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The Selling of the Sandinistas
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10214 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1986 |
2,865 Words |
| Author
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L. Francis Bouchey and Timothy Goodman
L. Francis Bouchey is president of the Council for Inter-
American Security, a private research organization
specializing in Latin-American security issues. Timothy
Goodman is senior research fellow and legislative liaison at
the Council. |
Nicaragua's military situation has been relatively quiet for several months. The war continues, but most of the fighting has taken place in Washington.
In late June, the Reagan administration finally won approval from the House of Representatives for $100 million in military aid and supplies for the Nicaraguan Contras seeking to overthrow the communist Sandinista regime. This victory capped a protracted two-year struggle by administration officials to win congressional approval for a military aid package. Hopes for democracy in Nicaragua have rested on this political battle, since without U.S. aid the Nicaraguan democratic resistance could not operate as an effective fighting force capable of overthrowing the regime or pressuring it to democratize.
The Sandinistas also realize that the Contras require U.S. or other outside support in order to operate effectively. Accordingly, they too regard the U.S. arena as their principal battleground. Sandinista strategists have kept a wary eye on the congressional calendar, trying to forestall any U.S. aid to the resistance. Each time a Contra aid vote has approached, the Sandinistas have revived speculation that they might sign a Contadora peace pact, thereby affording ill informed members of Congress an opportunity to point to an impending diplomatic settlement as an excuse for rejecting Contra aid.
More directly, the Sandinistas have established an active and effective solidarity network in this country to influence U.S. foreign policy. Now several years old, this network is a well-coordinated united by their support for the Sandinista revolution. A hard-core vanguard directs the network, using
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