NewsTracker Answers for week of July 16, 2018

Q: Armed militias loyal to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega opened fire on a church where 200 protesting university students and others had taken refuge. Two students were killed at least 10 injured in the 15-hour siege. Where is the Central American nation of Nicaragua?

Circle the area on this map


Q: More than 300 people have been killed since April in protests against Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian regime. One of the last centers of resistance was the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua  in the capital city . . . .

A. Belmopan

B. Managua

C. San Jose

D. Tegucigalpa


B. Managua is Nicaragua’s capital and largest city with a population of about 1 million people.


Q: Ortega, 72, led a 1979 revolution against a right-wing dictator and a subsequent war against U.S.-backed rebels. The Reagan Administration obtained money to support the rebels by selling arms to what U.S. foe?

A. Cuba

B. Iraq

C. Iran

D. Russia


C. Senior administration officials secretly arranged the sale of arms to Iran despite an embargo. They hoped to fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua while at the same time negotiating the release of several U.S. hostages. Congress earlier had prohibited U.S. support for the Contras.


Q: Ortega’s first term as president from 1984 to 1990 was marked by 33,000% inflation during the Contra conflict. Nicaragua is the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. What is the poorest nation in the Americas?

A. Belize

B. Bermuda

C. Cuba

D. Haiti


D. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere with gross domestic product of $1,800 per person compared with $5,800 in Nicaragua and $99,400 in Bermuda, the richest nation in the hemisphere. After losing office in 1990, Ortega regained the presidency in 2007 and has held office ever since.


Q: Nicaraguans working in other countries who send money back to help their families account for 15% of the nation’s economy. Many of those emigrants are working in which nation on Nicaragua’s southern border?

A. Costa Rica

B. El Salvador

C. Honduras

D. Panama


A. Nicaragua is bordered by Costa Rica to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, Honduras to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica has been known for its stable democracy, in a region that has had some instability, and for its highly educated workforce in a thriving economy.