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Nicaragua DEFENSE SPENDING
According to studies published by the United States
Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), Nicaraguan military
spending totaled US$10 million in 1979, the year in which
the
Somoza administration was overthrown. This amount
constituted 0.8
percent of the gross national product
(GNP--see Glossary).
Under
the Sandinistas, military expenditures rose rapidly from
US$53
million in 1980 to US$192 million in 1985. The latter
figure was
more than 17 percent of GNP and more than 26 percent of
total
government expenditures. ACDA was unable to estimate
defense
spending for the years 1986-89.
Valid comparisons of defense outlays between the Ortega
and
Chamorro administrations are difficult because of
hyperinflation,
the precipitous drop in value of the
córdoba (see Glossary),
and the chaotic exchange rate structure in the late 1980s. The
United
States Department of State estimated that military
expenditures
in 1989 were between US$76 million and US$90 million, a
reduction
of 44 percent from the previous year. In 1989 defense
outlays
constituted 36 percent of the entire budget. The announced
defense budget figure for 1990 was US$166 million,
corresponding
to 25 percent of the total government budget that year. As
military cutbacks continued, Chamorro's military budget
proposal
for 1991 of US$78.6 million was reduced by the National
Assembly
by US$20 million, or to about 16 percent of the national
budget.
To some extent, the EPS has been able to compensate for
these
drastic curbs on spending by selling excess equipment. In
1992,
for example, the EPS sold Soviet helicopters, APCs,
cannons, and
antiaircraft missiles to the Peruvian armed forces for
US$25
million. All receipts from such sales went directly to the
EPS.
United States concern over Sandinista control of the
police
and security forces precluded extending military aid to
the
Chamorro government and prohibited transactions under the
United
States Department of Defense's Military Sales Program. In
fiscal
year
(FY--see Glossary)
1994, however, the United States
Department of Defense proposed allocating a small amount
of money
to the EPS for military orientation tours and English
language
training.
Data as of December 1993
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