Put Eyes of the World on Sandinistas : A Nov. 7 Rally in Managua Could Give Freedom a Chance

There are great risks in the Central American peace plan that now confronts the Reagan Administration. But those of us who have supported the struggles of the Nicaraguan resistance should not overlook what is also a remarkable opportunity. In fact, the only way in which the United States can now overcome the weaknesses in this plan and our own difficulties in responding to it is for us to stop dragging our feet and seize the opportunity. That opportunity is the clear and sweeping promise that the signers of this treaty, including the Nicaraguan government, have made to democracy.

The peace plan calls for three basic steps, all currently scheduled to take place on Nov. 7. All participants in the region’s civil wars are asked to cease fire on that date. Outsiders are asked to cut off aid to armed insurrections throughout the region. And all countries that signed the pact have agreed to lift repressive laws and “promote an authentic democratic, pluralist and participatory process.” All these steps, in the words of the accord, must “enter into force simultaneously and publicly.”

There is already an impressive consensus, even encompassing what is sometimes called the liberal press, about how the Sandinistas will try to outfox their neighbors and the United States. The Sandinistas will use every pretext to blame the Nicaraguan resistance and the United States for preventing a cease-fire. The Sandinistas will demand that before they themselves are obliged to take any steps, the contras not only will have to stop shooting but also will have to stop existing. The Sandinistas will also insist that only they comprehend the true meaning of democracy, and they will offer new variations on the deceptions and the charades that are routinely practiced by totalitarian states.

The problem that the United States confronts is this: If we concentrate our energies on trying to tie up all the loose ends in military aspects of the peace plan, we could lose the political debate. We will be seen as a big Anglo-Saxon power striving to impose its will by force on a small Latin country. If we are reasonable about military issues, but absolutely firm and enthusiastic about the commitments that this treaty makes to democracy, there is a likelihood that political debate will go our way. If the democrats win this debate, they surely have the military capacity then to deal with the Sandinistas, should that prove necessary.

This is not to say that the military concerns are unimportant. The United States must find the means to keep the resistance forces intact, and inside Nicaragua. But we and they should be willing to cede some recent strategic gains--position, contacts with civilian supporters--if such demonstrations of good faith will help bring greater pressure for democratization to bear on the Sandinistas. If the Sandinistas do betray their commitments to democracy, the United States should do whatever is necessary--including using our air and sea power--to help the resistance regain what it may have lost by contributing its part to the peace process.

But the central task now is the mobilization of the greatest possible political and diplomatic pressure on the Sandinistas to provide an opening for democracy in Nicaragua and, if such an opening is achieved, to turn it into a permanent and growing breach in Nicaragua’s totalitarian system.

On this point there is great skepticism among some of those who have supported the cause of the resistance. They fear that the hemisphere’s democracies lack the sophistication and the cohesion to hold their own in political give-and-take with the Sandinistas and their Soviet and Cuban patrons.

This is a risk, however, that has to be taken--the days of a secret U.S.-supported war against the Sandinistas are over. A broad enough constituency of popular support to sustain opposition to the Sandinista dictatorship has to be found--here, in Central America and, of most importance, among the Nicaraguan people. The possibilities of building that support are much better when we are rallying people anew for the principles of freedom of the press, freedom of religion, free trade unions and other democratic rights than when we are merely asking support for a guerrilla movement that has a complicated past.

Both the Reagan Administration and the contras have gone a long way toward accepting this political necessity. The pendulum of moral responsibility is swinging toward those who, while opposing aid to the resistance, have claimed that they are no less committed to democracy. This is their test: They must bring trade unionists, human-rights activists, religious leaders and Democratic Party moderates into a coalition that will pressure the Sandinistas and hearten the Nicaraguan people. The National Movement for Free Elections, the Philippine organization that pressured for the elections that made possible Corazon Aquino’s victory over Ferdinand E. Marcos’ dictatorship, provided a useful example of what now needs to be done.

Resistance leaders and other Nicaraguan exiles should make their plane reservations to Managua for Nov. 7, and thousands of democrats from other countries should plan to go there with them. Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo might call a national day of reconciliation, with public vigils that could be attended by organized contingents from all of Nicaragua’s independent labor unions, political parties and church and civic groups. Press and broadcasting organizations in the democratic world should be encouraged to provide Nicaragua’s independent media with assistance in getting their operations under way on Nov. 7. There are some time-tested slogans that could be adapted for this exercise: “The whole world is watching: Give freedom a chance.”

Could such a campaign succeed? One way or another, I think that it could. Either the Sandinista National Liberation Front will give ground, as the Communist Party of Poland temporarily was forced to do when confronted by the Solidarity movement in 1981, or the Sandinistas will react with repression, revealing a deep-rooted totalitarian character. If the latter happens, Nicaragua is not Poland: It is surrounded by democratic states, it is close to the United States and far from Moscow, and it has both an armed and an unarmed democratic opposition.

Ronald Reagan has always been at his best when he has taken his case to the people. The Central American peace plan provides an opportunity to challenge the communist world to make good on its pretensions of democracy. Pessimists and hard-liners may scoff, but the democratic idea has shown impressive support in the world today. The United States should keep a firm grip on the contra card--it may be needed again. But at this moment we should devote our best energies to arousing the peoples of the Americas for the moral and political challenge that the Central America peace plan makes possible.

DR, ARCADIO La Nacion San Jose COSTA RICA