Ex-Contras to present United States with compensation demand ne

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- The political party comprising former members of the U.S.-backed Contra rebels said Wednesday it will drop plans to sue the United States for back pay in the war against Nicaragua's leftist government if it can reach a settlement with the U.S. government first.

A decision to file the lawsuit was approved Tuesday by more than 300 ex-Contra leaders, said Salvador Talavera, president of the guerrilla-movement-turned-political-party, known as the Nicaraguan Resistance.

The Nicaraguan Resistance argues the United States should recognize the former Contras as war veterans deserving back pay. The United States backed and helped train the Contra fighters in the war against the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s.

Talavera said Wednesday he and a delegation of ex-Contra commanders would go to Washington at the beginning of next month "to introduce the possibility of reaching an agreement and dropping the lawsuit."

The delegation will present its list of demands next week to U.S. Ambassador Barbara Moore, Talavera said.

"We have always been allies of the United States and as such we feel abandoned," Talavera said.

But some ex-commanders strongly oppose the idea, saying it diminishes their role in the war to little more than mercenaries.

Congressman Efren Altamirano, an ex-Contra commander, said he opposed the compensation demand because "we never went to war as mercenaries."

He said the Contras began the uprising against the Sandinistas and were initially financed by Argentina. It was only later that the United States decided to support them with money, arms, materiel and food, he said.

"We launched the fight to defend ourselves from Sandinista persecution in the countryside," Altamirano said.

President Enrique Bolanos also opposed the idea earlier this week.

However, Talavera maintained most ex-Contra commanders agree with the compensation demand, and those who oppose it were older combatants "who received special favors," usually land, from the Nicaraguan government after the war.

He said the compensation would help more than 20,000 ex-Contras, many of whom live in poverty and 7,000 of whom have been handicapped by war injuries. Most live on pensions of less than $2 a month, he said.

Telavera likened the ex-Contras to Vietnamese combatants who fought alongside U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War. The U.S. government granted them $400 million in the 1990s.

The war, and the Sandinistas' 10-year rule, ended in 1990 with the election of U.S.-backed President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. At least 50,000 Nicaraguans from both sides died during the conflict.