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During the 1980s the Reagan administration sponsored an anti-Sandinista guerilla movement known as the Contras (a proxy paramilitary based in Honduras and Costa Rica, largely consisting of northern highlanders known as the Milpas and
led by former Somoza regime soldiers) against the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The resulting war killed over 50,000 people, mostly civilians.
Under the Carter Administration, the Sandinistas had received tacit U.S. support in their coup against the previously U.S.-backed right-wing military dictatorship of the Somoza dynasty, which had ruled the country for several decades. An interim coalition, Junta, took power in 1979 and in 1984 leader of the FSLN party, Daniel Ortega became Nicaragua's first elected President who ruled under the name of the Sandinista revolution.
As the years progressed, the Ortega government was accused of becoming more authoritarian, with the more moderate factions of the coalition being expelled from government. Allegations of suppression of political dissent increased, as did accusations of state-sponsored human rights abuses. However, these accusations of human rights abuses were not accurate, according to Human Rights Watch: "Almost invariably, U.S. pronouncements on human rights exaggerated and distorted the real human rights violations of the Sandinista regime, and exculpated those of the U.S.-supported insurgents, known as the contras." As well, Ortega was a supporter of Fidel Castro's Cuba and many members of the Sandinista government sought to model Nicaragua along similar lines. Cuba sent doctors and technicians to Nicaragua and the Soviet Union shipped some military equipment, including some Hind helicopters.
The leftist nature of the Sandinista government and its support for Cuba
distressed many in the Reagan administration, who viewed the country as a key Cold War battleground, in danger of
becoming a Communist proxy state. As a result, covert support began to flow to the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels, whom Reagan had described as "the moral equal of our founding fathers."
