Peace Plan Brings No Letup in Nicaragua War : Both Sides Seeking to Make Gains Before Cease-Fire on Nov. 7

A peace agreement signed two months ago has produced no letup in the fighting in Nicaragua.

The Sandinista army and U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contras are waging intense combat north of La Pinuela and elsewhere along the country’s mountainous central spine. Western military analysts say each side is maneuvering for advantage before the Nov. 7 cease-fire deadline set by the plan.

Prospects for peace on that date have been dimmed by the Sandinista government’s insistence on setting cease-fire conditions unilaterally and by the rebel leaders’ refusal to abide by any terms that are not negotiated.

In signing the Aug. 7 peace accord with four other Central American nations, leftist Nicaragua agreed to restore full press and political freedoms as the price of a cutoff of U.S. and other outside aid to the contras.

Last week, the Sandinistas began to comply. The opposition newspaper La Prensa and the Roman Catholic radio station, both shut by decree last year, were allowed to reopen, and a wartime state of emergency was eased to let unarmed opposition groups march in the streets.

On the battlefield, the Sandinistas are appealing to the contras through leaflets and radio messages to surrender and accept an amnesty offered under terms of the peace accord.

Interior Minister Tomas Borge announced Saturday that a contracommander and 400 men had surrendered in the Caribbean coastal city of Puerto Cabezas, an area of little combat, to become the first rebel unit to accept amnesty under the peace accord.

Starting Wednesday, the government says it will withdraw its regular forces from three relatively small battle zones in a unilateral cease-fire aimed at encouraging rebels to lay down their arms.

Contra leaders, who were not party to the peace agreement, are urging their troops to ignore the offered amnesty and the cease-fire and to keep shooting until the Sandinistas agree to negotiate.

Meanwhile, the Sandinista army has launched a major offensive in this part of Nicaragua, which is not covered by the government cease-fire. The contras operated fairly freely here for most of the summer, according to U.S. officials who monitor the war.

From the army base at La Pinuela, three counterinsurgency battalions with more than 2,000 Sandinista soldiers have been trying for five weeks to push about 700 contras away from populated areas, surround them and cut off their supplies.

‘How Strong We Are’

“They say it’s a show of weakness that we signed the peace agreement, but we are demonstrating how strong we are,” said Lt. Manuel Machado, a Sandinista officer at the base. “We gave them a chance to surrender. Now we are striking them hard.”

The Sandinistas have seized two batches of weapons dropped to the rebels by parachute from CIA-directed supply planes but have lost a Soviet-made helicopter that was shot down by a rebel-fired Redeye missile. The contras also destroyed a bridge a mile from the base, making it harder to resupply by road.

In 45 clashes between small ground patrols, the army has reported killing 56 contras. Government losses are not officially disclosed, but eight Sandinista soldiers are known to have died last month in a single encounter.

“They keep running away, refusing to fight us face to face,” Francisco Largaespada, a 26-year-old Sandinista conscript, complained the other day as he and other soldiers boarded five helicopters to go contra hunting.

Another helicopter at the base carried away one dead and five wounded Sandinista soldiers ambushed that day by a rebel patrol.

Costly Standoff

The fighting here shows the strengths and weaknesses of both armies that have made the six-year-old guerrilla war a costly standoff.

Since they began receiving a $100-million allotment of U.S. aid a year ago, the contras have infiltrated at least 10,000 troops into the country from Honduras. Marching in small units, they have spread the war through the central highlands from northern Jinotega province to Zelaya in the south.

By June, the rebels had hit six small military outposts and a string of militarized farm cooperatives, electric towers and fuel facilities. But bolder attacks on larger brigade headquarters in three northern towns over the summer failed to breach Sandinista defenses.

While keeping the contras out of cities and major towns, the 85,000-man Sandinista army has been unable to engage and defeat large concentrations of rebel troops, as they are trying to do in the hills north of here.

