Military to Be Slashed by Half in Nicaragua

Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro on Friday ordered her nation’s military manpower cut to 41,000 by Aug. 3, about half the size of the army she inherited after ousting the Sandinistas in national elections.

The troop reduction, which will bring Central America’s largest army into line with those of its neighbors, comes as the last of the anti-Sandinista rebels are disarming under a peace treaty after eight years of war. The cuts were endorsed by Gen. Humberto Ortega, the Sandinista revolutionary who presided over the army’s decade-long buildup and remains its commander.

After making the announcement, Chamorro flew here to urge other Central American leaders to negotiate mutual troop reductions that would allow her to trim Nicaragua’s army even further. The civilian presidents of five Central American countries and Panama meet here today and Sunday.

Nicaraguan officials said Chamorro had wanted an even sharper reduction than the one she announced. But they said she was obliged to accept troop levels close to those proposed by Ortega in order to maintain a rough balance of forces with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Even so, the cuts are dramatic because they will come so quickly. When Chamorro took office April 25, Ortega anticipated a gradual reduction--to the same level but over an 18-month period.

Presidential adviser Antonio Lacayo said that most of the soldiers cut will be draftees and militiamen.

“Within the first 100 days of my government, the army will be reduced to fewer than 41,000 men and women, half the members it had April 25,” Chamorro told an assembly of her Cabinet, the army high command, the Supreme Court and the diplomatic corps.

“With this first great reduction of the military apparatus,” she added, “I am ordering a restructuring of the army to adjust to the new situation of peace. This will imply a further reduction of the army’s ranks, including officials of high rank.

“The number of members the army will have at the end of the restructuring phase will depend in part on the future of the region. A Central America in peace, where all conflicts are resolved by dialogue, will not need armies, big or small,” she said.

Officials gathering here for the Central American summit, which is focused on economic recovery, said the presidents might call for troop reduction talks as early as next month. But they said progress is unlikely because of continuing warfare between leftist guerrillas and the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala.

However, they said that the Sandinistas’ departure through free elections and the subsequent demilitarization of Nicaragua have eased regional tensions and improved prospects for negotiated settlements of the two remaining conflicts. Slow-moving peace talks are under way in both.

“Dona Violeta is going to the summit with an initiative that could have enormous impact,” said Alfredo Cesar, a former anti-Sandinista rebel leader who advises the Nicaraguan president on military affairs. “What she wants is to have a decisive influence on the demilitarization of Central America.”

The Sandinistas took power as a guerrilla army in 1979 and built up their forces with Soviet assistance during the war against the U.S.-backed Contras.

Last January, Nicaragua’s armed forces had 96,660 officers, regular troops and reserves, according to Ortega. By the time Chamorro took office, they had shrunk to just over 80,000 members because of desertions.

El Salvador’s military has 57,000 members, Guatemala’s has 43,000 and Honduras’ has 20,000. Having expanded with U.S. assistance during the 1980s, the armed forces wield considerable power in all three countries.

Even without a war to fight, Honduran military commanders brought pressure on that country’s legislature this month to kill legislation to abolish army conscription. Honduran officials say they oppose any cuts in their armed forces because they are relatively small. Arriving for the summit Friday, Honduran President Rafael Callejas said he opposes manpower cuts in his military because it is relatively small but is willing to discuss mutual reductions of heavy weapons.

Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani told reporters here that any serious discussion about reducing his nation’s armed forces would be premature.

“But obviously once this conflict has stopped--and with the peace process that is under way, this will come soon--we will be able to cut back our army to its normal peacetime force,” Cristiani said.

Cristiani’s aides have said this means an army of 14,000 to 16,000 and separation of various police forces from army control.

The summit meeting here is an outgrowth of the August, 1987, peace agreement drafted by then-President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, the lone Central American country without an army. The five-nation accord called for cease-fires, amnesties and democratic reforms to defuse guerrilla wars.

The most tangible result of the regional peace process came last weekend when Chamorro personally disarmed a dozen rebel field commanders in a rain-drenched ceremony and declared the war over.

Since an April 19 armistice among Gen. Ortega, Chamorro’s advisers and Contra leaders, 14,200 men and women, virtually the entire rebel army, have surrendered their weapons to U.N. peace-keeping forces. About 1,650 rebels in five cease-fire zones still have their weapons, U.N. officials said, but are expected to be disarmed within days.

Chamorro said Friday she was especially satisfied that “no Nicaraguan has lost his life because of war” since she took office.

As part of the army reduction, she promised that all conscripts serving two-year tours under a now-abolished military draft will be allowed to go home by Dec. 7. And she ordered the army and the police to disarm all civilians by Christmas, using joint teams of Sandinista officers and former Contra commanders.

Chamorro gave few details of how the army will be restructured but said that special security measures will be offered to protect high-level officers sent into retirement.

Speaking to reporters later, Ortega said he and his Sandinista-dominated officer corps will decide who stays in the army. He said major cuts in the military had been planned by the Sandinistas but couldn’t be carried out until the war ended. He brushed aside questions about his own tenure.

The general is the brother of former Sandinista President Daniel Ortega. Chamorro’s decision to keep him temporarily as head of the army caused an uproar among her coalition on inauguration day, but the gamble appears to be paying off.

Despite their bitter enmity with Ortega, the Contras disarmed, and the general agreed to carry out Chamorro’s troop reduction. He said the cuts will relieve Nicaragua of “a heavy burden of military spending” while preserving the “efficiency and professionalism” of the army.

BACKGROUND

The Nicaraguan army was formed by the Marxist-led Sandinista government that came to power with the 1979 overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza. During the height of the war against the U.S.-backed Contras, the army--still officially called the Popular Sandinista Army--grew to over 100,000 men armed with an array of Soviet-supplied weapons. Local media had reported that President Chamorro was considering announcing the resignation of army commander Gen. Humberto Ortega, older brother of former President Daniel Ortega. But Chamorro made no reference to Gen. Ortega in her speech, and the latter told reporters afterwards that he was staying on in his post.