Lawyer, diplomat, revolutionary

Mike Phipps reviews No Other Reality, the Life and Times Of Nora Astorga, by Patricia Daniel, published by CAM, £8.50 paperback.

On International Women's Day 1978, Nora Astorga, a respectable Nicaraguan lawyer, lured a top member of the military, General "The Dog" Vega -- so-called for his bestial torture methods -- to his death at the hands of revolutionary guerrillas. It was this that led Time magazine to call Nora "the Mata Hari of the Sandinista Revolution."

To understand how a middle-class girl from a quiet Catholic upbringing went on to become a revolutionary guerrilla, you have to appreciate the brutal nature of the Somoza dictatorship in 1960s Nicaragua. Nora had lost faith in legal opposition when the dictator's National Guard massacred 500 Conservative Party opponents in the 1967 'elections'.

She joined the Sandinistas clandestinely at university and took part in secret activity for many years, effectively leading a double life behind the front of career woman. The consequence of discovery and capture would have been torture and death at the hands of the National Guard.

Nora met Vega through her professional work. A local CIA recruit, Vega had supervised massacres of peasants, recently bombing Masaya following anti-government protests there. Taking advantage of his sexual interest in her, Nora lured him into what was originally meant to be a kidnapping by Sandinista comrades, so that he could be ransomed in return for political prisoners. In fact Vega put up so much resistance, they were obliged to execute him.

For Nora, the event led to a massive upheaval in her life. Her cover blown, she had to flee to Sandinista-held territory near the Costa Rican border -- the 'southern front' -- leaving behind her two young children. Here she trained as a guerrilla and took part in battles with the National Guard, initially as part of a medical squad -- ironic considering she'd given up medical school ten years earlier out of squeamishness. Later she joined a mortar squad and fought as a combatant, now pregnant with her third child.

In July 1979, a final Sandinista offensive toppled the Somoza dictatorship and a revolutionary government took power. Nora's first job was as Special Attorney-General, presiding over the prosecution of Somoza functionaries and guardsmen, effectively developing a legal system in Nicaragua from scratch.

In 1981 she moved to the Foreign Office, rising in 1986 to become Nicaragua's Ambassador to the United Nations, one of only three women worldwide in such a position. Two years later she was dead, aged 39, from incurable cancer.

Patricia Daniel's biography is a well-researched account of a remarkable woman whose short but adventurous life was an expression of the inventiveness and courage of the Sandinista Revolution itself.

No Other Reality is available from CAM, c/o the Greenhouse, 1 Trevelyan Terrace, Bangor, LL57 1AX, tel: 01248-600 908.

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