Rebels Dodge Battles on Road Home : Nicaragua: Despite an informal truce, Contras remain defiant. Their return brings clashes with Sandinista soldiers.

Contra guerrillas lounged around a peasant’s wooden shack in this hillside hamlet as the mid-morning sun turned the air into steam. They rested, some ate, and one was getting his hair cut when the news arrived: A Sandinista patrol was approaching.

Quickly, the rebels picked up their guns, refastened their ammunition belts and scurried up a rocky path and into the thick brush, out of reach and out of sight of the Sandinista soldiers.

Later, another Contra unit would not be so successful: Despite an informal cease-fire, Sandinistas and Contras exchanged mortar rounds and automatic gunfire for nearly an hour.

Similar scenes are repeated time and again in the hills of northern Nicaragua these days, as bands of armed Contras and units of Sandinista soldiers carefully maneuver in and out of the same valleys, keeping their distance most of the time but occasionally clashing. Frequently, they come close enough to shout taunts at each other.

Since the defeat of Sandinista President Daniel Ortega in February’s elections, thousands of Contras encamped in Honduras have hiked back into Nicaragua, where they are resisting demands from all quarters that they immediately put down their guns and disband.

Most recently, the presidents of the five Central American nations, meeting for two days in Nicaragua, signed a pact urging all of the Contras--inside Nicaragua and elsewhere--to turn in their weapons by April 25, the scheduled inauguration date of Ortega’s victorious challenger, publisher Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

But along the dirt roads that run between San Rafael del Norte and San Sebastian de Yali, in the forest-covered hills of Nicaragua’s Jinotega and Esteli provinces and far from the meeting halls where presidents and politicians sign such agreements, the mood among returning Contra fighters remains one of suspicion and defiance.

“We know well the deceit and treachery of the Sandinistas,” said Lorenzo Gutierrez Lopez, 32, a Contra fighter sporting a Soviet-made M-79 grenade launcher. “This obliges us to remain armed.”

As the Contras have stepped up their presence in sparsely populated parts of Nicaragua, they depend increasingly on local farmers. Rebels say that many of the locals readily supply them with information on Sandinista troop movements, as well as with food to eat and a field to sleep in.

Between 1,500 and 3,000 Contras are thought to have remained in Honduras in camps that once housed up to 15,000, while 8,000 to 11,000 are believed now to be inside Nicaragua.

Many of the Contras are returning to their home villages, to the farms where they grew up, and they often find relatives who will help. Comando Luis Seda got to see his family for the first time in two years when his Contra unit moved through the cow pastures and corn patches and onto a hill known as El Mojon, 12 miles east of San Rafael del Norte.

“It is so good to see him,” his sister beamed as they sat by candlelight in the family’s dirt-floor shack. “The life of a guerrilla is cheap. You never know what can happen.”

El Mojon became headquarters for the night as two groups of about 25 comandos converged. With a couple of fighters posted as sentries, the others relaxed over beans and tortillas. They were so confident of their position that they made little effort to douse light from flashlights or quiet the volume on their radios.

As in Yuluca, the Contras in El Mojon knew exactly when it was time to move. Even though a Sandinista light infantry battalion had spent the night at the foot of the hill, just 2 miles away, the Contra leaders knew from their civilian informants that the enemy did not start approaching until dawn.

So, with a morning mist still shrouding the hilltops, the Contras dispersed in several small groups and headed deeper into the countryside. Less than an hour later, the Sandinista contingent streamed into El Mojon, but there were no Contras to be found.

The rebels have been so open about their increased presence in Nicaragua that, at one point late last month, they were regularly swarming over a main road in Esteli province and stopping traffic. Last Monday, they intercepted cars outside the town of Trinidad, 50 miles north of Managua, residents said.

Contra leaders say they will not order their fighters to disband until a verified cease-fire is in place and they are given adequate safety guarantees. Some Contras insist that they will not disarm if the Sandinista army is left intact, which so far has been Chamorro’s intention.

The guerrillas point to the Ortega government’s recent distribution of rifles to Sandinista National Liberation Front militants as further cause not to let their defenses down.

Under the Central American presidents’ agreement and another accord signed by the Contras’ negotiating team, the rebels are to move into designated security zones that will remain off limits to Sandinistas.

Rebels who have not disarmed at that point are supposed to hand their weapons over to elements of an 800-member U.N. peacekeeping force, which will destroy the guns. The U.N. contingent, made up mostly of Venezuelans, is scheduled to begin arriving this week.

The Organization of American States, meanwhile, will be in charge of feeding, clothing, providing medical treatment and eventually resettling the rebels who take refuge inside the security zones. The program, including a number of long-term development projects, will cost at least $140 million, OAS representative Hugo de Zela said.

Five security zones have been mapped out, each covering about 300 square miles of area and each located in a different part of the country where the insurgents have traditionally operated.

“They were designed so the Contras won’t have to walk much, nor will it take their forces very long to get where they’re going,” said Maj. Gen. Joaquin Cuadra, head of the chiefs of staff of the Sandinista People’s Army.

The timetable established in all agreements would have the Contras demobilized by the date of Chamorro’s inauguration. But officials coordinating the project admit privately the deadline is not realistic.

And while some Contras have said they are willing to move into the security enclaves, turning in their guns is another matter.

The suspicions and anxiety that both Contras and Sandinistas express have spread throughout the countryside. Villagers, farmers, ranchers and peasants all await Chamorro’s inauguration and the days and weeks that will follow it with apprehension.

Veronica Maradiaga, an Esteli housewife, was on her way to Managua last week to take out a passport. She planned to board a bus from Nicaragua to Mexico City and then cross the U.S. border illegally into Southern California. Her husband awaits her in Los Angeles.

“It may get ugly here,” she said.