NICARAGUA:
Ortega's Return Stirs
Ex-Contras in US
By Laura Wides_Munoz
MIAMI (AP) — At the end
of Nicaragua's civil
war, Juan Gregorio
Rodriguez traded his
life as a Contra rebel
for that of auto
mechanic in Florida. He
kept in touch with other
rebels and supported
their political efforts,
but mostly from afar.
That changed in 2006,
when the Contras'
nemesis, Sandinista
leader Daniel Ortega,
was elected president,
16 years after his
Soviet-backed government
lost power in a vote
that ended the guerrilla
conflict in which some
30,000 people died.
His return to power has
galvanized dozens of
former Contras in the
United States to plunge
back into the politics
of their Central
American homeland,
lobbying for support
from the U.S. Congress
and joining anti-Ortega
movements with former
colleagues in Nicaragua.
Some even warn darkly
that armed resistance is
again a possibility.
What really disturbs
these former Contras is
Ortega's plan to revive
Sandinista neighborhood
watch committees, which
became his eyes and ears
during his first
presidency. Rodriguez
and some other
ex-Contras also feel
betrayed by compromises
made by their former
comrades in arms since
the war. Some have even
joined the Sandinistas:
Ortega's vice president,
Jaime Morales, is a
former Contra spokesman.
"Many of our former
leaders sold out to the
Sandinistas. The leaders
in the field were left
to help the families of
those who fought in the
resistance," said the
wiry Rodriguez, who
lives in Miami and was
once known as Comandante
Camilo. Now they wonder
how "we've lost to the
same enemy we fought,"
he said.
Today's Contras are a
shadow of the movement
the CIA built around a
core of former soldiers
who had served the
dictatorship toppled by
the Sandinistas in 1979.
With U.S. arms and funds
smuggled into Nicaragua
from clandestine bases
in neighboring Honduras,
it grew into one of
Central America's
largest guerrilla
armies.
But continued support
despite a congressional
ban damaged the Reagan
administration's
reputation, and the
Contras disbanded before
the 1990 election led to
three consecutive
anti-Sandinista
governments.
Some entered politics.
Some continued to fight
as irregulars, demanding
benefits for ex-fighters
or as bandits. Many
struggled for jobs in a
Nicaraguan economy
devastated by years of
war and muddled
Sandinista policies. And
a few left for the
United States, even as
other refugees were
returned home.
The newly energized
Contras in Florida say
their opposition will be
peaceful, but some
suggest they could rearm
if Ortega attempts to
reinstate socialist
policies.
"We are trying to focus
on civic efforts, to
build political
leaders," said Salvador
Marin, a surgeon who
treated Contra rebels in
the mountains during the
1980s. "When we started,
we had pistols and
hunting rifles and no
experience. Through the
years, we gained that
experience and still
have it ... A true war
would depend on how
extreme are the
conditions imposed by
Ortega."
But Nicaragua's army
chief, Gen. Omar
Halleslevens, says he
sees no sign of Contras
rearming there.
"We don't have any
information about some
military movement of the
Nicaraguan Resistance,"
he told The Associated
Press. "If it were
happening, our
intelligence agencies
would already know."
He also noted that
Nicaragua's society is
far different from what
the people now in Miami
left behind. Former
rebels "have been
integrated in a civil
manner. They are in the
Congress, in productive
activities and many of
them dedicated to
personal matters," he
said. "What's more, we
have excellent relations
with them."
Former Contras who
stayed in Nicaragua also
seem to have no appetite
for militancy.
"We had the experience
to be led by heroic
commanders," former
Contra commander Noel
Valdez said in a phone
interview from the
Nicaraguan city of
Matagalpa. "But we're
now in a context that is
very different from the
past."
Ortega has made no sign
of a return to Marxist
policies such as land
seizures, and he's
openly working with the
Bush administration,
which hopes to provide
Nicaragua with $32
million this year for
health care and
anti-terror and drug
programs.
But his decision to
reactivate the citizen
councils has enraged
opposition lawmakers.
They passed a law
blocking them, but
Ortega established them
anyway, and his allies
on the Supreme Court
threw out the law in a
late-night session the
court president declared
to be illegal.
Republicans in the U.S.
Congress are worried by
Ortega's alliances with
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez,
Cuba's Fidel Castro and
even Iran.
A small group of former
Contras and other
Nicaraguan opposition
figures met recently to
plot strategy at the
Miami office of U.S.
Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, a
Republican
Cuban-American who is no
stranger to fighting
socialist governments.
Miami has the country's
largest population of
Nicaraguan immigrants
and is where the Contras
originally organized.
Meanwhile, Nicaragua's
opposition is trying to
end the divisions that
let Ortega win the
presidency in 2006 with
just 38 percent of the
vote. Leaders of six
parties, including the
Contras' small
Nicaraguan Resistance
party, agreed to join
forces to challenge the
Sandinistas in
November's municipal
elections.
Just how much support
they'll get may be
evident at a march next
Saturday in Matagalpa to
mark the anniversary of
the death of one of
their founders. They
also plan a national
meeting of ex-rebels in
the U.S. this spring.
U.S. officials openly
tilted against Ortega in
the 2006 campaign, but
they since vowed to work
with the elected leader.
With the Cold War over,
Ortega seems like less
of a danger to
Washington.
"You don't have a
strategic threat," said
Mark Schneider, a Latin
America expert with the
International Crisis
Group. "You don't have
the Soviet Union backing
Nicaragua."
Associated Press
writer Filadelfo Aleman
contributed to this
story from Nicaragua.
|
