|
Nicaragua The Church
The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, which had been
regarded
by the Sandinista government as among its harshest
critics, also
became critical of the Chamorro government well before its
second
anniversary. From the beginning, the church's hierarchy
had a
role in the new Chamorro government: Cardinal Miguel
Obando y
Bravo, Archbishop of Managua, was named one of the
guarantors of
the peace accords signed during the 1990 transition
period. The
Roman Catholic Church also had a part in shaping society
under
the new government, according to some sources. Cardinal
Obando
was influential in revamping the national education system
and
curriculum to eliminate Sandinista influence. The
educational
revisions were carried out by Minister of Education
Humberto
Belli and his vice minister, Sofonías Cisneros Leiva, both
of
whom were close to Cardinal Obando, and by members of the
City of
God charismatic Roman Catholic sect.
For a short period at the beginning of the Chamorro
government, the Roman Catholic Church abandoned the
high-profile
political and social posture it had assumed during the
Sandinista
years. However, the low profile was reversed when, on
November
24, 1991, Cardinal Obando and Nicaragua's nine bishops,
speaking
as the Bishops' Conference of Nicaragua, signed a lengthy
pastoral letter. This letter deplored the country's
economic
situation and faulted the government for a failure to
establish
justice. The letter also accused the government of
corruption and
accused, without naming them, the Sandinista labor unions
of
inciting violence. Finally, the letter criticized levels
of
military spending and the luxurious life-styles of many
officials
in the government in the face of poverty. In a statement
that
appeared to counter pressures from the United States for
Nicaragua to open the economy totally to market forces,
the
bishops stated that poverty had reached "levels
unprecedented for
several decades" and noted their belief that "the free
market
alone cannot resolve underlying social problems."
Data as of December 1993
|
