Word: sandinistas
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...Reagan Administration was not impressed. Vernon Walters, chief U.S. delegate to the U.N., called the offer for negotiations a "lie." He charged that Nicaragua's Sandinista regime was "laying the groundwork for a one-party state." His Nicaraguan counterpart, Nora Astorga in turn accused Walters of "repeating the same distortions and lies" in order to disguise an illegal U.S. policy of aggression. Walters countered, "Is it a lie that the Sandinistas have sought to destroy the democratic labor movement? Is it a lie that the Sandinistas have sought to crush Nicaragua's private sector?" Within moments, Ortega's appeal...
...antiaircraft missiles. "The war will be nastier than it's ever been," says a U.S. official. "What we're seeing is both sides gearing up for this new phase." The only players who so far seem uninfected by the war bug are the contras. While the CIA and the Sandinista Popular Army ratchet up their plans for what Ortega warns may be "another Viet Nam," the rebels seem content to idle away the hours in their Honduran camps. Two weeks ago, contra military leaders, packing showy chrome and gold-plated pistols, celebrated the reappearance of CIA officials at rebel headquarters...
...last week, when most Nicaraguans were still asleep, Felix Pedro Espinoza Briones, a member of the National Assembly, was busy climbing the chain link fence surrounding the Venezuelan embassy in Managua. After diplomats began arriving for work, he entered the building and requested asylum. Espinoza, a critic of the Sandinista regime, apparently feared arrest. Such concerns are widespread in Nicaragua these days. Since the House passed legislation to give $100 million in aide to forces fighting the Sandinistas, President Daniel Ortega Saavedra has been cracking down on a wide range of opponents...
Garcia's fate is a telling sign of the nervous mood in Managua these days. The Sandinista regime is repressing any activity that may be construed as disloyal. In the process, the nine-man Sandinista Directorate does not hesitate to trample on civil rights, as a report released last week by the New York City-based International League for Human Rights makes all too clear. The government has also embarked on a military buildup, based on its insistence that the country is now on a virtual war footing with the U.S. The rationale for a buildup was strengthened last month...
...campaign to suppress dissent is unmatched since the Sandinistas took power in 1979. Two weeks ago, Roman Catholic Bishop Pablo Antonio Vega, a critic of the regime, was forced into exile in Honduras. The move drew sharp criticism of the Sandinistas from Pope John Paul II during his pastoral visit to Colombia last week. The Pontiff delivered a speech declaring that he found Vega's expulsion a "nearly incredible act" that was reminiscent of the "dark ages," when priests in Latin America were persecuted. Vega, the second-ranking Catholic prelate in Nicaragua, was taken to the Honduran border by Sandinista...