Just six months after the Shah left Iran, the President of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, was forced by Sandinista guerrillas to flee his country.

After the formal unification of the Sandinista guerrillas in March, heavy fighting broke out all over the country.

Several towns, assisted by Sandinista guerrillas, expelled their National Guard units.

Lamont confessed to involvement in the kidnapping, which was meant to raise money for Sandinista guerrillas, and the two were released and deported to Canada in 1996.

Some built street barricades, others sheltered Sandinista guerrillas.

Their commanders are mostly the same National Guardsmen who were beaten from 1977 to 1979 by lightly armed Sandinista guerrillas.

While Sandinista guerrillas launched a series of attacks across the country in 1978 and 1979, civilian opposition groups organized strikes and other protests.

Hard-core Sandinista guerrillas numbered perhaps 2,000 to 3,000; untrained popular militias and foreign supporters added several thousand more to this total.

Some took to the hills to join the Sandinista guerrillas who were fomenting revolution against the Somoza government.

"Sandinista guerrillas formed the basis for a KGB sabotage and intelligence group established in 1966 on the Mexican US border".