Central America and the Bitter Fruit of U.S. Policy

Bill Gentile was a young freelance reporter and photographer in Central America throughout the 1980s, covering the Sandinista Revolution and ensuing Contra War in Nicaragua and its effects throughout the region. He covered these conflicts at great personal risk, accompanying Sandinista units on patrol in the mountains and dodging airstrikes in the capital, Managua. Through these formative experiences and the relationships he formed with Nicaraguans and other international journalists, Gentile learned lifelong lessons about war, journalism, and himself. Forty years after the Sandinista Revolution, he returned to Nicaragua, where the current political situation caused him to reflect on his experiences there. This Working Paper is a collection of Gentile's stories and observations on power, war, and journalism, from his initial arrival in Managua in 1979 to the present