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Administration Allowing Nicaraguan Refugees To Remain In United
States
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The Reagan administration announced today that
Nicaraguan exiles, numbering as many as 200,000 nationwide, will be
permitted to remain in the United States under a liberalized
immigration policy.
    Attorney General Edwin Meese III signed an order, after consultation
with the White House, ensuring that Nicaraguans who have fled to the
United States can remain here, the Justice Department said in a
statement.
    No Nicaraguan with a well-founded fear of persecution from the
leftist Sandinista government will be deported unless he has engaged
in serious criminal activity or poses a danger to national security,
the Justice Department statement said.
    There are an estimated 60,000 Nicaraguans in South Florida and 90 in
Florida who are eligible for immediate deportation, according to
immigration officials. Refugee advocates say as many as 75,000
Nicaraguans have settled in South Florida since the July 1979 triumph
of the Sandinista revolution.
    Nationwide, there are an estimated 150,000-200,000 Nicaraguan
exiles, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
    Nicaraguans will be permitted to remain in the United States ''for
the present'' under Meese's order, which ''is effective until further
notice,'' the Justice Department statement said.
    Every qualified Nicaraguan seeking a work authorization will be
entitled to one, the statement added.
    Also, Nicaraguans whose claims for asylum or withholding of
deportation have been denied are encouraged by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service to reapply for reopening or rehearing of such
claims.
a213  1044  18 Jul 87
AM-Sandinista Anniversary, Bjt,0568
Nicaraguan Revolution is Eight Years Old
By ELOY O. AGUILAR
Associated Press Writer
    MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Fed on a mixture of Marxist and
nationalist ideology, the Sandinista revolution turns eight years old
Sunday.
    Surviving that long is ''one of our main accomplishments,'' says
Bayardo Arce, the leftist government's political coordinator.
    Not many more accomplishments are visible. Nicaragua is embroiled in
a civil war with armed groups supported by the United States. Empty
supermarket shelves, ration cards for all products and long lines for
scarce products are the open wounds of a sick economy.
    The Sandinistas maintain political power on the strength of their
military. There is a growing erosion of the popularity that brought
them to power.
    They have used external and internal threats as pretexts to tighten
domestic controls, such as shutting down unsympathetic news media,
limiting the activities of opposition parties, and even trying to
muzzle the Roman Catholic Church.
    President Daniel Ortega was elected to a five-year term in 1984 in
an election boycotted by anti-Sandinista parties. The only opposition
in the National Assembly comes from a small group of parties that
support the revolution but disagree with the Sandinista National
Liberation Front, or FSLN by its Spanish initials.
    Arce and the government say the revolution has managed to accomplish
many things in spite of constant attacks. They cite a successful
literacy campaign and an agrarian reform that redistributed more than
4.3 million acres of land.
    They argue that the war has caused damage estimated at $3 billion
and that it consumes 40 per cent of the national budget.
    But critics argue that the revolution has failed because its leaders
betrayed the principles that rallied the Nicaraguans around the bands
of youths in the FSLN to overthrow the 40-year-old right-wing
dictatorship of the Somoza family in 1979.
    Under Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, who once called the Sandinista
struggle a just one, the Roman Catholic Church has been one of the
harshest government critics. It accuses the FSLN of trying to
establish a Cuban-like regime in Nicaragua.
    The government has branded Obando y Bravo a counterrevolutionary,
and he is a constant target of the government-controlled media.
    ''Blood is still being shed, there is scarcity, there is hunger, our
people are leaving the country,'' said the Rev. Uriel Reyes, press
spokesman for the cardinal. ''People are opposed to the political
direction of the revolution.''
    ''The revolution was betrayed,'' said Enrique Bolanos, president of
the Council of Private Enterprise. ''It started as a Nicaraguan
revolution without Marxist characteristics. Now people are
discouraged and opposition is growing and part of that opposition has
taken arms.''
    Arce said in an interview that President Reagan ''pledged to destroy
our revolution. We have been under constant aggression and we feel
that Reagan will continue to attack us during the last phase of his
government.''
    Bolanos and other government opponents inside Nicaragua agree the
government is still firmly in control because of the efficient
internal security apparatus that discourages open criticism.
    Arce acknowledged the the economic situation is difficult, but
denied an ersoion of public support.
    The anniversary ceremonies, which normally are turned into a display
of propaganda in front of distinguished guests, will be subdued this
year and held in the city of Matagalapa, about 100 miles north of the
capital.
    
 
AP-NY-07-18-87 1334EDT
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