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Nicaragua took body blows from two forces of nature last week: a tidal wave and Jesse Helms. First Helms, the conservative U.S. senator, issued a report accusing President Violeta Chamorro's government of corruption and complaining that the leftist Sandinistas, whom Chamorro defeated two years ago, retain too much political power. Helms's report recommended that vital U.S. foreign aid, which was suspended last spring, be withheld until Chamorro cleans up her government and cuts off the Sandinistas. Then, two days later, an earthquake stirred up a tidal wave that slammed into Nicaragua's Pacific coast, killing more than 100 people and leaving thousands homeless. Washington quickly sent more than $5 million in humanitarian assistance, but the foreign aid was still frozen. As Chamorro inspected the damage, she lamented: "We just don't have enough [resources] to help even these people who have no bread for tomorrow."
Nicaraguans looked forward to recovery when Chamorro defeated Sandinista President Daniel Ortega in 1990, after eight years of civil war between the Soviet backed Sandinistas and the U.S.-supported contras. But to keep an uneasy peace Chamorro's chief minister and son-in-law, Antonio Lacayo, struck deals with the Sandinistas. They retained control over the police and army; Gen. Humberto Ortega, Daniel's brother, stayed on as armed forces chief Chamorro's critics-including the coalition that backed her in 1990-charge that Lacayo paid the Sandinistas off for allowing his business to thrive under their rule. The critics also complain that keeping the Sandinistas in power has thwarted political and economic reform.
Helms agrees. After watching nearly $1 billion in U.S. aid and multilateral loans go to Chamorro during her first two years in office, the old cold warrior fumed at the Sandinistas' presence in her government. So he persuaded President George Bush to suspend the last $116 million authorized by Congress. Meanwhile, Republican staffer Deborah De Moss prepared the damning report released last week. It charges that Chamorro and Lacayo have appointed "dozens" of their relatives to top government posts. It complains that 450 U.S. citizens still have not regained property confiscated by the Sandinistas. It says 217 former contras have been assassinated since Chamorro won the election and persuaded them to demobilize. Claiming that "corruption is rampant," the report alleges that Lacayo "personally masterminded" a scheme to bribe Nicaraguan congressmen with foreign-aid money.
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Other critics of corruption in Nicaragua complain that Helms still views the country through a cold-war prism. "What has changed in Nicaragua is that you used to have an ideological war, left versus right," says Bianca Jagger, the ex-wife of the rock star and a supporter of the Sandinista revolution. " But now the people at the top have converged, and all you have is who can make the most money."
Goaded by Helms's criticism, the Bush administration put pressure on Managua. Sources said policymaking on Nicaragua was taken away from Latin America specialists at the State Department and was being run from the office of Lawrence Eagleburger, the acting secretary. "Helms is trying to save the country by destroying it," complained a State Department official. He predicted that "if the Chamorro government does not get the aid money in September, they will miss a debt payment, precipitating an economic disaster."
Lacayo said the Helms report was "full of lies and slanders." To deal with the property issue without provoking the Sandinistas, he announced a plan under which owners would be indemnified but would not get their land back. Chamorro insisted that "no one is pressuring Violets." But she was said to be planning an attempt to appease Helms. His report suggested unfreezing $50 million of the aid money if Chamorro takes control of the police away from the Sandinistas and commits herself to other reforms. Chamorro was expected to fire Rene Vivas, the Sandinista chief of the national police. But she may not be able to get rid of General Ortega, perhaps the most powerful man in Nicaragua. His brother the ex-president warned that Sandinistas might fight if Nicaragua "compromises its sovereignty for $116 million." That left Chamorro with no easy options for ending her country's misery.
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