Perspectives on Nicaragua - II: Voices of the opposition:
Cassidy, Joseph E
PERSPECTIVES ON NICARAGUA-II Voices of the opposition JOSEPH E. CASSIDY WHILE LUNCHING with a lady who strongly supported the current role of Nicaragua's Sandinista Front of National Liberation...
...Since the proceedings of the Council of State are not transmitted to the public through the media, the Coordinadora and the Conservatives refuse to discuss it in the Council...
...PERSPECTIVES ON NICARAGUA-II Voices of the opposition JOSEPH E. CASSIDY WHILE LUNCHING with a lady who strongly supported the current role of Nicaragua's Sandinista Front of National Liberation (FSLN), I was asked where I had gone to Mass...
...It is interesting to note that, within the perspective of northern Central America -with what may be the swiftest political, economic, and social changes in the world -the Nicaraguan Parties and their shadows, the Front are about the only centrist or left-to-centrist politicians still functioning...
...This is called the Patriotic Front (FPR...
...Many Sandinista social programs are unquestionably worthy of praise...
...Recently Nicaraguan subscribers to La Nacion have been complaining that their papers do not arrive through the Sandinista-controlled mail...
...All the Parties opposed Somoza...
...But by now, the confusion is gone...
...his newspaper, Pueblo en Lucha por su Libertad (red, white, and black like the FSLN's own symbols) is beginning to circulate widely in Nicaragua...
...Grouped in the Coordinadora, an umbrella organization that increases efficiency, are: the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC), the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Social Christian Party (PSC), and two labor unions...
...And though the Parties really are denied the media, some important statements do get out because the Parties seem to have effective press agents at the San Jose (Costa Rica) daily La Nacion...
...The Patriotic Front does criticize Sandinista policies...
...The Popular Social Christian party (PPSC), the Liberal Independent party (PLI), and Nicaraguan Socialist party (PSN) compose the Front...
...and (3) since it takes a lot of time to work out a real revolution, now is a poor time to rock the boat with the type of elections envisioned by the Parties...
...and culprits arrested or deported...
...Then the MDN closed up shop in Managua, all its leaders fled to San Jose, and the Sandinistas confiscated the Party's property...
...In sum, things are not simple in today's fast-moving Nicaragua...
...The well-off, without pain, can become "proletariat...
...The vast majority of Catholic clergy will continue to oppose all Marxist-Leninist moves, especially since there is no right-wing dictatorship to serve as the complete opposite of Marxism, as there is in Guatemala, Chile, and Argentina...
...Visiting Catholic churches to gather some insights into the political reality is a valuable practice in Sandinista Nicaragua...
...Last October, Robelo's paper strongly suggested that the only door open to the anti-Sandinistas might be armed rebellion...
...But from the Marxist-Leninist point of view, which is the guiding ideology of the nine ruling Sandinista comandantes, the Parties, unbridled and scurrying about seeking support, hinder the inevitable revolutionary reconstruction...
...An article twice this size is needed to encompass this question, especially in the wake of Pope John Paul II's visit to Nicaragua...
...But their headquarters remain open, a few people are present, work goes on, public relations officers are available along with small amounts of literature...
...And the poor can be elevated into the odious category of "bourgeois" and still remain miserable...
...As a broad civic organization with close ties to international democratic socialism, UDEN is giving a needed structure to the anti-Sandinista movement...
...But the reality did not fit the labels bandied about: Item: The allegedly '' contra'' barrio, whose church had no political murals and whose sermons contained no statements of support for the FSLN or "the process," was the home parish of Nicaragua's head of state, Comandante Daniel Ortega, a thorough-going Marxist...
...Many members died in the struggle that put the Sandinista Front in the driver's seat...
...It may be a counterweight to Stedmen Fagoth's organization among the same Indians in North Nicaragua...
...It is widely understood that the five priests in government office are not there, as it was assumed, to tone down the FSLN's extreme leftist leanings...
...The local base communities, fashioned by these devoted people, were to be the real progressive church...
...But I have heard credible reports that an increasing proportion of the group -perhaps a quarter to a third over the last six months -is drawn from the regular ranks of Nicaraguan society and has no Somocista past...
...Meanwhile enthusiastic clergymen applied the Latin American church's ' 'option for the poor,'' in such a way that the FSLN was treated like a new Moses...
...For some unknown reason, the Conservatives publish, uncensored, their magazine En Lucha...
...For example, in January of this year, some traveled abroad to represent their ideology and aims to groups in three-or-so foreign nations...
...And all were enthusiastic for guided change in July 1979...
...But then the "dialectic" began working overtime in Nicaragua...
...To various degrees, the Parties' headquarters, and the homes of some members, were harassed or attacked by the Sandinista mobs (" turbas divinas" -"divine rabble"-according to Barricada...
...There Father Molina's church is 'with the process' "-favoring the Sandinista rule...
...This pleases the Sandinistas, because in the Council and out of the Council, they have another group of parties that will discuss it...
...covert destabilizing action...
...He was president of Nicaragua's central bank after the revolution, was a member of the Junta from May 1980 to March 1981, and served as ambassador to the United States...
