ABSTRACT
One of the essential elements of a regional solution to any political problem is a minimal consensus on a desired outcome. This is just what is clearly lacking in Nicaragua. Between the Sandinista regime and its neighbors there are irreconcilable political differences, reflected in their relationship to the United States on the one hand, and Cuba and the Soviet bloc on the other. The presence of former Somocistas in the anti-Sandinista coalition is not a particularly devastating fact, since many functionaries of the current Nicaraguan government, including its present foreign minister, share the same disability. Though the United States is no longer “hegemonic” in Central America, at least in the sense in which it once was, it remains the most important foreign power in the region. The orthodox Costa Rican Communist party, known as the Party of the Popular Vanguard, was active in the Nicaraguan civil war to the extent of fielding several hundred combatants.
