Word: nicaragua
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ceremony attended by hundreds of rebels that marked the dismantling of the contra base camps. Abel Ignasio Cespedes, known to his insurgent troops as Comandante Ciro, turned over a battered West German G-3 automatic rifle to a representative of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who will be inaugurated as Nicaragua's President this week. The weapon was then handed to Major General Agustin Quesada Gomez, commander of a United Nations peacekeeping force, who passed it on to be cut apart with a blowtorch. In all, 365 weapons were surrendered and destroyed. "Today," said Quesada Gomez, "the problem of the resistance...
...larger question is whether the contra problem will now end in Nicaragua. On paper the prospects seem promising. Last week a determined Chamorro successfully prodded Sandinista and contra representatives into signing agreements that established an immediate cease-fire and committed the contras to a total demobilization by June 10. But those agreements may prove as misleading as the ceremony in Yamales, where only wounded or ailing contras turned over their weaponry. Perhaps 12,000 of their hale colleagues slipped back into Nicaragua after Chamorro's upset electoral victory on Feb. 25. Top contra commanders, most of whom were...
Early last week there were disturbing signs that the cease-fire might never come to pass. In one of his final acts as Nicaragua's President, Daniel Ortega Saavedra demanded that the contras disarm before Chamorro's inauguration this week and suggested that failure to cooperate might jeopardize the peaceful transfer of power. Asked if the inauguration would take place as scheduled, he answered, "We are studying that. We are very close to peace and very close to war." The contra contingent that arrived in Managua the next day for cease- fire negotiations fanned the tension by vowing to avoid...
...their 90-minute discussion, the Sandinista leader stood beside Chamorro on her doorstep and announced, "I want to make it clear that on April 25 there will be a transfer of power." As a bonus concession, Ortega also announced that visa requirements for Americans seeking to enter Nicaragua had been lifted. Then the past and future Presidents hugged...
What's worse, unless George Bush changes course and breathes life into his free-trade rhetoric by assaulting the U.S.'s insane sugar program, Latin America's economy will deteriorate even further -- and the $800 million assistance package the President plans for Nicaragua and Panama will have little or no long-term benefit...