ABSTRACT
Jimmy Carter had argued for American promotion of human rights in his inauguration speech and in the early days of his presidency—a position not naturally compatible with wealth-extraction from the poorer areas of the globe. American public support for the Contras only began to rise substantially near the end of the 1980s, as media reportage from Central America diminished. The Contra war against Nicaragua could not have been prosecuted without the help of Costa Rica and Honduras, which collaborated with the United States to facilitate the Sandinistas’ demise. Fears of Honduran instability were not only due to the nation’s proximity to Nicaragua but also to the massive repression unleashed in Guatemala, to the west. Costa Ricans convinced the Sandinistas to sign a pact that sought to demilitarize the isthmus, as a consequence of which the Managua regime pursued a host of new policies that led directly to the Sandinistas’ defeat in the 1990 election.
