Nicaragua, US In Talks
On Missiles
A U.S. government team
is evaluating
Nicaragua's proposal to
destroy hundreds of
Soviet-made missiles in
exchange for hospital
equipment, authorities
said on Tuesday.
President Daniel Ortega
met the leader of the
U.S. delegation, John
Feeley, head of Central
American affairs at the
U.S. State Department,
shortly after the
Pentagon team of U.S.
hospital administration
specialists arrived
Monday for a 10-day
review of Nicaragua
hospitals to see what
medical equipment was
needed.
The U.S. government has
long pressured Nicaragua
to destroy the
shoulder-fired SAM-7
anti-aircraft missiles
as part of a global
effort to eliminate
weapons that could fall
into the hands of
terrorists.
Nicaragua has already
destroyed about half its
original stockpile of
2,000 missiles and it is
offering to destroy 651
of the remaining 1,051
SAMs in exchange for
"modern medical
equipment and
medications," Ortega's
office said in a press
statement.
Ortega told Radio Ya,
the station of his
Sandinista party, that
the U.S. team would
carry out "an evaluation
... so that these
missiles are converted
into equipment and
medications to save
lives."
The U.S. Embassy
confirmed Feeley had
arrived, but gave no
other details.
Nicaragua's ambassador
in Washington, Arturo
Cruz Sequeira, told the
local Channel 8
television that the
final 400 missiles also
could be destroyed, but
only as part of a
regional arms reduction
effort "to bring the
region's armed forces
into parity."
However, Ortega told the
same station on Monday
that Nicaragua would
keep the 400 missiles,
partly because Colombia
"is becoming a factor of
destabilization and
insecurity for Latin
Americans."
That was an apparent
reference to Colombia's
attack on a rebel camp
across its border in
Ecuador on Saturday.
Ortega, like Ecuador's
President Rafael Correa,
is a close ally of
leftist Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez.
Nicaragua also has a
maritime boundary
dispute with Colombia in
the Caribbean.
The United States backed
the Contra rebels in
their decade-long fight
to overthrow the
Ortega's Soviet-backed
government during his
first run as Nicaragua's
leader in the 1980s.
Ortega returned to
office in January 2007
after winning 2006
presidential elections.
|
|
