Pardon Husband’s Killers--Chamorro
President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro has asked the National Assembly to pardon the killers of her husband, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, whose 1978 assassination helped fuel the Sandinista revolution, a Sandinista newspaper said Friday.
In a letter to Assembly President Miriam Arguello, dated Aug. 13, Chamorro said: “As an affected party, I have expressed to the National Assembly my feelings to forgive and forget those who were the material authors of the assassination and other connected crimes against my husband, Dr. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Cardenal. Therefore, I solicit their pardon within the spirit of reconciliation that I have espoused.”
The letter was printed in part Friday in the Sandinista newspaper, Barricada. A spokesman for Chamorro refused to comment.
Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, former publisher of the newspaper La Prensa, is considered a martyr by virtually all Nicaraguans--both Sandinistas and supporters of Violeta Chamorro’s unity coalition.
He was slain in his car in 1978 in a hail of bullets in front of the National Assembly, apparently in retaliation for his harsh criticism of U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza. After the revolution, the killers were rounded up and tried. Three were each sentenced to 30 years in prison, and two were sentenced to 21 years each.
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