NICARAGUA OPPOSITION PARTIES/INTERNATIONAL HELP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000201370002-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2008
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 25, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM All Things Considered STATION WETA Radio
NPR Network
DATE August 25, 1984 5:00 P.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT Nicaragua Opposition Parties/International Help
RICHARD HARRIS: The opposition parties of Nicaragua are
launching a campaign for international help. Their goal, to get
a postponement of the elections now scheduled for November. The
opposition parties are boycotting the elections because they feel
the government is putting too many restrictions on the campaign.
The government responded this week by outlawing the parties.
Alan Tomlinson reports from Managua.
ALAN TOMLINSON: The decision of the right-wing coa-
lition, known as the Democratic Coordinating Group, not to take
part in the elections under conditions it considers unfair has
serious consequences for the abstaining parties. The National
Council of Political Parties, which administers the electoral law
in this instance, could have disbanded the three coalition
parties entirely and seized their property, but decided to
refrain from such extreme action. In fact, it held off taking
any action at all for three weeks while the Sandinista government
tried to persuade the Social Christians, the most important party
in the group, to reconsider their position. They were adamant.
And finally the Council enacted the law by stripping all three
oftheir legal status. It means they can no longer hold open-air
rallies, disseminate propaganda, or make political broadcasts,
rights they had only recently begun to enjoy again after two
years of suppression under a state of emergency.
I asked Mr. Ramiro Guldian (?), a spokesman for the
coalition, if this would keep them entirely silent during the
election campaign.
RAMIRO GUL.DIAN: You don't have to be in a campaign to
be able to tell the whole Nicaraguan people who you think and
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what you think is going wrong in this country. The only thing,
according to us, that they can do is to tell us that we cannot
say, "Vote for us," because we are not -- you know, we're not
registered to go to the election.
TOMLINSON: So, in other words, although you can't
campaing for votes, you can still take an active part in the
political debate within the country.
GULDIAN: To us, that's our position.
TOMLINSON: The coalition is turning its attention to
other countries involved in Central America's troubles in an
effort to put pressure on the Sandinistas to postpone the
elections scheduled for November the 4th and to enter into
wide-raning all-party talks instead.
The coalition's leader, Mr. Arturo Cruz, the man
President Reagan would probably like to see at the head of a new
Nicaraguan government, is in Costa Rica, where he has met with
President Monge. While Mr. Monge made it clear he did not
necessarily support Mr. Cruz's political ambitions, there was
apparently agreement that the best way of solving Nicaragua's
internal differences and to end the war with the U.S.-backed
rebels, known as Contras, is by talking.
Mr. Cruz goes on to Venezuela and Colombia, two of the
countries involved in the Contadora peace process, to seek their
support.
LEE THORNTON: Along Nicaragua's borders, military
forces, largely funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, have
been fighting to topple the Sandinista government. Earlier this
summer, Congress refused to give the CIA any more money for the
forces, and some thought that would spell the end to the border
fighting. But Reuters news agency reports CIA funding has not
dried up, that one group along the Nicaraguan-Honduran border is
still receiving money from the agency.
We asked Alfonso Caejos (?), a key civilian aide in the
group, if the report is true.
ALFONSO CAEJOS: No, that's totally false. I would not
guess who said that, but probably it was somebody who wants to
hurt our crusade, hurt especially an American agency.
THORNTON: You are saying you're getting absolutely no
money, then, from the CIA?
CAEJOS: Absolutely. We have received aid in the past,
according to a law passed by Congress. And when the funds were
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 terminated, there were no more funds, and that was it.
THORNTON: Where are you getting your money from? Are
there countries sympathetic to your cause?
CAEJOS: Fortunately, there are many people, organiza-
tions, political organizations and civic organizations, in this
world that still love freedom, and they're willing to help. And
it hurts us, really, morally, to think that the Congress of the
United States, a country that's supposed to be the leader of
freedom and democracy in the world, did not approve additional
aid to the freedom fighters in Nicaragua.
THORNTON: Could you tell us who some of those organiza-
tions, perhaps some of those countries, are?
CAEJOS: No. Unfortunately, I cannot. This is a covert
operation.
THORNTON: What about your supplies? We wonder if the
Honduran government is helping you to purchase aircraft, for
example.
CAEJOS: Again, I cannot comment who's doing it. I can
assure you that the Honduran government is not doing it.
12,000?
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THORNTON: Your forces. We understand they number about
THORNTON: Do you have adequate resources to keep them
going, to continue to wage war?
CAEJOS: Well, you know, most of the support for the
[unintelligible] are given by the Nicaraguan peasant populations.
It's really very encouraging to receive the support as we are
receiving from the Nicaraguan people. That's the only explana-
tion why we have forces which are right at the heart of
Nicaragua, in the middle of the country, to which we have no
access. And they keep on fighting and waging this guerrilla war
with the support of the Nicaraguan people.
THORNTON: Alfonso Caejos is a civilian leader of the
Nicaraguan Democratic Front.
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