Sidetracked Revolution

"This is a nation that, with the triumph of the revolution, moralized itself. The people have been able to recuperate national pride, the pride of being a Nicaraguan."

--President Daniel Ortega Saavedra

"With all my heart, I tell you that it is worse here now than it was in the times of the Somoza dictatorship."

--Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, presi dent, La Prensa

Compared with the New York City subways or the dark alleys of Mexico City, the streets of Managua are remarkably safe. Police are courteous, and people feel free to come and go, anywhere, day or night. At government-hosted "Face the People" forums, citizens bellyache about everything from food shortages to the draft without fear of reprisal. Moreover, the country has an array of political parties, church groups and civic organizations from which to choose. In comparison with many East bloc countries, Nicaragua is not the "totalitarian camp" of which President Reagan speaks.

Yet there is no denying that the Sandinistas have imposed severe totalitarian restraints on the Nicaraguan people. Nina Shea of the New York City-based International League for Human Rights recently led a small delegation to Nicaragua to try to answer the question, How free is a Nicaraguan not to be a Sandinista? Some members of the Roman Catholic Church, opposition political parties and labor organizations, she says, suffer "undisguised and hidden repression." Her team heard repeated accounts of arbitrary arrests and interrogations that included food and water deprivation, simulated executions, and detention in dark cells. "The country is not yet totalitarian," she says. "What we saw was a government in the process of consolidating its power."

Nicaraguans are divided in their assessment of the Sandinistas. On one side are ardent believers who charge that the yanquis are imperialists, the contras are traitorous mercenaries, and the comandantes are true nationalists. To many, the revolution has meant better schools, improved health care, and the forging of a national identity. On the other side are those who understand the Sandinistas to be dedicated Communists, and some would say, with Reagan, that they will stoop to any crime to impose a totalitarian state. As many as 250,000 people have fled Nicaragua since the triumph of the revolution in 1979. The disheartened who remain behind say they stay to fight for the democratic society that the Sandinistas once promised and have long since betrayed.

As Nicaragua is not a society open to opinion polls, it is hard to gauge where most of the 3 million citizens stand in the polarized debate. Dispassionate observers estimate that 15% are hard-core Sandinistas, 15% are militant opponents, and the rest, much like the U.S. Congressmen whose vote last week could have swung either way, blow with the prevailing winds. Although discontent has risen palpably since last October, when the government reimposed a state of emergency, the crackdown on civil liberties has not produced a significant rise in support for either the contras or the opposition parties. Most Nicaraguans seem to accept things the way they are. "Sure we're Sandinistas," says Maria Berrios, who sells bread in Managua's Eastern Market. "We have to go along with whoever is here."