Word: guardsmen
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Until the U.S. came along, the contras could hardly be considered a threat to Managua. In the years following Somoza's downfall, small bands of former National Guardsmen operated along the Honduran border, making hit-and-run attacks inside Nicaragua. The Somocistas, as they were known, were demoralized and poorly organized. The U.S. set about forcing the various factions to unite under a central command, while the CIA began recruiting students, farmers and other civilians to beef up the force. Then, early this year, the Fuerza Democratica Nicaragiiense (F.D.N.) was established to serve as a respectable political front group...
Over the past two years, President Reagan has charged Nicaragua with exporting Marxist revolution throughout Central America. Some have accused the U.S. of training Nicaraguan exiles and former National Guardsmen for an overthrow of the Sandinist Government...
...investigation had dragged on for almost two years, straining relations between the U.S. and El Salvador and attracting reproachful editorials worldwide. Finally, a sign of progress emerged last week. Salvadoran Judge Bernardo Rauda Murcia ruled that five former National Guardsmen accused of murdering four American churchwomen in 1980 must stand trial...
...murdered Americans, who contend that El Salvador is covering up the involvement of superior officers in the killings. Lawyers for the relatives informed the State Department last week that they would not participate in the trial. But U.S. officials insist that there simply is no evidence that high-ranking Guardsmen were involved. Says a U.S. diplomat in El Salvador: "The sad thing is that these families are being used by people not interested in justice but in political crusades, like cutting off all aid to El Salvador...
...took months to bring the guardsmen to trial. And even then, most observers believed the case would eventually be dismissed, chalked up as another stain on the Salvadoran government's already soiled human rights record. But Monday, a judge in Zacatecoluca found that the soldiers had "participated in the crime" of aggravated assault. Unless the guardsmen successfully appeal the decision--an unlikely event--they will go to jail for their crimes...