Lesson 22

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Question SA-2. Here is the text reference (p. 217/5):

The U.S.-Nicaraguan relationship changed abruptly when the Reagan administration took office in January 1981. Hard-line anti-communist ideologues in Washington could not accept the links between the FSLN and Cuba, to say nothing of the Soviet Union. The U.S. aid programs to Nicaragua were cut off or severely curtailed. More ominously, the Reagan administration chose as one of its principal vehicles to influence Nicaragua the same device that had been used against leftist regimes in Guatemala (1954) and Cuba (1959- ): anti-Communist exiles. There were a significant number of ex-members of the Guardia Nacional in makeshift camps in Honduras, and by working with a compliant Honduran military, it was possible for the CIA to organize and support these former members of the Guardia into what became known as the "Contras" (Spanish for counter-revolutionaries). There were other covert and overt actions: sabotage, mining of Nicaraguan harbors, diplomatic pressures, and an economic embargo.