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C. U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1909 to 1933 to protect U.S. businesses. Before they left, they set up a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans and designed to be loyal to U.S. interests. Anastasio Somoza’s grandfather ran this Guardia Nacional and used it to seize power. With U.S support, the Samosas used the guard to control Nicaragua until 1979.
B. El Salvador was was torn by a bloody civil war from 1979 to 1992. El Salvador, Nicaragua’s northern neighbor Honduras and its southern neighbor Costa Rica, are Central American nations along with Belize, Guatemala and Panama. The nations of Colombia, Peru and Venezuela are in South America, and like many throughout Latin America they suffered through decades of armed violence between left-wing and right-wing groups.
A. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. Officials hoped the arms sale would help free American hostages in Lebanon and planned to use the proceeds to fund the Contras. Ortega later lost three presidential elections after the Contra conflict, his Marxist policies and U.S. sanctions wrecked Nicaragua’s economy.
D. The United States, Britain and the European Union, which includes France and Germany, all imposed sanctions against Ortega’s government. Russian support became more important to Nicaragua when the United States and Europe cut aid two years after Ortega was again elected president in 2006. Nicaragua is one of the poorest nations in the Americas, with nearly half its population living in poverty, according to the UN.