Back to PLO Bulletin 1-15 July 1979

WORLD EVENTS

NICARAGUA: AS FREEDOM DRAWS NEARER, U.S. THREATENS INTERVENTION

The United States government has long been a good friend to Nicaragua dictator Anastasio Somoza. But as the final offensive of the Sandinistas (the FSLN) gained ground in Nicaragua, liberating Leon and engaging in pitched battles with Somoza's National Guard in the capital city of Managua, the United States, fearing victory of popular revolution in Nicaragua, abruptly reversed its support.

Sandinista guerillas fight for a democratic Nicaragua

U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, addressing an emergency session of the Organization of American States on June 22, voted against the Somoza regime and called for the stationing of a "peace-keeping force" under U.S. supervision. The last such "peace-keeping" force was used in 1965 in the Dominican Republic to back up U.S. Marines, who landed to overthrow the Republic's democratically elected government.

The leadership of the Sandinistas, who have proposed their own five member coalition government drawn from all sectors of the opposition to Somoza, has firmly rejected the U.S. plan and its thinly-disguised U.S. intervention in Nicaragua, and reiterated the Front's determination to continue the armed popular struggle until victory.

The sacrifice of the Nicaraguan people has been great. Somoza's 15,000 member National Guard, have stepped up their bombing of the slums and working class districts in Leon and Managua. The National Guard, armed with American and Israeli weapons, pursues a policy of terror towards the civilian population. On June 21, in fact, they murdered an unarmed T.V. newsman, Bill Stewart from ABC, as he was kneeling in a Managua street. Despite the dictatorship's superior firepower and brutal tactics, the Sandinistas have continued their offensive and observors feel victory is certain in the near future. The Sandinistas and the coalition government have developed a program to bring democracy and economic justice to the Nicaraguan people. Thus, the people are willing to sacrifice to end the oppression of the Somoza regime and build a new, democratic Nicaragua.

SECRET TALKS HELD BETWEEN SALISBURY PUPPET GOVERNMENT AND SOUTH AFRICA

On June 18, news agencies quoted a government spokesman in Salisbury as saying that bishop Abel Muzorewa, head of the Salisbury puppet regime in Zimbabwe, recently met with the South African apartheid chief Pieter Botha and his foreign minister Roelof Botha.

"Defense" was the major focus of their talks. In a report from Salisbury, the West German news agency DPA stressed in this context that Rhodesia had to fight "against the guerillas of the Patriotic Front."

The Patriotic Front has stated that, during the sham elections in April, an unprecedented number of South African soldiers and other mercenaries joined the terror squads of the Smith regime in forcing the population to the polling stations. Taking advantage of the fact that voters were not registered, the squads forced many people to vote twice, or even more times. Soldiers forced many people into army vehicles and drove them from one polling station to the other, thus collecting their votes as often as possible.

Despite this growing cooperation between apartheid and its puppets, the patriotic forces of Zimbabwe are scoring major victories. Since the beginning of this year, liberation fighters have put out of action at least 1500 soldiers of the racist troops, according to the Tanzanian government paper. Seven fighter planes of the Smith regime were also downed in the same period, and sixteen transport vehicles and armored personnel carriers destroyed. Such successes have helped the Patriotic Front to counter racist offensives aimed at the population of Zimbabwe.