clear to Powell that his forces
were "better off with surface-to-air missiles (SAM-7s) than without
them." He also asked pointedly why the US seemed to be singling
Nicaragua out in its determination to get rid of these particular
weapons when, in fact, other countries within Latin America also
possessed them. He reiterated Nicaragua's position that they would
only give up the missiles as part of comprehensive Central American
force balancing agreement.

TOPIC 2: Ortega Gambling Everything to Return to Power?

Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, Secretary of State Powell's
boogieman, has caused much speculation as to why he suddenly proposed
that next year's municipal elections should be delayed to coincide
with the presidential and national elections of 2006.  He had
recently announced an agreement with other parties in the Democratic
Convergence for the allocation of Mayor and Vice-Mayor nominations
in all the municipalities which are scheduled for election in 2004.
The ostensible reason offered by the former president was that of
economic necessity. The municipal elections appear to be in serious
financial trouble, according to several recent reports. However, a
growing body of opinion suggests that the real basis for Ortega's
proposal is that the Sandinistas fear a repeat of the phenomenon
in the last electoral cycle when anti-Sandinista parties closed
ranks to defeat Ortega in the presidential election after the FSLN's
near sweep of the most important municipal elections. Polls indicate
that the FSLN would have similar success in next year's municipal
elections and speculation is that Ortega fears going down in flames
for the fourth straight time, if the pattern repeats.

At present, incumbent mayors will hand over power in January of
2005. Ortega's proposal would give them two more years in office,
a possibility that pleases most incumbents just as it offends some
FSLN and Convergence candidates for 2004. However, it would also
require significant electoral and constitutional reforms, sufficient
in themselves to set Liberal and Conservative alarm bells ringing.
Analysts such as Carlos Tunnerman and Cairo Manuel Lopez regard the
Sandinistas as being in a strong position at the present time,
particularly given the current disarray in Liberal ranks. They
believe Ortega is indeed gambling everything on one last throw.

Meanwhile, within the party, Alejandro Martinez Cuenca, former
Minister of the Economy with the Sandinista government and one of
the challengers to Ortega for the FSLN's presidential candidacy in
2001, challenged the Sandinista leadership to "open themselves up
to new possibilities." He called on them to "overcome their fear
of change," and to "demystify the figure of Ortega." While he freely
admitted that Ortega has "an unquestionable leadership," this does
not mean that "he has to conduct the orchestra until the last
instrument has sounded."

Martinez Cuenca confirmed his intention to run against Ortega for
the FSLN candidacy a second time. "It's the people themselves who
are demanding that the political parties open up," he observed.
"The fear of change comes from the fact that even the party hierarchs
are uncertain;

each one has a certain sphere of power, allowed him through his
relationship with the overall leader. The great dilemma for them
is whether or not they can maintain these in the face of other
changes. Somehow we have to convince them that their fears are
unfounded, and that, overall, it would be greatly to the leadership's
benefit to adopt a more democratic stance. We've heard over and
again that Daniel Ortega is the only one who connects with the
Sandinista base. This argument's worn out. It's served to prevent
change. The popular consultations of the past have taught us a lot.
Today we can no longer permit that the people's will be subverted
through the manipulation of the Sandinista Assembly. Although a
primary election is risky, it's much better than the appointment
from on high."

TOPIC 3: Nemagon Witness Claims US Transnationals Forced Testimony
Change

Bayardo Jose Barrios, a medical technician who gave damaging evidence
against the plaintiffs in the banana workers' lawsuit for compensation
for lives blighted by the application of Nemagon, formally accused
representatives of the Dow, Dole, and Shell, the defendants in the
case, of forcing him to bear false witness. Speaking before officials
of the Ministry of Government, he claimed that lawyers and staff
members of the multinational companies involved as defendants in
the suit, had kidnapped him and threatened him unless he changed
his original finding for the banana workers in new testimony before
the US courts. Barrios is the proprietor of the Chinandega Barrios
Clinic, where affected banana workers were examined and tested.
According to his new deposition, he was kidnapped, taken to Honduras,
and there, under continued threat and abuse, was forced to sign a
document which claimed that he had falsified the clinic's original
findings which determined that the workers had indeed been affected
by the chemical pesticide.

Barrios's findings are key to the workers' claim; they are seeking
compensation to the tune of US$17 billion; and any retraction before
the US courts would have dealt their hopes a death blow.

In his detailed statement before the ministerial officials, Barrios
named a Mexican-American, Joseph Q.

Carrera and his supposed wife, Marma Elena, as his abductors. He
claimed that they presented themselves to him as CIA and FBI agents
respectively, and, with them he went voluntarily to the Honduras
Maya Hotel, situated right across the street from the offices of
Standard Fruit Company in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. There
he was interviewed by the Dole Fruit Company's legal representative,
Fernando Medina, and there, "given the promise of thousands of US
dollars," he was forced to sign a document prepared by the lawyers
in question, in which he "confessed" to the falsification of the
original evidence.

Once that document had been signed, Barrios was taken first to Costa
Rica and then to Dallas, where he was briefed for an appearance
before a Californian court. He fled from there back to Nicaragua,
where he went into hiding, only emerging to take the stand again
against the plaintiffs. In the light of his new testimony, Barrios
called for a government investigation into the conduct of his
kidnappers, and for them to be charged with abduction and threats
of force. Lawyer Medina acknowledged that his clients had paid for
the Honduran, Costa Rican and US journeys. He also recognized that
he had been present when Barrios testified in Costa Rica and Honduras,
"for ten hours, but without any threats," he claimed, although
admitting that Barrios had disappeared from the hotel, "for no
apparent reason." Medina also claimed not to know any of the others
accused by Barrios.

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