Off the Record

Promises, Promises. Nicaragua’s President Violeta Chamorro can expect some embarrassing questions during her upcoming state visit to Washington. In particular there is the matter of her allowing El Salvador’s Communist insurgents, the FMLN, to maintain an office in Managua, not exactly a gesture of neighborliness toward another democratic country. The Washington Times even reports that her defense minister, General Humberto Ortega (brother of former dictator Daniel Ortega), was behind the recent assassination of former Contra leader Enrique Bermudez in Managua.

President Chamorro had already been embarrassed by the disclosure a few months back that the Sandinistas had supplied the FMLN with a number of Soviet-made SAM missiles. After a big stink, the insurgents returned all the missiles from that shipment. But Cato, who was down in San Salvador for the elections three weeks ago, is wondering where the FMLN got the materiel to shoot down a helicopter the very day after the vote.

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Promises, Promises. Nicaragua’s President Violeta Chamorro can expect some embarrassing questions during her upcoming state visit to Washington. In particular there is the matter of her allowing El Salvador’s Communist insurgents, the FMLN, to maintain an office in Managua, not exactly a gesture of neighborliness toward another democratic country. The Washington Times even reports that her defense minister, General Humberto Ortega (brother of former dictator Daniel Ortega), was behind the recent assassination of former Contra leader Enrique Bermudez in Managua.

President Chamorro had already been embarrassed by the disclosure a few months back that the Sandinistas had supplied the FMLN with a number of Soviet-made SAM missiles. After a big stink, the insurgents returned all the missiles from that shipment. But Cato, who was down in San Salvador for the elections three weeks ago, is wondering where the FMLN got the materiel to shoot down a helicopter the very day after the vote.