A look at one of the central issues of Nicaragua's elections.

Описание: (4 Nov 2001)
November 3, 2001
1. Mid shot Nicaraguan Flag and Sandina's Statue, pull out to show Cathedral
2. Mid shot of crows on Cathedral grounds
3. Wide shot pan of property
4. Various of Daniel Ortega's home in Managua
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Genaro Molina, suing to reclaim property:
"The problem is that the Sandinistas never gave back the property they stole. Otherwise Daniel Ortega would have given his house back years ago, and today he is running for president, living in a stolen house. This is a symbol of what is happening to me. Ortega says, 'All these other people won't give back the land, neither will we."
6. Various of Molina on his property
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Genaro Molina, suing to reclaim property:
"As you can see, I am fighting to recover the entire property called El Volcan, but it is very difficult because all sorts of people from the current government and the previous government, and members of the military, police and the church are involved and have a lot of influence. It is more difficult to sue 67 owners than just one."
October 31, 2001
8. Mid shot setup Mayor of Managua
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Herty Lewits, Mayor of Managua:
"The only government that can resolve the problem of the confiscated property is that of Daniel Ortega, because it will be easier for Daniel Ortega to ask the many Sandinistas to hand over their houses, to tell them they will be given a 20 or 30 year mortgage, and this way the problem will be solved."
November 3, 2001
10. Cutaway of ranch at el Volcan
October 31, 2001
11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Enrique Bolanos, Presidential Candidate:
"I have a plan that I hope I can implement. In the past, the established national plan was that stolen property remained stolen property, and the big names who took the property in the past, we need to make them give it back."
November 3, 2001
12. Various of ranch at el Volcan
STORYLINE:
The fate of land confiscated by Nicaragua's Sandinista government in the 1980s is one of the key issues in the upcoming national presidential election.
The Nicaraguan public goes to the poles this Sunday to vote for a new president.
During the Sandinista revolutionary regime's rule, after coming to power in 1979, the government confiscated more than 5000 private properties.
Most properties became state owned land or were handed over to other institutions.
The land where Managua's cathedral stands on today was once privately owned, before the Sandinista's confiscated it and gave it to the Catholic Church.
Before that particular plot of land belonged to the Church, it was owned by the ruling, and highly unpopular, Somoza family, ousted from power by the Sandinistas.
Some of the properties confiscated were handed over to private owners.
Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, now one of Nicaragua's presidential candidates, still lives in the house that he himself confiscated.
Genaro Molina is in the middle of court proceedings suing to win back property known as el Volcan Ranch, which was taken from him by the Sandinistas.
The 92 hectare (228 acre) Molina family ranch was physically confiscated in 1989, and then legally taken over two years later by the first post Sandinista government.
The leader of that government, also the first nationally elected leader of the country, Violeta Chamorro, partitioned Molina's land into 68 separate lots and sold them to private owners.
Molina himself bought one of the plots, and occupied more of the land by force.
Molina is presently in a court battle, suing the 67 other legal owners in an attempt to win his land back.

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