Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a republic in Central America. It is the largest nation on the isthmus, but also the least densely populated, thus being similar in size to its smaller neighbors. The country is bordered to the north by Honduras and to the south by Costa Rica. Its western coast is on the Pacific Ocean, while the east of the country borders the Caribbean Sea. Nicaragua is one of three countries in the world where abortion is illegal with no exceptions, along with El Salvador and Chile.
Nicaragua was recently ravaged by a civil war, which killed tens of thousands of civilians, destroyed virtually all of the country's already fragile infrastructure, and left 20% of the country's population homeless [1], between the Contra guerrillas and the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (español: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, or FSLN), a revolutionary socialist movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Antonio Somoza Debayle in the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979, and proceded to win a democratic election with overwhelming popular support. This was revealed, in the case Nicaragua v. the United States, heard before the International Court of Justice, to be instigated by the Reagan administration, which was worried as a result of a left-wing country within its sphere of influence. The United States government, as a result of this, refused to pay the $12 billion in reparations to Nicaragua that the court deemed appropriate, despite a UN General Assembly mandating this, and announced that it did not recognise the court. [2] [3]
The United States government also controversially armed the Contra guerrillas using money earned from weapons sold to Iran, which, as a supporter of the terrorist guerrilla group Hezbollah, was strongly opposed in public by the Reagan government. [4]
Popular support for the Sandinista government declined dramatically as a result of the government's programme of mandatory military service to prepare for what it viewed as an imminent U.S. invasion. At the nadir of that support, the Sandinistas lost power to the National Opposition Union (español: Unión Nacional Opositora, or UNO) in the democratic election of 1990. They returned to power after having won the 2006 elections. Having become staunchly corrupt[citation needed] and conservative[citation needed], the party threw its support behind the law against abortion in all circumstances. Pro-choice activists and medics who aided a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl who was impregnated by her stepfather having an abortion when it was still legal are currently being persecuted by the government[citation needed]. President Daniel Ortega, himself being accused of having sexually abused his stepdaughter[citation needed] (the only reason he can't be prosecuted being his judicial immunity)[citation needed], has described human rights activists and feminists as "fascists"[citation needed].Ortega called the economic crisis a "punishment from God".[citation needed]
An important step you can take to establish your politically correct bona fides is to always pronounce it "Nee-ka-HA-gwah"