Freedom fighters - continuing Sandinista influence in Nicaragua - Editorial

National Review, March 1, 1993

THE CLINTON Administration moved quickly to "restore democracy"to Haiti, but a better test of its dedication to the democratic principle will come in Nicaragua.

The place is a mess. The Sandinistas remain in charge of the military and the police, and more than 200 Contra leaders have turned up dead in the last two years. So far, the record is zero prosecutions, and zero convictions. Sandinista bigwigs still refuse to return the millions of dollars' worth of property they stole just before leaving power in 1990, and Mrs. Chamorro is protecting them.

The UNO coalition that elected her president has broken with her over coddling the Sandinistas, and now officially calls itself an opposition party. The stand-off between Parliament and the president reached a boiling point in late December, when Mrs. Chamorro sent the police out to occupy the Parliament building and to prevent the president of the National Assembly from entering. Most recently, the comptroller general of the country called for the resignation of Minister of the Presidency Antonio Lacayo--Mrs. Chamorro's son-in-law and the man who rules while she reigns--in a million-dollar scandal involving the diversion of foreign aid.

No one in his right mind would invest in Nicaragua in these circumstances, and the economy is predictably stagnant. The country is living off foreign aid--including $54 million from the U.S., released by the Bush Administration in December over the strenuous protests of Senator Jesse Helms.

Mrs. Chamorro was a brave opponent of the Sandinistas in the 1980s, and her new government deserved our help in 1990 and 1991. Today, American aid is subsidizing a system of corruption and fa- voritism that rewards the Sandinistas while it mocks--and murders the former Contras. If Mr. Clinton wants to "restore democracy," let him start by refusing Nicaragua another dime in aid until Mrs. Chamorro shows that the Sandinistas are no longer running the show.