In 1933, insurgent General Augusto Sandino flew to Managua to meet with Juan Bautista Sacasa, then president of Nicaragua, and Anastasio Somoza Garcia, head of the nation’s military. Within 24 hours, they had agreed on an arrangement for peace.
It was not Nicaragua’s first peace plan, and it would not be its last. And like the others before and since, it failed. Today, with a Marxist government in power that named itself after Sandino, the striving for peace continues.
The current Central American peace plan, signed by the leaders of five nations, was devised by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who won a Nobel prize for his efforts. It calls for a cease-fire between various government and insurgent forces and for an end to all external military aid. In addition, the plan calls for political amnesty and for tangible steps toward democratization.
Broken Negotiations
As the peace process unfolds, most eyes in the Western world are on Nicaragua, whose government is being challenged by U.S.-supported counterrevolutionary forces (contras). Last month, after representatives of the Sandinista government held talks with the contras—with Nicaraguan Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo serving as mediator—negotiations broke down almost as soon as they had begun.
The Sandinistas want to be rid of the contras, who have become a destabilizing force in Nicaragua. The contras and other opponents of the Sandinista government say they seek true democracy, including full freedom of the press and fair elections. The contras say they will stop fighting as soon as democracy is achieved. In response, the Sandinistas argue that the limitations they have imposed were necessitated by the war.
For many Nicaraguans, it seems, the choice between the Sandinistas and the contras is a choice between bad and worse. Some find U.S. support for democracy hypocritical, given its long, generally friendly relationship with the right-wing Somoza dictatorship that ruled Nicaragua prior to the Sandinista revolution. But there are also strong indications the Sandinistas have not lived up to their claim to be liberators of the masses.
“Under Somoza, there were all sorts of excesses and violations of human rights,” said José Castillo, of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights in Nicaragua. “But the Sandinistas have broken the record for violations.”
Roger Guevara, a Nicaraguan lawyer and a coordinator of opposition political parties, was imprisoned and tortured by the Sandinistas in 1985 for successfully defending a Catholic priest against charges he had engaged in counterrevolutionary activities. According to Guevera, the Sandinistas have undermined political opposition by selectively drafting key opposition leaders into military service.
Divided Christians
Like the wider population, Nicaragua’s Christians are split. One pastor privately indicated his sympathies were with the contras. But when his son reached draft age, the boy’s choice was to fight for the government or to risk imprisonment and perhaps harassment of his family. He ended up dying in the mountains of Nicaragua as a Sandinista soldier.
But even the Sandinistas’ harshest critics concede the government has accomplished some good, including increasing the country’s literacy rate. Nicaraguan Christians are divided over how closely they should identify with the Marxist government. The Evangelical Committee for Aid and Development (CEPAD) has chosen to cooperate with the Sandinistas, saying that is the best way for Christians to influence the revolution. However, CEPAD emphasizes that its support for the government is not unqualified.
The Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) is among the organizations that have challenged CEPAD’S posture, IRD representatives met last month in Managua with CEPAD board members. The CEPAD leaders expressed the concern that, by implying that CEPAD is too closely aligned with the government, IRD has made CEPAD medical vehicles and health clinics the targets of contra attacks.
In response, IRD Executive Director Kent Hill said his organization has publicly condemned attacks on medical clinics. He emphasized that his concerns about CEPAD are based on the historical record of the relationship between Marxist governments and the church.
Hill told the CEPAD board members, “We fear that at some point in the future, you might be denied the freedoms you now enjoy.” Although the meeting helped clarify some misunderstandings, tensions between the two organizations remain.
At present, substantial freedom of religion exists in Nicaragua. Puerto Rican evangelist G. G. Avila recently held a week-long crusade in Managua at which thousands made public professions of Christian faith. The evangelist had been invited by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega with the provision that he avoid discussing politics.
While it is true some evangelical pastors have been imprisoned, there is evidence these imprisonments are due not to religious work, but to suspected anti-Sandinista political activity. However, some Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, say taking a position of political neutrality is perceived by the Sandinistas as opposition to the government.
Sixto Ulloa, fomerly with CEPAD and now a government official, said the IRD’S concerns about future large-scale religious oppression are unfounded. He maintains that the Sandinista expression of Marxist thinking is compatible with Christianity. “This monkey called communism will not be able to act very easily in this country,” Ulloa said. “This is a religious people.… And the church is growing every day.”
Giving Peace A Chance
Despite differing interpretations of developments in Nicaragua, many feel the Arias peace plan deserves a chance. Among the organizations backing the plan is the Philadelphia-based Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA). In an open letter to Presidents Reagan and Ortega, ESA applauded Reagan’s concern for freedom, but urged the United States to send “doctors and agriculturalists”—instead of “bullets and bombs”—to Nicaragua. The letter applauds Ortega’s advocacy of justice, while it criticizes his denial of responsibility for restrictions of freedom and violations of human rights.
Opposition party coordinator Guevara said the Arias plan provides hope for peaceful political change in Nicaragua. He said what is needed is basic education in the principles of democracy and human rights. And he expressed disappointment that the international press and the U.S. government seem to have ignored the existence of peaceful political opposition to the Sandinista government as an alternative to the contras.
“This has led our leaders to flee the country,” he said. “Thus we are a weak opposition, in need of moral and material support.”
But perhaps those who most want peace are the peasants caught in the military and ideological crossfire. One Central American pastor paraphrased an old saying, “When elephants fight, it’s the ants who get crushed.”
By Randy Frame, in Nicaragua.
