Word: rebel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There should also be little surprise at the Contras' brutal methods. Reports from Nicaraguans who have left the rebel organization indicate that 46 of 48 Contra field commanders are former members of late dictator Anastasio Somoza's National Guard. And, as if their experience in oppression were not enough, CIA advisers supplied the exiles with a training manual which encourages political assassination and details methods of torture...
Finally, the argument that aid to the Contras provides the Reagan Administration with needed leverage to negotiate a settlement with the Nicaraguan government is hardly credible. The State Department has consistently denied reports of Contra atrocities and the presence of ex-Somacistas in rebel units. It has twice ignored attempts by other Latin American nations to start negotiations through the Contadora process. We heard the same rhetoric last year about negotiations; what has been done...
...fight for more military aid to the contras, Nicaragua's rebel forces, he took off his gloves and came out swinging, warning of "strategic disaster" if Congress thwarted him. Emboldened by the U.S. role in helping to achieve a peaceful transition in Manila, he made a rather forced comparison: "We stood for democracy in the Philippines," he said. "We have to stand for democracy in Nicaragua." He conjured up visions of an inexorable Communist advance: "If we don't want to see the map of Central America covered in a sea of red eventually lapping at our own borders...
...principal contra army, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), consisting of about 15,000 men, is spread among four bases north of Nicaragua in Honduras. Two small rebel bases lie just inside Nicaragua to the south, close to the border, and several camps and a base are in Costa Rica. Says Enrique Bermudez, the FDN's commander in chief: "Close to 70% of our fighting force has become confined to our camps, defending them on the one hand and awaiting supplies on the other." The main contra base, in the middle of the jungle 30 miles inside Honduras, has a cluster...
...releasing all known political prisoners of the Marcos era. Among them were were Jose Maria Sison, 47, founder and former chairman of the outlawed Communist Party; Bernabe Buscayno, 42, the alleged founder of the New People's Army, the party's guerrilla arm; and two members of a rebel hit squad. The four reputed Communists were freed over the objections of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos. Aquino's move may prove to be a shrewd stroke. Both Sison and Buscayno have been in jail for nearly a decade. In the interim they have been...