United Nicaraguan Opposition
Encyclopedia
The United Nicaraguan Opposition (Unidad Nicaragüense Opositora, UNO) was a Nicaraguan rebel umbrella group formed in 1985, led by the triumvirate of Adolfo Calero
Adolfo Calero
Adolfo Calero Portocarrero was a Nicaraguan businessman, and leader of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, which was the largest contra rebel group opposing the Sandinista government. In the contra leadership, Calero was responsible for managing the bank accounts into which money was deposited and...

, Alfonso Robelo
Alfonso Robelo
Luis Alfonso Robelo Callejas , a Nicaraguan businessman, was the founder of the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement . He was one of the "moderates" on the five-members Junta of National Reconstruction that the Sandinistas claimed would rule Nicaragua following the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle...

, and Arturo Cruz
Arturo Cruz
Arturo José Cruz Porras , sometimes called Arturo Cruz, Sr. to distinguish him from his son, is a Nicaraguan banker and technocrat. He became prominent in politics during the Sandinista era...

. However, the great majority of UNO's military forces came from Calero's Nicaraguan Democratic Force
Nicaraguan Democratic Force
The Nicaraguan Democratic Force was one of the earliest Contra groups, formed on August 11, 1981 in Guatemala City. It was formed to oppose Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government following the 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle...

 (FDN), and throughout its two-year existence Robelo and Cruz complained that Calero treated them as figureheads rather than equals. Generally, the CIA backed Calero in these struggles, while Elliott Abrams
Elliott Abrams
Elliott Abrams is an American attorney and neoconservative policy analyst who served in foreign policy positions for two Republican U.S. Presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. While serving for Reagan and in the State Department, Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, and retired U.S. Marine Corps officer...

 and the State Department backed Robelo and Cruz.

In January 1987, Cruz informed Abrams of his intention to resign. In a bid to prevent this, Abrams pushed Calero into resigning in mid-February, but Cruz left on March 9. With Cruz's resignation, UNO collapsed. It was succeeded by the Nicaraguan Resistance
Nicaraguan Resistance
The Nicaraguan Resistance was the last and arguably most successful effort to unify Nicaragua's rebel Contras into a single umbrella organization. It was established in May 1987, after the United Nicaraguan Opposition foundered....

.
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