Nicaragua Telling Contras Their Chiefs Are Quitting; U.S., Rebel Aides Deny It

The Sandinista army, moving quickly to sow confusion among the Contras, has instructed its field units to spread word that the rebel command structure is collapsing in the wake of a Central American agreement to disband the U.S.-backed movement.

The orders, published here Friday, are the first step in a campaign to woo rebel foot soldiers home under terms of the regional peace accord. They were issued after the Contra army’s chief of staff and eight other officers applied for political asylum in the United States.

State Department and Contra spokesmen denied that the rebel leaders were abandoning their troops, saying that the asylum petitions were being granted to make them eligible for U.S. travel documents that facilitate movement around Central America on behalf of the anti-Sandinista cause.

‘Left Without Command’

But the message from Gen. Humberto Ortega, defense minister and commander of the Nicaraguan army, said that the Contra troops have been “left practically without command or direction” and should be approached with offers of amnesty, personal security, land and economic aid if they disarm.

“The supposed leaders (of the Contras) have assured their own political asylum, leaving the troops adrift in another display of opportunism, irresponsibility and cowardice,” the Sandinista newspaper Barricada commented Friday.

Israel Galeano, the rebel chief of staff known as Commander Franklin, countered with a statement to Radio Impacto, a Costa Rican station with close ties to the rebel movement. Interviewed in Miami, Galeano declared that “the struggle will continue,” and a spokesman said he later boarded a flight to Honduras to return to the rebel camps there.

“Galeano has not been fighting eight years just to get a green card,” said the spokesman, Bosco Matamoros.

The propaganda war is expected to intensify in the coming weeks as rebel leaders try to keep intact their army, weakened by more than a year of cease-fires and regional peace efforts, and as the Sandinistas try to hasten its dismemberment.

Under the summit accord signed Monday by the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, an international commission is to be named by the United Nations and the Organization of American States and sent to the rebels’ Honduran camps by Sept. 6. The commission would then have 90 days to achieve what the accord calls the “voluntary” disarmament and relocation of the rebels to Nicaragua or other countries. By Dec. 5, the Honduran camps would have to close.

Contra leaders say they will try to keep their current force of 11,000 troops in Honduras while seeking still-undefined political concessions from the Sandinistas in talks to be set up by the commission. They say they might deploy many of those troops into Nicaragua before the December deadline rather than disarm.

Gen. Ortega’s message focused on the 2,000 to 3,000 Contra troops already inside Nicaragua. It instructed the army to act with “discipline and responsibility” to protect the rights of any who choose to disarm but to be ready to “repel vigorously” any attack.

He said the government will encourage a revival of independent local peace councils, made up of church and community representatives, in the war zones. Scores of such councils sprang up two years ago when the Central American presidents began working to end the Contra war, but they failed to persuade many rebels to lay down their arms.

“This is not the first time our troops are the target of psychological warfare by the Sandinistas,” said Xavier Arguello, an adviser to the Contras’ political-military commission. “Obviously, it could be demoralizing if their commanders are seen as retreating from the struggle, but I am not worried about morale. The vast majority are not going to be deceived.”

But some U.S. officials and other Contra leaders said they fear the summit accord will prompt most of the rebels to quit and try to enter the United States. “We’ll probably end up with about 40% of the troops staying, no more,” one rebel official estimated.

Contra leaders are quietly asking how many rank-and-file soldiers will be allowed to settle in the United States as refugees, but so far the Bush Administration has not stated a policy.

The nine rebels who applied for U.S. asylum Wednesday include six military commanders and three political advisers who had gone to Washington on Honduran travel documents before the summit to lobby for their cause.

Galeano and two others were given asylum Thursday, allowing them to move their families to the United States, work there and apply for permanent status. U.S. officials said the other requests would be approved, enabling them all to travel more easily in Central America than they can on the Honduran documents.

“It is their intention to travel throughout the region to present their views and assist in any negotiations” on their army’s future, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said.

Times staff writers Norman Kempster and Doyle McManus, in Washington, contributed to this story.