Word: segovia
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...northern Nicaragua, the contras are worried that their operations will be restricted if U.S. aid is cut off. Correspondent Ricardo Chavira and Photographer Bob Nickelsberg accompanied an F.D.N. patrol on a six-day foray that took them some 30 miles into the desolate hills of Nicaragua's Nueva Segovia department. Chavira's report...
From a base camp in Honduras no more than two miles from the border, we can hear the boom of Sandinista artillery. The 26 fighters who will accompany us into Nicaragua are part of a 1,000-man F.D.N. task force that operates in Nueva Segovia. They wear U.S. Army-issue fatigues or blue-green Honduran-made uniforms or, in the case of new recruits, civilian clothes. Armed with Belgian FAL or Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles and trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in demolition and information gathering, they appear to be a well-conditioned, highly motivated...
...supplies to any point in the area. My companions are equipped by the U.S. from Honduras, but they grumble that they had to carry the arms and supplies across the border on their backs. The F.D.N.'s single, ancient C-47 transport plane cannot be used in Nueva Segovia because of heavy Sandinista defenses...
...civilians of Nueva Segovia are not shy about telling us why they dislike the Sandinistas, whom they call piricuacos (rabid dogs). Some of the peasants say they have had family members tortured or property confiscated. Others are angry over government efforts to make them form agricultural cooperatives and sell their products exclusively to the state. At a farmhouse atop a hill, 13 peasants tell me they are disappointed that the Sandinistas have not met promises for better economic conditions, and in fact have allowed prices to rocket and wages to stagnate. "A bag of detergent costs ten times more than...
...Nicaraguans lament the 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle and his right-wing dictatorship, of course, but many of the peasants of Nueva Segovia oppose the Sandinistas strongly enough to support the contra cause at great risk. Those who are caught aiding the guerrillas are often killed by the Sandinistas. The contras can be equally brutal when they uncover Sandinista informers or seize enemy troops. "If we capture them in a fight and they have no more ammunition, then they must die," said a subcomandante known as Pelón. "That shows they were trying to kill us and gave...