NEWS ANALYSIS : Power Vacuum Revealed by Nicaragua Crisis

Perhaps it is most telling that Nicaragua’s hostage crisis was resolved while President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was out of the country.

By the time it was over, her government had essentially ceded a portion of national territory to one band of kidnaping gunmen and allowed another--weapons in hand--to travel in a raucous caravan to the airport for a flight to the destination of its choice.

The weeklong drama, in which rival gunmen captured and held more than 70 politicians, legislators and Nicaragua’s vice president, reflected Chamorro’s growing inability to govern a country riven by intransigent divisions. The power vacuum cripples not just the government but the entire political class, analysts say, and has allowed Nicaragua to drift dangerously close to utter disaster.

“There is a generalized crisis of leadership that does not just involve (Chamorro) as president,” said Sergio Ramirez, prominent Sandinista legislator and former vice president. “This crisis shows that all of what we call civilian society is not capable of responding to the economic and social needs of the people.”

Chamorro, whose upset defeat of Sandinista President Daniel Ortega in 1990 elections catapulted her into office but who was soon abandoned by her political allies, has emerged from this latest chaotic episode weaker than ever.

Three years after her election put an end to a decade-long civil war between Soviet-backed Sandinista troops and U.S.-backed Contra rebels, she has largely failed in her goal of uniting a polarized society and breaking the cycle of violence.

The Chamorro government’s policy of routinely granting amnesty is increasingly blamed for encouraging armed actions like the dual hostage crisis that ended late Wednesday with the safe release of all captives. Both bands were allowed to escape unpunished.

The kidnapers in the northern hills were rearmed Contra rebels who seized a government delegation to demand the removal of Chamorro’s right-hand man, son-in-law Antonio Lacayo, and Defense Minister Gen. Humberto Ortega, a leading Sandinista and brother of former President Daniel Ortega.

The rearmed Contras, led by Jose Angel Talavera, alias The Jackal, obtained significant concessions from the government, including the establishment of a large security zone in the area of Quilali where the army will not be allowed to enter.

The kidnapers in Managua were retired Sandinista soldiers who said they were capturing Vice President Virgilio Godoy and two dozen conservative politicians to force Talavera to release his hostages.

Led by former army Maj. Donald Mendoza--once a Sandinista military attache in Washington--the group released its hostages late Wednesday and on Thursday traveled in their noisy caravan to the airport. Daniel Ortega, who had served as a negotiator, escorted them.

At the airport, the eight gunmen boarded two military helicopters and were transported, at their request, to Esteli, a pro-Sandinista city in the north. There, they planned to hook up with Manuel Gallegos, alias Honduran Pete, a former Sandinista officer who commands rebels who last month attacked Esteli in an operation that killed dozens of people.

Some elements of the Sandinista Front seemed to be treating Mendoza and his men as heroes. A Sandinista-controlled radio station, which gave nonstop and often laudatory coverage to Mendoza’s exploits, filled the airwaves with revolutionary songs.

And Barricada, the Sandinista newspaper, put out an extra edition Thursday afternoon, with a large front-page picture of Mendoza standing triumphantly, AK-47 held aloft, boarding his escape helicopter.

As all of Nicaragua anxiously awaited the outcome of the hostage crisis, Chamorro seemed largely irrelevant. She had to turn to Daniel Ortega and Roman Catholic Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo to negotiate with the hostage-takers. Wednesday, as her vice president remained sequestered, she left for a meeting in Mexico,

Chamorro, the widow of a revered newspaper publisher, was elected to the presidency as the compromise candidate of a conservative 14-party coalition, most of which now opposes her because of her inclusion of Sandinistas in the government. Sandinistas continue to control the army, police and courts.

Even her aides concede that Lacayo is the real power behind the presidency and that Chamorro was elected as a symbol, a status that bought her considerable political capital. But even that now appears to be fading.