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The Sandinistas have also increased their numbers, to about 3,000, and improved their arsenal by purchasing large quantities of Belgian FAL assault rifles and rocket launchers on the international weapons market. In preparation for the latest offensive, students, factory workers and barrio activists in the clandestine United People's Movement, the Sandinistas' political arm, urged Nicaraguans to stockpile food, water and medicine. When the fighting erupted in Managua, many residents followed the Movement's advice and left their doors unlocked so that harried guerrillas could find refuge inside their homes.
What worries Nicaragua's neighbors is that the fighting might spill over the country's borders if Somoza's air force attacks Sandinista bases in Costa Rica or if he calls on his fellow military dictators in El Salvador and Guatemala for troops. Last month Mexico's President, José López Portillo, severed relations with Somoza; a spokesman for the government said that "if Mexican volunteers wish to assist in the defense of Costa Rica, they are perfectly free to act as they wish." Last week representatives from the Andean Group, an association of five Latin American nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela) flew to Managua to negotiate a truce. Their efforts at mediation were rebuffed by Somoza.
The U.S. has also been unable to halt the fighting. Washington fears that a Sandinista victory might usher in a Communist government. Nonetheless the Carter Administration, which is still concerned about human rights, has renewed pressure on Somoza to step down so that moderates can build a democratically elected government. Declared Secretary of State Cyrus Vance: "We've told President Somoza we believe that a political solution is necessary to resolve the problem in Nicaragua and that if the political problem is not resolved, the chances of a radical solution developing are greater." There seems little chance that Somoza will heed Washington's latest entreaty any more attentively than he has followed its advice in the past. Says an opposition leader: "He wants a victory, not a political solution."
At week's end Somoza appeared on national television, imploring his countrymen to lay down their arms. "We. have to confront the situation with calm," he urged. "We never thought there would be so much pillaging and disorder. I never thought people would have to suffer the embarrassment of taking things to feed their children." He added a poignant coda: "Please don't force me to apply the law because above all I love my citizens." That provoked an ironic comment from a Nicaraguan businessman. Said he: "Somoza must be mad." The diagnosis, sadly, could be applied not only to the strongman, but to much of his country as well.
* The group takes its name from Augusto Cesar Sandino, a guerrilla leader assassinated in 1934 on the order of Somoza's father, who founded the dynasty that has ruled Nicaragua for 46 years.