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(A Chronicle)

31 May

The United FSLN National Directorate and General Staffs of the different fronts, brigades, columns, and regions appeal for a nationwide strike and announce the beginning of a general uprising to topple the Somoza dictatorship. The appeal declares that the hour for the overthrow of the much-hated dictatorship has arrived, and that the FSLN has launched its decisive offensive to destroy the despot’s band of murderers and rapists. "A general strike by our heroic people will join up with the decisive armed offensive of the Sandinistas, and culminate in the rout of the criminal, venal Somoza dictatorship,” the appeal says. The FSLN "exhorts all honest citizens to join the general strike to have the Somoza dictatorship abolished by the efforts of the entire nation. As of 4 June all shops and factories must close and all economic and social activities be suspended. The hour for the overthrow of the tyrant is here. The time has come for a free country to be born. To arms, all honest Nicaraguans! Hail the general uprising of the people of Nicaragua! The FSLN calls for a general strike!”. The appeal was signed by all members of the United National Directorate including Daniel Ortega Saavedra, Humberto Ortega Saavedra, Yirtoi Manuel Tiiado Lope?, Tonras Boige, Bayarclo Arce Castano, Jaime Wheelock. Luis Carrion, Carlos Nunez, and Henry Ruiz, and also by representatives of the General Staffs of fionts, biigades, columns, and regions.

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3 June

p Tomorrow a nationwide strike begins. Leaders of FAO and the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement together with the NPF and industrialists support the FSLN United National Directorate appeal to join the general strike.

p At a news contercnce in Managua, Sorno/a says he will ask the OAS for help in view of what he calls Costa Rrcan and Panamanian aggression against Nicaragua.

p Venezuelan President Luis Herrera Campins reaffirms his country’s decision to help Costa Rica, should Nicaragua attack. He issues this statement to the press, when commenting on developments in Nicaragua. Thus far, Costa Rica has not asked for help, he says.

National Guard Lieutenant Julio Burtrago, El Naranjo garrison commander, is taken prisoner by Sandinistas and calls on Nicaraguan servicemen not to fire upon their people.

4 June

A FSLN communique claims that a military force of CONDECA members Honduras and El Salvador are operating in Northern Nicaragua. It also reports that US air-force transports are bringing equipment from Panama Canal Zone bases to the National Guard. Thus, on the night of 31 May, a North American S-47 carrying the number 6210 landed near Bluefields in Nicaragua.

Situation at Fighting Fronts

p Rivas riverside: National Guard attack on Sandinista Miraflores column is repulsed. Patriotic forces hold all riverside positions and logistically consolidated in liberated areas.

p Leon: Sandinistas launch a widescale dawn offensive. Hundreds of Sandinistas are fighting in the Saragoza, Subtiava, and other city neighbourhoods.

p Chinandega: Sandinistas occupy the San Antonio Sugar Refinery and attack Chinandega and El Viejo garrisons. Fighting continues near Chinandega.

p Managua: Barricades are thrown up at night in working class neighbourhoods in the Western section and 110 National Guard patrols are attacked. Many houses hang out the red-and-hlark FSLN flag. With the nationwide general strike, the city seems dead. Nothing is running and all factories and shops are shut.

p According to agency dispatches published in the International Herald Tribune on 5 June, "A US Embassy source said that the State Department has issued no new advisories, but a warning against traveling to Nicaragua for other than essential business. . . . Most residents stayed indoors as the guerillas, many wearing red-and-black bandanas, roamed the streets.” This is featured under the heading, "Strike to Oust Somoza Shuts Managua".

