In 2000, military officials linked FUAC to illicit drug trafficking.

The Andres Castro United Front (FUAC) arose from the ashes of the Sandinista-Contra civil war, which took place in Nicaragua in the 1980s.  In the late 1970s, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) took advantage of a movement to overthrow the corrupt Somoza regime, which had ruled Nicaragua for over forty years.  The Sandinista National Liberation Front, a Marxist political/guerrilla movement, joined with more moderate forces to finally depose of the Somoza regime in 1979.  The Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979-1990.  In the 1980s, anti-Sandinista guerrillas, "Contras," emerged to take power back from the Sandinistas.  The conflict ended in 1990 when the Sandinistas lost the Nicaraguan presidency in a free election.  Despite their election loss, the Sandinistas still have a strong political presence in Nicaragua today.<br /><br /><P> Following the end of civil war, former soldiers were left with no job prospects and little training.  These soldiers formed armed rebel groups in the early 1990s to pressure the new Nicaraguan government for aid.  In 1995, a group of former Sandinista military officers formed the Andres Castro United Front (FUAC).  The FUAC leaders vowed to engage in armed rebellion until the government provided aid to their members, specifically food, land, and job training.  The Nicaraguan government negotiated with FUAC and other armed rebel groups, both right-wing and left-wing, for their disarmament.

In 1997, the Andres Castro United Front (FUAC) and the Nicaraguan government reach an agreement that FUAC will demobilize in exchange for economic aid.  At the time of FUAC's demobilization in1997, they had approximately 400 members.  Unfortunately, a rebel group re-emerged two years later calling themselves the Andres Castro United Front (FUAC).  Beginning in 1999, the re-formed FUAC embarked on a terrorist campaign.  The re-formed FUAC leaders claimed that the Nicaraguan government had not followed through on its vow to provide economic assistance for the FUAC members.  <P> Using this justification, FUAC has brought violence back to a war-weary country.  While the Andres Castro United Front denies a relationship with the political party, Sandinista National Liberation Front; the Nicaraguan politician Pablo Martinez Flores has accused the Sandinista National Liberation Front of using FUAC terrorists to influence elections.  In the past, FUAC attacks have coincided with elections involving Sandinista politicians.