Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
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From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Chamorro: I decide who runs army
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST
Message-ID: <news116.1992Oct29.143817@AmeriCast.com>

\SE A;WORLD
\SS (WS)
\HD Chamorro: I decide who runs army
\BY REUTERS
\DT MANAGUA

MANAGUA (Reuters) - President Violeta Chamorro angrily threatened to
fire military chief Gen.  Humberto Ortega yesterday after he declared his
intention to lead the Nicaraguan army until 1997.

Mrs.  Chamorro accused Gen.  Ortega - brother of former Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega, a leader of the rival Sandinistas - of
overstepping his authority and said he could be removed from his job
"tomorrow, day after tomorrow or at any moment" on her decision.
"Mr.  Ortega can say what he wants, but I want to make clear that he
cannot be there until 1997. He can't say that, because he is only the head
of the army and the one who makes the decisions here is me," Mrs.  Chamorro
said after returning from a trip to Europe.

Gen.  Ortega declared at a Tuesday news conference that he would resist
attempts by critics to replace him and that he intended to remain head of
the army until 1997 when a "professionalization" campaign would be
completed.

He also said he would not permit the military, which once had 100,000
troops but now has only 18,500, to be further dismantled.

Critics here and elsewhere - especially U.S.  Sen.  Jesse Helms, North
Carolina Republican - have called for Gen.  Ortega to step down because of
his ties to the leftist Sandinista regime led by his brother.

Mrs.  Chamorro defeated the Sandinistas in a 1990 election.


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