Sandinista Crackdown Seen as Move to Reassert Control

In unleashing a domestic crackdown this week, observers say, the Sandinista government is trying to stop opponents from rallying widespread discontent into a serious challenge to the regime’s hold on power.

For the first time, the Sandinistas had grown concerned that the opposition was going to be able to capitalize on this disaffection, which has been spurred by soaring inflation and labor strikes that had hit several industries, diplomats interviewed here said.

“The Sandinistas feared they had conceded too much,” one Latin American diplomat said. “They saw the signs of the possibility of losing total control.”

4 Leaders Sentenced

Acting swiftly Thursday, the government sentenced four leaders of Sunday’s major protest march to six months in prison. Police, who clashed with thousands of demonstrators at the unauthorized rally, had used tear gas and rifle butts and arrested 42 people. The Sandinistas accused the demonstrators of starting the violence by throwing rocks and jeering at police officials.

On Monday, the Sandinistas accused the U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, Richard Melton, and seven other American diplomats of anti-state activities and ordered them out of the country. It also closed the opposition newspaper La Prensa for 15 days and shut down the Roman Catholic radio station.

And on Wednesday, the crackdown expanded to the private business sector as the government nationalized the country’s largest private company, the San Antonio sugar refinery. The government denied the action was politically motivated, saying that the mill’s production levels were falling.

But owner Carlos Pellas, whose family is one of the country’s wealthiest, said sugar production has fallen at all mills, including those run by the state, because of foreign exchange shortages.

Under a regional peace plan signed last year by the presidents of the five Central American nations, Nicaragua had taken some steps toward lifting many of the restrictions on political activity that had been in place since the start of fighting with U.S.-backed Contras in 1982. Opposition forces were using the newly created political space to step up protests.

Sandinista officials concur that they acted to stop escalating unrest. But they blame the movement on a U.S.-financed plan to destabilize the leftist regime and accused Melton of orchestrating the plan and promoting it among opposition groups.

Unlike previous U.S. ambassadors to the current Managua government, Melton attended opposition meetings and took a more high-profile interest in dissident politicians.

“Nandaime was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Alejandro Bendana, a senior Foreign Ministry official, told reporters. He was referring to the city south of Managua where Sunday’s protest march took place.

Diplomatic and political observers suggested that the Sandinistas undertook their strong-arm tactics now because it would be difficult at this time for U.S. lawmakers--about to head for their own political party conventions--to renew military aid to the Contras.

Opposition leaders, embittered by the Sandinistas’ latest actions, said they expect the Sandinistas to return to a more hard-line, confrontational rule.

“Their fear was that the generalized discontent was going to find channels of expression,” said Mauricio Diaz, head of the Popular Social Christian Party. “They want to dismantle any chance of a unified opposition . . . but the idea of trying to control discontent through force is like trying to put a cork in a volcano.”

Negotiations between the Sandinistas and the Contras, undertaken as part of the Central American peace plan and aimed at reaching a permanent truce, have been broken off. Both sides have extended a temporary cease-fire that has been in effect since late March, but each reports growing numbers of violations.