CONTINUOUS bombing of Sandinista-held popular areas in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua finally paid off Somoza last week. Newspaper reports spoke of where babies and small children were piled like broken dolls outside bombed-out shacks.
The Sandinistas have been withdraw from Managua Massaya and other towns. Meanwbile 100,000 refugees have abandoned the cities and 10,000 more are dead. This setback for the people's struggle won't save Somoza, but it could make imperialism's plan to replace him with a stable bourgeois government a lot easier.
Latest military reports Sandinistas are concentrating on Rivas, on the border with Costa National Guard is pinned down in its barracks there, and the Sandinistas' aim seems to be to consolidate their hold on the northern towns, establish the provisional government in Leon, and regroup for a pincer attack from north and south on Managua once Rivas is taken. Provisional What will finally decide the situation is politics. The US, situation unmanageable, has ambassador demand ditional resignation. A US envoy has also had discussions in Panama with the provisionai government though stopped short of fully recognising the latter.
Leading figures for President forced to and regroup. in suggest that the liberating Rica. The anxious to contain the completely already sent dUEL has the provisional Tegucigalpa Esteli La Trinidad Chinandega fe Loon Pacific Ocean Managua bELIZE HONDURAS LANAMA GUATEMALA government have been anxious to deny Cuban involvement (which has indeed been and discreet) and to reassure imperialism and its Latin American allies that private property will be safeguarded in any 'new Nicaragua'.
Granada Lake Nicaragua Rivas Lavirgen Sapoá limited reconstruction streets Too Miles Santo Domingo Caribbean Sea La Libertad Santo Tomas There is immense political pressure for the of a stable bourgeois state apparatus to protect non-Somoza capital. But at the same time Sandinista-led committees in 'Leon and holding discussions about such self-organisation?
the Sandinistas and honest, National Guard officers.
Marxista militias which already exist.
struggle within the which straddles this leading the mass Column Here in Britain Old Isleworth, informative your organisation? fighting for. Just how easy will it be for any provisional government to halt the growth of The anti-Somoza forces are proposing & new national army composed of fighters from patriotic' (sic)
The alternative from the small Trotskyist forces of the Liga Revolucionaria. is for the total destruction of the Guard and the formation of militias based on the popular committees and Decisive will be the outcome of the political Sandinista movement, social contradiction struggle, but. part of a bourgeois-dominated provisional government.
Solidarity with the anti-Somoza struggle is going on worldwide but is strongest in Lati America, where it appears like a beacon of hope after a series of defeats. Students in Chile have organised solidarity meetings under Pinochet's nose, while several international columns have Tronskyists of the Colombian have just sent 40 comrades to the Simon Bolivar column.
Central American Human Rights Committee (59a Church Street, Middlesex TW7 6BE) coordinating solidarity and relief and have an film on the recent Sandinista offensive. Why not book this and a speaker for
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ПРИИ. COSTA RICA