Word: sandinistas
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...same day in Washington, Major Roger Miranda Bengoechea met with American journalists for the first time since he defected from Nicaragua two months ago. Miranda, 34, who served as the chief aide to Defense Minister Humberto Ortega Saavedra, is the most important Sandinista defector ever. In a five-hour interview, Miranda detailed explosive charges that could worsen Nicaragua's relations with its neighbors and the U.S., as well as damage Arias' peace plan. Among his claims...
...major can be trusted. After Miranda sought protection at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City in late October, Humberto Ortega charged that his deputy had been "touched by the CIA" a month earlier. Miranda claims that the defection was his own idea, born of a mounting disillusionment with the Sandinista regime. There seems little doubt that at least some of his information is accurate. As Ortega's right-hand man, Miranda had access to high-level meetings and sensitive documents. Ortega has conceded that Miranda's defection was the "most important betrayal" ever suffered by the Sandinista People's Army...
Some of Miranda's information was painstakingly detailed. Charging corruption within the Sandinista directorate, he claimed that Humberto Ortega, under other names, maintains a bank account, No. 58946, in a Swiss branch of the National Bank of Paris. As of last October, Miranda claimed, the account totaled $1,495,596, all of it diverted between 1981 and 1986 from Defense Ministry coffers...
Neither the rebels nor the Sandinista authorities issued any reports of armed clashes during the night. Reporters need special military permits to enter war zones and these are not readily obtained...
...Ortega rejected the 36-hour cease-fire and a Christmas truce, saying neither would stop the United States from aiding the rebels because the Contras earlier ignored a Sandinista call to lay down their arms...