Who Are the Sandinistas?

To President Somoza, Nicaragua's uprising is nothing more than a Communist plot aimed at unseating him. "As long as the Communists in Cuba and Panama continue to supply the weapons, there will be a battle," he maintains. The Carter Administration is also concerned about Fidel Castro's influence on Nicaragua's civil war and on the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a broadly based collection of Marxist and non-Marxist leftists held together mainly by hatred for Somoza's regime. The evidence of such influence is scant, though U.S. intelligence reports indicate that since late May a Panamanian DC-6B cargo plane has operated regularly between Panama, Cuba and Costa Rica carrying newly trained rebels and a variety of weapons.

The FSLN was founded in 1962 by Carlos Fonseca Amador, a Cuban-trained guerrilla who was slain by Somoza's troops two years ago. Named for Augusto Cesar Sandino, a legendary nationalist guerrilla murdered on the order of Somoza's father in 1934, the Sandinistas started out as a ragtag rebel band that staged sporadic raids on isolated government outposts. Since then, the Sandinistas' ranks have swelled to 3,000 or so battle-hardened fighters armed with an assortment of modern weapons.

As the Sandinistas increased in numbers, they also picked up new recruits from Nicaragua's upper and middle classes. Within the FSLN, three main factions have emerged from the infighting. Of these, two make no apology for being unabashedly Marxist. But the third and largest group, known as the Terceristas (Insurrectionists), is composed of socialists, Roman Catholic liberals (including many priests), trade unionists and even a few businessmen.

Financed by socialists in Europe and South America, the Terceristas have staged the most spectacular Sandinista operations, including last year's brief takeover of the National Palace in Managua. The best-known Tercerista is Eden Pastora, the Comandante Cero (Zero) who led that raid. More influential are the Ortega brothers, Humberto and Daniel, who represent the Terceristas on the nine-man Sandinista National Directorate. Daniel was named by Sandinistas as their representative on the five-member "temporary government" selected last week by the rebels. The others: Moises Hassan Morales, leader of the Sandinistas' political arm, the National Patriotic Front; Alfonso Robelo Callejas, a businessman jailed by Somoza for leading a strike; Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, widow of the slain editor of the opposition newspaper La Prensa; and Sergio Ramirez Mercado, former secretary of the Central American University in Costa Rica.

U.S. officials fear that without a broadly based coalition that includes such groups as the Social Christian Party and even pro-Somoza conservatives, hardline Marxist Sandinistas will dominate whatever regime succeeds Somoza. But most Nicaraguans believe any organization that can bring about the downfall of Somoza deserves support. Says Father Miguel d'Escoto, a radical priest who has been named ambassador-at-large by the temporary government: "Every Nicaraguan with dignity is a Sandinista, even those who do not belong to the FSLN."

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