Nicaragua Warns of ‘Total War’ : Don’t Serve U.S. Aggression, Ortega Urges Neighbors

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Signaling a danger of “total war in Central America,” President Daniel Ortega called on neighboring governments Saturday to resist serving as “instruments” of U.S.-backed “aggression” against Nicaragua’s leftist government.

Ortega, 40, spoke at a ceremony marking the seventh year since the Marxist-led Sandinista government took power on July 19, 1979.

“With a truly fraternal and Central Americanist sentiment, we call on the Central American leaders not to lend themselves as instruments of the terrorist policy of the U.S. government,” he said in his nationally broadcast speech.

Names 3 Presidents

Ortega directed the appeal by name to Presidents Jose Azcona Hoyo of Honduras, Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica and Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador.

“We are sure that deep down they do not want military intervention against Nicaragua because they know that this intervention against Nicaragua would mean total war in Central America,” Ortega said. “We are sure that deep down they want peace.” He continued:

“But how far are they letting themselves be dragged by the policy of pressures and blackmail of the American government? This has its limits, and the moment of definition is coming when these Central American governments must decide to act responsibly and defend the peace and stand beside their peoples, beside Central America, or decide to be instruments of the U.S. policy of intervention against Nicaragua.”

Last Thursday, the chief of Sandinista military intelligence accused authorities in Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica of aiding U.S.-backed anti-Sandinista guerrillas, known as contras.

A Guarded Sports Field

Ortega spoke to a crowd of thousands at a heavily guarded sports field outside the city of Esteli, 90 miles north of Managua and about 25 miles from the Honduran border. The contras have their main camps in Honduran territory, and Esteli is on the edge of a “war zone” where they frequently operate.

Ortega said that by attending the ceremony, Nicaraguans were “defying the threat of the mercenary forces of American aggression.”

The field was surrounded by light tanks, and helicopters patrolled above the nearby countryside.

Ortega said that with last month’s approval by the House of Representatives of $100 million in new U.S. aid to the contras, “the prospects are for more aggression.”

He said that Nicaragua will take the issue of U.S. support for the contras to the U.N. Security Council if, by July 27, the United States does not heed a ruling on the matter by the International Court of Justice. The court, based in The Hague and commonly called the World Court, ruled June 27 that U.S. aid to the rebels broke international law and violated Nicaraguan sovereignty.

The Reagan Administration, which rejected the court’s jurisdiction on Central American questions before Nicaragua formally filed its case, is not expected to heed the ruling. The court is powerless to enforce its decisions.

‘Demand Support’

Ortega said that in the Security Council, Nicaragua would “demand the support of international opinion for the ruling of the International Court of Justice.”

Ortega said that more than 14,000 Nicaraugans have been “victims of the aggression” during more than four years of war with the contras. By victims, he apparently meant both military personnel and civilians killed, wounded and abducted by the rebels.

He said that “fallen contras” totaled more than 16,000, apparently killed and wounded.

Each side in the Nicaraguan war is believed to routinely exaggerate the other side’s casualties.

Ortega predicted that because of his Nicaragua policy, President Reagan will be infamous in history.

Likens Reagan to Hitler

“History will say that President Reagan was an emulator of Nero, an emulator of Hitler, killing the Nicaraguan people, killing Nicaraguan children, killing Nicaraguan youth,” Ortega said. “And there forever in history will be the bad example of Ronald Reagan as an educational reference for the children of the world.”

Ortega acknowledged that Nicaragua is troubled by shortages of food, and he said that work schedules will have to be increased to boost production.

He called on all Nicaraguans to work for national unity, which he said must be unity within the country’s current system of government and in defense of its “self-determination, sovereignty and independence.” Anyone who does not accept those conditions, he said, “should take off once and for all and go to the side of the contras, go to Miami or go to the camps in Honduras.”

In June, the Sandinista government exiled a Roman Catholic bishop and another priest for what it called pro-contras activities, and it shut down the opposition newspaper La Prensa. But Ortega said the government was not “radicalizing” the revolution, jeopardizing press freedom or persecuting the church.

“We defend freedom of the press,” he said. “We are not persecuting the church, we have never persecuted the church, and we will never persecute the church.”