MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -- Nicaragua is abuzz with excitement over
                  the wedding of the president on Wednesday, a marriage that will give the
                  country its first formal first lady in two decades.

                  President Arnoldo Aleman marries a Miami schoolteacher in a civil
                  ceremony on Wednesday, followed by a religious ceremony Saturday which
                  nearly all Central American presidents will attend.

                  A television special on the couple drew huge ratings across Nicaragua on
                  Saturday, and newspapers are filled with speculation about the couple --
                  and about a reportedly icy relationship between the bride-to-be and
                  Aleman's eldest daughter, who had been serving as official hostess until now.

                  In Managua's streets, talk of the marriage is everywhere. Many believe the
                  new first lady is interested in the position more than the famously portly
                  Aleman.

                  "She probably didn't fall in love with him, but maybe other things attracted
                  her to him," said Auxiliadora Gomez, a makeup saleswoman.

                  "She's marrying for love of the position, not the man," argued Raquel
                  Ramirez, a 34-year-old secretary.

                  The new first lady, Maria Fernanda Flores Lanzas, said in a meeting with
                  foreign journalists Tuesday that she won't meddle in her husband's politics,
                  but that she will try to work in the fields of education and health.

                  "I will try to advise, help and support my husband in any way I can," she
                  said.

                  She said the couple planned to have two children.

                  Flores, 30, recently resigned as a teacher at Miami's Jackson Senior High
                  School. She is a Nicaraguan citizen who fled to the United States during the
                  leftist Sandinista administration, which governed from 1979-1989.

                  Aleman, 53, was imprisoned during the Sandinista government, and his first
                  wife died of cancer while he was behind bars. He was elected president in
                  1996.

                  The couple met two years ago and have had a slow courtship. "It wasn't
                  love at first sight," Flores said. "It was something that grew, because you
                  need to water love like a flower."

                  Flores denied widespread reports of tensions between her and Aleman's
                  eldest daughter, Maria Dolores, only three years her junior. She said,
                  however, that she would keep a certain distance from Aleman's children.

                  "I won't try to be their mother," she said.

                  Aleman traveled to the Dominican Republic in early October for a bachelor's
                  party. The civil wedding will take place Wednesday in Aleman's home, and
                  the religious ceremony Saturday at the small church of El Crucero, 15 miles
                  (24 kms) south of the capital.

                  Aleman's spokesman Gilberto Wong said the presidents of all Central
                  American countries except Guatemala have confirmed.

                  The couple will honeymoon in Italy, spending time in Venice and having an
                  audience with Pope John Paul II. Aleman will be gone during the anniversary
                  of Hurricane Mitch, which killed thousands of people across Nicaragua a
                  year ago and left tens of thousands homeless.

                  Nicaragua hasn't formally had a first lady since the 1970s. Daniel Ortega,
                  president from 1979-1989, never married his partner, and Violeta
                  Chamorro, who succeeded him, was a widow.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.