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From: vassos@utcsri.UUCP (Vassos Hadzilacos)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: (The Nicaragua connection)
Message-ID: <1899@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jan-86 09:43:29 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsri.1899
Posted: Tue Jan  7 09:43:29 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 7-Jan-86 10:26:06 EST
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 35

> This is taken from today's (sunday 1/5) L.A. Times:
> 
> The Colombian government charged that rifles used by guerillas in November's
> bloody takeover of the Palace of Justice in Bogota came from the leftist
> Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. In a letter to his Nicaraguan counterpart,
> Miguel D'Escoto, Colombian Foreign Minister Augusto Ramirez demanded a
> "prompt and satisfactory explanation" of how the arms fell into the hands
> of M-19 guerillas.
> 
> I am wondering what the explanation will be.

The Colombian government's letter did not say that the rifles came from the
leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. It said that their serial numbers
were traced to the following two sources:

	1. M-16's and Uzi's of Somoza's National Guard; and

	2. Belgian-made rifles shipped from Venezuela to aid the
	   Sandinistas in their struggle against Somoza's dicatorship.

To these Fr. D'Escoto replied that:

	1. Many of the National Guardsmen left Nicaragua with their
	   weapons after the defeat of the Somoza regime; the Sandinista
	   government can hardly be held responsible for such weapons.

	2. The Belgian-made rifles might never had made it to
	   Nicaragua, although they were supposed to have been
	   shipped there. He said that only 1/3 of the weapons
	   shipped to the Sandinistas during the war ever
	   reached their destination; and because of the logistical
	   confusion of the times he could not assert whether these
	   specific weapons had actually reached Nicaragua or not.

--Vassos Hadzilacos.