Word: nicaragua
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...policymakers agreed readily enough on the main elements of the assessment. The Salvadoran government was making some headway in a new offensive against the leftist guerrillas, but might not be able to maintain its momentum with no more U.S. aid than it is now getting. In Nicaragua, the contras had been unable to capture any towns, but they were attracting recruits faster than the CIA could arm and train them. An apparently worried Nicaraguan government had responded by calling in more outside help. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, some 1,200 Cuban military advisers had been spotted in Nicaragua...
...significance of that buildup was, and still is, in dispute. Some CIA experts thought the actions were aimed primarily at strengthening Nicaragua internally. But the Defense Department was concerned that it might be the prelude to a Nicaraguan strike at Honduras or Costa Rica, another neighboring country from which anti-Sandinista exiles have been conducting guerrilla operations against Nicaragua. The same fear had been expressed by Honduran officials, who were concerned that by letting the main group of contras set up bases and train in their country with U.S. arms, they might be exposing themselves to Nicaraguan invasion. The Sandinistas...
...press conference last week President Reagan played down the importance of the U.S. troop maneuvers to be conducted jointly with Honduras over the next six months and the unilateral Navy operations now under way off both coasts of Nicaragua. "We have conducted joint exercises with Latin American countries on a regular basis since 1965," he said. That is indeed the case. He went on to add, "These are maneuvers of the kind we've been holding regularly." On that point there can be some debate...
...current naval operations involve two American aircraft-carrier groups and one battleship group (19 ships in all) that will be stationed in Caribbean and Pacific waters near Nicaragua during the next several weeks. What makes this unique is that for the first time in recent years the ships will hover off the coast of a particular Latin American nation. But there have indeed been past U.S. exercises in the Caribbean on a comparable scale...
...fighting grinds on in El Salvador and Nicaragua...