Congressmen Hail Sandinistas’ Defeat at Polls : Nicaragua: Valley-area representatives praise voting results but are split on the cause of President Ortega’s downfall.

San Fernando Valley-area congressmen who serve on foreign affairs committees cheered the surprising electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua on Monday and said the United States has a responsibility to supply limited foreign aid to the newly elected government.

At the same time, they voiced concern about the Sandinistas’ willingness to transfer power peacefully and the ability of the disparate National Opposition Union (UNO) led by Violette Barrios de Chamorro to forge an effective government and invigorate the faltering economy.

Democratic Reps. Howard L. Berman of Panorama City and Anthony C. Beilenson of Los Angeles and Republican Reps. Robert J. Lagomarsino of Ojai and Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley differed, however, over the causes of the Sandinistas apparent demise and who deserves credit for the leftist revolutionaries’ defeat.

Berman and Beilenson praised diplomatic efforts. Lagomarsino and Gallegly said military and economic pressures were largely responsible.

Gallegly, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was in Nicaragua as one of the 2,000 accredited election observers. Among other activities, he helped count ballots at polling places in the city of Esteli, near the Honduran border.

Gallegly said that although he “didn’t trust” Sandinista President Daniel Ortega, he was “optimistic he will step down” peacefully.

“But I’m not optimistic,” he said, about cooperation by Interior Minister Tomas Borge, “a very powerful man and a very feared man.”

Gallegly said he was amazed at the determination of Nicaraguans to vote in the election, even in war-torn areas around Esteli.

“Some of them walked as much as 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) and as long as five hours” to get to the polls, he said. “Some of them waited in line as long as two hours; they were in high spirits and they were calm.”

“I am delighted by the outcome and by the opportunities,” said Berman, also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This includes the possibility of a negotiated end to the military conflict in neighboring El Salvador that has left 70,000 dead, he said.

“We should normalize our relations with the newly elected government” in Managua, said Beilenson, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “We should end as quickly as possible the economic sanctions, which have hurt the economy greatly and we should bring an end to this chapter of support for the Contras and make arrangements to bring them back home.”

Lagomarsino, the ranking Republican on the Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a strong supporter of U.S. aid to the Contras, called the defeat of Ortega a vindication of hard-line tactics that former President Ronald Reagan, Lagomarsino and other conservatives had espoused.

“A lot of it had to do with our policy,” Lagomarsino said. “One of the primary purposes for Ortega reaching agreement” to hold elections “was to end the Contra war.”

Berman, in contrast, said President Bush had moved quickly after his inauguration in 1989 to end military aid to the Contras as part of a bipartisan foreign policy. Beilenson, however, said, “I think the credit mainly goes to the other nations of Central America” who had “insisted on this process of reconciliation and open elections.”

Berman, Beilenson and Lagomarsino roundly criticized the Sandinistas for failing to tolerate dissent or political opposition. Lagomarsino said the Nicaraguan vote was the latest striking reversal worldwide proving that “people don’t want to live under Marxist-Leninist systems.”

None of the three lawmakers was ready to estimate how much economic assistance would be warranted if the Sandinistas permit power to pass to Chamorro and the newspaper publisher’s allies in April. Nicaragua, whose economy the United States helped cripple during the past decade, joins Panama and Eastern European nations clamoring for additional foreign aid.

Beilenson said: “We have a certain amount of responsibility in helping these people get back on their feet. I hope it’s not too much money and it doesn’t last too long.”

All three lawmakers expressed varying degrees of surprise at the outcome. Berman, however, said he was “no more surprised that the Soviet Union, after 40 years of controlling Eastern Europe by military force, would allow those countries to evolve on their own.”

Beilenson was co-chairman of the official congressional observer delegation that disbanded earlier this month after the Sandinistas refused to grant them visas. “It came off fine,” Beilenson said of the election. “That’s all that’s important.”