NICARAGUA

There is still no decision on the appeal filed with the Supreme Court regarding Law No. 372, which would establish the Nicaraguan Colegio of Journalists. The two journalists’ associations, UPN and APN, have not yet reached an agreement on opening enrollment in the Colegio and calling its convention, as prescribed by law. In fact, controversy arose in recent weeks within the APN because some of its members and leaders claim that they were not consulted and that their association’s bylaws must be amended before the Colegio can be formed. They also maintain that it is unclear how the funds generated by the two yearly national lotteries are to be administered, as prescribed by law. In December 2003, a criminal court judge in Chinandega dismissed charges against Carol Murguía, a correspondent for La Prensa in that city who had been charged with defamation and libel for a news report originating from Santa Ana, El Salvador, about the arrest of two people from Chinandega by Salvadoran police. Murguía showed that she had obtained her information from the online edition of the San Salvador newspaper La Prensa Gráfica, and her claim was corroborated by INTERPOL and the police in Chinandega. On October 22, 2003, Eloísa Ibarra, a journalist at El Nuevo Diario, was barred by Judge Juana Méndez from entering the facilities of the Judicial Auxiliary Office (DAJ), where former President Alemán was imprisoned. At the time, the national press was on hand to report on a cellular telephone that was provided to Alemán by Judge Méndez for personal use. The phone had been taken away from Alemán the previous day under an order issued by the Interior Minister. “Turnabout is fair play” was the explanation given by Judge Méndez for barring Ibarra from the facilities, accusing her of “manipulating the news” in an article that had appeared the previous day. In this article Ibarra suggested that Judge Méndez applied uneven standards in her court, and wrote about the case of a poor woman who was not granted probation in spite of her family situation and her serious health problems. That same day, Raúl Mayorga, a cameraman for Channel 2 TV, was beaten by supporters of the Alemán family while filming the former president as he was leaving a religious service marking the first anniversary of the death of his son. During the service, some of the attendants demanded that the reporters be ejected after shoving and insulting them for covering the event. On February 10, journalist Carlos José Guadamuz Castrillo was shot several times and murdered. He had made controversial comments on radio and television about various national figures. He was also a dissident and staunch critic of the Sandinistas, and particularly of former President Daniel Ortega; the FSLN candidate for mayor of Managua, Dionisio (Nicho) Marenco; and the former head of the state security agency (DGSE) during the Sandinista regime. Guadamuz was murdered at the entrance of Channel 23 Television, where he rented airtime for an opinion program called “Dardos al Centro” (On Target). The defendant in his murder, William Augusto Hurtado García, had been a member of the DGSE but allegedly left the agency in 1987, leading to a two-year prison term. However, he did not leave the FSLN. Hurtado waited for his victim on the sidewalk outside the station. When Guadamuz walked up with his 16-year-old son Shelim, the killer took out his gun from under a newspaper and emptied it into Guadamuz. As Hurtado was stepping backwards toward an alley leading to his getaway vehicle, he fell into a ditch. The victim’s son then threw a satchel at Hurtado and tackled him, and bystanders helped to subdue the killer until the police arrived. The weapon used by Hurtado to murder Guadamuz was a Tauro .38-caliber handgun that belonged to another former DGSE member, lawyer Luis Alfredo García González, who testified that he had bought it at an arms depot of the Nicaraguan Army. García was charged as an accomplice in the murder. Hurtado and two other defendants — the owner of the weapon and the killer’s wife — were taken before Judge Regina Escobar, and in the 40-minute hearing Hurtado confessed to being the “mastermind and perpetrator” of the crime, but denied the murder charge brought against him by the prosecution. He argued that it was a case of voluntary manslaughter and asked the judge to change the charges accordingly and accept his statement, which he called “public and free of coercion.” Hurtado waived his right to a trial, which is allowed under Nicaraguan law, and asked to be sentenced immediately, a measure that have closed the case promptly. His request was denied by the judge. Hurtado claimed he had killed Guadamuz because the journalist had been “offensive” on his radio and television programs and had dishonored “those fallen in the struggle and the revolutionary leaders,” who, in Hurtado’s view, were sacred. Judge Regina Escobar ruled that Hurtado’s statement was not credible and denied the petition to dismiss the case against his wife, Yadira Membreño, and the petition for house arrest for the owner of the revolver, Luis García. The judge upheld the charges of murder of Carlos Guadamuz and attempted murder of Shelim Guadamuz, and set the trial for April 15. Under the Somoza dictatorship, Carlos Guadamuz had been imprisoned for seven years along with Daniel Ortega. Later, during the Sandinista regime, he had been a close collaborator of Ortega and held the post of director for the state-run Radio Nacional. After losing the 1990 elections, the Sandinista Front had him set up a radio station for the FSLN using some of Radio Nacional’s equipment. Guadamuz started the station under the name Radio Ya, and was so successful that the station attained the highest ratings among news programs, particularly for its programs designed for the people. However, at the same time, Guadamuz was unstinting in his criticism of FSLN adversaries and enemies, particularly FSLN dissidents. At the request of the murdered journalist’s family, the Nicaraguan Attorney General appointed a prosecutor to reopen an accusation that had been submitted by Guadamuz but was subsequently filed away. On February 13, the news editor of La Prensa, Fabián Medina, received death threats from unknown persons who e-mailed him to express their outrage over his weekly column “En Letra Pequeña” (In Fine Print), which had run the previous day. The threats coincided with an anonymous phone call warning of an alleged bomb at the television station 100% Noticias. The police have made no progress in their investigations. The only information they have released was previously reported by La Prensa. As a result, the family of the murdered journalist requested an investigation by the National Assembly. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission has already begun its own investigation into the case. The speaker of the assembly, Representative Alemán (no relation to the former president of Nicaragua, although she is in the same party), says that she has taken testimony from a person whose identity is being kept secret for security reasons, and that this testimony implicates “prominent” political personalities in the country.