U.S. Releases $50 Million in Aid for Nicaragua

Overriding the objections of conservative Republicans, the Clinton Administration said Friday that the government of President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in Nicaragua has improved its economic and human rights performance sufficiently to qualify for $50 million in impounded foreign aid funds.

“Nicaragua needs our assistance to continue on its path of economic reform and reconstruction of the country,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in announcing the release of the funds.

The money was appropriated by Congress last year but frozen after charges that Chamorro had failed to curb the influence of the Marxist Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Then-President George Bush, responding to demands from conservative lawmakers led by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), suspended $104 million in assistance last year. In December, the State Department released $54 million of that amount, and Friday’s action frees the rest.

Chamorro was elected president three years ago with the overt backing of the U.S.-financed Contra rebels and the tacit support of the U.S. government, ousting the Sandinista regime of President Daniel Ortega. In office, however, Chamorro sought a reconciliation with the Sandinistas, angering her Contra allies and their American backers.

Helms has accused Chamorro of corruption and human rights abuses. Republican conservatives also complain that the president left the army and security forces under effective Sandinista control and failed to compensate Americans for property expropriated by the Sandinista regime. But Boucher said that the government has extended the mandate of a human rights commission representing the Organization of American States and the Roman Catholic Church, suspended police officers and others accused of human rights abuses and established adequate procedures for resolving property claims.