NICARAGUA:
Aid for Former
Combatants Finally Comes
Through
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA (IPS) -
Nearly 17 years after
the end of Nicaragua’s
civil war, the details
of the demobilization
accords are finally
beginning to be
implemented under the
government of leftist
President Daniel Ortega,
amidst scepticism and
hope on the part of
former combatants.
The president, who took
office in January 2007,
established a Commission
for Verification,
Reconciliation, Peace
and Justice in May, made
up of government
officials, to address
the problems of the
victims of the 1980s
armed conflict. He
appointed his long-time
critic, Catholic
Cardinal Miguel Obando y
Bravo, to head the
commission.
After the Sandinista
National Liberation
Front (FSLN) toppled the
brutal 43-year Somoza
family dictatorship in
1979, the U.S.
government organiszd and
financed the "contra"
fighters, who fought the
Sandinista government
until 1990.
Ortega was elected
president for six years
in 1984, but lost the
1990 elections. After
running unsuccessfully
in two more elections,
he was reelected in 2006
on a platform of peace
and reconciliation.
Nelson Artola, executive
secretary of the
Verification Commission,
told IPS that Ortega was
fulfilling the promises
of demobilization and
reinsertion in civilian
life offered since 1987
to more than 200,000
people directly involved
in the armed conflict.
The promises include
land, financial
assistance and technical
advice and training for
campesinos (peasant
farmers), housing for
former combatants,
pensions for the
disabled, widows and
orphans, medical care,
priority access to
education, free public
transportation and
facilities for the
political or labour
organization of
demobilized fighters.
According to official
figures, more than
50,000 people were
killed in the conflict,
and around 50,000 were
left disabled, widowed
or orphaned.
"For the thousands of
direct and indirect
victims, the president
is struggling to make
good on the promises
that have been denied
them by over 17 years of
neoliberal governments,"
said Artola, citing the
benefits that the Ortega
administration will
deliver to former
"contras", retired
soldiers and police
officers, people left
disabled by the war,
widows and orphans, and
the mothers of sons
killed in the conflict.
In October, the
government extended the
pensions to 21,400
beneficiaries registered
in the Nicaraguan Social
Security Institute (INSS),
with the goal of
expanding the number to
25,000 in 2008.
In addition, the
pensions will be
increased by 150 percent
for former combatants
with total disability
and 100 percent for
those with partial
disabilities. The
pensions of another
7,846 beneficiaries will
also be substantially
augmented, said the
president of the INSS,
Roberto López.
Pensions for widows and
orphans were expanded to
a total of 1,649 people,
and benefits were
extended to 11,670
mothers of fighters who
died in combat.
The INSS also announced
that it would revise
decisions by previous
administrations to
revoke the pensions of
thousands of people. In
addition, benefits from
the state will
automatically kick in
for mothers of
combatants killed in the
armed conflict, when
they turn 60.
Furthermore, the budget
earmarked for pensions,
to be partly financed
with international aid,
will be increased by 5.4
million dollars.
An international
fund-raising committee
will be created to that
end, with the aim of
incorporating veterans
from the 1965-1975
Vietnam War, former
South African president
and Nobel Peace laureate
Nelson Mandela, and
presidents Hugo Chávez
of Venezuela and Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva of
Brazil.
Artola said that Chávez
and Lula have already
offered support to the
former combatants, by
helping to finance
social programmes
launched by the
Nicaraguan government
and by studying
alternative production
projects for demobilized
fighters.
This month, the
Verification Commission
told international
diplomats that 70 mixed
committees made up of
former combatants,
victims and their
families have been
established around the
country to help people
sign up for the
assistance. The
Attorney-General’s
Office reported that
land and land titles
have begun to be
distributed to
demobilised fighters
involved in ongoing,
violent conflicts over
ownership of the former
state-run farm of El
Timal, to the north of
Managua.
Xiomara Mendoza, the
mother of a soldier who
was killed in combat in
1985 in Matagalpa, was
happy to hear the news.
"When my farmer son
died, he was 18 years
old, and left behind two
little babies, who have
been sick and hungry.
Now, with this aid they
will pay for at least a
little bit of the
suffering we have gone
through," she told IPS,
crying.
Aníbal Rodríguez Cruz,
an indigenous former
combatant who wanders
around Managua on
crutches panhandling,
said that "at first they
gave me a tiny pension,
but then they took it
away in 1993."
"Since then I have
looked for work, but no
one has given me a hand.
I hope that now they'll
make good on their
promises, so that I can
at least eat," he told
IPS.
But former contra
commanders have
expressed scepticism
about the initiative.
Former contra chief Luis
Fley, founder of the
Nicaraguan Resistance
Party (PRN),
acknowledged that in the
1990s, "the pensions and
treatment received by
the demobilized fighters
were measly."
"But when it was in the
opposition, the FSLN
never tried to help the
combatants, and I find
it suspicious that they
are now starting to
organise the neediest
just when the 2008
municipal elections are
coming up," said Fley,
who is now the PRN
director of
international relations.
Another former contra
leader, Óscar Sobalvarro,
one of the negotiators
in the talks with the
Sandinista government,
said "no such help
actually exists."
"We have contacted our
old networks of people,
our rural leaders and
former combatants, and
they have not been
called on," said
Sobalvarro.
"The men who have
appeared on TV as
‘contras’ are not the
real thing; they are
retired members of the
military and a few
people who infiltrated
our ranks, and who have
allied themselves with
the FSLN to obtain
benefits," he argued.
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