Word: nicaragua
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...with its domestic opposition. In a letter to Oklahoma Democrat Dave McCurdy, who helped shape the compromise bill, Reagan said, "My Administration is determined to pursue political, not military, solutions in Central America." He also offered to explore "how and when the U.S. could resume useful direct talks with Nicaragua," which were broken off last January by Washington...
Both Republican and Democratic supporters of the aid package believe there is an analogy between the emerging U.S. policy in Nicaragua and Washington's experience in El Salvador several years ago. By backing away from a lawless right wing in El Salvador and embracing Centrist Jose Napoleon Duarte, wrote Oklahoma's McCurdy in a Washington Post op-ed article, the U.S. ended up "on the side of democracy and helped weaken both extremes, setting El Salvador on the road to a political settlement." Crossing the centrist "threshold" in Nicaragua, says Fortier, "could create a dynamic of its own, just...
...five-month-old voluntary moratorium on arms imports. That raised the possibility that Ortega would buy Soviet-built MiG jets, a move that Washington has previously warned might provoke a U.S. military response. Asked after his speech whether he had MiGs on his mind, Ortega replied cryptically that "Nicaragua is almost the only country in Central America that does not have the ability to defend itself rapidly...
Both sides in Nicaragua need time to assess what effect the new U.S. support, both financial and moral, will have on the military struggle. "It is clear that nothing would move off dead center without the funding," says a senior State Department official. "With it, we've bought another year to see where events take us." As for new negotiations, says another American diplomat, "there is no eagerness here to resume until the Sandinistas give us a reason that would be in our interest...
Over the longer term, the most important result of last week's vote may unfold not in Nicaragua but in Washington: the politics of gradual consensus. A solid majority in Congress now agrees that the U.S. must pressure the Sandinista regime for change, but not by attempting to overthrow it illegally. In a debate that has dragged on as long as Ronald Reagan's presidency, reaching that agreement is no small accomplishment...