Peace Prospect Welcomed Amid Conflicting Emotions : Nicaragua Accord Brings Hope, Pain, Doubts

Making peace has an emotional cost for Berta Lopez, the mother of a Sandinista soldier slain in combat. It hurts to see her government shaking hands with the enemy that killed her son and thousands like him, Lopez said Thursday.

But the thin woman with curly brown hair smiled with resignation as she talked about the new cease-fire agreement between Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and the U.S.-backed Contras.

“As a mother I feel pain, but as a Nicaraguan revolutionary I trust the revolutionary government in what it is doing,” she said. “They are two conflicting emotions.”

Lopez works for the Sandinista army, administering a Managua liaison office that helps keep soldiers on the battlefronts in touch with their families and friends. Wednesday night, when the preliminary cease-fire agreement was signed, several soldiers gathered at her office to watch the ceremony on television.

‘Treacherous’ Contras

The soldiers also had mixed reactions, Lopez said. “They want peace, but they say the Contras are treacherous. They say they don’t trust them, that they have to stay on guard.”

Similar sentiments prevailed Thursday among many opponents as well as supporters of the Sandinista government. After seven years of bitter and bloody hostilities, reactions to the cease-fire pact were salted with hope, caution and skepticism.

Many opposition doubts center on the willingness of the Sandinistas to institute democratic reforms called for in a broad peace agreement signed by Nicaragua and other Central American countries last August in Esquipulas, Guatemala.

Carlos Castillo Fletes, legal adviser for the Nicaraguan Workers Center, one of Nicaragua’s main labor federations, is one opposition member who questions the Sandinistas’ sincerity in the peace negotiations.

‘Lied a Lot’

“One thing is to sign and another is to comply with the agreement that is being signed,” Castillo said. “The Sandinista government has always lied a lot. It always tells us one thing and then does another. I don’t see a true interest in peace on its part.”

Gonzalo Galiano, another officer of the federation, said the cease-fire will give the Sandinistas time to restock their arsenal of Soviet-supplied arms in preparation for more war. The former guerrillas who head the Sandinista movement, Galiano charged, are locked into a militaristic mentality.

“For them, the only reason for being is war,” he said.

Fanor Avendano, a lawyer for the Social Christian Party, said the government is using the peace negotiations to falsely present itself as conciliatory and democratic. While promising democratic reforms, the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front continues to suppress opposition by intimidation, Avendano said.

‘Deceiving Public Opinion’

“That shows that the front has no intention of carrying out the Esquipulas agreement,” he said. “It is deceiving international public opinion.”

Avendano accused Sandinista mobs, the army and neighborhood political control groups of harassing opposition party workers and threatening them with harsh reprisals for their political activities. He said the neighborhood committees, other “mass organizations,” the army and the government itself are part of a Sandinista structure for authoritarian rule.

“The structure of the front remains intact,” he said. “The front has not conceded anything; it has only made promises, the same promises it has made before.”

Still Skeptical

Jaime Bonilla, a leader of the opposition Independent Liberal Party, was more optimistic but still skeptical. Bonilla said political negotiations between the government and opposition parties will soon show whether the Sandinistas are serious about reforms.

“We will really find out if there is a political will to democratize Nicaragua,” Bonilla said.

The political negotiations, resumed this week after a three-month suspension, are called the national dialogue. Bonilla is his party’s chief delegate to the talks.

He called the cease-fire agreement with the Contras “a good step, a basic first step,” but he said the Sandinistas must now agree to constitutional amendments, new laws and other political reforms that will allow for fair competition among parties.

National Talks

“If they eliminate the bases for maintaining authoritarian power, then yes, it will be demonstrated that the government wants peace,” Bonilla said. “From now on, the national dialogue takes on importance.”

Jorge Luis Hernandez, president of the pro-Sandinista Federation of Secondary Students, said the revolution must now intensify its “political and economic struggle” against the forces of U.S. imperialism. But he said the military struggle may not have ended.

“That depends on President Reagan, because the Contras are the puppets of President Reagan,” Hernandez said. “He may continue to make war and not join the peace process.”

Thursday morning, more than 100 Americans gathered in front of the iron fence of the U.S. Embassy in Managua to protest Reagan’s policy toward Nicaragua. American visitors to Nicaragua and Sandinista sympathizers who live here have demonstrated at the embassy every Thursday for more than two years.

This week, many of them were expressing caution about the new cease-fire agreement.

“Reagan will try to scuttle it somehow or another,” said Sam Abbott, 78, a retired college professor from New Hampshire.

“I think it depends on the American people,” said Jill Warzer, 35, a music teacher from Vermont. “We have to make sure the President respects it.”

Warzer said the U.S. government now has an obligation to help reconstruct the devastated Nicaraguan economy. “We owe them $3 billion at least to make this peace agreement work,” she said.