According to UN sources, a letter addressed to the USA’s UN Ambassador Andrew Young and also to US Senators Edward Kennedy and Thomas Harkins and signed by Sergio Ramirez and Miguel D’Escotto, both of the Group of 12, has been received revealing that Hercules aircraft from the USA’s Howard military base in Panama are bringing supplies of weapons and ammunition to the National Guard. "We Nicaraguans,” the letter says, "are fed up with the North American Administration’s rhetoric about democracy, human rights, and national self-determination. While not asking the North American Administration to sympathise with the patriotic goals for which we are fighting, we demand that it discontinue all assistance to the murderers of the Nicaraguan people. We resolutely condemn this criminal interference as a grave violation of the right of our people to self-determination, of the right to rise up against tyranny, of the right to create a free and democratic nation.”

5 June

p UPI reports, "Sandinista guerillas controlled the city of Leon today and Managua was a virtual ghost town paralysed by a general strike.” In Leon Sandinistas capture Guatemalan Army Colonel Oscar Ruben Castaneda, the Guatemalan Military Attache to Nicaragua, in the city to coordinate operation by CONDECA forces.

p In an extensive account, the Mexican newspaper El Dia 111 describes the last ten years of US military aid to Somoza. Details were provided by North American investigators Cynthia Arnson, Max Holland, and Michael Klare. According to them, the USA supplied Nicaragua with eight large HN-34 transport helicopters, Sherman tanks, 105-mm howitzers, more than 1,000 missiles and large-calibre shells.

p With ex-CIA agent Samuel Cummings as go-between, Somoza got military aircraft, Blie and Sikorsky helicopters, armoured vehicles, and M-16 automatic rifles. Through Cummings’ Interarms Corporation, the former ARMCO, Somoza acquired in 1978 Danish Madsen and Israeli UZI submachine guns and Galil rifles. Also in 1978, Somoza acquired through the Engesa firm of Brazil vehicles and armoured carriers, and through the Engesa daughter firm of Embraer, military aircraft. Given training at various military schools were 5,670 Nicaraguan officers and men.

In the evening, Somoza proclaims martial law thus giving the National Guard a completely free hand to summarily arrest anyone "on legal grounds" and also completely depriving the civilian population of the right to free movement throughout the country.

6 June

p The general strike is in its third day. In Managua National Guard patrols occupy banks and other financial institutions. Serviceable petrol pumps are manned by soldiers who fill only army vehicles.

The Peru’s Committee of Solidarity with the People of Nicaragua issues a call for a mass drive to collect medicines, food, and arms for the embattled people of Nicaragua, and also for a campaign against imperialist manoeuvres in that country and in OAS to keep Somozaism with or without Somoza.

7 June

p Adolfo Ahumada, the Panama’s Minister of the Interior and Justice, says that the campaign mounted in the USA against ratification of the Panama Canal Agreement is led by people connected with the Somoza regime, more 112 specifically US Congressman John Murphy, architect of one of the projects seeking to emasculate the coordinated agreement. He also says that Murphy had invited Luis Pallais Debayle, Deputy Speaker of the Nicaraguan Legislative Assembly, to make an anti-Panamanian address in the US House of Representatives.

p The Panamanian Minister says that through fiiends in the North American Congress Somoza had tried to block ratification of the new Canal agreement to thus have the opportunity of blackmailing the Panamanian government into suspending its support of the Sandinistas in exchange for Nicaraguan support for ratification. Adolfo Ahumada says his government would never support the dictator, and gave the assurance that solidarity with the people of Nicaragua "will be effective and concrete" until Somoza falls. Karen De Young writes in the Washington Post: " Sandinista guerillas began closing a wide circle around the capital. . . . Managua remained relatively calm ... but there was a feeling here that a noose was tightening around the city and that a major attack on the capital is only a question of days. . . . The guerillas also appear to have the strong backing of much of the population in the occupied cities. The fact that they have for the first time begun to give the impression they are capable of victory has been a large moral factor among their civilian supporters. In Managua, many opposition leaders and prominent government supporters and officials have moved out of their homes in fear of an attack.”

p In Madrid, in an El Pais interview, Managua Archbishop Miguel Obando Bravo, the Catholic Primate of Nicaragua, declares that Somoza could be ousted only by force of arms. He says the war the Nicaraguans are fighting against Somoza is a just war. "Most of us never imagined,” he says, "how great the propensity this man and his National Guard has for destruction”, and adds that he never thought Somoza would be able, as he has done now, to wipe whole cities and towns off the face of the earth.

