Weekly Report - 30 March 2004

One other thing achieved by the new Liberal entente in the national assembly has been the announcement of an agreement to start getting rid of Nicaragua's arsenal of SAM-7 missiles — a move which the US government has been urging for some time. Formally, the decision remains contingent upon subregional moves towards a `reasonable balance of forces'. The unofficial word is that Nicaragua will eliminate, as a `unilateral gesture', half of its stock of SAM-7s — about 1,000 missiles — in three stages over the coming year or so. Others (read Honduras) are expected to follow suit.