Word: hondurans
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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...
...drama began as some 100 Honduran executives were attending a seminar on their country's economy. Suddenly eight to twelve terrorists (estimates varied) stormed into the building, firing automatic weapons and shouting, "Dogs, everyone on the floor!" The gunmen, their faces covered by handkerchiefs, arranged their 105 hostages in two lines, head to head, face down on the floor. There they remained, silent and motionless, for 3½ tense hours. At one point, apparently as a warning, one of the guerrillas sprayed a volley of bullets just inches over the row of heads. "That was the absolute worst moment...
...songs, and the crowds sang along. But there was little cheer in the speech delivered by Daniel Ortega Saavedra, a member of the all-powerful nine-man Sandinista Directorate. "Nicaragua is undergoing a silent, yet bloody invasion," he declared. Ortega charged that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Honduran armed forces were supporting more than 2,000 rebels who have been operating along the border with Honduras. Since July 4, he told his audience of 30,000, the guerrillas had staged more than 18 attacks on Nicaraguan territory and killed more than 50 government troops. Ortega punctuated his statistics...
...into Nicaragua from their sanctuaries in Honduras. Led by José Francisco Cardenal Telleria, a civil engineer, the F.D.N. has been especially active since March. Linked to the F.D.N. are many Miskito Indians who resent the Sandinistas for having forced thousands of them out of their homes along the Honduran border and into internment camps. The Miskitos are now in open revolt, and running battles with the Nacaraguan armed forces have been going on for the past three weeks. The Honduran government has mostly turned a blind eye to the activities of the contras...
...obvious danger in Honduras' new antiguerrilla campaign is that Suazo Cordova and Alvarez will seek to suppress subversion too zealously while trampling on the citizenry. Some Hondurans are already alarmed at Decree 33, an antiterrorist law that Suazo Córdova has pushed through the National Assembly. A countervailing danger is that antiguerrilla efforts by the 14,000-member Honduran armed forces will prove ineffective, leading to an increase in guerrilla activities within the country. "Honduras is poor," notes one prominent diplomat in Tegucigalpa. "If [its leaders] want to play this game, they'd better be damn sure...