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Nicaragua GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Government: Under constitution promulgated
January 1,
1987, republic with three independent branches. Executive
elected
for six-year term (Violeta Barrios de Chamorro became
president
on April 25, 1990). Unicameral National Assembly elected
to sixyear term concurrent with that of president.
Politics: Numerous political parties, most based
on
personalities rather than political philosophies. Largest
and
most cohesive single party, leftist Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN) headed by Daniel José Ortega
Saavedra,
entered into opposition in 1990 after almost eleven years
in
government. Since 1990, government ostensibly held by
National
Opposition Union (UNO), loose coalition of fourteen
parties
united to contest FSLN. Relations between government of
President
Chamorro and UNO leadership strained over government
support for
laws guaranteeing transfer of expropriated properties to
Sandinistas and continued FSLN influence within police and
armed
forces. Political process marked by violent labor
militancy and
sporadic political violence by rearmed Contra and
Sandinista
guerrillas. Presidential and National Assembly elections
scheduled for 1996.
Judicial System: Judicial system consists of
Supreme
Court, which handles both civil and criminal cases, courts
of
appeal, and courts of first instance at departmental and
municipal levels.
Administrative Divisions: Nine regions,
subdivided into
seventeen departments (fifteen full departments and two
autonomous regions in Caribbean lowlands). In accordance
with
1988 Law on Municipalities, 143 municipal units
functioning in
1992.
Foreign Relations: Since 1990 Chamorro
government has
greatly improved relations with United States and
supported
Central American integration. During 1980s FSLN government
aligned itself with former Soviet bloc and supported
leftist
causes, straining relations with United States and
neighboring
Central American countries.
International Agreements and Memberships:
Membership in
Organization of American States (OAS), Central American
Common
Market, System of Central American Integration (Sistema de
Integracidón Centroamericana--SICA), and United Nations
(UN) and
its specialized agencies. Important treaties include: 1947
Rio de
Janeiro Treaty of Mutual Assistance (Rio Treaty), Treaty
for the
Proscription of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America
(Tlatelolco
Treaty), and Central American Peace Agreement (Esquipulas
II).
Data as of December 1993
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