p In the International Herald Tribune on 4 June, under the heading "Final Offensive Launched by Guerillas in 113 Nicaragua”, Alan Riding, attempting to analyse developments there, says in part:

p “In preparation for the offensive, the Sandinistas have carried out months of harassment of the National Guard, including several ambushes of military convoys.. . .

p “The National Guard has killed several Sandinista commanders and an estimated 3,000 civilians this year. There are no reliable figures on casualties in combat.

p “In contrast to last September, the three factions of the Sandinista Front known as the Insurrectionists, the Prolonged Popular War, and the Proletarian Tendency, have formed a joint leadership and are coordinating their military and political activities. . . .

p “The political position of the Sandinistas has also been strengthened by the failure of a US-led mediation team to resolve the crisis between Gen. Somoza and the right- ofcentre coalition known as the Broad Opposition Front. After Gen. Somoza refused in Jarruary to consent to an internationally supervised plebiscite on his rule, the mediation effort collapsed and the Broad Opposition Front lost credibility for many Nicaraguans.

p “Since then, a coalition of 18 pro-Sandinista groups, the National Patriotic Front, has gained strength and popularity and has begun to operate as the political arm of the rebel army.”

On the whole, one can agree with this assessment. On the central point, the analyst is right when he says that the NPF speaks for the overwhelming majority in Nicaragua and reflects popular interests.

From a Radio Sandino Broadcast on 7 June

“Jack Martin, Political Attache at the US Embassy in Managua, has been having confidential meetings at his home with Julio Cesar Quintana, Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister, Col. Aurelio Somarriva of the General Staff, and Col. Valle Salinas, Managua Police Chief. Somoza knew nothing of these secret meetings, the first of which, that is to become known, was held at 6:30 p.m. on 1 June, and the second of which took place at noon on Sunday, 3 June. According to 114 what Somoza’s Foreign Minister (Quintana) told a friend who left later for abroad, they discussed Somoza’s immediate resignation, which the Americans want, so that afterwards, through constitutional reform, his place could be taken by Quintana, who despite his advanced age has not lost hopes of becoming President. Evidently Col. Somarriva and Col. Valle Salinas promised Quintana their support. Radio Sandino obtained this information from FSLN Military Intelligence".

10 June

p Somoza aircraft cruelly pound Sandinista-held residential areas. William Chislett of the Observer says that "... the superior strength of Somoza’s forces, particularly in the air, which is being deployed with increasing ferocity, means that a prolonged bloodbath is in the offing. I saw the damage caused in Masaya by rockets and bombs fired from Cessna planes converted for strafing. A shopkeeper showed me his downstairs bedroom which had been devastated by a bomb. The street corner was splattered with blood".

What strikes the eye in the latest West European press reports is the conjuncture by many newspapers and wire services that CONDECA regulars may intervene in Nicaragua.

12 June

p According to FSNL, last Sunday four Guatemalan airmen sent by CONDECA took part in bombing Managua.

p At a news conference in Panama former National Guard officers, Prensa Latina reports, appealed to National Guardsmen to surrender to patriots or turn arms against all seeking to salvage the dictatorship. Speaking for the group was Lt.- Col. Bernardino Larios, leader of the Free Officers Movement. Also in attendance were Major Adolfo Rubi, Captain Jose Valladares, and Lieutenant Rigoberto Buitrago. Major Rubi said very many officers sought to disassociate themselves from Somoza but were afraid to come out against him, fearing that they would be killed by security commandos. He said the unit under Somoza’s son Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero was the dictator’s main prop.

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Brandon Grove, US Under-Secretary of State for Latin America, is to head a team to draft recommendations on Nicaragua for the US Administration. This is announced in Washington by State Department spokesman Hodding Carter, who also says that Managua’s first 60 US evacuees have arrived at Howard Base in the Panama Canal Zone.

