Divisions over Nicaragua

...The confessions of one of the alleged conspirators also incriminated the nation's traditional political parties, including the Social Democratic Party and the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement headed by ex-Junta member Alfonso Robelo, in the plans of economic sabotage...

...The minister noted that his Nicaraguan counterpart, Miguel D'Escoto, had visited Caracas immediately prior to Borge's speech and in closed sessions between the two ministers had expressed gratitude to Venezuela without making reference to the machinations of its diplomatic functionaries...

...However, the divided sentiment within democratic parties in Latin America regarding Central America will undoubtedly rule out united action against Nicaragua, demonstrating once again the unfeasibility of attempting to turn the clocks back to the Cold War era.o the Cold War era...

...The denunciation may have been linked to a three-week visit by the ex-CIA agent-turned-radical Philip Agee in November, although El Salvadoran guerrillas in Mexico have also published numerous accounts of the agency's Central American operations...

...The policy of the Venezuelan Christian Democratic government toward Nicaragua is laden with inconsistencies...

...Ironically the cement complex was financed by Venezuela while the petrochemical one was supplied by Venezuelan oil...

...These two parties opposed the invitation to the Sandinistas to attend a Socialist International summit conference in Caracas on grounds that several of the Nicaraguan leaders had already formally embraced Marxism-Leninism...

...Member parties from Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Chile spoke out against the organization's policies which were formulated under the leadership of the Christian Democratic ruling party of Venezuela...

...The most serious criticism leveled by Singer and others is that in establishing ties and defending groups like the Sandinistas the European Social Democratic parties have turned their backs on the democratic part of democratic socialism...

...Deputy Rodriguez noted that not only did Pastora unexpectedly leave Nicaragua to offer his services elsewhere, but other commanders of the Southern Front went into exile...

...State Department signified a flat rejection of a reconciliation course, and, along with the attack against Venezuela, meant a closer alignment with Cuba...

...These divergences became apparent at a recent congress of the Christian Democratic Organization of America held in Caracas...

...At the same time the minister offered an interpretation of his own regarding Borge's speech, namely that it signaled the deepening of an internal power struggle...

...It is worth noting that the probable Christian Democratic candidate for president of Venezuela, ex-President Rafael Caldera, and his main opponent of the Social Democratic party, are likely to uphold a less critical view of the internal policies of the Sandinista government than do those who presently conduct Venezuela's foreign policy...

...characterization of the Sandinistas: in spite of avid moral support extended to their erstwhile guerrilla companions in El Salvador and Guatemala, the Sandinistas have so far avoided the xenophobia which initially characterized other revolutionary governments - the STEVE ELLNER teaches at the Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela...

...More recently, Perez has called on the United States to include Nicaragua in the Reagan plan for the development of Central America, announced in late February...

...Indeed, as far as that goes, the treatment that Nicaragua has received from the Reagan administration is already reminiscent of that accorded to Cuba of that period...

...In any case, it is unlikely that the leaders of these two parties will endorse the types of measures which were taken against Cuba in the early 1960s...

...The Venezuelan government - and by implication the Christian Democratic international movement - has not yet completely dropped its commitment to Nicaragua, nor has it joined the United States in assuming an openly hostile posture...

...Max Singer, for instance, in the December issue of Commentary ("Can El Salvador be Saved...

...Willy Brandt's assumption of the presidency of the International in 1976 marked a conscious decision to move away from "Eurocentrism" by incorporating third-world parties whose commitment to Western-style pluralistic democracy was open to question...

...Nicaragua's foreign policy belies the U.S...

...Rodriguez pointed to the three factions in the Sandinista movement which the Cubans managed to reunite just months prior to the final offensive against Somoza...

...That the Borge speech coincided with friendly gestures from the U.S...

...Today, prestigious European Social Democratic leaders such as Brandt and Felipe Gonzalez have backed radical Latin American organizations including the Sandinistas, the ruling New Jewel Movement of Grenada, and the El Salvadoran National Revolutionary Movement, which is allied with leftist guerrillas...

...Not only had that party previously been refused admission to the Socialist International, but many of the left-leaning Social Democratic leaders have questioned in private whether it is not a creation of the CIA...

...This support is not limited to the "Third Tendency," which was originally closely linked to Social Democratic leaders like Perez, and naturally includes Borge...

...The international Social Democratic movement has extended greater support to the Sandinista government, for which it has been sharply criticized by United States conservatives...

...This support has dismayed some of the conservative leaders of the International's more traditional affiliate parties such as those of Venezuela and Costa Rica...

