FOR NICARAGUA 1985 ended as it began — with a continuing war being waged against country by the United States.
In his weekly national radio broadcast on Reagan declared that 'more effective help' was needed for the contras fighting the government than the $27 million in 'humanitarian aid' voted by the US Congress last July.
Referring to the contras Reagan declared 'should not the fighting (sic), numbering more than 20,000, be entitled to more effective help?' Almost simultaneously Reagan's appeal the Tomas Borge: 'Nothing in the world ¡eaches better than mistakes' nounced round Honduran military exercises to begin in January. These will include an extensive programme of road building for military manouvres. similar manouvres in the past the US armed forces have set up in Honduras an extensive military structure — airfields, supply depots, posts, roads etc — capable of sustaining a full scale invasion In Nicaragua itself, for the first time, contras have used surface to air missiles to shoot down a government belicopter. US Secretary George was: "Thank goodness that they did get hold of some weapons that can knock these choppers down ... They have gotten ahold of figured out how to use them ... and I say 'Fine, I'm all for it.'' Losses Nicaragua are now 4,000 dead, 4,000 wounded, 5,000 kidnapped, 250,000 homeless out of a Nicaraguan population of 3.5 million. equivalent. wounded, and four million homeless, in a country with a population the size of Britain.
But in Nicaragua itself the FSLN has been both strengthening defence of the country and correcting errors made earlier in dealing with the problems of the Atlantic coast region of the country. It has also been taking steps to deal with the economic problems facing the country.
The Central American Panorama interviewed FSLN leader on the problems now facing the Nicaraguan government. We are printing an edited version of the interview.
With, the overthrow of the dictatorship a new national state began to develop in Nicaragua in which power was in the workers' hands. But this state does not appear to correspond to Nicaraguan society capitalist production relations tion persist the resolved?
Some people December, country. isn't Nicaraguan tionary one.
forces ly definite 10W Doureeose lake.
with their Pentagon an- economic concessions, wage demands.
Around. The Production It is a basic characteristic Nicaraguan revolution. other revolutionary diminished shrinking of There an clonelly mixed economy and vice versa, USthis country, The workers of During power lignt lo and political space. surveillalce little political space of none at all. political pluralism collullly State bourgeoisie. this access o economic demands, missiles and iheir ideas.
action The Sandinista This is the political space Somoza dictatorship.
They the Diuralisin. the revolution. tiates us from What are the main features America and Nicaragua!
The policy of the revolution, stop Salvadoreans or altrattive in the sense want 1o destroy the revolution. survive. How far can this contradiccan think that a mixed economy and political pluralism are the road to capitalist change in our So. The mixed economy and political pluralism exist in capitalist countries and in our own But they are not the same in a traditional capitalist society as in a revoluIn capitalism, in general, a mixed economy and political pluralism impconcessions which the to the workers The bourgeoisie accepts the existence of workers' organisations, and some publications; makes for example In our society it is the other way working une workers in power, make concessions to the bourgeoisie in the political and economic sphere. But the fundamental force is the society, the fundamental owner of its economic resources.
political hegemony are in the hands of the workers, and this is the substantial difference.
of the revolutions pluralism has disappeared. In ours it exists. Moreover in other revolutions it disappeared in spite of the desires of the leaders of those revolutions. The mixed economy has survived in some but has DUCESSES proportion lo the pluralism. interrelation berween political pluralism and the mixed In the concrete case of our country, political pluralism guarantees the but there is a context: here there is a revolution and we are not going to abandon it. It will proceed with the resistance of the secondary classes of June classes WIlO struggle for power after having lost it.
this country fought for power and won it. Now the classes which were dislodged from gel ll back. cycl ihough they have a definite economic In the past the workers had very - one could say There was virtually no mixed The economy was in the hands of the Somoza family and the The workers never had demands could never own anything at all. They were not allowed to express political they were denied publications in which to put forward They were not allowed to organise. There were no trade unions, much less workers' political parties.
front, which emerged in the '70s, began to fight for this. these rights, but arms in hand. It took What power, leading the workers through armed struggle and not through any conceded ll by the Thus in our country there was The never a mixed economy or political were conquered by Latin This reality differenother austencal of the politics of the USA towards Central North American government towards Central America is the same as its world policy: it wants lo recuperale its imperial authority. It wants to stop revolutionary expansion in Central America. Il wants lo destroy the Nicaraguan revolution. They do not want just to limit our helping LIC penetrating Honduras, or prevent our revolution be For restrict its radicalising influence, or substitute They tOr They cannot lolerate us in any shape or form. I believe they would not even accept us if we sold out and prostrated ourselves. We aren't going io, but even if we did they wouldn't accept us. We are a foreign organism in imperialism's body. They simply don't accept the Nicaraguan revolu tion. Everything they do turns around perspectives a0 you see for revolutionary and democratic struggle in Latin America?
existence of the Nicaraguan revolution is the life insurance of the American democracies. has. without doubt been a rush of democralic changes the liberal type, with social democratic aspiralions. APRA's victory in Peru is, we could say, the culmination. It might even happen in Chile, because the Pinochet dictatorship has beeome really insupportable. This might also move lowards a liberal democracy though perhaps with characteristics because or ine in fluence of the revolutionary move ment in Chile itself.
