Word: sandinistas
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...first time in more than four years that the contras had struck at a target within the city limits. Muffed though it was, the attack delivered a warning that complemented the stepped-up rebel activity in the Nicaraguan countryside: the contras' urban offensive seemed to have begun. Sandinista officials promptly blamed the Reagan Administration. Trumpeted a banner headline in the daily party organ, Barricada: IT COULD HAVE BEEN A MASSACRE. In Washington, officials had quite a different reaction to the bungled strike. "They went all that way, got the charge wired in, then they screwed it up," moaned an Administration...
Ironically, Congress seems to be running out of patience with the contras just as the rebels are finally beginning to look like a fighting force. By the Sandinistas' own count, the rebels have infiltrated 5,000 men into Nicaragua (the contras claim closer to 7,000) since U.S. aid began flowing again last October. Freshly armed and newly trained, the rebels are currently keeping some 60,000 Sandinista soldiers engaged in the northern and central departments. Statistics kept by the Sandinista People's Army allege that rebels and government troops clashed 330 times during a recent five-week period, taking...
...Nicaragua for a long time, but we have made many advances in cutting their social base," President Daniel Ortega Saavedra recently told TIME. "They are now a weakened, reduced force." The President's younger brother, General Humberto Ortega Saavedra, the Defense Minister and an increasingly visible member of the Sandinista directorate, concurs. Of last week's attack in Managua, he says, "They have moved to this kind of activity because they have no political program. But this erodes their credibility. They can wear us out, but they will not take power...
Such statements reflect a new confidence on the part of the Sandinista leadership. Until now it has been standard practice to downplay rebel attacks, so as not to enhance the contras' standing inside Nicaragua. The admissions that contra disruptions are taking place suggest the comandantes no longer feel intimidated either by the rebels or, for that matter, by the Reagan Administration. For years the comandantes steadfastly denied that they paid attention to Washington's every move. Now they are less bashful. President Ortega, for instance, candidly admits that he watches U.S. television newscasts daily, and has followed the Iran-contra...
...Congress wavers, Sandinista confidence grows. -- U. S. Jewish leaders go to Israel. -- Zia admits Pakistan can build the Bomb...