Contra Alliance in Danger Amid Internal Squabbling

The U.S.-sponsored alliance of Nicaraguan rebel groups appeared to be splitting apart over internal squabbles Tuesday, hampering the contras ‘ ability to coordinate military actions and speak with a single political voice.

Commanders of contra groups in southern Nicaragua said here that they have withdrawn from the United Nicaraguan Opposition because of dissatisfaction with the way the coalition has been run, complaining that they have received no U.S. military aid.

At the same time, one of UNO’s three directors, Arturo Cruz, has decided to resign from the alliance because he believes that the group is unfairly dominated by the largest and most conservative rebel group, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), sources close to Cruz said.

And a second UNO director, Alfonso Robelo, also complained publicly about the Nicaraguan Democratic Force on Tuesday, charging that it is attempting to take control of the entire rebel movement.

“An alliance requires a minimum of cooperation,” Robelo said. “Since (the southern front commanders) have seen no cooperation, they see no sense in staying in the alliance.”

The withdrawal of the southern front contras from the UNO alliance is a severe blow to the rebels’ prospects because it means that those units, with as many as 2,300 troops, will no longer coordinate military strategy with the larger force, which fights mostly in northern and central Nicaragua, contra officials said.

Along with Cruz’s reported plans to resign, it also means that the contras no longer can claim to speak with a unified political voice--one of the Reagan Administration’s basic aims when it pressured the rebels to set up UNO in 1985.

In Washington, a State Department official said that the Administration is concerned about the splintering of the alliance and is working to heal the rifts.

“We’re committed to a broad-based democratic resistance movement, and we are committed to do whatever is necessary to help build that,” he said, acknowledging that the Nicaraguan Democratic Force has largely dominated the contras’ political and military efforts.

U.S. Aid at Stake

The official said that the southern front commanders’ complaints about the lack of U.S. aid “can and will be rectified shortly.” The broader issue of how the contra movement is organized, he said wryly, “may take a bit more time.”

The issue is important not only in Central America but also in Congress, where an Administration request for $105 million in military aid for the rebels will be debated this year. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have urged the contras to broaden their political appeal beyond the conservative FDN, whose leadership includes several former supporters of Anastasio Somoza, the rightist Nicaraguan dictator who was overthrown in 1979.

FDN leader Adolfo Calero--who is also one of the directors of UNO, along with Cruz and Robelo--refused to respond directly to his colleagues’ complaints. “We are part of a democratic alliance, and we discuss issues within that alliance,” he said through a spokesman.

The seven commanders of the southern front announced their decision in a communique signed Saturday inside southern Nicaragua and distributed Tuesday in San Jose. It said they would keep fighting Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government “in an independent way.”

‘Promises Not Fulfilled’

The southern front commanders said they were promised “immediate and massive military aid” from the United States when their army was formed last May and joined the rebel alliance, but that “the promises were not fulfilled.”

“We have become the victims of deception and an attempt to destroy the southern forces,” they added.

The communique did not blame anyone specifically for the cutoff. Some rebel officials charged that the northern force was to blame, but others said the supply problem was the CIA’s fault.

“Either the CIA officials can do nothing (for the southern front) because they have been tied up in internal problems or because they are totally inept,” Robelo told reporters. “Or else there is a manipulation to block military aid to the south because they feel more comfortable with the FDN.”

‘Lack of Confidence’

The statement--signed by Fernando Chamorro, commander in chief of the southern front, and six other rebel chiefs--said that they had met Saturday in the southeastern Nicaraguan town of El Serrano, about 20 miles north of the Costa Rican border.

Many of the southern front commanders fought for the Sandinista revolution before breaking with its leaders, unlike the more conservative FDN leadership.

“There is a lack of confidence, a difference in ideologies between them,” said Robelo, who once served in the Sandinista junta. “Some people think maybe we’re trying to create a hybrid between a horse and a lion. Maybe it’s got to be one or the other.”

Southern front troops who have come into contact with their northern counterparts “see that those troops are much better equipped. They see this as a sign of discrimination,” he said.

Changes Sought

Robelo said he plans to remain a director of UNO, but added, “I know both Cruz and myself believe there ought to be some changes.

“When we see a move to push (one) organization in UNO . . . we feel this is wrong,” he said.”

The rancor between Cruz and Calero has been growing for two years, and Cruz has threatened to resign from the alliance at least twice before. But several close associates said that Cruz appears genuinely set on leaving this time.

His resignation would be a political blow to the contras because Cruz, a moderate who served in the Sandinista regime immediately after Nicaragua’s 1979 revolution, is highly respected in Congress and abroad.

Deeply Angry

Reached by telephone at his home in Miami, Cruz refused to discuss his associates’ contention that he plans to resign. “I’d rather not talk about that,” he said.

But he added: “There has not been a serious effort on the part of some people to make UNO what it should be.”

A source close to Cruz said that he has been deeply angry at Calero and the Democratic Force for blocking his efforts to organize a moderate political movement among Nicaraguan refugees and contra guerrillas.

“The FDN has been systematically undermining the other leaders,” the source said. “They’ve been doing everything under the sun to drive Cruz and Robelo out. Pluralism has been a laughing matter.”

Charges Rejected

He said that Calero’s political front, the Nicaraguan Democratic Project, “has been using physical threats against opponents as a standard practice.”

“The root of the problem is that the FDN is run by a small clique in the Somoza fashion--Calero and his brother and (Calero aide) Aristides Sanchez and his brother--and they want to control the entire movement,” he said.

A source close to Calero rejected the charges curtly.

“We’re the ones who have attracted the most support and the most recruits,” he said. “Cruz and Robelo are always complaining to the State Department. They base their political efforts not on Nicaraguans, but on Americans. They want the Americans to hand political power to them.”

Richard Boudreaux reported from San Jose and Doyle McManus from Washington.