More Profiles of Incoming Nicaraguan Cabinet Members – Daily
Text of report by Matilde Cordoba: “More profiles of new cabinet”, published by Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diario website on 28 December; subheadings as published
The country is anxious to find out who the new Finance and Public Credit Minister and Presidential Social Communications Secretary will be. One is in charge of managing public finances, and the other will be the new administration’s singing voice. For now, we will settle for the names that, while not yet confirmed, are still real.
Alba Luz Ramos – Nicaraguan ambassador to France
Ramos comes from Leon Department. She is the first woman to serve in the presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice. She studied law at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua [UNAN] in Leon. She has studied in Switzerland, England, and Texas, United States, as well as in Mexico.
When she returned to Nicaragua in 1979, she joined the Attorney General’s Office, which later become the Justice Ministry, where she remained until 1987. She served as Departmental Attorney General in Granada, Director of Records, Criminal Attorney General and, towards the end of 1987, vice minister of the Justice Ministry. This December will mark her 19th anniversary at the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ).
Samuel Santos – Foreign Affairs Ministry
The new foreign minister is currently the Sandinist Front’s foreign affairs secretary, and he was the first Sandinist to become mayor of Managua, in 1979. He is a tourist and hotel businessperson, as well as business manager, by trade.
Among his achievements as mayor are paving several of the capital’s neighbourhoods, rebuilding the National Stadium, and building an overpass at the Laguna de Tiscapa. One of the failures he is blamed for is directing Managua’s riverbeds towards the Laguna de Tiscapa, thus beginning its pollution.
Samuel Santos and his team will have to create, propose, and carry out the state’s foreign policy, as well as organize and direct the diplomatic missions, permanent representations, and consular offices, in addition to supporting all the state entities dealing with foreign affairs.
Orlando Nunez Soto – Director of the “Zero Hunger” Social Programme
He is a sociologist and Sandinist ideologue, recognized throughout Latin America for being a professor, researcher, university director, research centre director, and contributor to specialized publications. He studied political science at the University of Madrid, has a postgraduate degree in sociology from the University of Costa Rica, and a doctorate in political economics from the University of Paris.
He is the executive director of the Rural Production and Studies Research Centre (Cipres). The “Zero Hunger” programme, according to information published in the Confidencial weekly, will be providing a productive food bonus that consists of giving a cow to families that need one (previously selected by a committee from the community), and food for the livestock, with the commitment that the family will recycle certain wastes.
Emilia Torres – Women’s Institute
Emilia Torres studied arts and letters at the UCA. She has a master’s degree in municipal law from the UNAN and postgraduate studies in non-profit organizational management. She belonged to the Student Revolutionary Front (FER), was treasurer for the Association of Culture Promoters (APC) and a deputy to the National Assembly for one legislative period.
She is known for the opening of 25 cultural centres while she was the general director of the People’s Culture Centres, which provided recreation for children and young people and had cultural projects, theatre festivals, music, dance, and plastic arts, as well as recitals, literary workshops, and meetings with writers.
Amanda Lorio Arana – Environment and Natural Resources Ministry
Lorio is a sociologist who worked at the Agricultural Development and Reform Ministry in the 1980s. It is said she studied reflexology in Europe. Reflexology, or zone therapy, is the practice of stimulating points on the feet, hands, or ears to obtain beneficial effects on other parts of the body. She also has experience in alternative medicine, specializing in local methods.
Maritza Quant – Health Ministry [Minsa]
She is from Costa Caribe and is a general practitioner with a master’s degree in public health. She was director of the Bertha Calderon hospital in Managua. She also worked at the Minsa during the 1980s and has been director of several health centres and some Local Integral Healthcare Systems (Silais). She has worked with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and with the European Union.
Her vice minister is Dr Guillermo Gonzalez, a general practitioner who contributed to the creation of the National Health Plan and who belongs to the National Health Policy Technical Steering Team. During the 1980s, he was responsible for the Silais in Esteli Department. For the last decade, he has worked at the UNAN- Managua Health Studies Research Centre.
As the new health minister, Chavez [as published] will have to propose healthcare plans and programmes, in addition to coordination and directing the execution of the state’s healthcare policies in the areas of promotion, protection, recovery, and rehabilitation.
