O.C. COLUMN RIGHT/ THOMAS A. FUENTES : Contras Again Need the Help of U.S. Friends : Nicaraguan people crave democracy, market economy.

It was my great pleasure recently to travel to Nicaragua for the fourth time since the democratic elections of 1990 which freed the Nicaraguan people after 10 years of Marxist Sandinista rule.

I returned to a hopeful and vibrant Nicaragua. I saw new businesses along the avenues of Managua. I saw people repairing and painting the insides and outside of their homes. I saw the streets being paved and new public facilities being built.

For all of us who supported the foreign policy of Ronald Reagan, Nicaragua today is the fruition of our noble intentions. Yet, there is still much to be done. The government of President Violetta Barrios de Chamorro has not yet fully ousted the Sandinistas from the bureaucracy and the military. Mrs. Chamorro’s son-in-law, Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo, has made an unholy alliance with the Sandinistas to the frustration of the leaders and voters of the new democracy movement.

Mrs. Chamorro ran for president with Dr. Virgilio Godoy Reyes, who has twice been our distinguished guest in Orange County. Vice President Godoy remains frustrated in his call for enforcement of the mandate of the election.

But good men like Dr. Godoy and Managua’s dynamic mayor, Dr. Arnoldo Aleman, are capturing the hearts and minds of their fellow Nicaraguans as they stand firm against the Sandinista thugs who lead strikes of government workers and kill the cattle of peasant farmers.

I spent many hours with Vice President Godoy and with Mayor Aleman. I am very impressed with their stalwart dedication to see a democratic nation and free market economy evolve out of the ruins of 30 years of Somoza and 10 years of the Sandinistas. These leaders opposed the Somoza dictatorship and the tyrant Sandinistas.

Nicaragua now faces an economic crisis.

In the last years of Somoza, Nicaragua exported over $1 billion of goods annually. Today, it exports just over $200 million of goods. Its agricultural production was once a thriving source of pride in the Americas. Today, after the imposition of collectivism by the Sandinistas, Nicaragua’s farmers do not produce. The cooperatives are run by the Sandinista-appointed townspeople and the farmers do not reap a just reward for their toil. So, they do not produce.

Yet, with all these problems, there is a hopeful and energetic spirit among the people one meets. They crave a democratic society and a free market economy.

In 1994, Nicaragua will participate in the elections for the Central American Parliament, and in the selection of leaders for the autonomous and indigenous regions of Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast. It is critical that the security of these elections be overseen by objective outside observers so that the Sandinistas do not steal the people’s votes.

Those freedom fighters we called Contras are now seeking to more fully fulfill their dreams of a free and prosperous Nicaragua. They seek political stability to reap economic stability and social reform. They needed our help in their armed struggle against communism and they need our help now to assure continued free elections and the development of a vibrant free market economy. They need American investment and they need American interest. That interest must include a commitment to securing that the Marxist tyrants who ruled their land for 10 years and crushed their liberties do not return to power by treachery.

I visited with Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Nicaragua. His eminence preaches that the will of the people as expressed in the elections of 1990 must be fulfilled by the government.

As Mayor Aleman was about to give me the Orden Municipal Fulencio Vega, suddenly all the lights went out. It was the act of the Sandinista controlled electricity agency. They knew a friend of the Contras, a conservative gringo from Orange County, was about to be honored by his Nicaraguan friends.

So, we all walked outside into the garden. I told my embarrassed friends not to worry. (I was just grateful that in the dark there were no gunshots.) And, I reminded them of the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who has said, “We can curse the darkness, or we can light one candle.”

With that, the bright spotlight of a video camera came on, which flooded the patio stage with illumination.

Like Mother Teresa’s admonishment, freedom-loving Nicaraguans are lighting candles of hope, one by one, to illuminate a bright new future for Nicaragua.

They are repairing their homes, opening new businesses, giving birth to a new generation and building a free market economy and a democratic society.

I just hope all of us Americans do not forget these good people in our own back yard.