Missile-firing contras have shot down at least six helicopters during the year. But contra leaders say this has only slightly reduced one of the Sandinistas’ major assets, the air mobility of their counterinsurgency battalions.

The Sandinistas have failed to down a contra supply plane since last October. Their troops have reported capturing no more than a handful of the 30 or so monthly airdrops of money and U.S.-supplied munitions that keep the rebel army alive inside Nicaragua.

It is the rebels’ inability to live off the land and capture enough Sandinista weapons that will hurt them most if the U.S. Congress rejects a Reagan Administration request for another $270 million in contra aid over the next 18 months.

“The peace accord caught the contras flatfooted,” a Western observer said in Managua. “It wasn’t in their plans to develop self-sufficiency this year. This was supposed to be a long-term guerrilla war.”

Contra leaders say enough is left from the fully disbursed $100-million aid package to keep them fighting through the end of this year. But they worry that the accord has given the Managua government its best weapon to undermine their insurgency.

“The Sandinistas are going to create the perception that they have taken steps toward democratizing Nicaragua, and we run the risk that those who are against further (U.S.) aid will use that as an argument to stop the aid,” Enrique Bermudez, the contras’ military chief, said in an interview near the Honduran border.

Western military analysts say the contras have been stashing tons of newly airdropped weapons lately while trying to avoid heavy combat during the uncertain weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, they have stepped up attacks on easy government targets like the La Patriota farm cooperative between Rio Blanco and Matiguas, where seven militiamen, an elderly woman and her year-old grandson died in pre-dawn shelling last month. The contras seized arms from the militia post and medicine from the clinic.

“Despite the peace accord, the tension around here is very strong,” said Father Domingo Pepe, the Roman Catholic priest in Rio Blanco. “The Sandinistas are very worried because the contras are so close to the town.”

Rebel leaders say they want to negotiate a cease-fire that would keep their troops in place, armed, resupplied and protected until the government has proven its compliance with the accord over time.

In announcing the unilateral cease-fire last week, President Daniel Ortega again refused to talk to the contra leadership. He said the army will move gradually toward the nationwide cease-fire required by Nov. 7.

The initial cease-fire zones cover a total of 550 square miles in small sectors of three provinces--south of the Honduran border in Nueva Segovia and Jinotega provinces and in the southern corner of Zelaya province.

Ortega said that Sandinista peasant militias living on farm cooperatives inside the zones will remain armed and in their homes. If the militias are attacked, he said, Sandinista regulars will re-enter the zones to retaliate.

Bosco Matamoros, a contra spokesman, called Ortega’s announcement “a propaganda ploy aimed at the U.S. Congress” and said “our forces have orders to continue fighting.”

Matamoros said the contras have “insignificant” troop strength in the three cease-fire zones. “Ortega is asking us for a virtual surrender,” he added. “He ignores the fact that we operate in 50% of the national territory. The real war is in the heart of the country, and we have the initiative.”

Drain on Ranks

Rebel leaders are clearly worried, however, that the amnesty offer will drain their ranks.

Leaflets circulating in the town of Rio Blanco warn rebels that the peace agreement would deny them their bases in Honduras. “You will then have two choices: return to civilian life, or die,” the message reads.

Deputy Interior Minister Luis Carrion said last month that 102 rebels took advantage of the longstanding amnesty law in the first month of the accord, only a slight increase in the contra desertion rate.

Several recent defectors said in interviews that contra commanders are telling their troops that anyone accepting amnesty faces imprisonment or being drafted into the Sandinista army.

Gabriel Perez Gonzalez, 19, who left the contras in nearby Santo Domingo on Sept. 10, said there was mixed reaction in his unit to news of the peace accord.

“Nobody said anything openly, but you could see everyone was happy,” he said. “Many are tired of the war and want to quit. But there are many others who want to continue fighting until the Sandinistas keep their word. If they do (keep it), there will be no reason for this war.”

Richard Boudreaux reported from La Pinuela and Marjorie Miller reported from Managua and the Nicaragua-Honduras border.