Nicaraguan Opposition Union

This country's political opposition, launching its six-month electoral campaign, unveiled Saturday a plan of government that would scale down Nicaragua's army and the revolutionary state built during a decade of Sandinista rule and give freer rein to private enterprise. Leaders of the Nicaraguan Opposition Union said the platform adopted by consensus after three days of meetings is the first to be shared here by such a range of ideological interests.

In President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro's Nicaragua, everything has changed and nothing has changed. Or does it just seem that way? Toyotas outnumber Russian-made Ladas now, but they still have to steer around horse-drawn carts--about 70% of Nicaraguans live in poverty. The mayor of Managua has put up road signs to the country club and airport. But many streets remain nameless, and Managuans' memories are still dotted with landmarks that no longer exist. Nicaragua remains a polarized country.

In President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro's Nicaragua, everything has changed and nothing has changed. Or does it just seem that way? Toyotas outnumber Russian-made Ladas now, but they still have to steer around horse-drawn carts--about 70% of Nicaraguans live in poverty. The mayor of Managua has put up road signs to the country club and airport. But many streets remain nameless, and Managuans' memories are still dotted with landmarks that no longer exist. Nicaragua remains a polarized country.

The Sandinista government agreed Tuesday to give full control of the armed forces to President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro when she takes office April 25 and recognized her authority to reduce the military's ranks. An accord signed by the defense minister, Gen. Humberto Ortega, and aides to Chamorro also assured that Sandinista leaders and thousands of other people residing--legally or illegally--on property seized during the decade-old Sandinista revolution will not be evicted.

In conceding defeat early Monday, President Daniel Ortega became the first Nicaraguan president to abide by a freely held election. The revolutionary leader made history when he thanked "brothers, militants of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and combatants of the Sandinista Popular Army" for their role in guaranteeing the freedom of the vote. But while Ortega solemnly vowed to turn over the government to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and her U.S.

President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro joined the defeated Sandinista government Tuesday night in urging the U.S.-backed Contras to disarm immediately and end their eight-year-old rebellion. "The causes of this civil war have disappeared," Chamorro said in her first substantive message since her stunning electoral upset of President Daniel Ortega on Sunday. "There is no reason for more war.

President Bush said Sunday that if the Nicaraguan elections are certified as free and fair, the new government in Managua "will find a better climate" in the United States--so long as it adheres to democratic principles. A free and fair election would be "very, very helpful," the President declared Sunday morning, just hours after balloting began in Nicaragua. "A democratic process is important," Bush added.

President Bush telephoned Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Wednesday to urge him to help bring about a peaceful transition of power from Nicaragua's Sandinistas to the newly elected opposition government, officials said. The unusual summit-level telephone diplomacy was part of a major effort by U.S. officials to persuade all factions in Nicaragua, from the leftist Sandinistas to the U.S.

The Sandinista government agreed Tuesday to give full control of the armed forces to President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro when she takes office April 25 and recognized her authority to reduce the military's ranks. An accord signed by the defense minister, Gen. Humberto Ortega, and aides to Chamorro also assured that Sandinista leaders and thousands of other people residing--legally or illegally--on property seized during the decade-old Sandinista revolution will not be evicted.

The Bush Administration on Wednesday accused Nicaragua's leftist government of systematically harassing and intimidating opposition politicians during the closing days of the campaign for Sunday's national election. State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said that activists of the National Opposition Union, known as UNO by its initials in Spanish, have told the U.S. Embassy in Managua that government agents "routinely threaten them with loss of job, land, bodily harm or even death."

The Sandinista-dominated National Assembly approved a sweeping amnesty law Saturday that guarantees officials and public servants immunity from prosecution for crimes committed during a decade of revolutionary rule. Sandinista legislators said that the Law of General Amnesty and National Reconciliation, which also pardons crimes committed by government soldiers and the U.S.

Benigno Blandon tends his potato fields each day with a machete in one hand and an AK-47 assault rifle in the other. At night, the 48-year-old farmer takes a two-hour shift guarding the Augusto Cesar Sandino peasant cooperative. Farmer and militiaman; militiaman and farmer--the job is one and the same for Sandinistas such as Blandon, who received land in the revolutionary government's agrarian reform.

Nicaraguans living in Los Angeles pledged to put their political differences aside and "become one people again" during two separate rallies Saturday--one celebrating the recent victory at the polls of President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and another mourning the defeat of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. "We want unity and peace, not war," said a tearful Kenia Chamorro while leaving St.

Three hours after the polls closed last Sunday, a Sandinista pollster at party headquarters handed Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega returns from a carefully chosen sample of 55,000 voters that showed him losing the battle for reelection. Ortega was incredulous. Isn't the trend reversible? he asked. No, said the pollster, whose pre-election surveys had forecast a Sandinista landslide. "Wait, there are still more than a million votes to count," insisted Dionisio Marenco, the campaign chief.

In her first act as president-elect, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro appointed her son-in-law, Antonio Lacayo, to negotiate a smooth takeover of power from the defeated Sandinista government. That decision produced the first spat within her victorious National Opposition Union, the coalition of 14 parties that is supposed to run Nicaragua starting April 25. Party chieftains met Wednesday to complain that they were not consulted.

President Bush telephoned Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Wednesday to urge him to help bring about a peaceful transition of power from Nicaragua's Sandinistas to the newly elected opposition government, officials said. The unusual summit-level telephone diplomacy was part of a major effort by U.S. officials to persuade all factions in Nicaragua, from the leftist Sandinistas to the U.S.

When the National Opposition Union closed its electoral campaign here last weekend, hundreds of Managua-bound supporters were stranded in the city of Masaya. The state-owned trains they were awaiting had been diverted without warning to Leon, scene of that day's rally of the ruling Sandinista Party. Nor did the huge sound system rented for the opposition gathering get to Managua.

Shocked, angered and pained by their electoral defeat, thousands of Sandinista militants surrounded a closed-door meeting of their party leadership Tuesday shouting, "We are the army!" and "We've got the guns!" Demonstrators from organizations such as the Sandinista Youth and Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs joined soldiers and officers of the Sandinista Popular Army, raising their fists overhead in a show of support for President Daniel Ortega.

President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro joined the defeated Sandinista government Tuesday night in urging the U.S.-backed Contras to disarm immediately and end their eight-year-old rebellion. "The causes of this civil war have disappeared," Chamorro said in her first substantive message since her stunning electoral upset of President Daniel Ortega on Sunday. "There is no reason for more war.

Shocked, angered and pained by their electoral defeat, thousands of Sandinista militants surrounded a closed-door meeting of their party leadership Tuesday shouting, "We are the army!" and "We've got the guns!" Demonstrators from organizations such as the Sandinista Youth and Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs joined soldiers and officers of the Sandinista Popular Army, raising their fists overhead in a show of support for President Daniel Ortega.