Violeta’s Blues. Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro’s visit to Washington was intended as a triumphant celebration of democracy, but it didn’t quite turn out that way. First came a Washington Times story charging Mrs. Chamorro’s chief of the armed forces, General Humberto Ortega, with directing the assassination of former Contra leader Enrique Bermudez. Then came a follow-up article in Human Events and the special package in NR by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Roxana Chahin [“Nicaragua’s Killing Fields,” April 29], detailing hitherto unreported evidence of mass executions in Nicaragua and raising questions about the propriety of honoring Mrs. Chamorro with a state visit so long as the Sandinistas retain control of her government. Four days before Mrs. Chamorro arrived in Washington, the American Security Council sponsored a trip by Mr. Bermudez’s widow, Elsa, to testify before the Organization of American States about discrepancies in the autopsy of her husband and to complain that the man heading the murder investigation is an East German—trained Sandinista police chief.
In the midst of this adverse publicity, President Chamorro canceled a scheduled address to the National Press Club. According to the club, it’s the third time that she has done so. The day after the cancellation, the American Security Council charged that the Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS, José Antonio Tijerino, tried to prevent Mrs. Bermúdez from testifying. Nevertheless, Congress saw fit to honor the Nicaraguan president with an opportunity to address it in a special joint session. It figures.
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