Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 26, 1993 TAG: 9308260164
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAULATU, NICARAGUA LENGTH: Medium
Release of the Sandinista-held captives would end a weeklong hostage crisis that has highlighted deep divisions in Nicaragua, three years after the end of the country's bitter civil war.
The leftist Sandinistas took their captives after the hostage-taking in northern Nicaragua last Thursday, and had said they would release their hostages once the Contras released theirs.
"This is a triumph for peace," said Donald Mendoza, a former Sandinista army major who led the Sandinista group.
Interior Minister Alfredo Mendieta announced the release of the last five hostages held by the Contras on Wednesday night, saying the government promised to increase security for the Contras. The former U.S.-backed rebels charge that they are being persecuted by their rivals.
But he said that the government did not meet the group's demand for the resignation of army head Humberto Ortega, a member of the former ruling Sandinista party.
The Contras' final releases came after negotiations between Roman Catholic Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo and the former Contras' leader, Jose Angel "The Jackal" Talavera, in a red, blue and yellow schoolhouse in Caulatu, a northern village about 100 miles north of Managua. The hostages were held nearby.
The Managua gunmen announced a short time later that they would release Godoy, former National Assembly President Alfredo Cesar and three other center-right politicians held since Friday.
The hostage crisis began Thursday in Quilali, a village near Caulatu, when rebels kidnapped more than three dozen Congressional deputies and other officials, who were in the region to discuss a government amnesty with rearmed rebels who have grown increasingly violent. Many of those kidnapped were Sandinistas.
A day later, the Sandinista sympathizers in Managua seized the headquarters of the National Opposition Union, or UNO, and dozens of hostages. Over subsequent days, both sides released hostages sporadically.
Twelve journalists remained Wednesday in the house where the Managua hostages were being held, but the rebels have said they are free to leave.
The crisis is an an explosive outgrowth of the country's poverty and of divisions remaining from the civil war between Contra rebels and a Sandinista government.
Both the former Contras and ex-Sandinista soldiers accuse the new government of failing to deliver on promised aid and land. The government made the vows in hope of receiving large-scale U.S. financing that never materialized.
Talavera's former Contras are outraged that President Violeta Chamorro left the army and police in Sandinista hands despite defeating them in a 1990 election.
by CNB