Sandinista

Daniel H. Thomas, 93, a senior U.S. District judge who was known for his handling of cases in maritime law during a lengthy career on the bench, died Thursday in Mobile, Ala. Gary Bellow, 64, a Harvard Law School professor whose work with impoverished clients and farm workers helped form the basis for a pioneering legal aid program, died Thursday of complications from a heart transplant in Cambridge, Mass. Abram Chayes, 77, a Harvard Law School professor who represented Nicaragua's Sandinista government in a successful World Court lawsuit against the United States, died Sunday in Boston of complications from pancreatic cancer.

GALLANTRY abounded last week when Violeta Chamorro made the rounds in Washington, a year after she became president of Nicaragua.President Bush extolled her "exhilarating victory" over the Sandinistas. After she addressed Congress, a California Republican called her "a miracle in the Western Hemisphere."It's embarrassing that Washington has disbursed only $207 million of $541 million pledged to a democratic regime that honors human rights and seeks economic reform.Some American conservatives ungallantly fault Chamorro's decision to retain Humberto Ortega, brother of the former president, as armed forces chief.

FROM JULY 1990 until last month, I lived in the Nicaraguan town of San Juan de Limay, which has been linked to Baltimore since 1985 by a people-to-people project called Casa Baltimore/Limay.During my stay -- actually my fourth and by far my longest visit to the village -- I studied Spanish and talked constantly with Nicaraguans from every walk of life.What I found in Limay, and in my frequent trips to the capital city of Managua, was a political, economic and social reality that defies the stereotypes we North Americans have imposed on Nicaragua.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- A hostage crisis that has deepened Nicaragua's sense of political paralysis dragged on yesterday as rightist former rebels in a northern village and leftist former soldiers here in the capital both refused to free most of the dozens of politicians and others they seized last week.The tensions appeared to ease somewhat after both groups met with representatives of a special mediation panel and released some of their hostages. Yesterday afternoon, the country's Roman Catholic primate, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, also agreed to the mediators' request that he intervene to help resolve the situation.

Fernando Chamorro Rappaccioli, 62, a Nicaraguan guerrilla leader who fought both the United States-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza and the Sandinista government that replaced died Tuesday in Managua, Nicaragua, of complications from an embolism that paralyzed him two years ago.Cassandra Marie Gouzd, whose courage won the admiration of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, died Tuesday of leukemia in Morgantown, W.Va. She was 9. Cassie met with Mrs. Clinton during a 1993 health care forum at West Virginia University and gave her a handmade jewelry box.Edna Manilow, 70, the mother of singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, died of cancer Thursday in Palm Beach, Fla.Frederick Manfred, 82, who wrote "Lord Grizzly," and other novels in the Buckskin Man series, died Wednesday in Luverne, Minn.

WASHINGTON - Nicaragua's presidential election today will be a benchmark for Washington's war against terrorism, and an alarming one. It's been a decade since then-President George H.W. Bush celebrated the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas (FSLN) after a U.S.-masterminded war that ripped Nicaragua apart. Now his son, aided by many of his father's confederates, appears equally committed to politically manipulating the Central American nation. By flagrantly misusing its terrorist card against the Sandinistas, the Bush administration is setting an ominous precedent that could strain relations in its backyard.

MANAGUA -- A U.S. Senate panel's report on Nicaragua paints a picture of a government riddled with nepotism that doles out fat loans to friends without expecting repayment.The report says President Violeta Chamorro's top aide may be profiteering off U.S. donations, buying votes in the Nicaraguan Congress and backing a Sandinista army chief who is stashing millions in bank accounts in Canada.The broad allegations, often supported by unnamed sources or based on press accounts, begin with a demand by the Republican staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for stricter oversight of U.S. aid to Nicaragua.

Constitutional revisions adopted by El Salvador's National Assembly provide a basis for peace after 11 years of destructive civil war. But it is not peace. What remains is for a cease-fire to be worked out among the army, the civilian government ofPresident Alfredo Cristiani and the guerrillas of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. The posterity of El Salvador will not lightly forgive whoever might obstruct that cease-fire from signature and implementation.The reforms enacted were at the heart of an agreement that was hammered out between the government and the insurrectionists during intense negotiations in Mexico City.

Zug, Switzerland -- For four decades, the Swiss flag that flies in front of Crypto AG has lured customers from around the world to this company in the lake district south of Zurich.Countries shopping for equipment to encode their most sensitive diplomatic and military communications value Switzerland's reputation for business secrecy and political neutrality. Some 120 nations have bought their encryption machines here.But behind that flag, America's National Security Agency hid what may be the intelligence sting of the century.

Managua, Nicaragua IN THE midst of the alarming poverty and violence of today's post-Sandinista Nicaragua, President Violeta Chamorro's presidential office is a magical oasis of beauty and peace."