These kind quantitative changes will provoke contradictions within imperialism. tion expresses itself at present around the problem of international debl, but also in the existence of the Contadora group of states. Contadora is like a piece of grit in imperialism's eve.
These contradictions will grow bit by bit without becoming antagonistic - unlike the antagonistic contradiclion between the USA and Nicaragua, belween the USA and Cuba, USA the peoples America. This latter will become sharper and sharper I0 the point where conflicts will arise which can produce changes. That is to say, the future is one of struggle conservatism is going 1o last al least a decade more and that il may presage a return to open aggression - which implies a lerrible and bloody struggle or our countries.
There the direct invasion there could be unforeseeable changes in the struggle against imperialism. It lead to Strength being sapped, turn could have very serious political consequences which would qualilatively weaken yankee imperialism.
The United States has conducted a other world-wide campaign revolution based on FSLN made on the Atlantic Coast. What were these errors and how do you evaluate them in your treatment of the region?
Nothing in the world leaches better than mistakes. I think that our errors. made possible the violence Allantic Coast, and the counter-revolution were able 10 benefit from. licular, who did not lake part in the struggle against been This I think ference the Contras.
distrusting basis.
live basis.
The government resources We have 1o damental:
government of Latin country. contradiction qualitative We believe that North American . But if this leads to Plant. parl the USA's military which in its statute would against the (wo halves. Ine elrors une the which imperialism The Miskilos in parWalICH Somoza, had very high expectations in the revolution which it did not satisfy correctly.
The comrades who arrived on the Atlantic Coast wanted to transplant mechanically the solutions we had applied on the Pacific Coast, into a very different situation. This provoked irritation, leading to a vicious circle ot unjustfied violence which US imperialism was able to exploit Though unfortunately this cost the Nicaraguan people of both Atlanlic and Pacitic Coast much blood and much grief, I think that it has raised the status of the inhabitants of the Allantic Coast. The war has been very negative and the conflict could have resolved without bloodshed. has now begun to happen, though it will take a long time to heal the wounds on the Allantic Coast.
that the high level of mistrust which existed in an important sector of the Miskitos is now receding quite noticeably. The very fact that the fighting has stopped shows some element of confidence. Moreover, we have granted their re quest for autonomy and converted the region into the property of its inhabitants, a highly democratic and revolutionary decision, the recogni tion of a democratic demand. The fact that there are only shades of difbetween their •emane autonomy the demands of the revolution, indicales a certain identification with the print ciples of the revolution in this respect.
We believe that in time there will be mutual confidence between us and the sectors who rose up in arms on the Allantic Coast, including those who have recently come into conflict with Whatever their reasons for distrusting the Frente Sandinista, they have many more reasons for in e Somocista guard. The reasons why they mistrust us are artificial, without a justifiable while the reasons for their mistrust of the Contras have an objec Miskito organisation, Misura, has laid down various conditions for autonomy: the existence of a Miskito an representatives of the various ethnic groups, their control of the natural of the coast and of the troops in the region, as a part of the Sandinista popular army.
begin from one funthere only Decisions on the form of and the placement of armed forces are central decisions, so that any autonomous powers have lo be stricily defined by ihe laws of this We propose, in our statute autonomy, local authorities must be chosen by thę inhabitants of the Allantic Coast.
The use of woods and water, as resultes of the Allantic Coast, have to be exploited as a funclion of the interests of the nation, but laking into account local interests. This includes the forms of exploitation, which have to be decided by the inhabilants of the area.
There will be (wo lypes of statute: local and national. National ones, by law, will have to dedicate an importhe Allantic Coast's resources for reinvestment there. But one cannot think ihat such a national be exclusive lo the Allantic Coast. ally more than a statue concerning the Pacific Coast would be exclusive to the Pacific. This would mean dividing the country into If we find oil in the Pacific, it would be absurd 1o invest the fruits only in the Pacific Coast and not on the Allantic Coast. Strategic resources such as hydroelectric power and minerals have 1o be exploiled in the interests of the whole nation, privileging in some sense the local areas from where these resources come. Al the same lime we have to develop imporlanı projecis with a local character, for example the African palm project, would fundamentally benefit the Allantic Coast.
Socialist Action 10 Januar i.:.