ABSTRACT
The civil war in Nicaragua was an international as well as an internal conflict. The hostilities were variously understood as part of the East -West Cold War confrontation or as another confrontation between the northern colossus and its victims to the south. The chapter identifies international efforts to pressure the Sandinistas to hasten the elections after peace was negotiated and to allow international monitoring to supervise fair and free elections conforming to international standards. Organizations like the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and National Republican Institute for International Affairs also received assistance from National Endowment for Democracy funding to train opposition leaders and citizens in voter registration and democratic election processes. The validity derived from the many benefits the plan offered for an array of domestic and international actors. These actors included the Sandinistas, the contras, and Nicaragua's Central American neighbors, as key negotiators, and the United States, Western European and Latin American countries as allied or mediators.
