Contra Aid Gets a Champion

As the most prominent member of Nicaragua's democratic opposition, Arturo Cruz Porras, 60, has long criticized both the Marxist-led Sandinista government and the Reagan Administration for their part in polarizing his country. Last week, however, Cruz gave surprising support to the White House in one of its most controversial aims: persuading Congress to reinstate funds to the anti-Sandinista rebels known as the contras.

Writing in the New York Times, Cruz argued that the contra insurgency is "the revolt of Nicaraguans against oppression by other Nicaraguans." Cruz then warned congressional opponents of aid that they "have a moral obligation to insist that the Sandinistas restore Nicaragua's liberties and that the Communist world take its hands off our country." Cruz later said that it was "irrational" to believe that a cutoff of aid to the contras will lead to increased political freedoms in Nicaragua "unless you have made sure the Soviets and the Cubans are going to do the same vis-a-vis the Sandinistas." Summed up Cruz: "I disagree completely with the apologists who want to give the Sandinistas only the carrot and not the stick. It won't work."