Recontra 380 was an anti-Sandinista, anti-government insurgency movement in Nicaragua made up of former Contra rebels. "Recontra" refers to "rearmed Contra" and "380" is the pseudonym of former Contra leader Colonel Enrique Bermudez, who was assassinated in 1991. Estimates of the group's strength range from several hundred to over a thousand members.<br /><p><br /><br />The rule of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua ended peacefully after the 1990 Presidential Elections, during which Violeta Chamorro of the United Nicaraguan Opposition (UNO) defeated Daniel Ortega, the incumbent from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Most Contras, who had opposed the Sandinista regime since 1979, disarmed, exchanging their weapons for money, land, or positions in Nicaragua's police force. However, even after this transition in power, hundreds of former Contras announced their intent to rearm in 1993, citing what they saw as an inappropriate amount of Sandinista influence in President Chamorro's government, military, and police forces.<br /><p><br /><br />Recontra 380 members wanted the government to purge Sandinistas from top positions in government, adopt economic policies to help former Contras, and protect Contras from Sandinista-aligned law enforcement officers known to illegally arrest, imprison, and even kill Recontra rebels. After truce talks arbitrated by the Catholic Church began with the Nicaraguan government, Recontra demands changed to include the enforcement of the government's obligations to the Contras under negotiated agreements and protection from harassment by the Sandinista-aligned leftist movements that emerged after Ortega's 1990 defeat, such as the Sandinista People's Army (EPS). The Recontras relied on a string of high-profile kidnappings in the mid-1990s to attract attention to their political cause.<br /><p><br /><br />The Recontras were mainly outfitted by air or land from supply depots in Honduras, their old base during their war against the Sandinistas, and the group was funded by private donors in Latin America and Nicaraguan and Cuban nationals in Miami. The group claimed to have a dozen U.S.-supplied surface-to-air missiles that were provided to them during the civil war.<br /><p><br /><br />In October 1993, the leader of Recontra 380, Jose Angel Talavera, aka "The Jackal" or "El Chacal," was chased from Nicaragua by government troops and narrowly escaped to Honduras. This effectively shattered the movement, causing many members to seek refuge or asylum in Honduras, and control of the group was assumed by 16 different rebel commanders from that point forward. Talavera returned the next year, but attempts at peace talks mediated by the Catholic Church and the International Support and Verification Commission of the Organization of American States (CIAV-OAS) in 1994 resulted in threats against Catholic officials and the simultaneous occupation of the CIAV-OAS office and Colombian Embassy in Nicaragua by Recontra rebels.<br />