Source: Associated Press (AP), Managua (reprinted by Editora Panama America, 10 June 1996) On 9 June 1996, businessman and Nicaraguan Resistance Party (PRN) President Fabio Gadea Mantilla told authorities that former Nicaraguan “contras” (anti-Sandinista resistance fighters) had, that morning, threatened to destroy his radio station, La Corporacion. According to Gadea Mantilla, the group which issued […]
Source: Associated Press (AP), Managua (reprinted by Editora
Panama America, 10 June 1996)
On 9 June 1996, businessman and Nicaraguan Resistance Party (PRN)
President Fabio Gadea Mantilla told authorities that former
Nicaraguan “contras” (anti-Sandinista resistance fighters) had,
that morning, threatened to destroy his radio station, La
Corporacion. According to Gadea Mantilla, the group which issued
the threats was the same one that occupied the station’s premises
on 6 June. Gadea Mantilla said that when he received the threats
by telephone he immediately faxed police, alerting them and
asking for protection for the station’s downtown Managua offices
and for the station’s transmitter, located 22 kilometres north in
the city of Tipitapa.
On 6 June, a group of former contras, reportedly acting on the
orders of PRN member and ex-contra Leonardo Zeledon, took over
the station, demanding that Gadea Mantilla register Enrique
Quinonez and Noel Rivera with the Supreme Electoral Council
(CSE)–the official state body in charge of overseeing elections
and registering political parties–as candidates for President
and Vice President respectively in the upcoming general
elections. (The CSE recently recognised Gadea Mantilla, in his
capacity as President of the PRN, as “the only authority who can
register candidates with the CSE.”) Rather than submit to the PRN
members’ decision to elect Quinonez and Rivera, Gadea Mantilla
refused to authorise the decision, and later announced publicly
his support for another right-wing candidate. Consequently, the
PRN members were unable to do anything except try to pressure
Gadea Mantilla. The group occupied the station for 15 hours
until, on 7 June, CSE President Rosa Marina Zelaya agreed to meet
with PRN leaders.
A few hours later, however, police apprehended Zeledon and other
PRN members on charges including “illegally occupying private
property, death threats and terrorism.” Zeledon, who is confined
to a wheelchair, was placed under house arrest.
Since then, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) radio
station has criticised the violence with which Zeledon, family
members and other affiliated PRN members were captured. The
station called on the population to express “solidarity with
Zeledon, his family and [those] members of the PRN.” Gadea
Mantilla feels this is libellous and he fears retaliation against
the station.
Appeals To
