Nicaraguans ‘fear U.S. invasion’

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 7

Nicaraguans ‘fear U.S. invasion’

By JANE ENGLAND The Nicaraguan people fear an invasion after President Reagan’s vow to take offensive action against their country, said a representative of the Sandinista Government in Christchurch yesterday. Mr Alberto Gallegos said the fears were not unfounded considering the United States had invaded Nicaragua three times in the past and had supported a succession of corrupt Governments which exploited the country.

The President was entitled to invade and hold a 60-day war with another country without Congressional approval. This put Nicaragua in a very vulnerable position, making it the possible target of “another Vietnam,” he said.

Mr Gallegos admitted that people might be inclined to think he was biased because he was in New Zealand as a representative of the F.S.L.N. (Sandinista) organisation’s international department.

"But those who have been in our country have seen it for themselves and those who have not been should come and talk to a cross-section of people. The Sandinista Government was born through a revolution the people wanted and the people and the Government have been joining hands ever since to fight for liberation.”

The previous Somoza Government had exploited the country and its people, and the contra forces today are made up of the guards of the former president, General Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who ruled the country under martial law, he said.

In contrast, the Sandinista Government had been quick to consult the people and moved swiftly to implement efficient health, agriculture and education policies. These helped illiteracy to fall from 60 per cent to 10 per cent. More than three million hectares of State land was returned to the people, and poliomyelitis and malaria were eradicated.

The contra forces represented only 2000 to 3000 people in a country with a population of three million, he said.

"Without support from the Reagan Administration they would not have represented a threat.” Instead, large amounts of "under-cover” aid had been pouring into the country and military equipment had been left behind by United States, soldiers training in Honduras, he said. “The contras caught in Nicaragua have been wearing boots, uniforms, back-packs and carrying rations which all have ‘Property of the United States Army’ printed on

the sides,” Mr Gallegos said.

They had been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 victims including 19 volunteers from the United States. West Germany and the Netherlands who sought to help Nicaragua with its health, welfare, and agricultural programmes, he said.

"There are 9600 children who are orphans in Nicaragua today because their parents were slaughtered by the contras.

“The contras do not fight for ideals but American dollars. Their leaders were earning more than SUSIO,OOO a month — money paid by Lieuten-ant-Colonel Oliver North,” he said.

President Reagan was trying to deceive the public when he called the contras freedom-fighters, he said.

“Everyone who lives or visits there knows they are mercenaries.” Accusations that the Sandinista Government was Communist were totally misguided, he said.

“We are not Communist, totalitarian, or Socialist.”

Instead the country had a mixed economy, seven different political parties, and refused to be aligned with the decisions made by any military Power in the world. But if Eastern-bloc countries were prepared to pay better prices for sugar or coffee than the United States, the Government would accept them, he said.

Mr Gallegos will speak at a public meeting at the Workers’ Education Association building at 7.30 p.m.