Jeannette Chavez Gomez – Labour Ministry [Mitrab]
Chavez is a well-known lawyer from Chinandega. She was a founder of the Consumer Defence Network and currently is the organization’s legal adviser. She has experience in labour law and has taken courses on this topic.
Her vice minister is Rene Cruz, also a lawyer specializing in labour law, as well as a professor at UNAN-Managua. At the start of the 1980s, she was a Mitrab delegate to Leon Department.
Chavez and her team will carry out and coordinate the state’s policies for labour, cooperatives, jobs, salaries, cleanliness, occupational safety, and labour force training.
Emilio Rappaccioli – Energy Ministry
Rappaccioli is a civil engineer and was in charge of the Nicaraguan Electricity Institute during the first Sandinist administration (1979 to 1990), and then during the first years of Violeta Chamorro’s administration (1990 to 1996). He is president of the National Commission on Judicial and Ethical Affairs for the FSLN [Sandinista National Liberation Front]. They used to call him “Mr Blackout” because of the rationing in place during the 1980s.
Roberto Lopez Gomez – Nicaraguan Social Security Institute
Lopez is a general practitioner working at the Alejandro Davila Bolanos Military Hospital. He is a special consultant for healthcare issues and has studied economics as it relates to healthcare. He worked with the deputies to reform the General Social Security Law and, it is said, has postgraduate studies at Harvard University.
His vice minister is economist Alicia Saenz. She has served as head of the UCA’s Economic and Management Sciences College and has worked as a professor at the UNAN-Managua. Saenz has a master’s degree in public economics and is the author of several university textbooks, in addition to being the director of the Economic and Social Consulting Research Institute (Ices).
Mario Salinas Pasos – Tourism Institute
Salinas Pasos is a successful businessperson who was nominated by the Sandinist Front Businesspersons Bloc. He is president of Desarrollos Sooner and a prestigious architect with postgraduate studies in Europe. He worked with Herty Lewites when the latter was at the Tourism Ministry in the 1980s.
Edward Centeno Gadea – Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development [Inifom]
The future Inifom executive president was mayor of Ocotal during the last term and is currently secretary of the Nicaraguan Coffee Growers Union (Unicafe) board of directors. For a long time he has been a leader among the coffee growers, and he was also president of the Nueva Segovia Coffee Growers Association.
He studied agricultural engineering with a minor in horticulture at the Antonio Narro National Agricultural University in Mexico.
During his administration, he received two awards as “Best Mayor,” both bestowed by Ethics and Transparency. Among his relevant works are the construction of the Ocotal market and the beginning of construction on the baseball stadium. He was also treasurer of the Association of Nicaraguan Municipalities (Amunic) board of directors. He was the first president of the El Paraiso-Nueva Segovia bi-national commission, where he promoted projects between Honduras and Nicaragua to increase Central American integration. He is also a member of the Sandinist Front National Municipal Affairs Committee.
Antenor Rosales Bolanos – Nicaraguan Central Bank
Rosales is the FSLN representative to the Bank Superintendency, as well as a lawyer and specialist in financial law. He is a banking law professor and was in the Nicaraguan Army from 1979 to 1994. He was also part of the Army Chief of Staff. Additionally, he was a partner of the Interbank. It is said that he is one of those who want to be a shareholder in the Copalar project that private businesspersons are trying to create to generate hydroelectric energy.
Luis Morales Alonso – Nicaraguan Institute of Culture
Luis Morales Alonso is an architect, painter, sculptor, art promoter, and theatre and dance scenographer. He works in metal and is considered the only Nicaraguan artist to use this material as a permanent support in his work. He has been a plastic artist for over 20 years.
He also won the Ortiz-Gurdian Foundation’s 3rd Nicaraguan Visual Arts Biennial in 2001, and has won special mention in domestic and international competitions. He owns the Anil visual arts gallery, which has existed since 2000 and has the mission of promoting visual and literary creativity in young artists.
Rosario Murillo – First Lady and Presidential Director of Social and Community Affairs
Rosario Murillo was born in Managua in 1951 and is renowned for her poetry and for being the president-elect’s right hand. She was a deputy to the National Assembly in the 1980s, as well as the Sandinist Culture Workers’ Association secretary general.
(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Americas. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.