13 June

p “In Washington,” Reuter reports, "US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance suggested a meeting of the Organisation of American States to arrange a ceasefire in Nicaragua, halt the flow of arms to the warring sides, and try to resolve the crisis. He told a press conference the United States had told President Somoza a political solution was necessary to solve the problem.”

How did the USA seek to reach a "political solution to solve the problem"? Right after the Vance statement, writers on world affairs conjectured that the USA is again planning to use the "big stick" and send punitive forces under the odious OAS flag to crush the patriotic movement in Nicaragua.

16 June

It seems as if the most pessimistic conjectures are right. Somoza has received with uncontrolled glee plans to send a "inter-American force" to Nicaragua. Thus, France Presse reports from Managua: "Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza’s embattled government opened the door to a negotiated settlement with the Sandinista guerilla movement which is trying to overthrow it. . . .” What an heartening beginning, a dictator forced to seek contacts with his opponents and most likely having the only option to surrender, as the Sandinistas will not consent to any more Somoza or Somozaism. However, on to the second portion of the message: "...When it announced it was ready to accept an inter-American peace-keeping force to restore peace in the country (save the mark!).” If that doesn’t take the cake! Somoza wants an international punitive squad sent in, but the France Presse correspondent reports this as his having 116 “opened the door to a negotiated settlement"! Nothing but yellow journalism, undertaken to pull the wool down over the eyes of the world public.

17 June

p In a joint statement, the five Andes Pact countries recognise that a just war is being fought against a tyranny in Nicaragua. Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru demonstrate solidarity with the patriots of Nicaragua. As is pointed out in this joint statement of the Andes Pact Foreign Ministers, published in Caracas and the other four capitals, the patriotic forces waging a just struggle in Nicaragua against the Somoza dictatorship are recognised as a belligerent, as the true representative of that Central American republic, and as entitled to international support. Publication of this statement implies juridical recognition of the Nicaraguan patriots as a belligerent.

In San Jose Tomas Borge of the FSLN United National Directorate announces a Provisional Democratic Government of National Reconstruction, including Sergio Ramirez, of the Group of 12, Moises Hassan of the Movimiento del Pueblo Unido, Alfonso Radello of the Broad Opposition Front, Daniel Ortega Saavedra of the FSLN leadership, and Violeta Barrios, widow of murdered journalist Pedro Joaquin Chamorro. The Provisional Government will reportedly take up residence for the time being in Rivas as soon as it is freed from Somoza forces.

18 June

p The Sandinistas continue successful military action against Somoza’s National Guard. Reuter reports from Managua, "President Anastasio Somoza has apparently suffered a severe setback with the reported loss of two major cities in the North to leftist Sandinista guerillas.... An official communique says the National Guard has pulled out of its command post in the second city of Leon .. . this now left the city in the Sandinistas’ hands. The National Guardsmen have been under siege by encircling rebels for several days. The sources said the Sandinistas had also taken the city of 117 Matagalpa, about 124 miles . .. north of the capital of Managua.... In both cases the sources said the withdrawal of troops from the cities was a strategic move aimed at getting the Sandinistas surrounded in each case.”

p What does this really mean? Has "Somoza suffered a severe setback"? Or is "the withdrawal of troops ... a strategic move aimed at getting the Sandinistas surrounded"? The same Reuter report briefly notes that "Ecuador became the third country to withdraw diplomatic recognition of Nicaragua. Mexico and Costa Rica have already done so”. Note, not of Somoza, not of his regime, but "of Nicaragua"!

p Somoza is in increasing isolation, a fact which cannot be ignored by the Carter Administration, which still hopes to get the OAS to accept at a future meeting its proposal to intervene in Nicaragua by sending an OAS "inter- American force" there. After reporting a growing campaign in the Latin American countries to recruit volunteers to fight alongside the patriots, France Presse cabled from Managua that "... the only expression of support to President Somoza came from 130 US Congressmen, Democrats and Republicans, who asked President Jimmy Carter to resume immediate US military aid to the Managua government. The 125 House Representatives and 5 Senators also criticised what they describe as President Carter’s ’inaction’ over the Nicaraguan situation".

