Word: nicaraguan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...view was echoed a day later from the Hague, where the World Court ruled that the U.S. is violating Nicaragua's sovereignty by sponsoring the contras. The 15-member International Court of Justice, responding to charges filed by the Sandinista regime in 1984, after the CIA-inspired mining of Nicaraguan harbors, held the U.S. liable for unspecified reparations. The Administration, which challenged the tribunal's jurisdiction in the dispute, said it would ignore the judgment...
...mollify critics and prevent American casualties from sparking deeper U.S. involvement, the bill forbids U.S. military advisers to the contras to operate within 20 miles of the Honduran-Nicaraguan border, although the White House indicated it would contest this restriction. The package also provides an additional $300 million in aid to Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, where faltering economies are far more threatening than Sandinistas...
Contra leaders say the assistance will at last allow them to map out a plausible military strategy. "We can program ahead for the next 16 to 17 months," said Alfonso Robelo, one of the three top rebel political chiefs who lead the United Nicaraguan Opposition. "For the first time we can count on more permanent support." But the military aid will also put pressure on the contras to show some results in Nicaragua. Insisted Louisiana Democrat and Contra Backer Buddy Roemer: "There will be no blank checks for the contras...
Even with U.S. assistance, however, the rebels are facing a 60,000-strong Nicaraguan army, equipped with as many as 38 Soviet helicopters. Few observers think the rebels can overthrow the Sandinistas, and it remains uncertain whether they can even slow Ortega's drive to consolidate one-party rule. In the short run, at least, U.S. support for the contras has had the opposite effect: the day after the House vote, the Sandinistas shut down La Prensa, Nicaragua's leading independent newspaper and hinted at new restrictions on opposition political parties...
Reagan knows that sending his own troops to Nicaragua would be politically impossible so instead he buys rebels, mainly people who were deposed by the Sandinista revolution or in disfavor with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Like the condottieri of renaissance Italy, these Contras live very well off of American money. (The House voted to give the contras $30 million in economic aid when these rebels don't even have a bureacracy to distribute it. It's likely that a lot of this money will end up in hands of Miami merchants.) The United States, by hiring these mercenaries, fits very...