Nicaragua Forces Peasants to Move, Bars Aid to Rebels

Felicia Herrera, wife of a small-time cattleman, was not especially gratified to hear that the Sandinista government was going to build a new metal-roofed plank home for her.

“Soldiers of the government forced us to leave our house and then they burned it,” she said. “How can I be grateful to them?”

Herrera considers herself a victim of a stepped-up drive against rightist guerrillas who operate in the rugged northern mountain regions. The Sandinista government is forcing peasants into guarded and fortified camps--and, not incidentally, out of contact with the rebels who depend on farmers like Herrera for food and shelter.

Evacuation also opens up the possibility that the mountainous regions will become “free-fire zones” where the Sandinistas can bombard and strafe guerrilla positions without worrying about hitting civilians. Military observers in Managua, the capital, expect a major government offensive soon.

The United States, according to U.S. and Honduran sources in Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, launched daily spy flights over northern Nicaragua two weeks ago to gain information on the expected offensive.

The Sandinista program echoes a classic counterinsurgency tactic used in Vietnam, where the U.S. military moved peasants into “strategic hamlets,” and in Guatemala. The purpose is to keep guerrillas away from the civilian population that nourishes them.

Sometimes the strategy works, as in Guatemala, where it is credited with controlling a long-running rebel war. Sometimes, as in Vietnam, it fails.

In Nicaragua, where the leftist government is fighting a four-year rebellion by U.S.-backed rebels known as contras, it has had mixed results in the two previous times it has been employed.

In 1980, 10,000 Miskito Indians in eastern Nicaragua were moved from their villages along the Honduras border to camps inland. Resistance to the resettlement set off a rebellion, driving many Miskitos into Honduras, where some now support the contras.

In 1982, the Sandinistas moved peasants in southern Nicaragua into new villages, apparently successfully sapping support for Eden Pastora, a former Sandinista commander turned rebel.

This time, Nicaraguan officials say, 50,000 northern peasants will eventually be moved into new settlements, at a cost of $32 million. Already, 20,000 poor farmers are reported to have been taken from their homes and transfered into camps, mostly in Jinotega province.

Government officials, in an apparent attempt to reduce criticism of the forced resettlement, argue that the refugees benefit from leaving their remote villages for camps where health care and education are supplied.

“For the first time, we are able to concentrate population in areas of the best activity of basic services,” said Eduardo Bernheim, director of the resettlement program in part of the north.

‘Contras Will Starve to Death’

Despite such official explanations, the prime motive is clear. “Now the contras will starve to death,” said a soldier guarding a new settlement near San Juan de Limay.

The evacuation is a tacit admission that the contras have built a base of support in Nicaragua’s northern mountains. During a recent visit to contra camps along the Honduran border, reporters found that many new contra recruits had left Nicaragua to escape the government draft. In addition, many were displeased with Sandinista economic programs or complained of persecution.

Contra commanders, in an effort to make it easier for rebel troops to live off the land, assigned the recruits to their home areas, where they would likely find food and shelter among relatives. One such area was around Limay, in rugged tobacco, corn and cattle country.

Contra activity in the area has increased in recent months. During December, rebels burned a public bus and reportedly attacked a farming cooperative in Platanares, killing eight people. And in January, ambushes delayed projects to bring a new telephone line and road into Limay.

In response, several villages known to be sympathetic to the contras were evacuated and destroyed by Sandinista soldiers, religious workers said. Among the villages were El Naranjo, Colocondo and Los Encuentros.

Families Ordered to Move

In early March, Sandinista troops ordered Herrera and members of 30 other families from El Naranjo to move in East German-built army trucks to a refugee camp.

As elsewhere, resistance to leaving was not tolerated. “In time of war, the authorities must be obeyed,” said Argentina Garcia, an official of the National Social Security and Welfare Institute, which is coordinating assistance for the new settlements.

“They gave us three days to prepare to move,” said Herrera, who took refuge in the home of relatives in Limay rather than move into the nearby government camp. “Everything we could not take was destroyed. They knocked the roof in and then set the house afire.”

At the resettlement camp, the refugees are housed only under thin, white cloth tents or lean-tos made of dried leaves. The government promises that new shacks will soon be constructed.

Armed guards watch over a refugee group striking for the absence of men: Only seven males are among the 30 families interned here.

One mother of four said her husband “walked in the mountains,” a common euphemism for fighting alongside the contras. Another claimed her husband had abandoned the contras, only to be drafted into the Sandinista army. Herrera said her rancher husband was looking for housing in the town of Esteli.

Some of the interned families managed to bring their cows and a few utensils. On makeshift earthen stoves, the women cook corn and beans provided by the government. A doctor from Limay visits daily, according to missionaries.

Soldiers at the camp said that the refugees may join a local farming cooperative or work land that the government will provide.