...The Parties possess an ideological commitment to alleviating social misery, without however leaning on Marxist-Leninist rhetoric or social analysis, nor seeking aid and advice from Havana and Moscow...
...It is said to be filled with Somoza guardsmen...
...The motor-force within the exile anti-Sandinista umbrella organization ARDE is the Alfonso Robelo/Eden Pastora combination...
...Since all these leaders opposed Somoza, and did sincerely try to work with the Sandinistas, they are expected to have a strong influence within the current anti-Sandinista movement...
...and the counter-revolutionaries does not permit opposition...
...They have an ideology both socialistic and democratic enough to do the job at hand -if they could only go to the polls and let the people decide...
...The Parties' leaders and officials valiantly move around in the little space provided for them by the Sandinistas in the body politic...
...Their reasons are: (1) the emergency situation caused by the U.S...
...Oh that's too bad, that church is right in the heart of the 'contra' (anti-Sandinista) area...
...But opposition to Sandinista rule can hardly be called "not caring for the poor...
...Finally, the ideology of the third group, the Nicaraguan Socialist Party, is at least as Marxist-Leninist, if not more so, than that of the Sandinistas...
...Finally one group, the Democratic Union of Armed Nicaraguan Forces (UDN/FARN), was deported from Costa Rica for trafficking in arms...
...THE NICARAGUAN Catholic church, the final group included in this panorama of anti-Sandinistas, is, because of its structure, far more effective than parties, exiles, guerrillas, or clandestines...
...In northern Nicaragua, the anti-Sandinista Democratic Nicaraguan Force (FDN) has attacked positions fifty miles or so from the Honduran border...
...Over at the Carmelite Church," I replied, "it is right around the corner from Casa Fiedler, my hotel...
...Adan Fletes, president of the Social Christians, is also president and chief spokesman for the Coordinadora...
...Some individual Nicaraguans were arrested last summer, however, for arms traffic...
...Known as Comandante Zero, and always the most magnetic of the Sandinista comandantes, he had declared publicly that, since he was not a Marxist-Leninist, he would watch carefully to see that the revolution was not betrayed...
...Rivera however has no Somoza connections...
...Robelo's paper, Rescate, contains all the latest horror stories of Sandinista misdeeds...
...It has an internal branch, a paramilitary organization organized element in its ranks, one may be skeptical of those figures...
...However, one should also remember that it is to the Sandinistas' self-interest to convince the world that the FDN is nothing but a Somocista operation...
...for Americans, that means quite socialistic...
...Item: The term "contra" was used to label Violeta Chamorro and her son Pedro, the elite directors of the independent newspaper La Prensa, but it did not apply to the other equally wealthy Chamorros who head the two pro-Sandinista papers, Barricada and El Nuevo Diario...
...By no means...
...The Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ARDE) is the umbrella group formed in October 1982...
...The prospect of any immediate success for the anti-Sandinista movement is dim...
...In the spring and summer of 1981 party members were jailed for speaking out against poor government, others were exiled...
...His threatening charges of last spring ("Ill drive you [the other nine comandantes] out of your luxurious homes and Mercedes Benzes if you do not drop the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship") may have caused his temporary expulsion from Costa Rica...
...The bottom line is that the Sandinistas have the guns...
...And the Democratic Conservative Party usually articulates publicly with the others but refrains from Coordinadora membership mostly for historical and a few ideological reasons...
...I visited quite a few and talked with pastors and parishioners...
...Tragically, ideology has kept them from realizing that for a decent social revolution, the nation needs a viable economic and political system acceptable to the mainstream of Nicaraguans.to the mainstream of Nicaraguans...
...Unfortunately, like both the Salvadoran and Guatemalan regimes, the Sandinistas also do not allow foreign journalists to do investigate reporting among the insurgents, so there are very few journalistic accounts of the northern guerrilla activity...
...But he is back now, legally, and behaving well...
...It is widely held on all sides that the FDN is the spearhead of Washington's destabilization of the Sandinista regime, and therefore it simplifies things to believe that the FDN represents no one except the hated Somocistas and the outside interventionists...
...Most often hit was the Social Christian headquarters -seven times in one year...
...A spokesman for its comandante, Fernando (El Negro) Chamorro, added that ideological difficulties with ARDE caused Chamorro to move to Panama...
...And two non-Marxist members of the original Junta, Alfonso Robelo and Violeta Chamorro, resigned...
...Ideologically identical with ARDE, indeed sharing office space and public relations officers, it was founded in July 1982, and seems to be actually run by Wilfredo Montalban, the former president of the Social Democrats, who fled Nicaragua last year...
...In a parliamentary situation, the first two would vote with, or form coalitions with, the Parties of the Coordinadora...
...After first issuing statements in support of social change through humanitarian-democratic socialism (November 1979), most of the bishops grew cool toward what they noticed as Marxist-Leninist tendencies...
...The "union" is called Nicaraguan Assembly of Unity (ANUDE), formed in July 1982...
...anti-Sandinista training camps have been closed down by Costa Rica...
