Word: sandinistas
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Rafael Centeno Montoya, 30, was outraged by the way the Sandinistas treated Pope . ohn Paul II during his visit to Managua last March. So Centeno left his family, one horse and five mules and joined the rebels. "Pecos Bill," 29, abandoned his 27,000-acre ranch and 2,500 cattle because, as a former second lieutenant in Dictator Anastasio Somoza's National Guard, he feared reprisals after the Sandinistas took over. Maria Cristina Cuadra, 17, first ran into trouble after she was caught pulling down pictures of Revolutionary Heroes Augusto César Sandino and Carlos Fonseca. Afraid...
...extent of U.S. involvement in the contras' hit-and-run war against the Sandinista government was underscored last week by a report from Managua that Nicaraguan troops had shot down a U.S. registered DC-3 airplane carrying supplies to insurgents. Though U.S. officials will not acknowledge any role in the fighting, it is no secret that the CIA has played a crucial part in financing and supplying the contras. If the White House has its way, U.S. aid will continue in the coming months...
...army of about 6,000, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (F.D.N.) is the largest contra faction and the biggest recipient of the funds the CIA has earmarked for the war. F.D.N. leaders say that the overwhelming majority of their followers are peasants who have become disillusioned by the Sandinista revolution and that only 3% are former members of Somoza's National Guard. But the presence of ex-guardsmen in the F.D.N.'s military command has allowed the Sandinistas A hit-and-run to paint the contras as reactionaries who only want to bring back the dictatorship. Last week...
Last April a fourth contra group, the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE), opened a second front along Nicaragua's border with Costa Rica. ARDE is a coalition of four organizations led by Eden Pastora, a Sandinista war hero who quit as a member of Nicaragua's government in 1981 and left the country because he thought the Sandinistas had "betrayed the revolution." Pastora's army has grown from 300 last April to about 2,000. Unlike the northern contras, who do not have any sizable base within Nicaragua, ARDE currently controls a 30-mile-long stretch of land...
...Reagan Administration says it is satisfied with what the contras have accomplished, despite their divisions and discord. Officials credit the rebels' pressure and U.S. military maneuvers in the region for the Sandinistas' new interest in seeking a regional peace settlement. They also say that Nicaraguan assistance for the rebels in El Salvador, which the U.S. has found difficult to prove publicly, has diminished in recent months because the Sandinistas are too busy at home to meddle in their neighbors' affairs. But the gambit is risky. Nicaraguan Defense Minister Humberto Ortega warned last week that if the contras...