Nicaragua Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: Republic of Nicaragua

Type: republic

Capital: Managua

Political subdivisions: one national district and 16 departments; in 1982 the Sandinistas established six regions and three special zones, which both the government and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) increasingly use for administrative purposes

Legal system: the Sandinista-appointed Government of National Reconstruction revoked the constitution of 1974 and issued a Fundamental Statute and a Program of the Government of National Reconstruction to guide its actions until a new constitution is drafted by the National Assembly, which was elected in November 1984

National ho'tday: Independence Pay, 15 September; Anniversary of the Revolution, 19 July

Pranches: executive and administrative responsibility formally reside in the President, Vice President, and Cabinet; in reality, the nine-member National Directorate of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) shares power with and dominates the executive; National Assembly was elected in November 1984 and inaugurated in January 1985 with a mandate to draft a new constitution; the country’s highest

judicial authority is the Sandinista-appointed Supreme Court, composed of seven members

Government leaders: Cdte. (Jose) Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra, President (since 10 January 1985); Sergio RAMIREZ Mercado, Vice President (since 10 January 1985)

Elections: national elections were held on 4 November 1984 for president and vice president (elected for a six-year term), and a 96-member National Assembly

Political parties and leaders: the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) is the ruling party and dominates political life; the FSLN has 61 seats in the National Assembly; only the Liberal Party, because of its ties to the Somoza family, has been specifically banned; the government prohibited most political activities by opposition parties under the state of emergency in March 1982 and expanded the emergency decree in October 1985; the main opposition parties boycotted the elections on the grounds that the regime had not provided them with sufficient political guarantees; the democratic opposition parties include the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Luis Rivas Leiva; the Social Christian Party (PSC), Erick Ramirez; the Democratic Conservative Party of Nicaragua (PCDN), Mario Rappaccioli; the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), Alfredo Reyes Duque Estrada; the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), Virgilio Godoy; the Popular Social Christian Party (PPSC), Mauricio Diaz; and the Democratic Conservative Party (PCD), Eduardo Molina; the PSD, PSC, PCDN and PLC, as well as opposition business and union organizations form the Democratic Coordinating Board—Eduardo Rivas Gasteazoro, president; the PPSC and PLI were allied with the FSLN in the Patriotic Front of the Revolution (FPR) until early 1984 but fielded their own candidates in the elections; a pro-FSLN faction dominates the PCD; the PCD has 14 seats in the National Assembly, the PLI 9, and the PPSC 6; two additional relatively obscure parties, the Central American Unionist Party (PUCA) and the Revolutionary Party of the Workers (PRT), were founded in late 1984

Communists: the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN), Luis Sanchez Sancho, founded in 1944, has served as Nicaragua’s Moscow-line Communist party; the Communist Party of Nicaragua (PCdeN), Eli Altamirano Perez, is an ultraleft breakaway faction from the PSN; and the Popular Action Movement— Marxist-Leninist (M AP-ML), Isidro Tellez; only the PSN was a member of the FPR alliance with the FSLN, but all three have supported the revolution; the PCdeN and MAP-MI, have criticized the Sandinistas for moving too slowly toward consolidation of a Marxist-Leninist regime, each of the three Communist parties has two seats in the Na tional Assembly

Other political or pressure groups: the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) is an umbrella group comprising 11 different chambers of associations, including such groups as the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Industry, and the Nicaraguan Development Institute(INDE)

Member of: CACM, CEM A (observer), FAO, G-77, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBRD ICAC, ICAO, ICO, IDA, IDB— Inter-American Development Bank, IF AD IPC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IPU, IRC, ISO, ITU, NAM, OAS, ODECA, PAHO, SELA, UN, UNESCO, UPEB, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WTO

NOTE: The information regarding Nicaragua on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Nicaragua 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Nicaragua 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.