Veterans Urged to Protect Revolution’s Gains : To Managua, the War Is Far From Over

Seven hundred Nicaraguan soldiers stood in rows on a dusty parade ground Saturday, ready for discharge after two years of service in the Sandinista People’s Army. A white-haired major with red epaulets spoke to them about their future.

Last week’s preliminary cease-fire agreement between Managua and the U.S.-backed Contras does not mean that the nation’s civil war is over, the major told the young battlefield veterans. As reservists, they must remain ready to fight.

Meantime, the major said, they will have to fight to survive in the country’s war-ravaged economy.

And finally, he said, “There is another battlefield where you are going to find a hard struggle--the ideological struggle.”

He urged the departing soldiers to join mass organizations such as neighborhood Sandinista Defense Committees and the Sandinista Youth. To organize themselves; to discipline themselves for the battle to come.

No Truce With ‘Real Enemy’

“The real enemy, Reagan and imperialism, has not signed any agreement with us,” the major said.

Maj. Victorio Sanjinez’s message at the mustering-out ceremony is the Sandinista leadership’s order of the day to the Nicaraguan nation. Though the Contras have signed an agreement, the revolutionary struggle goes on.

Sanjinez is a high political official in an army that sees itself not only as a military service but as a school where soldiers are instilled with the leftist and nationalist doctrine of the Sandinistas.

The army’s fighting strength is estimated at 85,000 troops. Most soldiers are draftees who return to civilian life after two years of active duty.

Sandinista officials say that after four years of the draft, tens of thousands of ex-soldiers are becoming a major force for spreading the Sandinistas’ ideology among civilians in their workplaces, labor unions, neighborhood committees, political organizations and military reserve units.

As Maj. Sanjinez indicated Saturday, such ideological work is regarded as a key to the revolution’s survival, with or without a cease-fire.

At the same time, both the Contras and the United States have frequently insisted that the Nicaraguan army be depoliticized. That demand is expected to be a key issue in scheduled negotiations for a definitive peace agreement.

The Contras also have demanded that the size of the army be reduced. So far, no step has been taken in that direction. Lt. Ronald Martinez, an army information officer, said the 700 soldiers who were mustered out Saturday will be replaced in their units with new draftees.

The mustering-out ceremony was held at an officer training camp eight miles northwest of Jinotega, a provincial capital about 100 miles north of Managua, the national capital.

On a parched hill overlooking the camp, white-painted stones spelled out the Sandinista slogan of the year: “1988: For an honorable peace. Free fatherland or death.”

White and green barracks flanked the parade ground of hard-packed dirt. Festive banners fluttered in a stiff breeze.

The soldiers, informally known as “cubs,” were wearing camouflage pants and new white T-shirts for their return home. “Here Is Your Cub,” was emblazoned on the T-shirts.

Maj. Sanjinez, in olive-drab fatigues, surveyed the troops from a platform that was shaded from the searing late-morning sun.

He told the soldiers that the cease-fire agreement, signed Wednesday in the southern border post of Sapoa by the Sandinista and Contra leaders, may help bring peace, but he expressed some reservations.

“A question mark remains,” he said. “Will all who are part of the counterrevolution accept what that group of leaders signed in Sapoa? That still is not clear.”

Ideological War to Continue

And even if they do, the ideological war will continue, he said. “We will never finish winning this battle to come.”

After the major finished speaking, and after the Nicaraguan national anthem was played, the loudspeakers blared out a lively Latin song. The soldiers broke ranks in celebration, dancing and whooping and kicking up clouds of dust that were carried away by the wind.

Blue-eyed and battle-hardened Jose Ramon Moreno, 18, said he planned to return to high school in Jinotega. He said he wants peace “as long as the Contras accept what the revolutionary government proposes.” But if he is called to fight in the Sandinista People’s Army again, he said, he will not hesitate.

“If the fatherland needs us, we have to go,” he said.