Word: chamorro
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Angela Palacios Chavarria, 31, a barefoot Nicaraguan peasant, can explain in two words why she voted for Violeta Chamorro's National Opposition Union (U.N.O.) over the Marxist Sandinistas ten weeks ago. "Lapas verdes" (greenbacks) says Palacios, voicing a common opinion that a vote for the U.N.O. was a vote for U.S.-financed prosperity. Surely, this argument goes, since Washington spent $312 million over nine years to bankroll the contra rebellion and another $9 million to back Chamorro's campaign, it will now lay out as many lapas verdes as necessary to rebuild Nicaragua's ravaged economy and keep its friends...
...Nicaragua too the economy will not wait. Within 48 hours of taking office on April 25, Chamorro felt compelled to devalue the cordoba, doubling prices and intensifying an already raging inflation (1,700% last year). She also must cope with 25% unemployment and an $11 billion foreign debt. Says U.N.O. spokesman Luis Sanchez: "If we don't receive even a minimum amount ((of U.S. aid)) immediately, the situation will become catastrophic. We might as well call up Daniel Ortega and give him back the country...
...expect to see them anytime soon. Nicaragua's Chamorro takes a chance and retains a Sandinista. Mongolia tries perestroika in slow motion...
...President will doubtless be hailed enthusiastically by most Nicaraguans -- at least for a while. Sick of war, citizens want their government to turn to the bread-and-butter issues that are the bane of all Nicaraguan existence. The magnitude of the task of rebuilding the shattered country makes Chamorro's advisers optimistic that the cease-fire will hold. Says Gilberto Cuadra, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise: "Neither the army nor the contras have a future in this country." But cease-fires have been called before in Nicaragua -- and have failed. Chamorro must still make this one stick...
...West responds may shape its relations with the U.S.S.R. and Gorbachev's future. -- Nicaragua's Chamorro brokers a cease-fire. Will it stick...