Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990 TAG: 9007110282
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANAGUA, NICARAGUA LENGTH: Medium
The wave of strikes that began last week has put the heaviest pressure yet on the 10-week-old, U.S.-backed administration.
Chamorro called out the army late Monday to restore order. Both the army and police are controlled by the leftist Sandinistas, who ruled until April 25 and remain the largest single political force in Nicaragua.
The Sandinista party opposition blamed the Contras for fighting that has killed three people and injured at least 100 since violence broke out Friday.
The presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Honduras issued a joint communique Tuesday "calling on the international community to lend its valuable assistance to the Nicaraguan government in its search for a solution to the crisis it is undergoing."
Honduran government spokesman Martin Baide gave The Associated Press a copy of the declaration, which he said was being simultaneously released in the other Central American countries.
Sandinista radio stations Radio Sandino and Radio Ya charged Tuesday that Contra leaders were directing armed groups of urban commandos. Reporters identified leaders of the Contras - the rebels supported by the United States while the Sandinistas were in power - among the armed groups.
Police and soldiers tore down roadblocks in Managua and cleaned up after street bonfires Tuesday, but strikers still occupied government ministries and state-owned businesses in the city.
Strike sympathizers built even more roadblocks to replace those taken down.
Whether the army and police will back Chamorro's new government or let the strike widen is considered crucial in the outcome of the walkouts, now in their second week.
"We mustn't repress the people," one policeman said.
The Sandinistas lost the presidential election to Chamorro on Feb. 25, ending 10 years of revolutionary rule of this country of 3.7 million residents. The U.S. economic embargo, which helped create shortages even in basic foodstuffs, contributed to their defeat.
The U.S. trade sanctions and a long war against the U.S.-supported Contra rebels devastated the economy before Chamorro took office, and her reconstruction efforts have stirred resentment and opposition.
Sandinista-led unions called the strike to protest what they said were massive firings of government workers and to demand a voice in government economic policy, which they say favors the wealthy under the new government.
Gunfire spread from eastern Managua's working-class neighborhoods to the central section at the offices of the pro-government radio station Radio Corporation. Armed civilians barricaded themselves there, saying they were protecting the station from Sandinistas who wanted to burn it. They said they tended up to 20 wounded in the radio station but there had been no deaths.
Strikers have taken over most government ministries and many state-run enterprises.
Former President Daniel Ortega said any effort to end the strike by force would invite "generalized chaos." He demanded a resumption of negotiations, suspended by the government over the weekend because it said union leaders wanted to discuss political, not economic issues.
by CNB