Death Along the Border

The Sandinistas push U.S.-supported contras back into the hills

Only a few months ago the early successes of the spring offensive launched by the U.S.-backed commando army of the Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (F.D.N.) seemed to spell serious trouble for the Marxist-led Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The counterrevolutionaries, or contras, had managed by April to establish advance positions only 70 miles from the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. As a result, some officials in the Reagan Administration were predicting that the contras would have one-third of Nicaragua under their control by the end of the year, thereby testing the Sandinista government's ability to survive. In the past few weeks, however, the contras' advance has been reversed. With the help of 3,000 fresh troops, the Sandinistas have driven the F.D.N. back to a narrow ribbon of bases along the Honduran border.

That region became a death trap last week for two U.S. journalists, Los Angeles Times Correspondent Dial Torgerson, 55, and Freelance Photographer Richard Cross, 33 (see PRESS). The two Americans were driving along a road near Cifuentes, a short distance inside Honduras, when their car was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a position on the Nicaraguan side of the border, killing the two men instantly. The Sandinistas had been harassing the road for nearly a month with machine-gun, mortar and grenade fire, killing at least five people in previous incidents. The firing was part of a campaign to secure the hills around Jalapa, a strategically located town of 10,000 in the tobacco-growing area of northern Nicaragua.

In Washington, Secretary of State George Shultz deplored the deaths and warned Nicaragua that the U.S. considers Honduras to be "of great importance." He added that "the large-scale shipments of arms to Nicaragua from the Soviet Union, sometimes direct and [sometimes] through Cuba, is not appreciated by us." Only a day earlier a defector from the Nicaraguan counterintelligence forces, Miguel Bolanos Hunter, had declared in Washington that Nicaragua was in the process of acquiring a Soviet air-defense system along with 80 MiG fighter planes. In a press conference arranged by the State Department, Bolanos also contended that the Nicaraguan government had concocted the story of an American-sponsored plot to poison Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel d'Escoto, which was used earlier this month as a pretext to expel three U.S. diplomats.

The killing of the two Americans provoked a volley of charges and counter-charges between Honduras and Nicaragua. The Honduran government, which quietly allows the CIA to provide assistance to the contras based within its borders, accused the Sandinistas of violating Honduran sovereignty. The Nicaraguans, who claim to be at a disadvantage in the border fighting because they do not pursue the contras into their Honduran sanctuaries, denied responsibility for the killings. The incident, nonetheless, revealed just how precarious the situation has become along the mountainous border between the two countries.

A further sign of the contras' troubles came last week when Eden Pastora, a former Sandinista who has been leading a separate group of guerrillas operating from the south, announced that he was ceasing his activities. Pastora, who refused to join forces with the U.S.-supported contras in the north, said he had run out of arms and money. The real reason may be that his campaign had not sparked the army desertions or the popular support that he had expected.

Reagan Administration officials maintained last week that the state of the contra offensive had not significantly changed. Impressions drawn by reporters on the scene represented, according to a U.S. intelligence expert, a "worm's-eye view." He added, "Some contra units may be coming under pressure from Sandinista troops, but the contras are not being pushed out of Nicaragua." Maybe not, but they are certainly having their difficulties, as TIME Caribbean Bureau Chief William McWhirter discovered last week when he crossed the Honduran border to visit contra positions.* His report:

There was trouble almost from the beginning. In the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa the day before, the F.D.N. leadership had promised an extended ten-day trip through the territory they hold inside Nicaragua. But when we arrived at "Base Nicarao," one of the contras' two main northern bases, we were greeted only by a chorus of F.D.N. recruits, ranging from boys of 14 to weathered campesinos singing anti-Sandinista war hymns, including one to the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home.

The reception we were given by the base leader, who is known as "Zero Three," was brief and faintly hostile, as if we were not only diverting his men from more urgent tasks but, as Americans, were in some way responsible for their predicament. The encampment had come under direct attack only three days before in an eleven-hour shelling siege, and Zero Three announced that two battalions of perhaps 1,500 Nicaraguan troops still surrounded them on three sides, leaving open only the mountainous retreat into Honduras. "This place is now dangerous," he said. "They have helicopters, mortars and troops. It's only a question of when they hit us again." Commander "Max," who was supposed to have met us, was somewhere in the field "fighting with the guerrillas." When we asked for a chance to observe the contras' popular support, Zero Three snapped, "The people and the guerrillas, the guerrillas and the people! Si. I have heard the question a thousand times." Then Zero Three announced: "You're leaving tomorrow."

The fast turnabout in the contras' fortunes is occurring along much of the border between Honduras and Nicaragua. The F.D.N.'s field commanders admit that they have withdrawn all their forward troops to the rear mountain zones. Equally unmistakable is the new mood that has replaced the euphoria of early spring. The F.D.N.'s political and military leaders are divided among themselves. "Our people feel we are fighting a much more powerful enemy than we ever expected," admits a worried F.D.N. leader. "They have trucks and planes and are even bringing vans of Pepsi-Cola to the front. Only the Honduran army is behind us, and we can't draw back any further."

If the contras' military position seems weak, so does their support from the U.S. Says another F.D.N. leader: "The U.S. is keeping all its options open while our men are being killed. Do you know how difficult it is to tell squad leaders that their men are just being used to tease the Sandinistas? They thought they were being recruited to liberate their country."

The tensions have spilled over into relations between the military commanders and the political directorate. The political wing is critical of the military, which it says has failed to employ more feasible guerrilla strike operations. Says a senior F.D.N. official of his military colleagues: "We even have different field commanders feuding over their territorial prerogatives. One unit was fired on by our own men for crossing into another zone." On the other hand, when a political courier arrived in a field position earlier this month, he was berated by a senior commander: "You have only $150 to give me? I lost five men last night. I need money to feed and now to bury my men." Both F.D.N. wings feel that the U.S. imposition of restraints on tactics, such as destroying economic targets, is unfair in the face of overwhelming military odds.

Despite its current problems, the F.D.N. force remains a serious threat that the Sandinistas cannot ignore. Even so there is a growing sense that the F.D.N.'s continuing support from Washington is a double-edged bargain: the contras must show some results in order to secure more aid. Noting the September funds deadlock imposed by Congress, one contra leader said soberly, "From here until August, if we don't succeed, we might as well forget the whole thing."

* Because he had been in the area only two days earlier, McWhirter was at first mistakenly reported by the Honduran government to have been killed along with Torgerson and Cross. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.