A penetrating analysis of the controversial U.S. role in the 1990 Nicaraguan elections-the most closely monitored in history-this book exposes the intervention in the electoral process of a sovereign nation by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, the National Endowment for Democracy, and private U.S.-based organizations.

William I. Robinson, a former investigative journalist, is a research associate at the Center for International Studies in Managua and a news analyst for the Latin America Data Base at the University of New Mexico, He is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American studies at the University of New Mexico. Robinson is coauthor, with Kent Norsworthy, of David and Goliath: The U.S. War Against Nicaragua, which won the 1987 Gustavus Myers Book Award for outstanding scholarship in the study of human rights and intolerance in the United States.

Introduction -- The New Intervention -- Nicaragua from Carter to Reagan to Bush -- Creating a Political Opposition -- Consolidating a "Civic Opposition Front" -- The International Network -- The CIA, Public Relations, Secret Relations, and Multiple Money Pots -- The Contras and the Economy: The Making of a Faustian Bargain -- The Future: "Low-Intensity" Democracies? -- Postscript -- Afterword -- Afterword -- Final Note -- Documents -- Chronology