The Provisional Nicaraguan Government announces its future programme of action, crystalling the programmes of all organisations represented. All Somoza dynasty loot will be expropriated. Foreign policy will be one of non- alignment, at home the government will rescind the Somoza “constitution”, and revise all agreements with transnational cartels. A new sovereign democratic army will be established to incorporate Sandinistas and all National Guardsmen who break with Somozd and help to expose his crimes.

22 June

p There is much comment before OAS meets as to what kind of resolution will go through, and which countries will 118 vote with the USA to send a punitive force into Nicaragua to salvage the Somoza regime. France Presse reports from Washington: "The United States and the Andes Pact countries would probably favour an OAS intervention, which could involve sending a pan-American peace-keeping force into Nicaragua.” However, Mexico is leading eight states in an all-out defence of the OAS Charter-enshrined principle of non-intervention. To contend at this juncture that the Andes Pact countries "would favour an OAS intervention which could involve sending a pan-American force" is either to betray wishful thinking, or absolutely fail to understand the situation. It is the Andes Pact countries that consistently champion non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states.

A more reliable report received from Managua says that "a US White House spokesman said yesterday that the US would send troops to Managua if the situation demanded this, although the Administration would be guided by the OAS meeting" (France Presse, 23 June).

24 June

p The USA sustains its greatest setback in all of OAS history. Realising after probes that its resolution sanctioning US armed intervention in Nicaragua would fail, the USA did not even put up its seven-proviso draft, the third saying that OAS would advise members on an OAS peace-keeping presence in Nicaragua, to contribute to preservation of public law and order, and the seventh advising OAS states to assign equipment and personnel to carry out the aims set in the resolution.

p After reading the US draft, Dominican Foreign Minister Ramon Emilio Jimenez declares, "We lived through intervention in 1965, and would not wish that upon any American nation.”

p On Saturday night the USA tried to push through a second resolution, advising calling on the warring sides in Nicaragua to cease fire and sending into the country a " civilian" delegation to negotiate. When this project failed, the USA could only vote for the resolution put forward by most 119 Latin American states, which represents a signal victory for the people of Nicaragua, for the patriots fighting for freedom, for all progressives in Latin America.

p For curiosity’s sake, allow me to quote from the Reuter report, which interpreted the US fiasco in OAS thus: "The Organisation of American States (OAS), responding to an urgent United States appeal, (my emphasis—Auth.) has called for the immediate replacement of Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza who is fighting an attempt by Sandinista guerillas to overthrow him.” This is followed by the remark: "But it (the OAS) dropped the United States proposal, made by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, to send an inter-American peace-keeping force to the beleaguered country.” It appears the USA called for the immediate replacement of Somoza, although the whole world had thought it was bending over backwards to salvage its pocket dictator. One more instance of misleading yellow journalism.

p The OAS resolution, which was adopted by 17 votes, declares, "The solution of this grave problem is exclusively the concern of the Nicaraguan people.

p “In the view of the 17th Consultative Meeting of Foreign Ministers, this solution should proceed from the following basis:

p “1. The immediate, definitive replacement of the Somoza regime.

p “2. The installation in the territory of Nicaragua of a democratic government whose composition would include the principal groups in opposition to the Somoza regime, and which would reflect the freely expressed will of the people of Nicaragua.

p “3. Guaranteed respect for human rights for all Nicaraguans without exception.

p “4. The holding of free elections as early as possible, which would lead to the establishment of a genuinely democratic government and that would guarantee peace, liberty, and justice.”

Such was the finishing touch of an OAS Foreign Ministers’ meeting which will go down in the annals of Latin American history.

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5 July

p FSLN troops completely encircle the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.

