Heavily armed Sandinista supporters seized Nicaragua's vice president and more than 30 other opposition leaders on Friday and said they wouldn't be freed until former Contra rebels release dozens of hostages seized in the north.
Gunshots rang out in the background as a man who identified himself as Commander Cuarenta, or Commander Forty, went on Sandinista Radio Ya late Friday to announce the hostage taking.The man, who shouted and sounded incoherent at times, said the gunmen would not harm the leaders of the National Opposition Union, known by its Spanish acronym UNO, who were seized at their headquarters near Managua's city center.
But he said rearmed Contra rebels, who took at least 38 government officials, lawmakers and military officers captive in northern Nicaragua on Thursday and Friday, must free all their hostages before the UNO leaders would be released.
Later, he said he would give the Contra hostage takers until midnight to release what he said were 41 hostages seized in the north. He did not say what would happen if the Contras did not comply.
The hostage takers in northern Nicaragua have demanded the resignation of two pro-Sandinistas who hold key government positions, but President Violeta Chamorro has refused.
With the help of UNO, a coalition of business and civic groups, Chamorro scored an upset victory in 1990 over the leftist Sandinistas, who had ruled Nicaragua for more than a decade and fought a 10-year civil war against U.S.-sponsored rightist Contras.
UNO later broke ranks with the moderate Chamorro because she included the Sandinistas in the government in a bid to bring stability to the riven country.
But both Contras and demobilized Sandinistas have rearmed in recent months and mounted attacks on the government, angered by its failure to provide land and money to former fighters as promised.
In Managua, police began moving into the neighborhood where the UNO hostages were taken. The captives included Vice President Virgilio Godoy and Alfredo Cesar, a UNO deputy and former president of the National Assembly.
The kidnappers put some of the hostages on Radio Ya, where they said at least 34 UNO leaders were seized. They also said they were not being abused, but occasional bursts of gunfire, which may have come from outside UNO headquarters, were heard in the background.
Hostage Reynaldo Hernandez urged authorities not to act hastily.
He said the kidnappers had put him on the phone with an order for police to stay at least 250 yards from UNO headquarters.
Hernandez said the gunmen stormed the heaquarters armed with grenades and rifles at about 7:30 p.m. and had planted explosives around it.
The seizure of the UNO leaders came hours after Radio Ya announced that Contras had taken five more military officers hostage in northern Nicaragua.
The officers and 33 other hostages seized on Thursday had come to the Contra stronghold to offer the rebels amnesty for past attacks against the government.