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Nicaragua INTERNAL SECURITY
An end to war-related violence in 1990 brought a brief
period
of conciliation between the competing political factions
in
Nicaragua. That year, the last 1,000 persons detained in
connection with the Contra conflict were released. That
action
followed the release in 1988 and 1989 of some 2,800
members of
the National Guard and others held by the Sandinista
government
on security-related grounds.
Frequent episodes of political violence continue to
plague
the heavily polarized Nicaraguan society. Clashes
resulting in
bloodshed are often the outgrowth of demonstrations and
protests
in areas of the country where Chamorro's strength is
greatest or
in border areas where support for the Contras has been
strong.
Disputes over resettlement and land title have brought
violent
confrontations in many rural areas. By invading
government-owned
cooperatives both ex-Contras and former EPS soldiers have
attempted to regain land that had been expropriated from
the
Somozas. The assassination of former Contra leader Enrique
Bermúdez Varela in February 1991, followed by an inept
police
investigation and the failure to identify any suspects,
has
undermined confidence in the ability of the government and
the
security forces to maintain order.
The Contra war left Nicaragua bitterly divided and
heavily
armed. An estimated 25,000 to 100,000 weapons remain in
civilian
hands. By mid-1991, some demobilized Contras had begun to
rearm
in small groups. These Recontras, as they were called,
carried
out numerous raids, originally intended to pressure the
government into honoring its promises of jobs, farms, and
credit
for land purchases and to bring about an end to harassment
by
police and security forces. The Recontras' actions
included
kidnappings of Sandinistas for ransom and attacks on
members of
farm cooperatives. In 1993 the United States Department of
State
described their activities as principally criminal, with
political overtones
(see The Ex-Contras and Recontras
, ch.
4).
The best known of the Recontra groups is Northern Front
3-80
(Frente Norte 3-80), whose strength in 1993 was estimated
at
1,400. The Recontra guerrillas survive because of support
from
sympathetic local peasants in mountainous areas north of
Managua
where police and army patrols rarely venture. They also
receive
some financial help from conservative Nicaraguan and
anti-Castro
Cuban groups in Miami.
A number of armed bands composed of dismissed members
of the
EPS call themselves Recompas, a name taken from
compañeros, the term by which Sandinista soldiers
referred
to one another. The main Recompa group is the
Revolutionary Front
of Workers and Peasants (Frente Revolucionario de Obreros
y
Campesinos--FROC). In July 1993, FROC gained control of
the
northern town of Estelí, reportedly looting some US$4
million
from banks and shops before regular army troops drove them
out,
incurring numerous civilian casualties. A month later, a
large
government delegation that had been invited to discuss an
amnesty
offer was taken hostage by Northern Front 3-80. In
retaliation,
pro-Sandinista gunmen kidnapped thirty-four UNO government
officials, including the country's vice president, who
were
meeting in Managua. Following intense negotiations, both
sides
released their hostages.
The grievances against the government by Recontras and
Recompas are similar in many ways. Although the
predecessor
organizations of both groups fought each other in the
1980s, the
Recontras and Recompas have, for the most part, avoided
violent
confrontations with each other in the 1990s. An amnesty
proclaimed by the National Assembly in 1993 resulted in
the
surrender of large numbers of personnel from both rebel
groups,
leaving some 600 from each side still in the field.
Data as of December 1993
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