NICARAGUA: Steering a Middle Course

The new regime guides a merciful, but moneyless, revolution

"This is a polite revolution" With those words Sergio Ramirez Mercado, soft-spoken leader of Nicaragua's revolutionary junta, summed up all the changes in his nation since the overthrow of Dictator Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza Debayle five weeks ago. Polite has meant, above all, merciful. After 46 years of stifling one-man rule, the pervading atmosphere of fear is gone. There has been no reprisal by the victors; not a single member of Somoza's national guard has been executed, though its members killed thousands during the revolt....

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