‘Ortega faces challenge’

Press, 25 January 1988, Page 6

‘Ortega faces challenge’

NZPA-Reuter New York The Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega, is facing an unexpected challenge from within his Sandinista Government, the “New York Times” said yesterday. The detention of several opposition leaders while Mr Ortega was at the Central American summit in Costa Rica, where he offered several important concessions, was ordered by the Interior Minister, Tomas Borge, without the Presi-

dent’s knowledge, the “Times” reported officials as saying. Associates described him as being upset by the incident, it said. A senior aide said Sandinista demonstrators who broke up an opposition meeting on Friday were organised without Mr Ortega’s knowledge, the newspaper said in its Managua-datelined report. The paper reported the associates as saying the actions undercut Mr

Ortega’s efforts to stress his Government’s commitment to political pluralism and his concessions at last week-end’s peace summit in San Jose at which he offered to meet Contra leaders face to face to hammer out an accord. Mr Ortega lifted a six-year-old state of emergency, scrapped courts for war crimes trials and promised amnesty for an estimated 3000 political prisoners.

Mr Borge is worried

about the implications of easing restrictions on the opposition and is sending a message not to be soft, the “New York Times” quoted officials as saying. The paper quoted Mr Ortega as telling American -newspaper editors who asked on Friday about his relations with Mr Borge and other senior Sandinistas, “We don’t think exactly alike,” but adding that the National Directorate was still “nine brothers.”