Word: sandinistas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Before the Nicaraguan government delegates could take in their surroundings in the muddy mountain town of El Zungano, the Jackal's band of former contra guerrillas closed around them in a tight cordon. Training automatic weapons on the hostages, the rightist rebels announced the price for freedom: dismissal of Sandinista army chief Humberto Ortega and top presidential aide Antonio Lacayo, viewed as too easy on the country's ousted Marxist rulers...
Within 24 hours, Comandante 31 and his band of ex-Sandinista officials responded by storming the Managua headquarters of the conservative National Opposition Union (U.N.O.). Seizing 34 people including Vice President Virgilio Godoy Reyes, they demanded the release of the El Zungano hostages and U.S. war reparations of $17 billion. For six days, Nicaraguans feared the worst as mediators sought a compromise between the outlaw bands. Finally, both sides agreed to free all hostages, and the government and former contras signed an eight-point plan aimed at alleviating tensions...
...done little to pull the country out of its mire. When the government faltered on its promise to deliver land and reparations, former contras and ex-Sandinista troops took up guns again to grab territory and settle scores. In Managua the leader who pledged national reconciliation could not even reconcile the players within her own government. Last January the 12- party U.N.O. broke with her, along with Vice President Godoy. That has left Chamorro politically dependent on the Sandinistas, who were allowed to retain de facto control of the army and police forces. Now they too are pulling away...
...HADN'T BEEN WARNED. PRESIDENT Violeta Chamorro's ballot-box victory over the Marxist-dominated Sandinistas three years ago, celebrated as a triumph of democracy, dimmed somewhat when she retained several former adversaries in key positions while continually quarreling with her own National Opposition Union (U.N.O.) coalition. Now Madam President has added three more Sandinistas to her Cabinet and announced a new economic plan with emphasis on social issues that appeals to the Sandinistas -- plus a 20% devaluation of the cordoba and a freeze on government spending. Fed up, U.N.O. officially broke with Chamorro, and marched through the streets...
Bush has trivialized this scandal as the "criminalization of policy differences," suggesting that the problem merely stemmed from a disagreement between then-President Ronald Reagan and the Democratic Congress about whether to support the contras in their guerilla war against the Sandinista government...