In the history of Nicaragua, the Contras (Spanish: La contrarrevolución, the counter-revolution) were the right-wing militias who waged anti-communist guerilla warfare (1979–1990) against the Marxist governments of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Junta of National Reconstruction, which came to power after the Nicaraguan ...

The revolution revealed the country as one of the major proxy war battlegrounds of the Cold War. The initial overthrow of the Somoza dictatorial regime in 1978–79 cost many lives, and the Contra War of the 1980s took tens of thousands more and was the subject of fierce international debate.

A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the Nicaraguan Contras ' cocaine trafficking operations during the 1980s Nicaraguan civil war in efforts to finance the Contra group that was trying to topple the revolutionary Sandinista government.

Dec 4, 2024 · contra, member of a counterrevolutionary force that sought to overthrow Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista government. The original contras had been National Guardsmen during the regime of Anastasio Somoza (see Somoza family).

Nov 13, 2009 · On November 17, 1981, President Ronald Reagan signs off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gives the Central Intelligence Agency the power to...

On May 10, 1984, the International Court of Justice (World Court) ruled unanimously that the U.S. should immediately halt any attempts to mine or blockade Nicaraguan ports, and 14 to one that Nicaragua’s political independence “…should be fully respected and should not be jeopardized by any military or paramilitary activities.”

Oct 1, 2024 · y led by former Somoza National Guard members. In August 1981, the CIA met with its leaders in southern Honduras and established the Nicaraguan De. ocratic Front, the main contra fighting...

May 14, 2024 · Today we’ll look at the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution against dictator Anastasio Somoza and the beginning of both the Sandinista government and the US response to it.

Mar 4, 1985 · In Nicaragua, the United States set out to forge a cluster of guerrilla groups, known as contras, into a weapon capable of coercing the Sandinistas into changing their leftward course, or even...

Conceived in 1981 as an armed force to interdict arms supplies shipped from Nicaragua to anti-government guerrillas in El Salvador, the contras grew from a five-hundred-man force to an estimated twelve thousand men with the objective of ousting the Sandinistas from political power.