The Contras were not a monolithic group, but a combination of three distinct elements of Nicaraguan society:

Nevertheless, the Contras remained tenuously encamped within Honduras and weren't able to hold Nicaraguan territory.

* Bermudez, Enrique, " The Contras ' Valley Forge: How I View the Nicaraguan Crisis ", Policy Review magazine, The Heritage Foundation, Summer 1988.

* Persons, David E. ( 1987 ) A Study of the History and Origins of the Nicaraguan Contras.

* 1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.

Nicaraguan Contras | Contra militia, 1987

Some U. S. officials also hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of hostages and allow U. S. intelligence agencies to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.

* 1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba ; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

The Contras were soon under the control of Nicaraguan business elites who opposed Sandinista policies to seize their assets.

Subsequent agreements were designed to reintegrate the Contras and their supporters into Nicaraguan society preparatory in preparation for general elections.

* Bermudez, Enrique, The Contras ' Valley Forge: How I View the Nicaraguan Crisis, Policy Review magazine, The Heritage Foundation, Summer 1988.

The ICJ held that the U. S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors.

" The alleged violations included attacks on Nicaraguan facilities and naval vessels, the mining of Nicaraguan ports, the invasion of Nicaraguan air space, and the training, arming, equipping, financing and supplying of forces ( the " Contras ") and seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government.

After the initiation of full-scale U. S. military involvement in the Nicaraguan conflict the CDS was empowered to enforce wartime bans on political assembly and association with other political parties ( i. e. parties associated with the " Contras ").

Due to factors such as natural disasters, state corruption, the Contras, and inefficient economic policies, the state of the Nicaraguan economy declined.

* February 3 – The Democratic-controlled United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $ 36. 25 million to support the Nicaraguan Contras.

* February 16 – Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan Contras leader ( b. 1932 )

* United States support of the Nicaraguan Contras

Pat Robertson was a fundraiser for the Nicaraguan Contras.

* Persons, David E. A History Of The Nicaraguan Contras.

He rebuffed requests by Salvadoran rightist Roberto D ' Aubuisson to restrict the movements of leaders of the leftist Salvadoran insurgent Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in Panama, and likewise rebuffed demands by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the United States Marine Corps that he provide military assistance to the Nicaraguan Contras.

The US intelligence agencies used BCCI to funnel drug money to Afghan Mujahideen in their fight against Soviet invasion and to insurgents such as Nicaraguan Contras.

The efforts to provide arms for hostages eventually became connected, through the transfer of funds made with arms sales, with the NSC staff's ardent support for the Nicaraguan " Contras " in their civil war against the left-wing government of Nicaragua.

Expatriates of the previous Military and Liberal governments were allowed to return to Honduras, with no risk to their lives, and the irregular forces of the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries, the Contras, were required to leave Honduras in April 1990 after intense negotiations.

U. S. funding for the Contras, who opposed the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, was obtained from covert sources.

Perpich opposed the Reagan proxy war against Nicaragua in the 1980's and was one of several governors who objected to sending their state national guard units to train in US bases in Honduras, where the US backed Contras were based.

He opposed and voted against the Gulf War in 1991, and opposed funding the Contras in Nicaragua and similar armed groups in Latin America.

For example, some of the Contras originally fought with the Sandinistas to overthrow Anastasio Somoza, and some of those who oppose Castro also opposed Batista.

The Contras have killed, tortured, raped, mutilated and abducted hundreds of civilians they suspect of sympathizing with the Sandinistas.

Mutual exhaustion, Sandinista fears of Contra unity and military success, and mediation by other regional governments led to the Sapoa ceasefire between the Sandinistas and the Contras on March 23, 1988.

Despite the clear electoral victory for the Sandinistas, the Contras continued their violent attacks on both state and civilian targets, until 1989.

The song chronicles the history of the Sandinistas, as well as their conflict with the Contras, and reflects an optimistic hope for the future of Nicaragua.

This demobilization included the removal of the US-backed Contras thereby leaving the Sandinistas with no one to fight, and therefore creating a highly effective peace.

In 2001 Joan Kruckewitt, an American journalist who lived in Nicaragua from 1983 to 1991 and covered the war between the Sandinistas and the Contras for ABC Radio wrote a book The Death of Ben Linder ( Seven Stories Press 2001 ) giving a more sympathetic portrait of Linder's life, work, and death.

A strong feminist, she brought women ’ s voices to the fore in the magazine and oversaw considerable coverage of Central America, the Sandinistas, and the Contras.

Two years before his assassination by the Sandinistas in Managua, contra military commander Enrique Bermúdez, during a meeting in Tegucigalpa, asked Johns to author his autobiographical essay, " The Contras ' Valley Forge ," which is based on extensive discussions between the two and received substantial global media coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post and elsewhere.

On 25 February 1982, Steadman Fagoth, one of the guerrilla leaders, took refuge in Honduras along with 3, 000 Miskitos, while the Sandinistas began to denounce the activities of Contras in the Rio Coco zone.

Upon the conclusion of the civil war, 7, 500 Guardsmen were taken prisoner – with many former Guards suspected of violating human rights being held in detention by the Sandinistas –, while another 4, 500 officers and enlisted men fled to neighbouring Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala to form the nucleus an armed opposition force to the new Nicaraguan government, which would later become known as the Contras

The S / LPD said it helped write an anti-Sandinista column for the Wall Street Journal that ran two days earlier ; assisted in a " positive piece " on the Contras by Fred Francis that aired the night before on NBC ; wrote op-eds for the Washington Post and New York Times that would run with the bylines of Contra leaders ; arranged an extensive media tour for a Contra leader " through a cut-out " ( to hide the S / LPD's role ); and prepared to leak a State Department cable that would embarrass the Sandinistas: " Do not be surprised if this cable somehow hits the evening news.

The Sandinistas, in turn, complained that he should have attacked US aid to the Contras.

" But, Clarridge maintained, by the end of the conflict, the Contras numbered more than 20, 000 peasants due less to the CIA's efforts than to the Sandinistas ' attempts at reeducation and land redistribution.