Press: The War That No One Can Cover

Reporting on the Nicaraguan contras is a frustrating standoff

Driving to the sleepy Honduran market town of Las Trojes, the visitor travels along a dirt track that hugs the Nicaraguan border. The boundary is no more than a hundred yards away in most places, marked by three strands of barbed wire clinging to rotting posts hidden in chest-high grass. At a point where the road elbows its way out of forested hills and runs through open country, a Honduran soldier on patrol warns, "The Sandinistas will shoot at anybody." No wonder. Thousands of U.S.-backed contras have infiltrated that barbed-wire border to set up a base camp nearly 20 miles inside...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!