Ready, Set, No!

A shaky start for elections

The Nicaraguans gathered at Managua's Augusto Cesar Sandino Airport last week left little doubt about their opinion of the Marxist-led Sandinista government. "Democracy, yes! Communism, no!" they chanted. "With Arturo in the seat there'll be plenty to eat. Arturo is the future." The small but vocal crowd had turned out to welcome Arturo Cruz, 60, a former junta member and Ambassador to Washington, who was back home from self-imposed exile in the U.S. to run as an opposition candidate in the Nicaraguan elections scheduled for Nov. 4. But the jubilation was short-lived. No sooner had Cruz tossed his hat into the ring than he snatched it back again.

First the widely respected Cruz was named presidential candidate of the Coordinadora, an anti-Sandinista umbrella group composed of three political parties, a business organization and two independent trade unions. Then, five days later, he announced that he would not participate in the elections. "I cannot run for President if there are not sufficient guarantees for free and open elections," Cruz explained. "We are not playing a trick on the Sandinistas. But we do not want a trick to be played on the Nicaraguan people."

Cruz had apparently hoped that by returning home to challenge Junta Coordinator Daniel Ortega Saavedra for the presidency, he might be able to pressure the Sandinistas into making concessions, such as a general amnesty and opening talks with U.S.-backed anti-Communist contra guerrillas. But that tactic only drew scorn from the Managua regime. The Sandinista newspaper, Barricada, charged that Cruz had presented his candidacy "like an intermediary of the mercenaries, financed by President Reagan and the CIA." Said Sandinista Directorate Member Bayardo Arce: "Why should we talk to the clowns when we can talk to the circus owners?"

The day before Cruz withdrew from the presidential race, two of the largest contra factions concluded a unity pact in Panama City, joining their political and military organizations on the northern and southern Nicaraguan fronts under a single directorate. The document, signed by representatives of the Nicaraguan Democratic Front (F.D.N.) and the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE), called for the establishment of a pluralistic democracy in Nicaragua and urged "all lovers of liberty to unite so that tyranny can be eradicated and Soviet expansion in the hemisphere blocked." Contra leaders said they would support Cruz.

Conspicuously absent from the ceremonies was former ARDE Chief Eden Pastora Gomez. Five days before the Panama meeting, Pastora was relieved of his command on the southern front and replaced by Fernando ("El Negro") Chamorro Rapoccioli, a military officer aligned with the ARDE. Pastora had opposed the merger plan on the ground that the F.D.N. was led by former National Guard officers who had supported deposed Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Pastora has vowed to continue his war against the Sandinistas with his own faction, the Sandino Revolutionary Front.

The Reagan Administration decided last week to put off its request for further funding for the contras until the next fiscal year. In the meantime, guerrilla leaders warn, the Sandinistas will continue their military buildup. The contras report that teams have begun to work double shifts to complete a new airbase with two 16,500-ft. runways at Punta Huete, 20 miles northeast of Managua. According to the rebels, the Sandinista regime may be planning to deploy Soviet-made MiG fighters from the base, partly as a means of provoking the U.S.

In an effort to rally world opinion against President Reagan's policies in Central America, a "peace ship" set sail from Panama last week, carrying $2.5 million worth of medicine, fertilizer and newsprint to Nicaragua, financed by the Norwegians and the Swedes. Four Nobel prizewinners, including American Chemist Linus Pauling and Argentine Human Rights Activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, were among the crew. The purpose of the voyage, in the words of an American cleric, was to "demythologize" the situation in Nicaragua and to dispel claims that the country is a "hotbed of Communism."

There are certain to be others bidding for public attention before Americans and Nicaraguans head for the polls in the first week of November. Six opposition candidates have registered for the Nicaraguan elections. But with Cruz out of the running, the Sandinistas may have lost the one figure who could have done the most to convince the world that the elections will be more than just window dressing. Said a senior U.S.

policymaker in Washington: "To hold free elections would require them to cross an ideological threshold they are not yet willing to cross."