Now Nicaraguans increasingly say Lacayo’s dealings with the Ortega brothers crossed the line between reconciliation and capitulation. Concedes Chamorro aide Roberto Ferrey: “We’ve been saying to ourselves a bit too much, ‘Well, it’s the Sandinistas who have the real power in Nicaragua. We can afford to ignore the majority that voted for us.’ We didn’t realize that the people who voted for us can build barricades, too.”
The contras have emerged as tribunes of the discontented. Lacayo discounted the former guerrillas after they agreed to demobilize in exchange for a promise of farmland and $30 million in U.S. aid. He overlooked both the rebel army’s cohesiveness and the depth of the grievances its peasant soldiers and their rural supporters held against the Sandinistas. When the government failed to follow through on its resettlement program, violent land disputes ensued between ex-contras and armed pro-Sandinista civilians and police.
“Worthless vote’: The rural conflict got out of hand late last month when four former contras were killed trying to reclaim land from a Sandinista-run agricultural cooperative near the northern town of San Juan del Rio Coco. Former contra leader Oscar (Ruben) Sobalvarro called on supporters to build a network of highway barricades in retaliation. Over the last two weeks peasant protesters have blocked roads, seized police stations and occupied dozens of town halls. All told, 12 people, including the four police, have been killed and dozens injured. “The Sandinistas have the land, they have the guns, and all I have is a worthless vote I cast in February,” said Miguel Candacastillo, 57, a farmer manning barricades near the village of La Concha, south of Managua.
Chamorro and Lacayo are taking a hard line on the protests, calling them the work of “extremists” and “cynical political interests.” The strong language was aimed both at the former contra leaders and at Vice President Virgilio Godoy, who has split with the government over its policy toward the Sandinistas. Last week Police Chief Rene Vivas, a staunch Sandinista. arrested former contra leader Aristides Sanchez in Managua. Police also raided Sobalvarro’s contra demobilization office and confiscated a cache of field radio equipment, portable battlefield coordinate computers, military uniforms, a few AK-47s and grenades. Force seemed unlikely to stem the unrest the crackdown, which saw Humberto Ortega order tanks to clear barricades, increased resentment at Chamorro’s perceived tilt toward the Sandinistas. Chamorro’s former supporters would only be calmed by tangible evidence their votes were not in vain. But having postponed her promises for so long, the president seemed in no position to deliver on them now. For Chamorro, just hanging on to nominal power in a nearly ungovernable country has become a full-time job.
