Word: ortega
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Forget the warm smiles and bonhomie that usually attend summitry. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and his Salvadoran counterpart, Alfredo Cristiani, kept their distance during photo opportunities, and the 20 hours of negotiations sometimes grew strained. But when the five Central American Presidents emerged from their seventh regional summit near San Jose, Costa Rica, they signed a final communique that referred to a common commitment to nudging a stalled peace process...
...declaration included a statement of support for Cristiani's seven-month- old government and a condemnation of the recent offensive launched by its leftist opponents, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. Ortega's signature was particularly critical, since he has been accused of arming the F.M.L.N. In exchange, Ortega secured a clause urging the U.S. to halt its support of the Nicaraguan contras and to turn over all money earmarked for them to an international commission...
...sooner was the ink dry than Ortega accused the Salvadoran army of dropping bombs on civilian neighborhoods in San Salvador. Cristiani's post- summit assessment of the Nicaraguan: "I don't trust Ortega...
Although SA-7s can be obtained in arms bazaars around the world, there was little doubt that the weapons were shipped from Nicaragua. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez firmly backed Cristiani in blaming Ortega, who did not even bother to deny the charge. Instead, Ortega noted the many flights that originated from San Salvador's Ilopango airport to ferry weapons to the contras fighting his government. "So what's the scandal?" he asked...
...nature of these shipments or how they have changed over time. Some Washington officials believe Managua's military aid to the F.M.L.N. was fairly modest from the early 1980s until mid-1988, when plans were first laid for the current offensive and arms shipments were cranked up. If Ortega is indeed the purveyor of SA-7s to the F.M.L.N., why did he choose to send them now? One plausible hypothesis assumes that a demand for the rockets was created by the current rebel offensive. Another is that both Ortega and Castro are rushing to help the F.M.L.N. before Gorbachev pressures...