...The Venezuelan Foreign Minister reacted caustically to the accusation, which, he claimed, impugned the honor of his nation's armed forces...

...The Venezuelan position was further elaborated upon in a personal interview with one of the architects of the nation's foreign policy, Deputy Jose Rodriguez Iturbe...

...The more pragmatic "Third Tendency," which had ties with the international Social Democratic movement and which attempted to establish alliances with the traditional political forces within Nicaragua, maintained a Southern Front under the command of Eden Pastora, commonly referred to as "Commander One...

...President Luis Herrera Campins forcefully opposes outside interference in Nicaraguan affairs and insists that the goals of a pluralistic society and a mixed economy are still realizable, a message which he personally delivered to President Reagan last November...

...In the first place, Miguel D'Escoto, a Mary knoll priest who was initially thought to exercise a moderating influence, does not apparently play a key political role in the Sandinista government...

...CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS & SOCIALISTS EYE THE REVOLUTION Divisions over Nicaragua STEVE ELLNER THE reagan administrations view that the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua has embarked on an irreversible course toward Marxist totalitarianism is not shared by many democratic parties and governments in Latin America...

...Actually, the decision of the European Social Democrats to revamp the Socialist International at the expense of its traditional democratic orientation was not without previous controversy...

...As a result of this objection, the conference, which was slated for February 24 and 25, was postponed...

...In addition, he refused to investigate the charges, for which he was criticized in chorus by the nation's opposition parties...

...THE VENEZUELAN analysis overlooks certain facts, although its conclusion regarding a radicalization process is widely accepted in many quarters...

...In addition, the thesis regarding the defection of the Southern Front leaders as a bloc is undermined by a recent statement by Pastora - some say from Panama - in which he makes "a call to the people of Nicaragua to unite as a body behind the National Direction in defense of the gains achieved by our Sandinista Popular Revolution...

...claimed that French socialists know nothing about Central American issues "which have . . . offered a safe arena for attacking the U.S...

...At a meeting of Latin American political parties in December in Panama, Perez described Borge as having "borne all his sacrifices on the altar of love for country and democracy," and then went on to declare: "The Nicaraguan revolution is today the patrimony of all Latin America and in the name of this patrimony we put our faith in the words and commitment of the Sandinista movement...

...On the other hand, Venezuelan Christian Democratic spokesmen have ominously warned that while aid to Nicaragua (which includes credits on the purchase of oil at generous terms) is not "conditional," it is not without conditions...

...According to Rodriguez, Borge attempted to make political capital out of spurious evidence regarding a conspiracy in order to consolidate his position within the government, to strike out at the Southern Front (Rodriguez claimed that several of the accused were directly or indirectly identified with those commanders) and to radicalize the revolution...

...Internal differences in the Social Democratic movement over Nicaragua are especially manifest within the Venezuelan Democratic Action Party...

...It is thus unlikely that the United States will be able to isolate Nicaragua from hemispheric neighbors with the same ease that it did Cuba some twenty years ago...

...On the other hand, Democratic Action's charismatic leader ex-President Carlos Andres Perez, who has become Latin America's leading Social Democratic spokesman since Torrijos's death, has heaped praise on the Sandinistas...

...On the one hand, Democratic Action's central committee extended solidarity to the Nicaraguan Social Democratic party, which was allegedly implicated in the recent conspiracy denounced by Borge...

...Venezuela has also protested on several occasions against measures taken by the Nicaraguan government which presage a radicalization process, and has even hinted that the price of such a development would be the severance of diplomatic relations...

...The southern Latin American delegates were especially distressed at their organization's all-out support for the Christian Democratic regime of El Salvador whose repressive policies were considered to be comparable to those of their own governments...

...Venezuela reacted this way to a speech early this year by Nicaraguan Minister of Interior Tomas Borge which implicated the CIA, Somozistas, and various functionaries of the Venezuelan embassy in Managua, including the military attache, in a conspiracy to blow up both a cement and a petrochemical plant...

...Russian and Cuban to name but two - whereby exporting revolution is perceived as the nation's best defense...

...Both the Christian Democratic and the Social Democratic movements in Latin America (and particularly those within Venezuela, which play a critical role at the continental level) have been internally divided on the issue of Nicaragua and Central America in general...

...and demonstrating one's radical credentials...

...Should the Nicaraguan government clamp down on liberties and move substantially to the left it will undoubtedly forfeit the qualified support it has received from the Social Democratic and, to a lesser extent, Christian Democratic movements...