Proceeds from the arms sales were made available, in an arrangement instituted by Colonel Oliver North, aide to the U.S. National Security Advisor John Poindexter, to purchase arms for the Nicaraguan Contras (from Spanish contrarrevolucionario, trans. "counter-revolutionary"). The Contras were waging an insurgency against the Marxist Sandanista government, but, under the Boland Amendment, the U.S. Congress barred American funding to the Contras. Thus, the Reagan administration illegally provided covert financial assistance to the Contras in order to circumvent Congress, made possible by the North's diversion of profits from weapons sales to Iran. In addition, the Contras received weapons and training from the Central Intelligence Agency.
The economy of Nicaragua deteriorated under the continuing contra attacks on the country's infrastructure and the inability of the government to obtain financing from Western institutions such as the World Bank due to U.S. opposition. The devastation of Hurricane Joan in 1988, called by then-US Ambassador to Honduras John Negroponte "a contra victory," was another serious blow. In the 1990 elections, President Daniel Ortega lost to former Sandanista Violeta Chamorro, who ran with open US support on an anti-Sandanista coalition platform.
Boland Amendment
The Boland Amendment was an amendment to the House Appropriations Bill of 1982, which was attached as something known as a "Barnacle Bill," or provision that would not be expected to pass on its own merit, to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983. During the early years of the Reagan administration, a civil war raged in Nicaragua, pitting the Marxist Sandinista leaders of the Nicaraguan government against CIA-financed Contra rebels. When the CIA carried out a series of acts of sabotage without Congressional intelligence committees giving consent, or even being made aware beforehand, the Republican-controlled Senate became enraged, leading to the passage of the Boland Amendment and subsequent cutting off of appropriated funding for the Contras. The Boland Amendment was a highly limited ambiguous compromise because the Democrats did not have enough votes for a comprehensive ban. It only covered appropriated funds spent by intelligence agencies (such as the CIA). Reagan's people used non-appropriated money spent by the National Security Council to circumvent the Amendment. No court ever made a determination whether Boland covered the NSC, and no one was ever indicted for violating it. However, for years liberals alleged that Reagan's people violated the highly ambiguous amendment. Congress later resumed aid to the Contras, totaling over $300 million; the Sandinistas were voted out in 1990. The Boland Amendment prohibited the federal government from providing military support "for the purpose of overthrowing the Government of Nicaragua." As such it was thought by many to be an unconstitutional interference with the President's ability to conduct foreign policy. It aimed to prevent CIA funding of rebels opposed to the Marxist provisional junta, the Boland Amendment sought to block Reagan administration support for the Contra rebels. The amendment was narrowly interpreted by the Reagan administration only to apply to US intelligence agencies, allowing the National Security Council, not so labeled, to channel funds to the Contra rebels.
Sounds like the Democrats never found a Commie that they didn't like.
Yeppers...an they still do, to his day.