Editing Contras (section)

=== Atrocities ===
 
The United States began to support Contra activities against the Sandinista government by December 1981, with the CIA at the forefront of operations. The CIA supplied the funds and the equipment, coordinated training programs, and provided intelligence and target lists. While the Contras had little military successes, they did prove adept at carrying out CIA guerrilla warfare strategies from training manuals which advised them to incite mob violence, "neutralize" civilian leaders and government officials and attack "soft targets" — including schools, health clinics and cooperatives. The agency added to the Contras' sabotage efforts by blowing up refineries and pipelines, and mining ports.<ref name="Booth, Wade, Walker, p. 107" /><ref>"The Contras did prove adept at carrying out U.S. guerrilla warfare strategies, supplied in the CIA training manuals, which advised them to 'neutralize' civilian leaders, incite mob violence and attack 'soft' targets such as agricultural cooperatives." {{cite book|author1=Thomas W. Walker|title=Revolution and Counterrevolution in Nicaragua|date=1991|publisher=Westview Press|page=335|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1FqAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9780813308623}}</ref><ref name="Sklar, p. 179">The CIA manual, ''Tayacan'', advises the paramilitaries "to neutralize carefully selected and planned targets, such as court judges ''etc.''" In the section entitled, "Implicit and Explicit Terror", the manual states that it is necessary to "kidnap all officials or agents of the Sandinista government" or "individuals in tune with the regime", who then should be removed from the town "without damaging them ''publicly''". As noted in: {{cite book|author1=Holly Sklar|title=Washington's War on Nicaragua|date=1988|publisher=South End Press|page=179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1FqAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9780813308623}}</ref> Finally, according to former Contra leader [[Edgar Chamorro]], CIA trainers also gave Contra soldiers large knives. "A commando knife [was given], and our people, everybody wanted to have a knife like that, to kill people, to cut their throats".<ref>[http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2288&C=2189 "War Against the Poor: Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406110730/http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2288&C=2189 |date=6 April 2017 }} Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, 1989</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYT8IX14W44&t=326s "Nicaraguan Contra Atrocities"] West 57th, 1987, Video: 11:34</ref> In 1985 ''Newsweek'' published a series of photos taken by Frank Wohl, a conservative student admirer traveling with the Contras, entitled "Execution in the Jungle":

<blockquote>The victim dug his own grave, scooping the dirt out with his hands&nbsp;... He crossed himself. Then a contra executioner knelt and rammed a k-bar knife into his throat. A second enforcer stabbed at his jugular, then his abdomen. When the corpse was finally still, the contras threw dirt over the shallow grave — and walked away.<ref name="Sklar, p. 268">{{cite book|author1=Holly Sklar|title=Washington's War on Nicaragua|date=1988|publisher=South End Press|page=268|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1FqAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9780813308623}}</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYT8IX14W44&t=326s "Nicaraguan Contra Atrocities"] West 57th, 1987, Video: 11:20</ref></blockquote>

The CIA officer in charge of the covert war, [[Duane Clarridge|Duane "Dewey" Clarridge]], admitted to the House Intelligence Committee staff in a secret briefing in 1984 that the Contras were routinely murdering "civilians and Sandinista officials in the provinces, as well as heads of cooperatives, nurses, doctors and judges". But he claimed that this did not violate President Reagan's executive order prohibiting assassinations because the agency defined it as just 'killing'. "After all, this is war—a paramilitary operation", Clarridge said in conclusion.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/120079409/ "CIA-assisted 'contras' murdered Sandinistas, official reportedly says"] Knight-Ridder, 20 October 1984</ref> Edgar Chamorro explained the rationale behind this to a U.S. reporter. "Sometimes terror is very productive. This is the policy, to keep putting pressure until the people cry 'uncle'".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mary J. Ruwart|title=Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression|date=2003|publisher=SunStar Press|page=309|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IIlZAAAAYAAJ|isbn=9780963233660}}</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYT8IX14W44&t=326s "Nicaraguan Contra Atrocities"] West 57th, 1987, Video: 1:50</ref> The CIA manual for the Contras, ''Tayacan'', states that the Contras should gather the local population for a public tribunal to "shame, ridicule and humiliate" Sandinista officials to "reduce their influence". It also recommends gathering the local population to witness and take part in public executions.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IbFXs7_LutMC "Washington's War on Nicaragua"] Holly Sklar, p. 179</ref> These types of activities continued throughout the war. After the signing of the Central American Peace Accord in August 1987, the year war related deaths and economic destruction reached its peak, the Contras eventually entered negotiations with the Sandinista government (1988), and the war began to deescalate.<ref name="Booth, Wade, Walker, p. 107" />

By 1989 the U.S.-backed Contra war and economic isolation had inflicted severe economic suffering on Nicaraguans. The US government knew that the Nicaraguans had been exhausted from the war, which had cost 30,865 lives, and that voters usually vote the incumbents out during economic decline. By the late 1980s Nicaragua's internal conditions had changed so radically that the US approach to the 1990 elections differed greatly from 1984. A united opposition of fourteen political parties organized into the [[National Opposition Union (Nicaragua, 1990)|National Opposition Union]] (Unión Nacional Oppositora, UNO) with the support of the United States [[National Endowment for Democracy]]. UNO presidential nominee [[Violeta Chamorro]] was received by President Bush at the White House.

The Contra war escalated over the year before the election. The US promised to end the economic embargo should Chamorro win.<ref name="Booth, Wade, Walker, p. 113">{{cite book|author1=John A. Booth|author2=Christine J. Wade|author3= Thomas W. Walker|title=Understanding Central America: Global Forces, Rebellion, and Change|date=2014|publisher=Avalon Publishing|page=113|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UcA_BAAAQBAJ|isbn=9780813349589}}</ref>

The UNO scored a decisive victory on 25 February 1990. Chamorro won with 55 percent of the presidential vote as compared to Ortega's 41 percent. Of 92 seats in the National Assembly, UNO gained 51, and the FSLN won 39. On 25 April 1990, Chamorro assumed presidency from Daniel Ortega.<ref name="Booth, Wade, Walker, p. 113" />