Antonio Lacayo

Antonio Lacayo, widely seen as the most powerful and controversial figure in the Nicaraguan government, resigned as minister of the presidency after five tumultuous years in office. Lacayo, 47, the son-in-law of President Violeta Barrios Chamorro, plans to stay in politics and dedicate himself to building support for the National Project, a centrist, pro-government party he heads. Chamorro named Julio Cardenas, who has held the title of minister-adviser of the presidency, to replace Lacayo.

Antonio Lacayo, widely seen as the most powerful and controversial figure in the Nicaraguan government, resigned as minister of the presidency after five tumultuous years in office. Lacayo, 47, the son-in-law of President Violeta Barrios Chamorro, plans to stay in politics and dedicate himself to building support for the National Project, a centrist, pro-government party he heads. Chamorro named Julio Cardenas, who has held the title of minister-adviser of the presidency, to replace Lacayo.

In her first act as president-elect, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro appointed her son-in-law, Antonio Lacayo, to negotiate a smooth takeover of power from the defeated Sandinista government. That decision produced the first spat within her victorious National Opposition Union, the coalition of 14 parties that is supposed to run Nicaragua starting April 25. Party chieftains met Wednesday to complain that they were not consulted.

In her first act as president-elect, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro appointed her son-in-law, Antonio Lacayo, to negotiate a smooth takeover of power from the defeated Sandinista government. That decision produced the first spat within her victorious National Opposition Union, the coalition of 14 parties that is supposed to run Nicaragua starting April 25. Party chieftains met Wednesday to complain that they were not consulted.

Nicaragua's governing coalition threatened to press criminal charges against former President Daniel Ortega for allegedly fomenting a wave of unrest by Sandinista sympathizers. Backers of the former regime have seized at least six city halls and four radio stations to protest government efforts to repeal laws that gave confiscated land and houses to thousands of Sandinista loyalists. Antonio Lacayo, a top aide to President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, met with Ortega to try to defuse the

Nicaragua has renegotiated its $1.02-billion debt with Mexico, including a virtual writeoff of $450 million, Presidency Minister Antonio Lacayo said Friday. Lacayo said Mexican Finance Minister Pedro Aspe would sign the debt agreement in Managua today. The accord will allow Nicaragua once again to receive crude oil shipments from Mexico under the favorable terms that are granted to Central American and Caribbean countries by Mexico and Venezuela.

Authorities on Sunday outlined the toll of destruction from a volcanic eruption three days earlier that forced thousands to flee their homes. The 3,220-foot Cerro Negro volcano, near the city of Leon in northwestern Nicaragua, rained fireballs and ash on nearby villages when it erupted late Thursday, knocking in the roofs of at least 40 homes. At least 10,000 peasants were evacuated from the area, and another 12,000 might have to be moved, Presidency Minister Antonio Lacayo said Sunday.

President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, 60, the daughter of wealthy landowners, was born Oct. 18, 1929, in Rivas, a small town about 18 miles from the border with Costa Rica. She is the widow of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, publisher of the opposition newspaper La Prensa, whose assassination in 1978 helped spark the revolution that brought the outgoing Sandinistas to power. Pedro Chamorro was one of the most prominent opponents of the Somoza family dictatorship.

Francisco Mayorga, the Yale-educated monetarist who forged an ambitious economic recovery plan for Nicaragua's new pro-American government and shouldered much of the blame for its continuing hardships, has been dismissed as president of the Central Bank. The government announced Wednesday that Mayorga had resigned Tuesday to return to teaching. But the economist made it clear at a news conference that he was forced out over policy differences with other presidential advisers.

Rebels took at least 12 lawmakers, soldiers and government officials hostage Thursday in northern Nicaragua and demanded the resignations of two top Nicaraguan officials, the army said. The hostage-takers, former Contra rebels who fought the leftist Sandinistas in the 1980s and who have rearmed, demanded the resignations of presidential aide Antonio Lacayo and army chief Gen. Humberto Ortega, said Lt. Milton Sandoval, an army spokesman.

President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro's political coalition Saturday rejected her candidate to head the new National Assembly and chose instead a woman who is less conciliatory toward the defeated Sandinista government. By a 28-23 vote that reflected a deep rift in the National Opposition Union, the coalition's newly elected deputies chose Myriam Arguello over Chamorro's chief political strategist, Alfredo Cesar, as their nominee to preside over the 92-seat Assembly.

A carefully negotiated plan to reduce the Sandinista-led army in Nicaragua was upset Saturday after the country's National Assembly cut nearly $20 million from a slimmed-down defense budget submitted by President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. Chamorro's entire National Opposition Union bloc, a majority in the assembly, defied the president by voting late Friday to lower defense spending from $166 million in 1990 to $58.8 million in 1991, less than 12% of next year's $495-million national budget.