...From the standpoint of Western political science, the Parties are the historical depository of democratic values...
...It is all done simply by manifesting a certain attitude critical of-or even less than supportive of -the way the FSLN has been wielding the governmental machinery...
...This trip was paid for by the president of Venezuela with whom the Parties are ideologically attuned...
...Eden Pastora was a Sandinista guerrilla fighter for years and a member of the top FSLN command until he split with them in June 1982...
...Overt political activity by the Parties is forbidden, including rallies and large meetings...
...There then followed more of the same...
...So it forms a natural coalition with the Front and the Sandinistas...
...Finally, among the Nicaraguans working against Marxist-Leninism in the most beautiful city in all Latin America, San Jose, is UDEN...
...The guided tours which the Sandinistas provide foreign journalists yield little more in the way of information than do the press releases provided by the government of Managua...
...aid enriches only the military...
...Thus, the Nicaraguan Catholic church, minus the elements that support the FSLN, is the best and most effective ally of the other groups within this panorama of anti-Sandinista Front...
...In the -Council of State, representation was increased to give the Sandinistas a clear majority...
...You should have gone to Barrio Roguero...
...As for goals, ARDE's and ANUDE's plans do not differ from those of the Parties, the guerrilla/ clandestine forces, or even those of the Nicaraguan Catholic church -stave off Marxist-Leninist dictatorship and open the doors to pluralism...
...except for the Christian Democrats, Salvador's socialist yet democratic groups are with the guerrilla forces...
...our hard-liners would reject them out of hand...
...In the political spectrum, the Parties, as I shall refer to them for brevity, are left-to-center...
...Now, however, they prefer to form a coalition with the Marxist FSLN...
...2) the promises of pluralism always meant a "guided" participation of proven revolutionary-minded parties (not bourgeois people trying to coopt Nicaragua for the middle class...
...it never challenges the FSLN's dominating role...
...Guatemalan generals have about eliminated theirs...
...For that reason, the government recently gave the Council of State a proposal for a New Law of Parties...
...The exile groups have a wider range of options, but at present none uses, claims to use, or is charged with using Costa Rica as a base of armed forces against the regime in Managua...
...Political rallies by some of the Parties were disrupted by Sandinista mobs (those favoring the Sandinistas called them "spontaneous uprisings of lower classes against bourgeois usurpation of power...
...These respectable anti-Sandinista exile groups (Somocista groups in Miami and like places are not respectable) consist of one umbrella group containing four previously existing organizations and a "union" open to all exiled Nicaraguans regardless of their previous affiliations...
...Opposition to the Sandinista Front runs through all levels of society, has grown from almost none to a significant amount in three and one-half years, and is being expressed in a variety of ways by five groups: guerrilla warriors in the north, clandestine operations all over the country, political parties and labor unions headquartered in Managua, recently organized exiled groups headquartered in San Jose, Costa Rica, and the Nicaraguan Catholic church minus the "popular church" elements which support the government...
...Alfonso Robelo who was in the original revolutionary Junta for a year, heads the exiled Nicaraguan Democratic Movement (MDN), which functioned as a strident part of the Coordinadora (the Parties) until April 1982...
...In March 1982, the government announced special emergency laws in virtue of the guerrilla activity, Indian uprisings, and U.S...
...In this way, a full-scale civil war would be avoided...
...Yet in the name of ARDE, Robelo has more recently challenged the Sandinistas to settle all differences by an open election this coming June...
...Pastora's organization, the Frente Revolucionario Sandino, (FRS) broadcasts regularly into Nicaragua and is expected to have a genuine effect within the Sandinista army...
...The FSLN's Marxist outlook is compatible with the priests' own liberation theology interpretations...
...Also affiliated with ARDE is Arturo Cruz, a patriot who worked hand-in-glove with the Sandinistas for two-and-one-half years before renouncing his connections...
...WHILE the Parties in Managua wait for something to happen that might nudge them into the center of power, down the Panamerican Highway, in San Jose, Costa Rica, some Nicaraguans are working in exile to do just that...
...his real basis of support or attraction remains a mystery...
...Through it, Montalban expects to pressure the Sandinistas into at least modifying the revolution if not handing it over to the Parties...
...the counterpart in Honduras has had only a short-lived influence on the government and will probably be soon gobbled up by the military because of the "emergency" situation on both Nicaraguan and Sal-vadoran borders and the fact that the flow of U.S...
...Item: Father Molina's church, to which I had been referred by my luncheon companion, was indeed surrounded by poor people's houses and was thoroughly Sandinista in appearance, but I located other poor areas where the parishes not only had no political overtones but where pastors were considered' 'bad guys" by the Sandinistas and the-people were labeled "conservative" and "bourgeois" even though they were miserably poor...
...WITHIN Nicaragua, only four parties and two labor unions publicly operate as witnesses to the revolution's promise of political pluralism...
...Very little is known about Brooklyn Rivera's Union of Atlantic Coast Indians (MISURASATA), the third member of ARDE...
Vol. 110 • April 1983 • No. 8
