Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 13 December 1968
Nicaragua: Somoza in a fury
General Anastasio Somoza has lashed out at incompetence in the cabinet and the public service.
General Anastasio Somoza has been showing signs of extreme irritability with his collaborators in the government and with the administrative machine in general. Speaking at Matagalpa at the end of last month he criticized the execution of the Plan Prolacsa, a multimillion dollar project for the raising of milk production, the construction of roads to bring the milk to the dairy and the installation of a large Nestle factory to produce chocolate for the whole Central America area. Somoza accused government engineers and others who prepared the plan of being 'delinquents' and of having made financial errors to the extent of 3 million dollars. 'We wanted just roads to transport milk. The technicians planned main roads and enormous superhighways,' the President criticized. Somoza announced that the whole of the planning office would be sacked, Plan Prolacsa suspended and the Matagalpa drainage scheme also suspended in view of other serious errors.
But it was not only the chaos in Matagalpa which was upsetting the General. The whole cabinet was, he said, guilty of submitting departmental budgets which had gone 'completely out of orbit'. The country's 21,000 public servants were, he complained, serving the 1.9 million Nicaraguans 'indolently'. This is seen as a salvo heralding cuts in government spending scheduled for next year. Under the new budget, 300,000 dollars down on last year's, 2,000 civil servants are to be dismissed and four million dollars transferred from the ministries of development and agriculture to public health and education. He had, he said, taken over a 'bankrupt country'. This is the third time in the space of three months that Somoza has painted a sombre picture of the Nicaraguan economy. In a recent address to development experts he announced that Nicaragua was crossing Niagara on a tightrope and it was to be hoped that they would get to the other side 'only slightly wet'.
Rumours are circulating in Managua to the effect that, following the sacking of Arnoldo Ramirez Eva as a minister of economy and his replacement by Orlando Barreto, the whole cabinet will be renewed at the new year. General Gustavo Montiel is expected to give his finance portfolio to Colonel Guillermo Noguera, chief of army supplies, while Lorenzo Guerrero, Ernesto Navarro and Alfonzo Lovo Cordero will be replaced in foreign affairs, labour and agriculture.
According to the Managua opposition daily La Prensa the President's friends, not knowing what to give to 'someone who had everything', contributed to a 10,000 dollar caravan trailer with three bedrooms, a kitchen and living room, all air-conditioned, for his 44th birthday.
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