Nicaragua a Struggle on Two Fronts

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From the capitals of Western Europe to Central America's jungles, Nicaragua's Sandinista government was on the move last week. Its main objective: to outflank the Reagan Administration and its allies by force of diplomacy and of arms. On the diplomatic front, the Sandinistas were trying -- less than successfully, as it turned out -- to open a rift between the U.S. and Western Europe over the trade embargo that Washington imposed on Nicaragua earlier this month. At the same time, Nicaraguan troops were foraying along the frontier with Honduras in a continuing effort to contain anti-Sandinista contra rebels ensconced in that border region. Closer to home, yet another challenge was looming for the Sandinistas: slowly deepening resentment among many Nicaraguans against their revolutionary leadership.

Above all, the Nicaraguan government was intent on creating an image of firmness. On a blitz of Western Europe that was hastily added to a 13-day pilgrimage to East European capitals, President Daniel Ortega Saavedra repeatedly asserted that Nicaragua was not about to bend under the U.S. embargo. In Spain, France, Italy, Finland and Sweden, he pitched strongly to his hosts for help in filling the sizable trade vacuum ($168 million in 1984) left by U.S. sanctions.

Beginning his West European swing on a combative note, Ortega emerged from a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez to describe President Reagan as "a fascist, like Hitler, who wants to turn Nicaragua into a giant concentration camp." Gonzalez was visibly uncomfortable. While cautioning that the U.S. trade embargo could force Nicaragua "to seek aid and support from the other side," meaning the Soviet Union, Gonzalez made no promises about increasing Spanish-Nicaraguan trade.

Ortega received cordial but noncommittal welcomes at subsequent stops. In Paris he met with President Francois Mitterrand, after which Spokesman Michel Vauzelle said that France "can develop its commercial exchanges" with Nicaragua. But other officials suggested that France, which already runs a $7 million trade deficit with Nicaragua, was not anxious to increase it. In Rome, Italian Prime Minister Benedetto ("Bettino") Craxi agreed to maintain Italy's current $70 million combination of aid and trade with Managua.

If Ortega's transatlantic tour was useful to Nicaragua largely as a public relations exercise, the struggle on the country's northern border had more concrete significance. The contras, short of supplies after the denial of U.S. covert aid last October, have gradually withdrawn most of their forces to Honduran base camps to await help from a network of private sources (see box). Beginning early this month, Nicaraguan infantry backed by artillery began zeroing in on the main contra camp, known as Las Vegas. Finally an estimated 1,200 Nicaraguan troops launched an unprecedented cross-border assault reaching up to four miles into Honduras. Last week smaller Sandinista units continued their cross-border raids, while Honduras deployed its own troops and declared part of the area a "military emergency zone." The Honduran move also provided protective cover for the contras, who claim that 12,000 of their troops have already returned to Nicaragua. Contra aircraft have begun flying secretly out of the Honduran air base of Aguacate into Nicaragua to air-drop supplies for returning rebels.