Rebels ‘Don’t Have Act Together’ : Contras Unable to Cut Sandinista Arms Route

Curving through gentle hills, the highway passes by a row of little wooden houses with thatch roofs, then crosses a bridge over a lazy river on the edge of Presillitas. Herds of cattle, army trucks, civilian cars, walking peasants and soldiers share the rough asphalt route along the way.

The highway through Presillitas is a picturesque back-country road. But it is also a vital government route for military cargo, its deep potholes growing steadily larger under the grinding wheels of heavy trucks. Guerrillas fighting the Sandinista government said repeatedly last year that they would cut the highway and stop the military shipments.

The rebels’ efforts peaked Nov. 10, when they briefly occupied Presillitas. Now, it is clear that their interdiction campaign has fizzled.

Security Increased

Government forces have increased security along the highway, and the rebels--or contras --have so far failed to hit it with another major blow. One military observer said that not only government security, but also contra incompetence, has kept the guerrillas from carrying out their announced goal.

“They just don’t have their act together,” the observer said, adding that the rebels are notably lacking in expert military training and advice.

Presillitas hugs the highway 14 miles west of El Rama, a port town on the Escondido River, which runs into the Caribbean Sea. The highway to El Rama is the only paved road linking the Caribbean with Managua, the capital 170 miles away.

The Sandinista armed forces depend heavily on the Rama highway to transport weapons supplied by the Soviet Bloc to fight the U.S.-backed contras. Early last year, the contras’ Jorge Salazar Regional Command began building up its forces in a large, sparsely populated area north of the highway. Some military sources estimate that the number of contras in the area reached about 2,000.

Route Became Dangerous

In August, the contras began ambushing and burning vehicles on the highway west of El Rama.

Lt. Roger Urbina, information officer with the Sandinista army’s 552nd Battalion in El Rama, said that burned vehicles included two trucks from a government ministry, a bus, a pickup truck and two gasoline tankers belonging to a private company. The tank trucks, hit in early December, were the last vehicles attacked, Urbina said.

Since then, he said, the contras have not been able to get near the highway. “They are on the run, deep in the backlands,” he said.

Specially trained anti-insurgency units pursue the contras through the river-laced terrain north of the highway. Army, militiamen and Interior Ministry troops guard the highway and its bridges. Land mines have been planted around bridge abutments for added protection. Soldiers with automatic rifles are constantly visible along the highway for 30 miles west of town.

But the troops seemed relaxed last week, giving the impression that no attack was expected. At some bridges, soldiers reclined casually by concrete guardrails.

At the bridge over the Cedro Macho River, two soldiers at a guardpost idly watched two naked boys swimming in the water just upstream. Not far up the road the day before, two soldiers strolled arm-in-arm with their girlfriends.

Military Shipments

Things are not always so free of tension. When army truck convoys are rolling to Managua with major arms shipments, the road is closed to regular traffic. Helicopter gunships reportedly fly over convoys for extra security.

For the last half-year, military and diplomatic sources say, arms shipments up the highway have been unusually heavy. Truck convoys with weapons and modern Soviet helicopter gunships have been sighted repeatedly.

Capt. Rosa Pasks, spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry, refused to confirm or deny such reports. “We don’t give information on that,” she said.

No military transport convoy on the road has ever been hit by the contras, Sandinista officers say. But on Nov. 10, a Sunday, the contras attacked at dawn and killed 33 army reservists who were temporarily camped beside the highway at Presillitas.

Sub-Lt. Frankie Castillo, an officer with Interior Ministry troops now stationed at Presillitas, said the reservists were caught sleeping after a party the night before. He said the mother, sister and fiancee of one of the soldiers were among four civilians also killed in the attack.

The contras occupied the small town for two hours and forced the men living there to help them carry captured military equipment into the hills. Officers said about 300 guerrillas took part in the attack.

Reinforcements Came

Reinforcements from an irregular warfare battalion stationed four hours away were brought in by truck to pursue the guerrillas. Today, an irregular warfare battalion is stationed at El Rama.

Sub-Lt. Castillo said the contras who attacked Presillitas did not try to destroy the bridge over the Presillitas River. But since then, he said, rebels have tried three times to blow up the bridge over the Cara de Mono River, about five miles up the highway.

“We drove them off each time--they didn’t get close,” he said. An army statement said 18 contras were killed in one of the failed assaults, on Nov. 24.

The abutments on all the main bridges along the Rama highway are now fenced with barbed wire. Local residents have been warned that the area has been mined against contra demolition teams.

The residents believe it. Word has spread of mine explosions that killed a 10-year-old boy and a woman who ventured inside the fences at Presillitas and at Muelle de los Bueyes, a town 12 miles to the west.

Dropped Currency

The boy, Bismarc Solano, is said to have entered the mine field while trying to recover a piece of money that he dropped from the bridge.

“We suppose that but no one saw it,” his father, Jose Solono, said.

Solano, 39, the town photographer, sat on his porch facing the highway. His wife, on a rocking chair beside him, silently held a Bible in her lap.

A government representative from El Rama had attended Bismarc’s funeral and offered official condolences to the parents.

“He said it was the fault of the war, planned by President Reagan, and if there were no war there wouldn’t be so many deaths,” the father said. “But politicians talk a lot and I don’t always understand what they say.”