"Sergio Is Very Strong"

It would be hard to imagine a more vivid contrast to strutting President Tacho Somoza than the cool, unflappable man who has taken his place as the dominant figure in Nicaragua's government. Sergio Ramirez Mercado, 36, is a baby-faced intellectual who attracts little attention until he begins to speak, in a soft, nasal voice. But his quiet charisma has enabled the tall (6 ft. 2 in.) writer to win the confidence of all the factions represented on the five-member ruling junta and its 15-member Cabinet, though the ideologies range from the doctrinaire Marxism of Sandinista Leader Daniel Ortega to the capitalism of Businessman Alfonso Robelo. "During all the negotiations we had with the junta, Ramirez came out as the strong man," says a U.S. diplomat. "He behaved in a tough manner and struck us as the kind of leftist liberal who has little sympathy for the U.S. and its policy in Central America."

Ramirez was born in the farming town of Masatepe (pop. 8,000); his parents were loyal members of the pro-Somoza Liberal Party. Ramirez was first exposed to opposition politics as a law student at the National University of Nicaragua in the early 1960s. After graduating, he took an administrative job at the Council of Central American Universities in Costa Rica and seemed to lose contact with the revolutionary movement. He did postgraduate work at the University of Kansas, where he learned English, and taught in West Germany before returning in 1974 to Costa Rica, where he joined the struggle to topple Somoza.

Among Ramirez's books are a novel about a dictatorship in Central America called Do I Make You Afraid of Blood? and a biography of Augusto Cesar Sandino. But Ramirez did not join the guerrillas who take their name from that Nicaraguan nationalist, who was slain in 1934 on the orders of the founder of the Somoza dynasty. Instead, with several priests, academics and businessmen, he founded the Group of Twelve, which sought to link the Sandinistas with less radical elements in the opposition to Tacho's government. Last year, for the first time in 14 years, he returned to Nicaragua as a political representative of the Terceristas, one of three rival factions within the Sandinista movement. When the U.S. failed to persuade Somoza to make even modest reforms following last fall's aborted uprising, Ramirez left the country in disgust. For several months he journeyed to South American capitals and the U.S. to rally support for a renewed push at Somoza's regime.

Ramirez knows that a cordial relationship with the U.S. might greatly aid the rebuilding of his country. The real question is whether he has the ability to mediate successfully between radical and conservative views in an untested coalition government whose main bond of unity is opposition to Somoza. "Sergio has all the qualities necessary to be very strong," says an associate. If that judgment is correct, Nicaragua may still be able to avoid the factionalism and violence that have marred so many revolutions.

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