Americans Nicaragua

The camouflage-suited men in the Miami motel room had a bold plan: slip into Nicaragua, steal a Soviet helicopter gunship and fly it out to collect an advertised bounty of $1 million. One of the leaders, the man armed with the German PPK .38 automatic handgun who called himself "Col. Flaco," advocated a second objective.

Two Southern California sisters were among 150 vacationers caught in a sudden volcanic eruption in Nicaragua, and one of them suffered a broken arm, according to accounts provided Wednesday by the sisters and the Holland America line. At least half of the tourists who experienced the April 23 eruption, some suffering cuts and bruises, were reported to be from California. They were on a one-day land tour off the cruise ship Veendam, which was docked at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

President Bush, clearly exasperated by Americans who have protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Managua, lashed out Thursday at American supporters of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, saying they should accept the results of last month's election if they "want to help the people." In a question and answer session with a newspaper publishers' group at the White House, Bush also praised Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and repeated U.S.

The U.S. baseball team's burnished bronze medals are going to outshine any tarnished gold professionals win in the next Olympics, U.S. Coach Skip Bertman insisted Friday after the United States beat Nicaragua, 10-3, for a disappointing third-place finish.

American rancher James Jordan Denby, jailed since being shot down while flying his light plane over Nicaragua on Dec. 6, was released Saturday into the custody of Democratic U.S. Senate contender Bill Press of California. Denby, 58, who had been accused of working with the Contras, then flew with Press to Los Angeles in a chartered luxury jet.

Americans such as Benjamin E. Linder, who was killed Tuesday during an attack by U.S.-backed rebels in Nicaragua, understand the risks involved when they go abroad into areas of "guerrilla war," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Wednesday. And Linder, in a legal document filed last fall, referred to the dangerous nature of his work as a result of U.S. policy in Nicaragua. Fitzwater said President Reagan has been informed of the incident, in which Linder and two Nicaraguans were killed.

A film about an American adventurer who took over Nicaragua more than 100 years ago was a box-office flop in the United States, but it has been drawing long lines in Managua. A downtown movie house has been packed since the film "Walker" opened Feb. 25. That's an unusual occurrence because the $5 tickets cost more than many workers earn in a day.

Former Nicaraguan rebels released a kidnapped American election observer and her driver Saturday in jungle-covered northeastern Nicaragua, a government official said. Cynthia Gersony, 41, of New York City, was "freed by the rearmed Contra group that kidnapped her yesterday near the Honduran border," government spokesman Emigdio Quintero said.

The family of American Benjamin Linder, who was slain by rebels in Nicaragua last year, filed a $50-million wrongful death suit in Miami against Contra leaders. The suit alleges that Linder, a 27-year-old volunteer from Portland, Ore., who was working on a hydroelectric project for the Nicaraguan government, was tortured, then shot dead at point-blank range as he lay wounded after a rebel ambush on April 28, 1987.

The code words "Cousin," "Basketball" and "Bogey" never will go down in history with the likes of "Rawhide," "Plumbers" and "Overlord," but they did provide the secret heart of a bilingual vocabulary used to spring American rancher James Jordan Denby from a Nicaraguan prison.

Former Nicaraguan rebels released a kidnapped American election observer and her driver Saturday in jungle-covered northeastern Nicaragua, a government official said. Cynthia Gersony, 41, of New York City, was "freed by the rearmed Contra group that kidnapped her yesterday near the Honduran border," government spokesman Emigdio Quintero said.

A Nicaraguan judge ordered police to arrest U.S. rancher John Hull, who allegedly was a Contra collaborator, for possible extradition to Costa Rica. The Costa Rican government claims that Hull used his ranch to run cocaine and supply arms to the Contras opposing Nicaragua's former Sandinista government in the 1980s. He also faces secondary murder charges in connection with a 1984 bombing at a press conference that killed three journalists, a Costa Rican spokesman said.

A judge in Miami dismissed a $50-million damage suit accusing the U.S.-backed Contras of torturing and executing an American during the Nicaraguan civil war. U.S. District Judge Stanley Marcus said the case intruded into the diplomatic arena. Benjamin Linder, 27, of Portland, Ore., was shot to death in Nicaragua in 1987 when the rebels attacked the rural hydroelectric project he was helping to build.

President Bush, clearly exasperated by Americans who have protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Managua, lashed out Thursday at American supporters of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, saying they should accept the results of last month's election if they "want to help the people." In a question and answer session with a newspaper publishers' group at the White House, Bush also praised Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and repeated U.S.

U.S.-backed Contras and the leftist Sandinista government on Wednesday traded accusations over an attack that killed two nuns, one an American, and wounded two other church workers in a remote area of Nicaragua. President Daniel Ortega lashed out at the United States, declaring: "The North American government is responsible for this crime because it pays the Contras to commit these crimes."

Gunmen ambushed a car carrying church workers in northeastern Nicaragua and killed two nuns, one an American, church officials said Tuesday. They said an American bishop and a third nun were wounded. Father Marcelino Estrada said from Bluefields, Nicaragua, that the attack took place Monday night on a highway near Puerto Cabezas in a remote Caribbean coastal region about 200 miles northeast of Managua.

About 8,000 anti-Contra demonstrators marched in a candlelight vigil in the Westwood Village area Saturday night in hopes of influencing Congress to defeat the most recent plea from President Reagan for more money for the Contras. The protesters, carrying candles and signs, represented 30 anti-Contra organizations, coordinated by a group which called itself Days of Decision.

The leader of a contra attack in which American engineer Benjamin E. Linder was killed said that Linder was not specifically targeted in the ambush and that the attackers did not learn an American was among the casualties until the following day. The 22-year-old unit commander, who uses the pseudonym Mapachin, also insisted that before opening fire, his men shouted to Linder's group to surrender. Linder, 27, from Portland, Ore.

Two nuns, one an American, were killed today in an attack by U.S.-backed Contra rebels in northeast Nicaragua, the official Voice of Nicaragua radio said. The radio identified the American nun as Maureen Courtrier and the Nicaraguan nun as Teresa Rosales. American priest Paul Smith, an auxiliary bishop in Bluefields, Marcelino Estrada, a Nicaraguan priest and Francisca Colomer, a nun were also wounded.

U.S. troops surrounded the residence of Nicaragua's ambassador Friday, ordered all personnel inside to evacuate and searched the premises for weapons, the ambassador said. In Managua, President Daniel Ortega said Friday night that 20 American diplomats and about 100 U.S. Embassy administrative and service employees will be expelled in retaliation for the incident, which he called "unheard of."