Wednesday 03 December
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Panama to Host
Parlatino Assembly
Nicaragua Asks
U.S. For War Reparations
Venezuela Offers
Nicaragua To Replace U.S. Aid
Brazil To Sell Missiles
To Pakistan
Argentina Denies
Suspending Commercial
Ties With Iran
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Nicaragua Asks U.S. For
War Reparations
Managua (Reuters) -
Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega, angry
because the United
States is rethinking an
aid program, pressed
Washington on Monday for
billions of dollars in
war reparations dating
back to a 1980s civil
war.
The International Court
of Justice, based in the
Hague, ordered the
United States in 1986 to
pay reparations to
Nicaragua for training,
arming and financing
Contra rebels and mining
Nicaraguan ports during
a conflict that killed
tens of thousands of
people.
"The United States has
not honored the judge's
order," Ortega said on
national television.
The World Court never
set a figure for
compensation but
Sandinistas said
Washington owed the
country $17 billion.
Washington at the time
rejected the court's
jurisdiction.
Ortega led a Marxist
government during the
war, which ended shortly
after he was voted out
of power in 1990. He
bounced back to the
presidency in 2006.
The U.S. government said
last week it is
reviewing a $175 million
program of aid to
Nicaragua because of
concerns about recent
elections in which
Ortega's leftist
Sandinista party won 105
of 146 municipal races.
The opposition claimed
the polls were rigged.
Nicaragua abandoned
claims to war
reparations in 1991
after saying it would
drop its case in
exchange for aid from
the United States, but
Washington's recent
balking over aid
prompted Ortega to bring
up the matter once
again.
Ortega said on Monday
the debt would now be
about $45 billion if
interest on it were
factored in.
He said if Washington
did not continue with
the aid program, he
would get the money from
Venezuela, which is
ruled by anti-U.S.
President Hugo Chavez.
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