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Nicaragua FOREIGN RELATIONS
The Chamorro government had great difficulty
translating its
electoral victory into increased foreign aid, although
much of
its foreign policy during its first years appeared aimed
at that
end. The high levels of international interest that
attended the
Sandinista years (1979-90) and the 1990 electoral process
quickly
waned after the Chamorro inauguration. The end of the Cold
War
and the transfer of dependence from the Soviet bloc to the
United
States created a dilemma for the Chamorro government,
which
viewed foreign assistance as crucial to its economic
recovery and
development, and which had acquired a popular image during
the
campaign as the political force that would attract foreign
funding, particularly from the United States. The Chamorro
administration sought to address the declining
international
interest, particularly in the United States, with an
active
international lobbying effort. The United States, which
many
Nicaraguans had believed would help Nicaragua
substantially if
Chamorro were elected, became ambivalent about the
Chamorro
government when the UNO's policy of accommodation toward
the
Sandinistas persisted. As a result, the Chamorro
government
rapidly followed the path of other Latin American
governments,
seeking to diversify its foreign relations and decrease
its
reliance on the United States, despite United States
predominance
in the country's economic and political affairs.
By the end of the first year of the Chamorro
government,
Nicaragua was still highly dependent on foreign aid.
Promises of
foreign aid in 1990 totaled over US$700 million, more than
twice
the country's export earnings from its major
products--coffee,
cotton, and bananas. Nicaraguan experts estimated that it
would
take three years of aid at that level to generate economic
recovery and growth and to service a US$9.9 billion debt.
Soon
after the government took office, it estimated the
country's
foreign aid needs at US$907 million for 1990 and US$582
million
for 1991.
Data as of December 1993
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