Ortega Marks Sandinista Revolution’s Anniversary With Denunciation of U.S.

President Daniel Ortega marked the sixth anniversary of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua on Friday with a denunciation of the Reagan Administration that exhorted Nicaraguans to resist what he called “U.S. terrorism.”

Ortega ridiculed a diplomatic note from the United States that accused the Sandinista government of supporting Central American terrorists. The note, made public Thursday, said that Nicaragua would be held responsible for any terrorist attacks on U.S. personnel in neighboring Honduras and that “the United States should be expected to react accordingly.”

Speaking to a huge crowd in Managua’s largest plaza Friday morning, Ortega said that Washington should take its accusations against Nicaragua to the World Court.

“The United States should go to the court before threatening us, before blackmailing us, before attacking us, before acting like terrorists,” Ortega said. “But if they keep staining themselves in blood, but if they keep acting like the terrorists that they are, then they probably aren’t going to go to the court.”

‘Victims of U.S. Terrorism’

He defined as terrorism the Reagan Administration’s support for anti-Sandinista guerrillas, called contras. “Victims of the U.S. terrorism,” he said, have included 199 children under age 12, who were killed, and 165 others, who were wounded.

“Nicaragua has neither practiced terrorism nor supports terrorism nor has been involved in any terrorist activity,” he declared.

The Marxist-led Sandinistas took power July 19, 1979, after leading a bloody insurrection against the dictatorship of President Anastasio Somoza. To celebrate Friday’s anniversary, Sandinista party workers organized a mass turnout at the plaza where Ortega spoke.

Ortega estimated the size of the crowd at more than 500,000, or 16% of Nicaragua’s 3 million population.

Red-and-white Sandinista flags fluttered beside blue-and-white Nicaraguan flags in the breeze above the crowd. A dozen Soviet-built military helicopters, including several MI-24s, flew over in formation.

The MI-24 is the most sophisticated and heavily armed helicopter gunship made in the Soviet Union. Nicaragua received six of them last year, but there are no confirmed reports that they have been used in the government’s battle against the contras.

Rifles to Civilians

Ortega said in his speech that 200,000 rifles have been distributed to Nicaraguan civilians to defend the country against the contras and against what the Sandinistas see as a possible U.S. military invasion.

“Who of you are prepared to take up the rifles to combat the aggressors that imperialism sends and the Yankee invasion if it occurs?” Ortega asked the crowd, which chanted in reply: “No pasaran. No pasaran (They shall not pass).”

The theme of the anniversary celebration was, “Victorious Nicaragua doesn’t sell out and doesn’t give up.”

Ortega said that U.S. officials are wrong if they think that an invasion would be greeted with “kisses and hugs.”

“To want to put out the light of the Sandinista revolution is as crazy as thinking that they can put out the light of the sun,” he said.

Sees U.S. Intimidation

The Reagan Administration wants to destroy the Sandinista revolution, he declared, because it challenges U.S. domination over underdeveloped countries.

“The U.S. leaders want to intimidate the peoples and governments so that we don’t fight for survival, because they prefer slaves,” he said. “That is why they try to destroy the example of resistance that the popular Sandinista revolution provides for the people of Latin America, for the peoples of the Third World, for the peoples of the world.”

But Ortega said that Nicaragua wants to resume the official talks with the United States that were held periodically during the last half of 1984 in Manzanillo, Mexico, and that were broken off by the United States in January.

“We continue to await the United States in Manzanillo so that the dialogue may resume, so that we may normalize relations,” he said.