For New Administration, the Plight of Nicaraguans Needs to Be a Priority--Fast

With the Reagan era coming to an end, the United States must decide, once and for all, whether it will stand behind the forces of freedom in Central America, or whether it is ready to tolerate in its own back yard a Stalinist-like regime bent on oppression and expansion.

The Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance is willing to fight its own battle in freeing Nicaragua. Ronald Reagan understood this and worked diligently in securing assistance for the cause of freedom and stability in Central America. However, in the end, the President was unable to convert many in Congress to the worthiness of our cause.

When given the opportunity, the Nicaraguan Resistance was able to perform surprisingly well against a military force receiving more than $40 million a month in Soviet lethal aid. In February of this year certain members of Congress decided to blindly place their trust in Daniel Ortega. As if this weren’t bad enough, when Ortega proved himself completely intransigent to the goals of Oscar Arias Sanchez’s peace plan, their trust in the Sandinistas seemingly increased.

Now, unfortunately, the next Administration is faced with a dilemma that goes beyond whether the resistance remains a capable opposition. The problem centers on whether the next Administration is going to allow a continuation of the intense human suffering and the increased threat to neighboring countries resulting from nine years of communist rule in Nicaragua.

Already we see an increasing flow of Nicaraguan civilians into the United States (400 per week) because of President Reagan’s pronouncement that the fate of Nicaragua belongs to his successor. Dr. Alberto Saborio, president of the Nicaraguan Bar Assn., recently observed, “Six months ago the belief that Nicaragua could change was sustaining the people, but now they’ve lost all hope. Nicaragua is going to remain in the Soviet camp, and people are looking for an escape.” These emigrants not only include the desperate lower classes but doctors, lawyers, engineers and skilled workers as well. This is bad news for Nicaragua, considering the fact that most of the country’s professional people had have already left.

The people of Nicaragua want only to live as Americans do. They want to be able to live and speak as they wish, without the threat of reprisal. They want an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work so that they can feed their families. They want their children to grow up and look to America as a model, not to chant party slogans calling the United States “Yankee enemy of humanity,” as they have been indoctrinated to do under the Sandinistas.

The Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance does not want war; we want peace and freedom. One only has to look at the Sapoa accords that we agreed to last March to understand this fact.

As the United States has recently learned in dealing with the Soviet Union, peace is better served through strength. I am of the opinion that the same applies to Soviet client states as well. Had the resistance been able to maintain its viability as a democratic alternative to the Sandinista Communist revolution, the next Administration might not be faced with the present Nicaraguan debacle. The refugee problem, starvation and regional instability are just a few of the many crises emanating from the last six months of indifference toward Nicaragua. Soon after he takes office as President, George Bush will have to make major decisions affecting these areas of crisis.

With the help of President Reagan, the Democratic Resistance was able to come close in achieving its ultimate goal of freeing the people of Nicaragua from the Sandinistas’ tyrannical grip. For his assistance in this struggle I sincerely thank the President. I would also like to relate to him that, despite the doom and gloom running rampant in the American media in regard to the future of the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance, the struggle for freedom will continue for as long as it takes to rid Nicaragua of the despotic Sandinistas.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.” The resistance believes this to be true, and as long as these ideals remain alive in the hearts and minds of the Nicaraguan people the commitment will remain alive in us as well.