Word: bordered
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first reports were sketchy, and they came from Washington, the scene of the political battle, rather than from Honduras, the scene of the real one. On Monday the White House leaked word that some 1,500 Nicaraguan troops had pushed across their northern border into Honduras to attack bases of the U.S.-backed contras who have been waging civil war against the Sandinista regime. At first there was skepticism. Not only did Nicaragua deny the report, but so did Honduras. But the next day a terse statement from the Honduran government confirmed that the Sandinista army had crossed the line...
President Reagan immediately granted Honduras $20 million in military assistance and ordered U.S. troops stationed near Tegucigalpa to start airlifting Honduran troops to the border. Fifty U.S. pilots and crew members, manning ten Hueys and four Chinook helicopters, began ferrying 600 Honduran soldiers to some ten miles from the embattled zone. Since the U.S. military presence in Honduras began building in 1980, it was the first direct involvement of U.S. troops in a Honduran military operation...
...week reports from the scene dispelled any doubt that the Nicaraguans had blatantly penetrated Honduran territory. Yet the size and significance of the invasion remained in dispute, and even some Administration officials conceded that it had been somewhat exaggerated, given that Sandinistas and contras regularly tangle along the border. Nevertheless, like Muammar Gaddafi's fitful missile attack on the U.S. fleet in the Gulf of Sidra, the Nicaraguan incursion provided a suitable pretext for showing U.S. military might in the region...
...most of the week, Nicaraguan officials denied that Sandinista troops had crossed the border. In Managua, Joaquin Cuadra Lacayo, the army Chief of Staff, told reporters, "In the last several weeks we have mobilized many thousands of men to the border. But it is absolutely false that Nicaraguan troops have violated Honduran territory." But the Sandinistas undercut their own denials later. At a press conference on Friday, Ortega sought to justify but not deny the raid. "Honduras lost control of its sovereignty by having the mercenary forces there," he said, referring to the contras. "The border area is converted into...
...contras. Set back by the House a week earlier, the Administration needed a win in the Senate to keep the aid package alive and unencumbered by too many strings. What better way of showing that the contras need help than to make the most of Nicaraguan troops crossing the border to attack the rebels in their Honduran sanctuaries? Speaking at a political fund raiser in New Orleans last week, Reagan was not subtle in his message: The Nicaraguan attack, he declared, was a "slap in the face" to those in Congress who voted against contra...