Nicaragua Foils Rebel Bomb Plot Aimed at Managua, Borge Says

Security agents have dismantled a “terrorist cell” that planned to bomb targets in Managua and establish an urban front in the U.S.-supported guerrilla war against the Sandinista government, the interior minister announced Thursday.

The announcement came two days after the leftist government broadened an official state of emergency, suspending a series of civil guarantees. Interior Minister Tomas Borge said in a speech Thursday night that the state of emergency is needed to prevent urban terrorism and other subversive action.

Emphasizing the threat of such action, Borge announced that five terrorist infiltrators were arrested in Managua and that an undisclosed quantity of explosives was impounded.

He read a report by Commander Lenin Cerna, director of state security, saying that the terrorists had planned to blow up two bus stations, an electrical substation, a supermarket and the Managua offices of Aeroflot, the Soviet airline.

The report said the cell was “oriented” by Enrique Bermudez, the military commander of the main anti-Sandinista guerrilla organization, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force.

Known as contras, the anti-Sandinista guerrillas operate in the country’s rugged backlands and along the border with Honduras.

The contras sent a coded radio message to the Managua cell 10 days ago, giving orders to begin operations, according to Cerna’s report. It said that the rebels did not know that the members of their urban cell already were under arrest when the message was sent.

Cerna said that the case of the urban cell was closed. He called it “el caso alacran, “ the scorpion case.

In his speech, Borge said the contras were giving priority to a “terrorist project in the cities, particularly Managua.” He said their preparation for the project included fomenting discontent over the country’s economic hardships and “the manipulation of religious sentiments.”

Some labor unions and Catholic leaders have been increasingly critical of the government in recent months. The new suspensions of civil liberties under the state of emergency give the government a legal basis for banning meetings, censoring news media and taking other measures against dissent.

The state of emergency also provides for arrests without warrant and suspends the right of habeas corpus.

Because the country is at war, energetic measures are needed, Borge said.

“This is not a war starring John Wayne, shooting blank bullets,” he said. “It is not a ‘Rambo’ war, it is a war that is turning this country into a riddled, impoverished nation in a constant state of alert.”

Borge is a member of the government’s nine “commanders of the revolution,” who seized power in a 1979 insurrection against dictatorial President Anastasio Somoza.