Sandinist retreat

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other than provoke a Soviet retaliation. CO de br th cu ag in ter thi thi ter Ni ful dir gu open CI COI acI agi me Na IASSIVE US military intimiation of the Sandinista governrent in Nicaragua appears to ave borne fruit in a number of ignificant concessions to merican demands.

Nicaragua's Interior Minister omas Borge has embarked on a isit to the USA seeking talks ith the Reagan's administraon: 1,000 Cuban advisors have een asked to leave Nicaragua, long with Salvadorean guerrilla aders; and Nicaragua has gned a 21-point draft doculent put forward as the basis it a Central American peace eaty, part of which calls for a ithdrawal of all foreign ivisors and aid to insurgents.

If implemented, this would immit Nicaragua to renouncing uban military advisors in the fence of their country, and to eak off aid and support for e FMLN guerrilla fighters Irrently striking heavy blows jainst the vicious ruling junta El Salvador.

Needless to say, Reagan's am are not satisfied with even is substantial climbdown by e Sandinistas. They are repordly now demanding that the caraguan rulers who successLly ousted the hated Somoza statorship after a prolonged lerrilla war in 1979 should now en "negotiations" with the ,000 American armed and A-led mercenaries currently nducting murderous raids ross the border into Nicarua.

Prominent amongst these ontra" thugs are former embers of Somoza's notorious tional Guard. collected was spent on assistduct w mernees ana [neir phar tr intamarao families; the remaining 10% was earmarked for organisational activities. Since May 1982, 45% of the total has been allocated for union work. Expenditures include the purchase of printing equipment and chemicals; the funding of independent publishing activities; and costs related to underground union work. The report notes that in 1983, new books were purchased for the underground library, more printing equipment was acquired and that close cooperation has been established with a small printing shop.

If Nicaragua is demanding that the Salvadorean junta should negotiate with the FMLN/FDR opposition, argues the Reagan team, then they too must negotiate with their "Annnsition" in the CIA namno across the border in Honduras! un vile van campo Significantly the Sandinista retreat takes place at the very point where leaked reports from the US Congress indicate the view that the "contras" stand no chance of overthrowing the regime in Managua, and where the crumbling morale of the Salvadorean army is forcing the US war chiefs to reasness their options.

To focus now on a negotiated settlement in El Salvador and a regional peace with the USA is to allow the fight to be taken onto the ground most favourable to Washington and the European imperialist governments and social democratic leaders which have always pressed for a negotiated deal that would stabilise capitalist control in the region.

The struggle for the unconditional defence of Nicaragua against imperialist attack, and for full backing to the struggle of the guerrilla and left wing forces in El Salvador must not be restricted to the search for stopgap treaties with the White House and its flunkies: the liberation of the workers and peasants of Central America can only be completed with the revolutionary overthrow of capitalist exploitation: and Reagan will never agree to that.

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