By MARIA TRAVIERSO
El Nuevo Herald

Wedding bells seem destined to ring for Nicaraguan President Arnold Aleman and
his Nicaraguan-born, Miami-raised sweetheart Maria Fernanda Flores Lanzas.

Sources close to the couple say they will marry later this year.

Where they will say ``I do'' is the question of the moment. Some say the couple
will be wed in August, in a civil ceremony during an engagement party at the
Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Others maintain that the ceremony, as well as the
church wedding, will be in Managua with only close friends and relatives in
attendance.

One thing is for sure: The bride's parents have already mailed out announcements
for the Biltmore engagement party.

Flores, 30, has lived in Miami for the past 20 years. She and her family left
Nicaragua after the Sandinistas seized power in 1979.

Speaking to a reporter in his Managua office some weeks ago, Aleman, 53, said
he felt lonely and that the time had come to rebuild his life. His wife, Maria
Dolores, died 10 years ago.

Now, ``my daughters [Maria and Alejandra] are married, my sister Amelia -- who
lived with us -- has expressed her desire to live with her husband, and I simply
wish to get married and be happy again.''

The couple met in Managua last summer, when Flores visited her homeland with
her father, Jose Antonio Flores.

The fiancee, a graduate of Florida International University, worked until December
1998 as a teacher of bilingual education at Miami Jackson High School in Miami.

In March, she was hired as a consultant by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education,
in a project funded by the World Bank. Also this year, her father was appointed
Nicaragua's deputy ambassador to the United Nations and Nicaraguan consul in
New York City.

Flores' younger sister, Ana Eugenia, a psychologist, reportedly has been granted
a Nicaraguan government grant to take postgraduate courses in psychology.

At Jackson High, Principal Louis Alan remembered Flores as ``an intelligent and
capable teacher. I believe she will do well in Nicaragua, and if she continues to
work in education, that country will benefit.''

Isabel Mendieta, 16, a Nicaraguan-born student at the school, said she is ``proud
that [Flores] will become the first lady. I like that.''