Criticism of Nicaraguan
Political Pact



Managua, Nicaragua -- A recent pact between the
ruling Liberal Constitutional Party and opposition
Sandinistas here is increasingly drawing fire as
anti-democratic.
     And the foreign aid community is reviewing
whether the pact and accompanying constitutional
reforms will make it harder to implement structural
changes aimed at firming up Nicaragua´s public
administration.
    
The Jan. 18 constitutional reforms were seen as
causing a weakening of the independence of the
Controllers Office, the Supreme Electoral Council and
the Supreme Court.
     The Liberals and Sandinistas agreed to divide the
new appointments -- four with three substitutes at the
Controllers Office, two at the Supreme Electoral
Council and four at the Supreme Court.
     The move brought charges of politicalization and
increased costs at the major government institutions.
     Also criticized were electoral law changes which
make it harder for smaller political parties to
compete and lowering of the percentage of votes
necessary to win a first round presidential victory
from 45% to 35%.
     A change in residency requirements capriciously
removed front runner Mayoral Candidate Pedro Solorzano
from the Managua elections.
        ¨A surprising trampling of the constitution,¨
complained Nicaragua´s La Prensa newspaper. And the
Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights said it considered
the reforms ¨to be a mortal blow to incipient
democracy. These are very substantial changes that are
forcing a two-party regime upon us," said legal
advisor Gonzalo Carrion. ¨They´re discriminatory and
exclusionary.¨¨
       Further fueling tension has been talk by
President Arnoldo Aleman of calling a constitutional
convention in 2001. The idea brought a televised
rebuke from former President Violeta Barrios de
Chamorro on the 10th anniversary of her 1990 electoral
victory over the Sandinistas. ¨I can´t do anything
less then repudiate from the bottom of my heart the
desire of President don Arnoldo Aleman to suspend the
presidential elections and not elect the president of
Nicaragua but instead a constituent assembly that
would name a provisional president.
     Forming a backdrop to the recent constitutional
reforms was a feud between the president and the
Controller Augustin Jarquin Anaya. Jarquin was
pressing for the president to explain what he charged
was a 900% increase in his wealth since serving as
mayor of Managua and later president.
     The controller also initiated action to have
congress prosecute him for the purchase of trees by
the Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology
which were then planted on a presidential farm known
as Las Chinampas.
      Jarquin had also charged that privatization of
the Nicaraguan Bank of Industry and Commerce was
handled in an illegal manner and had issued a finding
declaring null a 36,000 share stock issue. A World
Bank audit of the privatized bank is now under way due
to use of World Bank Financing in the sale.
     The 48-year-old engineer said he saw his
administration which began with election by Congress
in 996 as aimed at brining more order to government
finance: ¨an orderly budget, control over debt,
emphasis on training.¨                               
      But the controller was also seen as a political
foe of President Aleman. He had run against Aleman for
Mayor of Managua and  had clashed with him while
serving on the Managua city council.
     The president has dismissed Jarquin´s accusations
saying his increase in wealth is due to a rise in
property values on his coffee farms bought during the
early 1990s.
     Jarquin says this is impossible.¨He should
include himself in the book of Guinness Records. He
could make a book for coffe producers on the magic of
his prosperity.¨
     The acrimony began almost from the start of the
two men´s terms in 1996. ¨From the beginning  we had
obstacles with the Aleman government. We had attacks.
They thought I was creating a controllers office with
parallel powers.¨
     Jarquin accused the president of personally
trying to put him behind bars when a secret $30,000
public fund payment by the controller to a Nicaraguan
T.V. Journalist Danilo Lacayo was uncovered. After two
months in jail Jarquin was aquited of criminal charges
but the government is appealing to the Supreme
Court.
     Jarquin said that with the arrival of the new
four-man board inquires into the president´s wealth
were scrapped. He also criticized the new board for
not having issued an opinion on the Aleman
Administration´s introduction of a a law before the
chamber of deputies to increase the president´s
discretionary spending power up to $1 million without
need for congressional approval.
     ¨The dynamics of the Controllers Office are going
to diminish,¨Jarquin said. ¨The influence is going to
diminish. This is the impression I have. And it´s the
result of the president. He´s not interested in having
effective controls.¨
     The Controllers Board headed by former Assistant
Foreign Minister Dr. Guillermo Arguello Poessy has
moved with congressional approval to audit Jarquin´s
administration. One focus of the probe are funds
Jarquin received from other government entities and a
39,000 purchase with foreign assistance funds of a
Mercedes Benz for his assistant controller.
