Here is a piece of May news from the Nicaragua Network (see www.nicanet.org). Bikes Not Bombs was founded in opposition to the US-run contra war in Nicaragua in the early 80's, and for years all BNB shipments and trainers went to Nicaragua. This new statement is a reminder of where we've been and the injustice that continues.

"US Ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli denied that the US owes Nicaragua US$17 billion for damages caused during the war financed by the US in the 1980s. He maintained that the issue is, "a moot issue and nonexistent" because the US "never accepted the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, also known as the World Court. He did point out however that the petition of the Sandinista government was not for US$17 billion, but rather US$370 million. 



"On a number of occasions Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega has stated that the US was ordered by the World Court in 1986 to pay a compensation for the damages caused by the US-funded contra war. Recently Ortega went as far as to claim that at present his government accepts the current US foreign aid as ''a contribution or payment" towards the reparations demanded by the World Court.

 In an interview however, Trivelli stated that former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro withdrew the demand against the US. Trivelli stated that the US accepts the actions of Chamorro and that the US is willing to continue to offer aid to Nicaragua, which to date has a calculated total of close to US$1.8 billion since 1990. Chamorro's dropping of the World Court decision against the United States was widely seen at the time as a pay-off for US funding of her campaign and the political arm twisting that united the fragmented anti-Sandinista opposition behind her. It was openly portrayed as the price of a renewal of U.S. foreign aid to Nicaragua. 



The Nicaragua Network believes that the US government has a moral obligation to pay Nicaragua for the devastating effects of its illegal war against the Sandinista revolution. At a modest 5% interest, that debt today stands at over $47 billion. The less than $2 billion in US aid over the last 17 years is a paltry sum in comparison." (Nicaragua Network, www.nicanet.org)