Nicaragua to Keep SAM-7 in Reserve
Newly-named Nicaraguan Defense Minister Avil Ramirez stated that his government would keep SAM-7 antiaircraft missiles in reserve for its self-defense.

Avil Ramirez´ remarks to El Nuevo Diario newspaper take place amid strong US pressures to eliminate that weapon from the Nicaraguan military arsenal.

He said the National Assembly should decide on the stance to keep 400 rockets and destroy 651.

When that armament was bought, Nicaragua faced a different situation (the Washington-imposed war on the Sandinista People´s Revolution). However, we will not get rid of all we have, stressed the minister.

Ramirez said 400 missiles were sufficient to protect the country´s sovereignty, an opinion Army chief, General Omar Halleslevens, also backed.

According to reports, the Parliament´s Government Commission examined a proposal supporting the elimination of 651 missiles.

Observers believe that stance represented a failure for the US, which put pressures on President Enrique Bolaños to fully destroy the antiaircraft weapons.

Sandinista National Liberation Front deputy Jose Figueroa told Prensa Latina the armament would be destroyed without endangering national defense.

Figueroa recalled that the National Assembly-approved Armament Law regulated it was the Legislative Power, not the Executive, that should decide on such matters.

In the 1980s, the former Soviet Union provided the Sandinistas with SAM-7 to fight the counterrevolutionary groups operating from Honduras with military support from the US.