Support Your Local Guerrillas

By James Kelly

Six months after U.S. funds stop, the contras turn elsewhere

Once the mule is saddled and mounted, there is no turning back. --Honduran proverb

Like the proverbial mule, the contras fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua just keep plodding along. Six months after the U.S. Congress voted to cut off their covert Central Intelligence Agency funding, the rebels have come to depend increasingly on supplies and money from private U.S. sources. Economic hardship has forced the guerrilla factions to halt their frequent bickering, but a united front remains elusive. The war itself has quieted down, with the insurgents avoiding battles with Nicaraguan troops in favor of ambushes and hit-and-run strikes. The overall reality, however, has not changed: the contras right now are too small in number and too ill equipped to threaten the Sandinistas seriously, but they are also too stubborn to give up. "The contras know they can't win, but they won't admit it," says a prominent Honduran businessman. "At first they thought they would sweep into Managua. Now they know they are in a quagmire."

The rebels contend that the future is not that bleak. The Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), the largest of the guerrilla groups, has about 6,000 troops, up from 4,500 a year ago, deep inside Nicaragua. FDN Leader Adolfo Calero Portocarrero says he is close to Unking forces with the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ARDE), another contra group operating in southern Nicaragua. The chiefs of two Miskito Indian rebel groups remain at odds, but disgruntled commanders in both camps are trying to forge an alliance on the battlefield. Though many divisions remain, the FDN is gradually exerting its control over the entire contra movement. "There is an awakening toward the necessity of a joint effort by all the forces," says Calero.

Many contras, however, are barely surviving. Times have been hardest for Eden Pastora Gomez, the volatile leader of an ARDE branch that at one time had as many as 2,500 men. Over the past few months, hundreds of his supporters have sought refuge in Costa Rica, where many of them have sold their $1,000 automatic weapons for as little as $100. "In the best month, we got $600,000 from the gringos," recalls a Pastora aide. "Now, we get nothing. If one of us manages to scrape together $5,000, we buy rice and maybe 20,000 rounds of ammunition." Last month Pastora sought temporary asylum for himself and 700 of his followers in Costa Rica, but the authorities refused him.

Though official U.S. aid has dried up, CIA agents still reportedly advise contra leaders on military tactics. The rebels have tapped fresh sources of support; among the countries rumored to give assistance are Colombia and Taiwan. Help also comes from Nicaraguan and Cuban exiles living in Florida as well as from a network of conservative groups in the U.S. Food, clothing and medical supplies have been sent to the families of contras by such organizations as the Christian Broadcasting Network, headed by Virginia Television Evangelist M.G. ("Pat") Robertson, and the Friends of the Americas, a Louisiana-based group dedicated to fighting Communism. Many of these efforts are coordinated by the American chapter of the World Anti-Communist League, headed by retired U.S. Army General John Singlaub, 63. He boasts that he and others have raised about $500,000 a month for the FDN since May, but contra leaders say that is an exaggeration.

Some U.S. groups offer men as well as money. The Civilian Military Assistance, an obscure anti-Communist organization in Alabama, is said to have sent several men to serve with the guerrillas. Two CMA members were killed in September when their helicopter was shot down during a rebel air assault. The group's leaders have told the FDN that they have the names of 3,000 Americans eager to help the contras. U.S. officials, perhaps skeptical of CMA's figure, profess not to be overly concerned. "If Americans give indirect support to the contras, more power to them," said a Reagan aide. "But participating in gun battles inside Nicaragua? We'd rather they didn't."

The White House plans to try again next year to persuade Capitol Hill to restore contra funding. Congress approved $14 million in CIA aid for the rebels in October, but insisted that Reagan submit the proposal for a second vote in March before the funds could be spent. Passage may be more difficult than the Administration expects. Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, predicted last week that Congress would reject requests for more aid.

Some U.S. officials contend that the contras will be in danger of extinction next year unless they receive more S: arms. According to Washington, the Sandinistas are assembling up to a dozen Soviet-made Mi-24 Hind helicopters capable of flying some 200 m.p.h. and carrying air-to-surface missiles. To counter the lethal gunships, the rebels would need Redeye or SA-7 antiaircraft missiles. A member of the intelligence community points out that the FDN already has run out of ammunition for its grenade launchers, M-60 machine guns and antitank weapons, and must rely almost entirely on hand-held weapons. The possibility that the contras might collapse has begun to be voiced by others. In return for continuing to allow them to operate from Honduras, the government there has asked Washington for guarantees that it would resettle the rebels in the U.S. if their crusade fails. Concludes a top U.S. official: "Potentially, they are in very bad shape."

The Sandinistas suffered some embarrassments of their own last week. After five years of warnings, the Society of Jesus expelled Fernando Cardenal Martinez when the priest refused to resign as Nicaragua's Education Minister. Jesuit officials in Rome cited a 1983 canon law that forbids priests to hold posts that carry civil powers. In a 19-page open letter, Cardenal defended his job as a "pact with the poor." There was no word from the Vatican on the three other priests in the Nicaraguan government, including Foreign Minister Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann.

Three days after Cardenal's expulsion, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Jr., editor of La Prensa, the country's only opposition paper, announced that he had temporarily moved to Costa Rica. Chamorro charged that censorship and travel restrictions had grown so severe since last month's national elections that life had become "impossible." It is a measure of the task facing the contras that they have so far been unable to turn discontent like Chamorro's into support for their own cause. --By James Kelly.

Reported by Ricardo Chavira/Tegucigalpa and Ross H. Munro/Washington

With reporting by Ricardo Chavira, Ross H. Munro