Public Relations

An amnesty and a rebuff

The ceremony in downtown Managua's Non-Aligned Plaza was designed to herald the delivery of portentous news. As Nicaragua's political and religious leaders looked on, Sandinista Commander William Ramirez announced that the government would extend a general amnesty to all Miskito Indians accused of supporting anti-Sandinista guerrillas over the past two years. The plan will free between 300 and 700 Indians who are currently in jails, and allow the return of more than 13,000 who have fled the country. Said Junta Member Rafael Cordova Rivas: "This is yet another demonstration of our government's search for national reconciliation."

The announcement was the latest in a series of gestures aimed at placating foreign and domestic critics who see the Nicaraguan regime as drifting to the totalitarian left. Last month the Sandinistas bade farewell to 2,000 Cuban teachers, doctors, cultural and military advisers who had discreetly decided to return home. The government has also eased its censorship of La Prensa, the only opposition newspaper. But the case of the Miskitos was particularly sensitive. Human rights organizations have accused the Sandinistas of, among other things, unnecessarily expropriating traditional Miskito lands, forcing thousands of the Indians to relocate or to rebel at their treatment.

In Panama City, a very different reconciliation plan had been announced by U.S. Special Envoy Richard Stone after meetings with leaders of five of the anti-Sandinista groups, many of them CIA-backed, collectively known as contras. Stone declared that the rebels, including some Miskitos, were prepared to discuss ending their guerrilla war against Nicaragua's Marxist-led regime. But cessation of hostilities, said Stone, would come only "in return for complete, proper and full democratization in Nicaragua."

The Sandinistas speedily rejected Stone's offer. Said Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann: "We don't speak to mercenaries at the service of foreign powers who are killing our people every day." U.S. officials in turn had earlier dismissed out of hand the conciliatory Sandinista signals as "smoke with no fire." As if to emphasize that the U.S. was not about to be taken in by empty gestures, Washington had also rejected an application by Nicaraguan Interior Minister Tomas Borge Martinez to travel on a speaking tour to the U.S. Washington, said an Administration official, did not want to give Borge a "propaganda platform."

The gestures by the Sandinistas and Stone were part of an increasingly active public relations battle between the Nicaraguan regime and the Reagan Administration. Both sides seemed to be acting for the benefit of four Latin American nations (Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama) that are striving to persuade Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to achieve a negotiated solution to the region's problems. Stone has been trying to emphasize the U.S. view that further internal democratization of the Sandinista regime is a precondition to any agreement. Said a U.S. official: "Nicaragua's neighbors are not going to feel secure until Nicaragua has made some irreversible changes to a more democratic political system."

As the maneuvering continues, additional conciliatory announcements can be expected. But the view of the Reagan Administration remains that only a combination of U.S. political and military muscle flexing can produce real concessions. Says a Washington official: "Pressure on the Sandinistas must be maintained, not moderated." qed This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.