Contras Plotting to Assassinate Ortega, Nicaragua Charges
Nicaragua has told the United States that it intercepted messages between U.S.-backed Contras last Sunday that referred to a plan to assassinate President Daniel Ortega in an ambush.
In a protest to Secretary of State James A. Baker III, also circulated as a U.N. document, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto said that the messages were transmitted over U.S.-supplied equipment. He accused Washington of trying to disrupt elections in Nicaragua set for Feb. 25.
The letter, dated Jan. 22, said that military intelligence deciphered messages sent between Contra troops in which they mentioned a plan to assassinate Ortega in an ambush to be set up between the towns of Quilali and San Juan del Rio Coco.
D’Escoto said the messages were sent “by means of sophisticated equipment supplied by the government of the United States as part of the misnamed ‘humanitarian aid.’ ”
Washington, which has not yet commented on D’Escoto’s protest, has continued providing the Nicaraguan rebels with non-lethal assistance.
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