Editing Nicaragua v. United States (section)

===Dissent===
Judge Schwebel argued that the Sandinista government came to power with support of foreign intervention similar to what it was now complaining about. He argued that the Sandinista government achieved international recognition and received large amounts of foreign aid in exchange for commitments they subsequently violated. He cited evidence that the Sandinista government had supported the rebels in El Salvador and wrote that Nicaragua's own CIA witness contradicted their assertions that they had never at any point supported the rebels in El Salvador. The CIA witness said that there was no evidence of weapon shipments since early 1981, but Schwebel argued that he could not credibly explain why opponents of Contra aid such as [[Boland Amendment|Congressman Boland]], who also saw the evidence, believed that weapon shipments were ongoing. He further wrote that [[Daniel Ortega]] publicly admitted such shipments in statements in 1985 and 1986. He said there was no dispute that the leadership of the rebels operated in Nicaragua from time to time.

He stated that in August 1981 the U.S. offered to resume aid to Nicaragua and to not support regime change in exchange for Nicaraguan commitments to not support the rebels in El Salvador. These proposals were rejected by the Sandinistas, and Schwebel argued that the U.S. was entitled to take action in collective self-defense with El Salvador by authorizing Contra aid in December 1981. He stated that further U.S. proposals to resolve the issue made in early 1982 were also ignored by the Sandinistas. The Sandinista government in 1983 began advancing proposals in which it would undertake not to support the rebels. Schwebel said that these were coupled with demands that the U.S. cease supporting the lawful government of El Salvador.
He wrote that since early 1985 the U.S. had increasingly made regime change a primary objective but that this was not inconsistent with self-defense because it was reasonable to believe that Nicaragua would not maintain any commitments unless Sandinista power was diluted.

The judge said that both sides of the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador had committed atrocities. He said the U.S. mining of Nicaraguan harbors was unlawful in regard to third parties, but not Nicaragua.<ref>[http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/70/6523.pdf Dissent of Judge Schwebel] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102194122/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/70/6523.pdf |date=2014-01-02 }} International Court of Justice</ref>