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Nicaragua The Regional Peace Effort and Retrenchment of the Revolution, 1986-90
Daniel Ortega began his six-year presidential term on
January
10, 1985. After the United States Congress turned down
continued
funding of the Contras in April 1985, the Reagan
administration
ordered a total embargo on United States trade with
Nicaragua the
following month, accusing the Sandinista regime of
threatening
United States security in the region. The FSLN government
responded by suspending civil liberties. Both the media
and the
Roman Catholic bishops were accused of destabilizing the
political system. The church's press, as well as the
conservative
newspaper La Prensa, were censored or closed at
various
periods because of their critical views on the military
draft and
the government's handling of the civil war. In June 1986,
the
United States Congress voted to resume aid to the Contras
by
appropriating US$100 million in military and nonmilitary
assistance. The Sandinista government was forced to divert
more
and more of its economic resources from economic
development to
defense against the Contras.
Debate in the United States over military aid for the
Contras
continued until November 1986, when the policy of the
Reagan
administration toward Nicaragua was shaken by the
discovery of an
illegal operation in which funds from weapons sold to Iran
during
1985 were diverted to the Contras. The Iran-Contra scandal
resulted from covert efforts within the Reagan staff to
support
the Contras in spite of a United States Congressional ban
on
military aid in 1985. In the aftermath of the Iran-Contra
affair,
the United States Congress again stopped all military
support to
the Contras in 1987 except for what was called
"non-lethal" aid.
The result of the cutoff was a military stalemate; the
Contras
were unable or unwilling to keep on fighting without full
United
States support, and the Sandinista government could not
afford to
continue waging an unpopular war that had already
devastated the
economy. The conditions for a negotiated solution to the
conflict
were better than ever, leaving both parties, the Contras
and the
Sandinistas, with few options other than to negotiate.
After Oscar Arias Sánchez was elected to the presidency
of
Costa Rica in 1986, he designed a regional plan to bring
peace to
Central America, following earlier efforts by the
Contadora (see Glossary)
Group (formed by Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, and
Colombia in 1983). The Arias Plan, officially launched in
February 1987, was signed by the presidents of the five
Central
American republics (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador,
Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica) at a presidential summit held in
Esquipulas,
Guatemala in August 1987. This agreement, also known as
Esquipulas II, called for amnesty for persons charged with
political crimes, a negotiated cease-fire, national
reconciliation for those countries with insurgencies
(Guatemala,
El Salvador, and Nicaragua), an end to all external aid to
insurgencies (United States support to the Contras and
Soviet and
Cuban support to guerrillas in Guatemala and El Salvador),
and
democratic reforms leading to free elections in Nicaragua.
After
the signing of Esquipulas II, the government created a
National
Reconciliation Commission headed by Cardinal Miguel Obando
y
Bravo. The United States government responded by
encouraging the
Contras to negotiate. At the time, there were an estimated
10,000
Contra rebels and as many as 40,000 of their dependents
living in
Honduras.
An additional step toward the solution of the
Nicaraguan
conflict was taken at a summit of Central American
presidents
held on January 15, 1988, when President Daniel Ortega
agreed to
hold direct talks with the Contras, to lift the state of
emergency, and to call for national elections. In March
the FSLN
government met with representatives of the Contras and
signed a
cease-fire agreement. The Sandinistas granted a general
amnesty
to all Contra members and freed former members of the
National
Guard who were still imprisoned.
By mid-1988, international institutions had demanded
that the
Sandinistas launch a drastic economic adjustment program
as a
condition for resumption of aid. This new economic program
imposed further hardship on the Nicaraguan people.
Government
agencies were reorganized, leaving many Nicaraguans
unemployed.
The Sandinista army also went through a reduction in
force. To
complicate matters, in October 1988 the country was hit by
Hurricane Joan, which left 432 people dead, 230,000
homeless, and
damages estimated at US$1 billion. In addition, a severe
drought
during 1989 ruined agricultural production for 1990.
With the country bankrupt and the loss of economic
support
from the economically strapped Soviet Union, the
Sandinistas
decided to move up the date for general elections in order
to
convince the United States Congress to end all aid to the
Contras
and to attract potential economic support from Europe and
the
United States. As a result of Esquipulas II, the
Sandinista
regime and the Contras successfully concluded direct
negotiations
on a cease-fire in meetings held at Sapoá, Nicaragua,
during June
1988. In February 1989, the five Central American
presidents met
once again in Costa del Sol, El Salvador, and agreed on a
plan to
support the disarming and dissolving of Contra forces in
Honduras, as well as their voluntary repatriation into
Nicaragua.
President Ortega also agreed to move the next national
elections,
scheduled for the fall of 1990, up to February 1990; to
guarantee
fair participation for opposition parties; and to allow
international observers to monitor the entire electoral
process.
Data as of December 1993
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