Last of Contras Start to Disarm on Deadline

Declaring the Contra war over, President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro disarmed and embraced rebel field commanders Saturday at the start of a mass surrender of weapons by the remainder of their army.

“I always dreamed of the day the war between Nicaraguans would end,” Chamorro said in a speech to several thousand rebel soldiers. “Today my dream has come true.”

In the grass-covered square of this farming center, the rebels stood in formation with their weapons for the visit by Chamorro, who achieved in last February’s election what their U.S.-backed army had failed to do in eight years of fighting--overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista government.

The ceremony came on the eve of today’s disarmament deadline, which had been set in an April 19 armistice pact between the new president and rebel leaders. Turning her visit into something of a victory celebration, the rebels said they intend to meet the deadline by disarming their remaining 7,000 fighters during the weekend.

In turn, Chamorro said she will unveil this week a promised plan for reducing the national army, still dominated by Sandinista officers and the largest in Central America. Together, she said, the two events will launch “a true era of peace that will consolidate our democracy.”

Rebel commander Israel Galeano, who spoke from the same platform, said his men were disarming “to show the world that we are not the problem in Nicaragua.” Wearing a hat that read, “44 Magnum: God’s Favorite Caliber,” he added: “Nicaragua has no enemies. It no longer needs an army.”

Galeano said 5,000 to 7,000 former guerrillas will stick together under his leadership as pioneer farmers in El Almendro to become “a productive force in a new society.”

El Almendro, a rural municipality of 14,000 farmers in the southeastern corner of Nicaragua, is one of seven cease-fire zones where rebels have gathered since April under the supervision of U.N. peacekeeping troops.

The government agreed May 30 to build new farm colonies for former rebels in El Almendro and to let them form a 300-member police force for the 14,400-acre resettlement area. The accord, which satisfied the rebels’ security concerns, ended a crisis that had slowed the demobilization to a trickle.

As of Friday, 7,882 rebels--just over half the army--had disarmed, about 6,000 of them in the last 10 days. Meantime, all but a few hundred of those remaining in the other cease-fire zones were trucked to El Almendro in olive-green Soviet-made Zils, driven and escorted by Sandinista soldiers.

“This relaxed the tension between the two armies,” said Gen. Agustin Quesada, the Spanish commander of the 700 U.N. troops in Nicaragua. “They began to speak to each other as Nicaraguans.”

Quesada said he had enough men here and in the other zones to collect weapons from all the remaining guerrillas by the end of today. U.N. troops were busy Saturday cutting surrendered rifles in two with welders’ torches.

The Sandinista newspaper, Barricada, acknowledged in an editorial Saturday that “a real process of demobilization” was under way and expressed confidence that it will be finished on time. But the paper complained about “questionable and even unpardonable concessions” by Chamorro, including the rebels’ police force and their representation in four government ministries dealing with resettlement.

Nevertheless, the Sandinistas appear ready to meet their end of the April peace agreement. On Thursday the army’s Sandinista commander, Gen. Humberto Ortega, handed Chamorro his proposal for reducing its budget and manpower, which stood at 90,000 troops before the February election.

Saturday’s ceremony was the biggest event in the 110-year history of this former rubber plantation town. Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the country’s Roman Catholic leader, arrived in gold robes and a red cap to say Mass from a covered flatbed truck. Bianca Jagger arrived in a black pantsuit to shoot a documentary for British television.

“We’re so isolated. Nobody ever visited,” said Geronimo Vargas, 39, director of the town infirmary.

The Contras chose El Almendro as the site of their colony because the Sandinista-led army had virtually abandoned it and because the people here support them. The town’s voters favored Chamorro 2,306 to 535 over former Sandinista President Daniel Ortega.

“We’re proud to have them here,” Vargas said as he watched armed Contras gather in the square. “They’re well-behaved. They don’t abuse anyone. It’s a pleasure to share what little we have with them.”

But Mayor Julio Barrios, a Contra sympathizer, said the rebels had disrupted their quiet lives with frequent bursts of recreational gunfire to run down their ammunition stocks.

“The nights are horrible,” he said. “They’ve given us war psychosis.”

Besides their Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles, many of the Contras had fearsome looks. They include the most battle-hardened soldiers of the rebel army--those who most fear reprisals by Sandinista enemies if they return to their native towns and villages.

One veteran, nicknamed “Caballito,” or Little Horse, led a famous rebel operation that seized La Trinidad, a town on the Pan American Highway, in 1984. The Sandinistas claimed several times to have killed him, but Caballito lived to fight nine years inside Nicaragua--not once retreating, he said, to base camps in Honduras.

As he stood in formation Saturday, Caballito sported black hair halfway down his back and a braided beard hanging to his chest. He said he once swore to God never to cut his hair until the war was over.

Asked when he planned to get a haircut, the 36-year-old fighter said not yet. “I got a letter from my mother and my wife 15 days ago,” he explained. “They live in Jinotega. They said it would be wise for me to stay where I am, because the Sandinistas still exist there.

“I cannot be satisfied that the war is over until I can go home,” he said. “I have fulfilled my commitment in this war, but I don’t have my freedom yet.”

While expressing similar fears, many rebels said they were celebrating victory.

“Today we have fulfilled our commitment to liberate Nicaragua,” a rebel calling himself “Cuerito” said in a speech opening the ceremony. He thanked the president for “her noble work in participating in this holy struggle” against the Sandinistas.

After Mass, 24 field commanders--the rebels’ entire second-level hierarchy--lined up to present their AK-47s and Browning automatic pistols to Chamorro. Six of them did so, each receiving a presidential embrace in return, before a midday thunderstorm interrupted the event.

U.N. officials said Saturday night that 1,460 Contras handed over their weapons during the day, 858 of them in El Almendro. That left more than 5,000 still armed. Galeano said he and his five-man general staff would surrender their weapons last.

“It’s an irreversible process,” said Max Rodriguez Martinez, the field commander known as Wilmer who was the first to be disarmed by Chamorro. She kissed him just below a recent bullet wound on his right cheek.