Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

SANDINISTAS • 615tic coastal area. Thousands fled to Honduras where many Indian menjoined the contras and eventually formed their own contra command.Within the cities, the FSLN persecuted some small religious groups,such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Pentecostals, as well asRoman Catholic priests suspected of being antiregime.Immediately after seizing power, the FSLN became a state sponsor,along with Cuba, of the Farabundo Martí National LiberationFront (FMLN) of El Salvador. On 2 January 1981, during theSalvadoran rebels’ final offensive, aerial surveillance by the CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA) revealed direct FSLN logistical supportfor the transshipment of U.S.-made arms captured in Vietnam toCuba, from Cuba to Nicaragua, and there to the Salvadoran rebels.On 9 March 1981 a presidential finding authorized CIA covert actionto interdict the arms shipments, which led to U.S. support forthe contras. On 1 April 1981 the United States ended foreign aid toNicaragua, which had received at least $118 million in U.S. aid followingthe overthrow of Somoza. The FSLN support for the FMLNin the latter’s effort to destroy the transitional government of El Salvadorgave the Ronald Reagan administration the leverage needed topersuade a skeptical U.S. Congress to support the contras against theFSLN. Throughout the FSLN period, Nicaragua continued to be atransshipment point for Cuban and Soviet aid to the FMLN but alsowas used as a safe haven for the FMLN, which maintained many ofits offices in Managua.The FSLN also gave moral and material support to the TúpacAmaru Revolutionary Movement of Peru, the Cinchoneros PopularLiberation Movement and the Lorenzo Zelaya Popular RevolutionaryForces of Honduras, the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)movement, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union, the M-19group of Colombia, and the Movement of the Revolutionary Left ofChile. The FSLN also gave safe haven to fugitives of the Italian RedBrigades and the Red Army Faction as well as refuge to remnants ofthe Uruguayan Tupamaros and Argentinean Montoneros. The presenceof Montoneros there in turn led Argentina to send military advisersand aid to help organize the contras in Honduras.On 17 September 1980 the exiled Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio SomozaDebayle was murdered along with members of his entourage asthey drove through Asunción, Paraguay. His assassins were members ofan Argentinean group, the People’s Revolutionary Army, which had