Nicaraguan Party accuses Venezuela with supporting Sandinistas

MANAGUA, Nicaragua(AP) - Nicaragua's governing party accused Venezuela on Tuesday of planning to indirectly fund the leftist Sandinista Party's election campaign through oil sales.

A Sandinista legislator denied the accusation and Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel brushed it off.

Leonel Teller, spokesman for the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, said he had learned from Venezuelan businessmen that the government of leftist President Hugo Chavez had offered oil at favorable terms to the 87 of Nicaragua's 153 towns and cities governed by Sandinistas.

Sandinista officials acknowledged their mayors were in negotiations on such a deal, but said the discount would be used to supply oil at lower prices to people in their towns.

Teller said they could generate funds that would purportedly be used to finance the Sandinista campaign for November's presidential election.

Nicaraguan law forbids any foreign financing for domestic election campaigns.

"No, it's nothing like that," Rangel said when asked about the claims. "It's not important," he said, without providing further explanation.

Sandinista Congressman Nathan Sevilla called the allegation "a lie invented by the Liberals to see if the Americans go for it."

The United States backed the Contra rebels against the Soviet-supported the Sandinista regime that governed Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.