Nicaragua Enemies Within

By Edward W. Desmond.

In a national radio and television broadcast last week, President Daniel Ortega Saavedra rolled out the heaviest artillery yet in his battle against political opponents of the revolutionary Sandinista government. He decreed the suspension of nearly all civil liberties in Nicaragua, including the right to strike and the rights of free expression, public assembly, freedom of movement, habeas corpus and protection from arbitrary arrest, search and seizure. His justification for that drastic crackdown: the threat of "political destabilization" posed by the "terrorist policies of the United States," as well as by the "internal pawns of imperialism." Said Ortega: "It is a fundamental condition for the lifting of these exceptional measures that the imperialist aggression against Nicaragua be effectively stopped."

That aggression seems to be taking a new form, at least in the Sandinistas' view. An earlier suspension of civil rights in 1982 was blamed largely on attacks by U.S.-backed contra rebels. But many outside observers now agree with the Nicaraguan military's assertion that contra activities are being contained for the moment. This time the decree was aimed at another, possibly more dangerous, threat: the Catholic Church and legitimate political parties, professional associations and independent unions that oppose the Sandinistas from within the country. The government fears that all these domestic opponents might band together with the contras in one anti-Sandinista front. That possibility is dismissed by opposition leaders, though in recent months many groups have been emboldened by Nicaragua's dire economic problems, an unpopular military draft and the Sandinistas' drift toward an increasingly authoritarian rule. "Things were coming to a head," says a well-placed Sandinista. "This is a warning shot to the internal opposition. We are not going to be a self-destructive revolution."

Although it is still unclear how strictly the decree will be enforced, it had the effect of ratifying the sorts of measures the Sandinistas have been taking in recent months without the cloak of law. Their main target seems to be Nicaragua's Roman Catholic Church, led by the charismatic Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo. Days before Ortega's speech, Sandinista security agents had seized 10,000 copies of Iglesia, a new Catholic newsletter. Then just hours before the speech, government agents closed the magazine's office and seized its printing equipment. Apparently the publication offended the Sandinistas because it carried a letter from Cardinal Obando y Bravo defending the right of seminary students to adopt conscientious objector status. In September the Sandinista army drafted eleven seminarians despite a tacit understanding that men in training for the priesthood could be exempted from the draft.

In Managua, on the day of Ortega's speech, Sandinista police tried unsuccessfully to break up a large demonstration of workers demanding higher wages. But two days later Interior Minister Tomas Borge Martinez said the decree was intended "to defend workers, not to repress them." The government also banned a "Private Enterprise Day" in Managua sponsored by COSEP, the leading business association.

Opposition figures for the most part greeted the new crackdown with cool defiance. "We are already accustomed to the laws of repression, so we plan to go on as before," said Erik Ramirez, president of the Social Christian Party. Echoing that feeling was Luis Rivas Leiva, secretary- general of the Social Democratic Party. Said he: "We are always evading restrictions. We have to use our imagination to evade these limits." Rivas discounts Ortega's claims that opposition activities are coordinated. Ortega may have dropped a lid on domestic unrest, but the move is not likely to help his attempts to win respect for the government abroad. This week he was to address the U.N. in Manhattan and possibly accept some invitations to speak around the U.S. The leader of the Sandinista revolution is likely to face a lot of tough questions and a measure of hostility during his visit. State Department Spokesman Bernard Kalb, for instance, said last week's civil liberties suspension demonstrated "the Sandinistas fear of their own people." Ortega will undoubtedly try to use his U.S. trip to change that impression.

With reporting by Laura Lopez/Managua