     Jarquin contends the money was received as part
of the normal controller budget. ¨They want to send me
to jail, to discredit my administration. But my
personal wealth and the wealth of may employees hasn´t
increased.¨
     Further reducing the possibility of any
corruption
prosecution of President Arnoldo Aleman was the
granting of a five-year seat in congress to the
president and his vicepresident without need for
election. In addition the the vote required to strip
the presidetn of is immunity from prosecution was
increased from a majority to a two-thirds majority.  
between first and second place vote getters. Political
     The United States is seen as taking a wait and
seek attitude toward the change and has not publicly
addressed corruption allegations against Aleman.
     ¨A sovereign country has the right to implement
those constitutional changes. But we are watching very
closely to see how the constitutional changes benefit
the strengthening of the institutions,¨ U.S.
Embassador Oliver Garza told the Nicaraguan media.
     U.S. Embassy spokesman Robert Kerr said: ¨U.S.
assistance -- both development assistance and
Hurricane
Mitch Funds are being administered and used well
because of the controls in the system and in part
because we use a large system of nongovermental
organizations which distribute this assistance.¨
     The U.S. Agency for International Development
operates programs which seek to strengthen Nicaraguas
Conrollers Office, the rule of law, and create an
independent judiciary. Criticism is likely to be made
through these programs.
     The United States is also pressing for settlement
of U.S. citizen property claims related to government
seizures during the 1980s.
     Of 2,000 claims some 900 remain and are to be
reviewed by special Nicaraguan property courts slated
to begin operation this year. Progress on such claims
is reviewed by the U.S. Congress each July.
     Other Foreign Countries supplying assistance to
Nicaragua have been more outspoken. Denmark said
publically it would reconsider its $20 million
contribution to reconstruction if the constitutional
reforms were viewed as damaging democracy. Such
criticism brought a strong rebuke from President
Aleman. He said if donors ¨want to involve themselves
in discussing issues like the reforms to the
constitution and the electoral law I say wait a minute
-- go to your own countries and make those
observations.¨
     Presidential Adviser Mario de Franco said: ¨The
position of the government is that there are issues
that are not useful to discuss with other countries
because we are going to discuss them among
Nicaraguans.¨
     Sharp criticism of the president by Ana Quiros,
National Spokesman for the Civil Coordinator for the
Emergency and Reconstruciton know as CCER which
represents 350 organizations participating in
reconstruction efforts brought a threat to revoke her
naturalized citizenship from the Nicaragua Interior
Department.
     The CCER contends that the reforms conflict with
government commitments made at its international
donors at a May, 1999 meeting in Stockholm.
     Following the devastation of the Oct. 1998
Hurricane Mitch which left ,394 dead, 400,000
displaced and $1.5 billion in damage Nicaragua was
earmarked for $2.5 billion in international
assistance. In Setpember 1999 it also was selected for
participation in the Highly Indebted Nation Initiative
which could result forgiveness of up to 80% of its
$6.3 billion foreign debt.
     As a result of the Stockholm meeting Nicaragua
pledged to strengthen governability -- a buzz word for
smoother operation of government institutions --
increased transparency i.e. corruption control; allow
greater democratic participation and increased efforts
to reduce poverty.
     Nicaragua has also pledged to creditors to adopt
a civil service law, a contracting law, and an
administrative procedure  law. Other commitments to
foreign creditors include privatization of Social
Security and changes in foreign investment laws.
          ¨The climate that´s been created with the
donor
community and the president puts us at a disadvantage
in relationship to the other Central American
countries. We have said, and there is practically a
consensus of the members of the civil society that the
constitutional reforms approved in a hurried manner
are
not a good example of governability.¨
     Quiroz said of the donor nation options for
helping Nicaragua. ¨I´d put some question marks and
direct my assistance more to city governments,
concrete projects and the nongovernmental sector.¨¨
   The Sandinista Party Leadership depicted the
constitutional reforms as the result of shrewd
negotiations that strengthened the parties presence in
major Nicaraguan institutions.
     ¨In 1990 a political pact was formed that undid
all the benefits of the revolution,¨said Marta
Berroteran Perez, Sandinista Secretary of
Communication for the Managua Department. ¨What could
we lose by making an alliance with the liberals?
Nothing.  What we can gain is we can put our own
representatives in the institutions. There are going
to
be Sandinista representatives as well as Liberals.¨
     One tangible Sandinista gain of the pact was seen
as congressional approval of an extension by 20 years
of the original 10 years granted to demobalized
combatants and workers to pay for lands they were
given by the government.
    Nevertheless the reforms did little to boost
turnout at the Sandinista Party primaries in February
to select a
Managuan Mayoral Candidate and 17 council candidates.
   One voter, 18-year-old Mijail Antonio Chanvarria
Cruz, said he still views the party as a option for
the poor and supports the political pact as bolstering
party power but notes there´s increasing apathy in the
rank and file.
     ¨The party is a little bit in decline. What we
need is that someone new be president instead of the
same Daniel Ortega -- there´s no motivation. The
people don´t want to hear about the party. They don´t
want work in the party. They´re more devoted to their
work. Sundays they want to rest.¨
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