Sandinistas Act to Shore Up Support : Moves Come After Clampdown on Domestic Opposition

The Sandinista government, after reining in its domestic opposition, is moving now to shore up support among party militants as Nicaragua’s most severe economic crisis since the 1979 revolution fuels unprecedented unrest, analysts say.

About to embark on a milestone 10th year in power, the leftist Nicaraguan government has clamped down on the major symbols of its opposition: pro-U.S. politicians, the anti-government press, the Roman Catholic Church and private enterprise.

The tough measures--including the expulsion of the American ambassador--were intended as a show of force that would reassert the Sandinistas’ authority and curb growing domestic dissent, diplomatic and political analysts said.

Reversed Steps

In so doing, the regime reversed many of the steps toward greater political freedom that it had taken in compliance with a peace plan signed by Central America’s five presidents Aug. 7 in Guatemala.

The plan called for democratic reforms and cease-fires in the region’s wars. Although violations have been reported in a temporary truce between Nicaragua and the U.S.-backed Contras, the worsening economy appears to be overtaking the war as the uppermost problem in the minds of many.

Sandinista party leadership is believed to be under pressure from uneasy militants who said the concessions betrayed revolutionary goals and were giving pro-U.S. opposition forces a forum.

Leaders of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, in cracking down on domestic opponents, wanted to prevent the appearance of instability or weakness that they claimed the United States would take advantage of.

“We could be flexible and tolerant--I think we should continue being so--but not to the extreme of giving up the revolution’s life,” Interior Minister Tomas Borge said in an interview published Saturday in the Sandinista newspaper Barricada. Borge, a comandante in the nine-member Sandinista National Directorate, heads the nation’s internal security forces.

“We are sure that within the opposition there are elements sufficiently intelligent to comprehend that following a line of civil disobedience and illegality is a risky and dangerous extreme,” he said.

Barricada also published a chronology of what were reported to be meetings between numerous opposition politicians and four of the eight U.S. diplomats, including Ambassador Richard Melton. They were expelled by Managua amid accusations they had orchestrated recent strikes and demonstrations.

In an effort to convert the recent measures into a propaganda gain among Sandinista sympathizers, Luis Carrion, another member of the directorate, told textile factory workers that a “new sense of indestructible dignity and national pride” has been born in Nicaragua.

Carrion was speaking at a military exercise that simulated an air attack; the workers pretended to defend the factory with Soviet-made anti-aircraft weaponry. Another of several exercises showed how to capture “invaders.”

The government on Tuesday will stage a rally to mark the anniversary of a widespread uprising spearheaded by the Sandinistas that toppled pro-U.S. dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. President Daniel Ortega will lead the event in the city of Juigalpa, capital of a province east of Managua that has been a principal battlefield in the war between the Contras and government troops.

Ortega and other Sandinista leaders are using the anniversary ceremonies, defense exercises and other activities as occasions to rally party supporters around a banner of revolutionary nationalism, while warning opponents that the government will remain firm.

‘Revolution Still Strong’

“In a country where there are enough reasons to be dissatisfied, the Front leadership has to show its own followers that the revolution still exists and is still strong,” said Moises Hassan, a former Sandinista leader who quit the party in April because he was disillusioned.

“If the poor see the same bourgeois, the same reactionaries, creating trouble, they will ask what was the purpose of having a revolution to begin with,” he said.

Opposition activists, taking advantage of new political freedoms granted under the peace plan, had launched their most sustained campaign of protest marches and rallies. In the past, a splintered and weak opposition had languished. More recently, members claimed that general discontent, fueled by historically high inflation and rising unemployment, was swelling anti-government ranks.

“The leader of the opposition in this country is named ‘hunger,’ ” declared Ramiro Gurdian, head of the Nicaraguan Democratic Coordinator, a coalition of five political parties, two unions and a private business council.

Forty members of the group, including its president, Carlos Huembes, and secretary general, Roger Guevarra, have been sentenced to six months in prison for their participation in a rancorous protest march in the town of Nandaime on July 10.

While the opposition remains too unorganized to seriously threaten the Sandinistas’ grip on power, the government clearly was concerned enough to act vigorously. “They were just beginning to fear the shadow of their own revolution,” an Asian diplomat said.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front, at first merely a small rebel band, eventually helped ignite the popular insurrection against the Somoza regime by capitalizing on widespread discontent among landless peasants and others.

Nicaraguans this year suffered 120% inflation for two straight months, and the annual rate is expected to exceed 10,000%, economists say. Unemployment has soared to 35%, with thousands of workers laid off recently.

For many Nicaraguans, already accustomed to Sandinista crackdowns, the recent actions created a high level of uncertainty. Rumors abound over possible new measures the Sandinistas may announce; many people scrambled to leave the country before Tuesday’s holiday, forming long, pre-dawn lines at visa windows and Sandino International Airport.

The measure that perhaps most alarmed non-Sandinista Nicaraguans was the nationalization of the San Antonio sugar refinery, part of a sprawling business empire belonging to the Pellas family, one of Nicaragua’s wealthiest.

Pellas family members had a reputation of maintaining their distance from politics and working peacefully with the Sandinistas. That it became the target of nationalization sent a strong message.

“Everybody here always used to say that the day they confiscated San Antonio, it would be the beginning of the end,” said one Nicaraguan businessman who is not active in the political opposition.