'HOW CAN WE NOT WANT PEACE?'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505330001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 17, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505330001-6
ARTICLE AFFEARED WASHINGTON POST
QN PAGE A -6- 17 September 1984
Sergio Ramirez
`How Can
We Not Want
Peace?'
With the war in Nicaragua still flaring and
elections coming there on Nov. 4 and talks
proceeding between Nicaragua and the
United States, we cabled some questions to
Sergio Ramirez, one of three members of the
governing Sandinista junta and its candidate
for vice president in the elections. The .
questions and answers follow.
Q: The a ' 'stration as eerts thaU? he_Lwo-Atn?,r-
icans killed recently in Nicaragua were unpaid volun-
teers recruited by anti-government forces and were
not American CIA agents aye yn , a y Pv'd nc
the contra ?ry
A: No U.S. citizen linked to a mercenary organl
tion can enter a military base controlled by military au-
thorities of the government of the United States with-
out the knowledge and consent of those authorities.
Neither can an ordinary citizen, however adventur.
ous he may be, board an armed helicopter to take part
in an air operation of a military nature: an operation in
which three other planes piloted by military aviators
participate, and in which the planes fly in tactical
formation to attack an objective in a country that main-
tains diplomatic relations with the United States.
The two U.S. citizens were not on a camping expe-
dition. They were participating m a war o ration ve
similar to the air attack over the osiguina region in
Nicarapia several month go later knowp to hayg
been planned and executed by the CIA.
Q: Your government had the opening to make the
Nov. 4 elections credible by widening the guarantees
to the political opposition and by starting up a dia-
logue with the armed opposition, which has stated its
readiness for such a dialogue. Why did you close this
opening? With the three major opposition parties
banned and with no dialogue begun, why should any
impartial observer consider your elections anything
but a farce?
A: We have never linked guarantees for free and
iust elections in ic1f`araglta to any ialogu[+ with rrmn_
terrevolutionanes paid by the CIA. All the electoral
guarantees were established despite the war situation
imposed on us by a foreign power. Seven political par-
ties have accepted these guarantees and are partici-
pating normally in the election process. They are par-
ties of very different ideologies that attempt to attract
voters through television, radio and street meetings.
We are experiencing a true election process.
The designation of the three parties-led by Arturo
Cruz-that decided not to participate as "most repre-
sentative" has been awarded them from outside, not
from inside Nicaragua. It is an external fabrication that
attempts to annul the credibility of the elections in Nica-
ragua. In any case, it must be demonstrated through
the electoral channels they decided not to use. I do not
believe that any impartial observer can assert that the
elections in Nicaragua are a farce, when nearly 90 per-
cent of qualified citizens have registered to vote.
Q: Will you agree, here and now, that your govern-
ment will no longer censor La Prensa and that you will
end the imprisonment and harassment of all Nicara-
guan journalists?
A: The only journalist who was in prison, for having
committed crimes punishable by law and not for exer-
cising his profession as a journalist, was liberated this
week, thanks to a pard.m granted him by the govern-
ment. There are no jcurnalists in Nicaragua who are
imprisoned or persecuted, as can be easily proven.
As for freedom of the.press, a simple daily reading
of La Prensa will demonstrate how they deal in a scan-
dalous way with all the themes they wish: attacks on
the patriotic military service, on the elections them-
selves, on strikes, on food supplies.
There are few limitations on La Prensa publishing
whatever it wishes. The only visible restrictions are
those La Prensa places upon itself: until now it has
refused to inform its readers that two North American
mercenaries died in the air attack on the base at Santa
Clara. What is the reason for that? You will have to ask
them.
Q: You support the demand that the Salvadoran
government talk before elections with the insurgents
in El Salvador. Why, then, will you not talk before elec-
tions with those in Nicaragua?
A: We are talking with those who manipulate the
threads of the aggression against Nicaragua: the United
States. It is the United States government that arms and
pays the counterrevolutionaries who day by day cause
destruction and death in Nicaragua. They are no more
than instruments of the Reagan Administration. Three
children died in the attack on Santa Clara, and every day
children, young people, women are killed. There are chil-
dren mutilated by bombs, children burned, orphans. This
we have to discuss with the Reagan administration and
with nobody else. And it is a discussion in which the U.S.
people have a deep concern, because it is their tax dollars
that are financing these crimes.
Q: Four meetings on the diplomatic level have been
reported between the U.S. and Nicaragua since Secre-
tary of State Shultz's visit to Managua. on June 1. Where
_are these negotiations going? Is Nicaragua simply trying
to gain time in these negotiations for the American oppo-
nents of administration policy,' especially the congres-
sional opponents, to press their opposition?
A: In direct conversations -with the United States,
we are seeking in all seriousness a real possibility for
peace. No one wants peace more than we do. We are a
small, poor country that exports scarcely $400 million
worth of goods per year: a sum that the United States
has already spent in funding the counterrevolution-
aries.
How can we not want peace? Wt are not trying to
gain time. Why should we? Everything indicates that
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505330001-6