Outgoing US ambassador Paul Trivelli revealed in July that his government had made a firm offer to exchange Nicaragua’s stock of Soviet-made shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (SAM-7s) for medical equipment. Military experts estimate the value of the 650-plus SAMs at more than $32 million dollars but details of the proposed exchange were not made public.The swap, however, appears to have been postponed indefinitely. President Daniel Ortega has stated that the Nicaraguan Army needs the missiles to defend against a possible attack by Colombia. Relations between the two countries have been strained for years because of an ongoing dispute over the Nicaraguan continental shelf in the Caribbean, with Nicaragua calling for the return of the islands in the San Andrés archipelago. The World Court recently declared that Nicaragua has jurisdiction over the oil- and seafood-rich offshore waters out to the 52nd meridian, a ruling that Colombia does not accept.
This hornet’s nest of relations between the two countries had a stick poked at it recently because of Ortega’s bid to become an international figure by mediating between Colombia’s FARC guerrilla army and the government of that country. After it was revealed that Ortega had allowed some FARC leaders to enter Nicaragua on a clandestine flight in July, ostensibly to hold talks with him and visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Colombia lodged a complaint to the Organization of American States, alleging Nicaraguan interference in its internal affairs.