ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of external actors in influencing local constituent groups, and, the impact of these local political opposition sectors in affecting the Sandinistas' perceptions, international policy options and behavior. The United States (US), meanwhile, worked through the domestic and the external opposition to further undermine the political system in Nicaragua. The bourgeoisie perspective was that the Frente could not be trusted and that its long-term objective was to establish a Marxist-Leninist, communist state in Nicaragua. As the Frente initiated structural change and as bourgeoisie opponents of the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) identified increasingly with US policy or the armed counter-revolutionaries, the hierarchy too became more politically vocal and hardline. FSLN suspicions of the church hierarchy's objectives grew as links between the bourgeoisie and the church and US policy were first assumed and then became clear in 1983 and 1984.
