CONFERENCE ON NICARAGUAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS SET FOR OCTOBER 4 & 5 AT POINT PARK COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

September 20, 2001

Pittsburgh--The citizens of Nicaragua will head to the polls in early November to choose a new president in one of the most important and closely followed elections in the Western Hemisphere. Possible election outcomes and their impact will be the focus of "Nicaragua's Presidential Election: The Role of the Media and Implications for the Hemisphere," a conference scheduled for Thursday, October 4 and Friday, October 5 at Point Park College and the University of Pittsburgh.

The conference, which is free to the public, is sponsored by the Center for Latin

American Studies and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs of the

University of Pittsburgh, Point Park College, The Violeta Chamorro Foundation, and The World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh.

The conference will open on Thursday, October 4 with a 6:30 p.m. reception in the

GRW Theatre of The Library Center of Point Park College and The Carnegie Library of

Pittsburgh, 414 Wood Street, downtown. The program will begin at 7 p.m. in the GRW Theatre with a welcome from Dr. Katherine Henderson, President of Point Park College.

Cristiana Chamorro, a member of the board of directors of La Prensa, Nicaragua's largest newspaper, will deliver the keynote address on "The Nicaraguan Election: The Candidates, The Issues, and The Role of the Media."

Reactions to Chamorro's remarks will be made by panelists Glenn Garvin, a Miami Herald reporter; Dr. Katherine Hoyt, Co-Director of the Nicaragua Network, an advocacy group working for a democratic Nicaragua; and Greg Victor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette international editor.

The conference will resume on Friday, October 5 at 8:45 a.m in Room 2K56,

Wesley W. Posvar Hall at the University of Pittsburgh. Carolyn Ban, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, will introduce the next portion of the program.

"Democracy and Elections in Nicaragua," which will address the historical and

immediate importance of the elections for democracy in Nicaragua, will be discussed by John Booth, Regents' Professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas and a leading scholar of Nicaraguan politics, and Shelly McConnell, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science at Emory University and chief of the Carter Center's delegation of election monitors for the Nicaraguan elections.

Dr. Barry Ames, Mellon Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and Dr. Mitchell A. Seligson, Daniel H. Wallace Professor of Political Science and Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, will provide reactions to the presentations.

"Implications For Policies in the Hemisphere," an examination of the implications of Sandinista or Liberal Party win on the foreign policy on the United States and other Western Hemisphere countries, will the topic of Dr. Ruben Zamora, a fellow at the Smithsonian's Wilson Center, political scientist and former legislative and presidential candidate in Nicaragua, and Dr. Katherine Hoyt, at 10:45 a.m.

Panelists Cristana Chamorro and Anibal Perez-Linan, Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, will provide reactions to Zamora's remarks.

Following a buffet lunch at 12:30 p.m., the conference will conclude with a 1 p.m.

address by John Keane, Office of Central American Affairs, U.S. Department of State, on

"The Significance of the Nicaraguan Elections for the U.S. and the Hemisphere."

To register or to obtain additional information, contact the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Latin American Studies at (412) 648-7392 or email clas@pit.edu.

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(9/20/01)