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- WORLD, Page 45World NotesNICARAGUAThunder on The Right
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- The decade-long civil war between the U.S.-backed contra
- rebels and the Sandinistas is supposed to be over. It has been 18
- months since a coalition led by President Violeta Barrios de
- Chamorro ousted the Sandinista National Liberation Front in free
- elections, and 14 months since about 27,500 contras voluntarily
- surrendered their weapons. But harassment by the army and
- police, which remain under Sandinista control, has driven about
- 1,000 so-called recontras to rearm, threatening a recrudescence
- of the war.
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- There have been 52 killings of demobilized rebels since
- July 1990. In retaliation, the recontras have attacked
- cooperative farms established by the Sandinistas. The former
- rebels are also angry about Chamorro's coddling of the
- Sandinistas, who refuse to return the houses and land they
- expropriated and then divided among themselves before they left
- office.
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- This month, Chamorro vetoed legislation in tended to roll
- back the giveaway, prompting her own coalition to accuse her of
- betraying voters. The U.S. has volunteered to pay to recover
- weapons from Sandinista and ex-contra civilians, a policy
- Managua does not favor because it fears former Sandinistas will
- pocket the cash and get other guns, possibly from the army.
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