CONTRA'S

        The Contras (from the Spanish term La Contra, short for movement of the contrarrevolucionarios, meaning counter-revolutionaries) were the armed opponents of Nicaragua's FSLN, Communist Cuban and Union Of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), supported Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle and the ending of the Somoza family's 43-year rule.

        The label was commonly used by the US press to cover a range of groups opposed to the Sandinistas, with little in the way of ideological unity; thus some references use the uncapitalized form, contra, which means against or counter in Spanish.