Where I Stand: It’s time to watch Nicaraguans harvest votes, crops

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE that the time for another free national election in Nicaragua is here. During the coming days, the wire services will be loaded with stories coming out of Managua. These same wire services in Managua have been almost silent since the first national free election was conducted in early 1990.

That was an exciting time, because it was a signal that the people of Nicaragua, after almost 10 years of open and brutal fighting, were willing to use ballot boxes rather than bullets. Some of us with the Carter Center, when registering voters during the fall of 1989, found it hard to believe the election would actually take place. It did, and the results saw President Daniel Ortega and his Sandinistas lose to Violeta Barios de Chamorro, the widow of a fighting newspaper publisher who had been assassinated in Managua.

Although the Sandinistas lost control of the presidency, they were able to maintain the control of both army and police for several years. Soon, many of the poor farmers began to feel that little had changed for them, and they again began to turn to new leaders from the original Contra units. As for the hundreds of Contra leaders who put down their weapons and returned from the mountains along the Honduran border, many returned home only to be executed gangster-style by their Sandinista enemies now running the military and police forces.

Two years ago, I went into the northern mountains to interview Jose Angel Talavera, who is known as Jackal. He found it necessary to use arms to get the attention of both the Chamorro government and its Sandinista friends. Following that meeting outside Quilali, I came back to Las Vegas and wrote:

In the meantime, it appears that the same old power brokers who survive wars, economic disasters and elections are still making profits and living high on the hog. When it comes to ignoring the masses and making money, there isn't one iota of difference between the Ortega and Chamorro families. Both families continue, along with other wealthy families, to get richer while the poor get poorer.

The land and homes, which the Sandinistas took from other Nicaraguans when they grabbed power, remain with the thieves. The Chamorro government has acted extremely slowly in returning the stolen property because the lady has included so many Sandinistas in the government she formed in 1990. Antonio Lacayo, her chief of staff and son-in-law, has betrayed the disarmed Contras and his own mother-in-law while accommodating his Sandinista friends.

To say the least, my observations were disappointing because of my high hopes for the people of Nicaragua. Every Christmas for several years, I've returned to take goods from Nevadans to Padre Fabretto's orphanages near Managua and also in the northern mountains. I've come to know them as good people, willing and eager to work the land and provide for their communities and families. They love their families, God, land and country.

Four months ago, I returned to the mountains northeast of Jinotega to observe the registering of voters for the election that will take place Sunday. The registration of voters in the rural Pantasma area again gave me hope for the democratic electoral process. Again, as I observed seven years ago, the fires of democracy burn brightly in the hearts and souls of these people. They walk for miles and even days to register and vote. Women will carry their babies as they trudge along dusty roads and wet jungle trails that take them to the place they can register and/or vote.

When I finished the second day of watching the registration of voters in early June, I thought it would be nice to be assigned in that area during the election being held Sunday. The corn was about 14 inches high and looked healthy. I wanted to return there to see them enjoy the fruits of their labor.

My instructions arrived Monday and, beside the word "deployment" was written "mountainous region." I'm hoping they mean the area in and around Pantasma. If it doesn't, that's OK also. I'll go where I'm needed.