It is clear that the dictator’s days are numbered.

16 July

Somoza flees from Managua to the USA, transferring Presidential powers to Francisco Urcuyo, his brother-in-law, who at once announces that he will on no account defer to the Provisional Democratic Government of National Reconstruction of Nicaragua, and will stay on till 1981.

17 July

p FSLN forces attack on every front. All are certain that the new stooge in the Somoza-vacated bunker will hold on for but a few days, no more.

Some one hundred newsmen from the biggest wire services, periodicals, and radio and television stations have gathered in neighbouring Costa Rica. The five Soviet newsmen include, Lev Novikov of USSR Radio and Television, Vladimir Silantyev of Izvestia, Vladimir Shekhovtsov of TASS, and Lev Kostanyan and myself from Pravda. We unanimously ask Enrique Mora Valverde, the TASS correspondent in Costa Rica, who is held in high regard there and by FSLN leaders, to head our group. The main thing is not to jump the gun, and yet get to Managua first. We hear there is a possibility of chartering a private plane and of getting to Managua as soon as National Guardsmen are driven out. Not much of an option, but we must not miss it

18 July

p A day that will go down in Nicaraguan annals as the last day of the dictatorship of the Somoza dynasty, installed by North American imperialism nearly fifty years ago. In collaboration with TASS correspondent Vladimir Shekhovtsov, I transmit to Moscow the following record of the day’s events.

p 0:30. The Provisional Government prepare to emplane

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p from Costa Rica to Leon, which it will make its headquarters before moving to Managua.

p 4:00. The FSLN takes Grenada in a lightning assault. Some 400 National Guardsmen surrender.

p 4:40. National Guard garrisons in Ocotal, Nueva Segovia Province, and Somoto, Madriz Province, recognise the new government.

p 8:00 So-called pro tern President Francisco Urcuyo again declares he will stay on till 1981.

p 10:30. Radio Sandino communiques report successful operations near Managua and elsewhere.

p 11:00. Sandinistas capture the National Guard telecommunication centre, thus cutting off the line to Miami from which Somoza is still trying to direct the few remaining loyal punitive units The centre’s personnel defect to the Sandinistas.

p 11 to 12 a.m. Urcuyo intensively confers with US Embassy staff, more specifically the US Counsellor, to find a way out of a hopeless quandary.

p 12:20. National Guard Chief of Staff says “Surrender”.

p 13:20. Pilots of fourteen Somoza aircraft land with their families in Honduras.

p 14:50. Several high-ranking National Guard officers seize two Red Gross planes in Managua and fly out with their families.

p 15:00. In Hotel Balmoral in the Costa Rican capital, representatives of Nicaragua’s Provisional Democratic Government of National Reconstruction give a press conference for local and foreign newsmen. Manuel Espinosa, the official spokesman, announces the composition of a 33-man State Council that with the Provisional Government will exercise legislative authority in Nicaragua.

p Also read out is the Provisional Government’s first decree, which begins, "The 45-year-old Somoza dictatorship has fallen^^1^^" Also lead out is the Piovisional Government’s appeal to world governments to recognise the new democratic authority in Nicaragua.

p 16:00. The five Andes Pact countries and the Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico end a 122 conference in San Jose and agree not to recognise the newfangled Urcuyo regime.

p 78:05. Urcuyo quits bunker and, accompanied by US Ambassador Lourenso Pizzola enplanes for Guatemala.

18:30. It is learned that tomorrow the Provisional Government will move from Leon to Managua.

19 July

p The Provisional Democratic Government of National Reconstruction arrives in Managua this night. A few hours earlier, we, the first group of foreign newsmen, land at Managua airport in our chartered plane. We are now in the newly liberated city. Two flags, the red-and-black banner of the FSLN and the state flag of the Republic of Nicaragua, fly over Tiscapa Hill, where the dictator had his bunker.

p A new day begins, the first day of free land. Managua—Moscow,

July 1979