Word: nicaragua
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...summit, the region's peace prospects had seemed anything but bright. Since the Arias plan was signed last August, its calls for regional cease-fires, democratic reforms and an end to foreign support for rebels have been virtually ignored. In Nicaragua, the contras last month launched the heaviest assault of the war. The Sandinistas, for their part, virtually ensured that the bloodshed would continue by refusing to talk directly to the contras and by flaunting plans for a military buildup. In El Salvador, meanwhile, leftist guerrillas pursued their struggle against the government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, while right-wing...
...against that discouraging backdrop that the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua met with Arias near the Costa Rican capital of San Jose last week to assess the progress of the peace plan. Originally expected to begin and end Friday, the meeting dragged into the next day as the leaders bargained and bickered over a round table. Arias' frustration surfaced Saturday after a morning swim before the session resumed. Said the dejected summit host: "I did everything I could. We all knew that if we failed to come to an agreement, the war would continue." Before...
Arias had not waited for the summit to chastise those whom he accused of hindering the peace plan. In a letter to three top contra leaders who fled Nicaragua several years ago and now reside in Costa Rica, the soft-spoken President demanded that they abandon their rebel activities or leave his country. The three, Alfonso Robelo, Alfredo Cesar and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, sit on the six-member board that directs the contras' political affairs and produces a steady stream of anti-Sandinista propaganda. The next day Arias counterbalanced his anti-contra blast with a blunt four-page letter accusing...
...Reagan Administration kept a close eye on the Costa Rica summit. In a whirlwind tour of Central America two weeks ago, Lieut. General Colin Powell, Reagan's National Security Adviser, irritated Nicaragua's neighbors by suggesting that they might suffer U.S. aid cutbacks if they abandoned the contras. Powell also urged them to condemn the Sandinistas' intransigence as a major obstacle to peace. The Administration's critics saw the mission as part of an overall plan to topple the Sandinistas by using the contras to wage a proxy war. The outcome of last week's summit, however, seemed...
...Republicans favor more defense, and 36% want less. Democrats nationwide split roughly by thirds on the same question; in Iowa, half the Democrats support a cut in Pentagon spending, and only 15% prefer an increase. Asked if they favor or oppose U.S. aid to the contras in Nicaragua, Republicans nationally support the program, 54% to 32%; Iowa Republicans divide narrowly against it, 42% to 40%. While Democrats in general oppose contra assistance by 2 to 1, the ratio in Iowa...