Nicaragua Destroys Missiles at U.S. Request

Nicaragua’s army destroyed 333 surface-to-air missiles at the urging of the United States, Defense Minister Jose Adan Guerra said Wednesday.

Guerra called the destruction a sign of good faith to Washington and said the military planned to destroy another 333 SAM-7s in late July.

The United States repeatedly has called on Nicaragua to decommission its more than 2,000 Russian-made SAM-7s, which it received in the 1980s under the Marxist Sandinista government allied with the Soviet Union.

On a trip to Managua in November, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos that the Bush administration feared that the missiles could be a prime tool for terrorists.

“We feel very strongly that they should be eliminated in their totality,” Powell said. “I don’t believe they add any security” for Nicaragua, but are instead “a burden,” he added.

The shoulder-fired missiles, capable of taking down a plane, were left over from the 1980s war against the Contra rebels. U.S. officials fear that the missiles could be used against helicopters in Colombia, including those the Pentagon has supplied.

Bolanos said in a national radio address Tuesday that the destruction of the missiles was “a genuine example of our interest in reaching a reasonable balance of arms in Central America.”