We’ll talk only to U.S.—Sandinist

Press, 3 November 1984, Page 11

We’ll talk only to U.S.—Sandinist

NZPA-Reuter Managua

Nicaragua would negotiate only with the United States Government to obtain a ceasefire with United States-backed guerrillas, a member of the Sandinist Government said yesterday. Sergio Ramirez, the Sandinist Party’s Vice-Presi-dential candidate in the General Election on Monday, said that the Sandinists would not hold talks with the estimated 15,000 guerrillas working from bases in Honduras and Costa Rica. “Why negotiate with the groups one-by-one when we can negotiate with the United States, which represents all of them,” he said. Mr Ramirez, one of nine

commanders of the Sandinist National Liberation Front directorate that has ruled Nicaragua since the 1979 revolution, is running with the Presidential candidate, Daniel Ortega Saavedra. They are expected to win the election by a wide margin.

“Our primary goals will be an accommodation with the Government of the United States and the achievement of a cease-fire agreement with the, ‘contras’ (rebels),” he told a news conference.

“We want an understanding with the North American Government. The United States must abandon its efforts to topple the Sandinist Government and

reach an accommodation with the Liberation Front” Nicaragua has said that it hopes the election will diminish the likelihood of the United States invasion it fears. But the Reagan Administration has called the election a sham, and it might not recognise a Sandinist victory. Meanwhile, pro-Govern-ment and Opposition groups held what they called a national dialogue yesterday. The Socialist Party’s leader, Luis Sanchez, spokesman for participants in the talks, said that representatives of the Sandinists and 33 political, business, trade union and religious groups had discussed three main points — war and peace, the social and econo-

mic crisis and national reconciliation. Government officials said yesterday that 324 international observers, mostly from the United States and Europe, had arrived in Nicaragua to witness the vote. The Democratic Coordinator, a four-party conservative alliance, is boycotting the elections, saying that conditions did not exist for a free and fair poll. Constantino Pereira, the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Liberal Independent Party, said that he would not withdraw his candidacy. The Liberals, a tiny Left-of-Centre party once allied with the Sandinists, voted at a convention last month to follow the Co-ordinator in boycotting the ballot