By Allen Jennings
Hard on the heels of tropical storm Gert, and after last month's hostage crisis and the taking of Esteli in July, Nicaraguans face yet another crisis. This one is caused by the Chamorro government's neo-liberal economic policies.
A tax on vehicles decreed by the president has sparked off a nationwide transport strike, which, due to its overwhelming public support and the government's repressive response, has become a virtual general strike.
Reacting to the government's reluctance to negotiate and its willingness to use repressive riot police against striking transport workers, people from all walks of life have joined in: building barricades, providing food and protection for their striking companeros and even taking up arms. The tax protest has become a general struggle against the government's failed economic policies and Violeta Chamorro herself.
"Come on! They're building a barricada on the corner", urged my 70-year-old mother-in-law. It was after midnight on the first day of the strike, September 20, and it was raining heavily. "They", at least initially, turned out to be three women, including an eight-year-old girl and the anciana "subversive", along with three men. The barricada, symbolic because of its role in the 1979 insurrection against Somoza, was quickly built up to a metre high using "Somoza's" paving stones.
As the neighbours joined the activity, which in this country is seen as a commonplace and legitimate form of protest, the mood of solidarity and festivity grew. However, the party ended suddenly when the police arrived. "Here comes the guardia," warned one of the women. This term, in reference to the National Police, had disappeared from the vernacular, until now.
As we watched, some 100 riot police, with helmets, tear-gas launchers and automatic machine guns, arrested two men, surrounded the barricade and forced any "stragglers" indoors. Memories flashed back to 1979. "Guardia" was appropriate, especially given the police repression in the days to come.
The new tax on vehicle ownership comes on top of a 25% hike in the price of petrol and the cost of new licence plates. In the past, these plates were made in Nicaragua by prisoners, giving them an income while providing an essential product. They are now contracted to a US firm, and are consequently more expensive.
Initially, the government demanded over A$600 (depending on the vehicle capacity) from each vehicle owner for the new plates and the ownership tax. (The annual per capita income is less than $700.) After the predictable outcry, it was reduced to approximately $80 for car owners. Transport minister Rosales said, "We dropped [the ownership tax] to 150 cordobas, which means giving up a couple of beers." In fact, added to the cost of the licence plates, it comes to over a hundred beers. It is not difficult to understand the determined protest against this arbitrary tax, nor the overwhelming public support for the strikers.
In addition to the tax itself, the government's reaction to the strike has also engendered anger and aggravated the conflict.
On the first day, September 20, only those workers or students with private vehicles who could avoid the intersections blocked by taxis or barricades, or those keen enough to walk, made it to work — in most cases, only to be sent home. Police minister Mendieta called for greater police presence to clear the streets. Education minister Belli ordered teachers to work.
Tuesday, September 21, was a tragic milestone. The strike had spread throughout the country. Facing a possible uprising, President Violeta Chamorro, unbelievably, flew to Guatemala for reasons still unknown — just as she flew to Mexico at the most crucial moment of the recent hostage crisis.
Worse still, in order to clear a passage for her expected return to the country that evening, police were ordered to disperse protesters on the highway leading to the airport and to demolish the barricades.
This televised police offensive looked more like uncontrolled gang warfare than a planned operation. In a 30-minute battle, in which police fired on protesters who responded with rifles and home-made mortars, two people were killed and five others received bullet wounds. Saul Alvarez, 37, deputy head of the Police Security Branch, and Rosmelda Martinez, 41, a bystander who had just arrived from the Caribbean coast, both died of bullet wounds.
In spite of an official statement announcing the president's arrival, she was still in Guatemala. She returned the next day. That evening, the "night ants" came out to build more barricades.
Notable in the current crisis has been the decisive and militant role of the FSLN, especially that of the former president, Daniel Ortega. Ortega called the president a "murderer". "Simply to clear the president's path, they spilt the blood of our brothers and sisters."
Ortega called for police to disobey their superiors when ordered to repress strikers and made a plea to the public for solidarity with "our companeros in the police force, who, risking their lives for $80 a month, are also victims".
"The police force is not our enemy", he pointed out (the dead police officer was in fact a long-standing Sandinista militant). "The repressive attitude of the government is our enemy, the government's economic policy is our enemy."
The FSLN has been crucial in putting this struggle into perspective. If the government were to use the collected funds for the good of the majority, in health or education, for example, there might not be such dogged resistance. The government "needs" the money, however, to pay this year's A$1300 million interest on its $15,000 million debt.
The transport workers' protest has become spark of a general condemnation of the government's economic policies, which call for greater sacrifice by the poor majority in order to pay the international lending institutions. The FSLN is fully supporting this now historic strike "in order to change the government's economic course".
Most schools were empty, the markets were deserted, and the few who managed to get to work were sent home early; the country was paralysed. Economically, the government has already lost more that it expected to gain from the tax.
The barricada on our corner, rebuilt at least five times, grew bigger than ever because, as our neighbour says, "There are more strikers than police", and "It's now a struggle for everyone, not just the transport workers".
On September 24, transport workers and their supporters celebrated a historic victory. After 38 hours of continuous negotiations, the government finally conceded to the bulk of the strikers' demands, including the annulment of the vehicle ownership tax.