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Contact Air

Contact Air Flugdienst was a German regional airline from Filderstadt. With flight operations based at Stuttgart Airport, it operated scheduled passenger flights under the Lufthansa Regional brand.

History
The airline was founded in 1974 as a tax-break by Gunter Eheim, a German World War II test pilot and later manufacturer of aquarium filters, initially operating chartered passenger services using a small fleet of Dassault Falcon 20 and Learjet aircraft. In 1981, Contact Air became one of the launch customers for the British Aerospace Jetstream, along with US carrier Mall Airways. Its first aircraft of that type was delivered in the following year.

In 1984, Contact Air was subcontracted by DLT to operate one of its Jetstreams on scheduled regional flights on behalf of Lufthansa. Subsequently, DLT acquired 24.8 percent of the Contact Air shares.

Having waged the alternative of ordering the ATR 42, Contact Air announced in 1986 that it had chosen the de Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 for a fleet enlargement, thus becoming the second European airline to operate that type, after Tyrolean Airways. Two years later, Contact Air became the first non-Canadian buyer of the stretched Dash 8-300 version, ordering three aircraft worth $35 million.

In April 1996, Contact Air became a founding member of Team Lufthansa. In 2004, this airline association was reorganized as Lufthansa Regional, a Star Alliance affiliate. Henceforth, all Contact Air flights were operated using the Lufthansas branding and flight numbers.

On 29 November 2011, it was reported that Lufthansa would terminate its contract with Contact Air effective 1 October 2012. At that time, the Contact Air fleet consisted of eight Fokker 100, six of which were operated on behalf of Lufthansa out of Stuttgart Airport, with another two being based at Zurich Airport and operated for Swiss International Air Lines. In May 2012, Contact Air agreed to be taken over by OLT Express Germany, a step which was finalized in September of that year following its approval by the Federal Cartel Office.

Corporate affairs
Prior to acquisition the headquarters were in Filderstadt. Previously they were in Stuttgart.

Destinations
The scheduled destinations that were served by Contact Air on behalf of Lufthansa included:

Fleet
Over the years of its existence, Contact Air operated the following aircraft types:

Incidents and accidents

 * On 6 January 1993, Lufthansa Flight 5634 from Bremen to Paris, which was carried out under the Lufthansa CityLine brand using a Contact Air Dash 8-300 (registered D-BEAT), crashed 1800 m short of the runway of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. Four out of the 23 passengers on board died; the four crew members survived. The accident happened as a result of a failed go-around, which had become necessary because the aircraft ahead, a Boeing 747 of Korean Air, had suffered a blown tyre upon landing and the runway had subsequently been closed.
 * On 14 September 2009, Lufthansa Flight 288 from Berlin to Stuttgart, which was operated by a Contact Air Fokker 100 registered D-AFKE, made an emergency landing at Stuttgart Airport at 10:47 local time due to undercarriage failure. There were no injuries amongst the five crew members and 73 passengers on board. In the media coverage following the accident, Contact Air was criticised for operating ageing Fokker 100 aircraft, some of which previously had belonged to an airline that had been banned from European airspace over safety concerns.

title: Contact Air


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Cornelius Gallus

Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c. 70 – 26 BC) was a Roman poet, orator, politician and military commander, at one time appointed by the Emperor Augustus as prefect of Egypt. Although only nine lines of his poetry are extant today, he was considered by Ovid as one of the major Latin poets of the 1st century BC.

Birthplace
The identity of Gallus' purported birthplace, Forum Iulii, is still uncertain, and it is based on the epithet "Foroiuliensis" that Jerome gave to him. In Roman times, there were several cities with this name, but a dispute about Gallus' birthplace between Fréjus and the other cities is attested since the Renaissance. During the 20th century, Ronald Syme took into consideration Fréjus and Cividale del Friuli, and called the former the more likely. Jean-Paul Boucher recognized at least five candidates, and considered Forum Iulii Iriensium (modern Voghera) the most suitable.

It has been also suggested that "Foroiuliensis" could refer not to Gallus' birthplace, but rather to the place where he performed a memorable act, namely the erection of the Vatican obelisk in the Forum Iulium of Alexandria, thus making some generic mentions of Gallia as the sole possible clue about his place of origin.

Career
Born in a humble family, Gallus moved to Rome at an early age where he was taught by the same master as Virgil and Varius Rufus. Virgil, who was in great measure indebted to the influence of Gallus for the restoration of his estate, dedicated one of his eclogues (X) to him. The Erotica Pathemata of Parthenius of Nicaea was also dedicated to Gallus.

In political life Gallus espoused the cause of Octavian and as a reward for his services was made prefect of Egypt (Suetonius, Augustus, 66). In 30 BC, Cornelius Gallus led a campaign to subdue a revolt in Thebes. He erected a monument in Philae to glorify his accomplishments. Gallus' conduct brought him into disgrace with the emperor and a new prefect was appointed. After his recall, Gallus committed suicide (Cassius Dio, liii 23).

Poetic reputation
Gallus enjoyed a high reputation among his contemporaries as a man of intellect, and Ovid (Tristia, IV) considered him the first of the elegiac poets of Rome. Along with Ennius, Varro Atacinus, Lucretius, Virgil, and Tibullus, Ovid includes him in a list of the most notable Latin poets, writing: Gallus et Hesperiīs et Gallus nōtus Eōīs; et sua cum Gallō nōta Lycōris erit. "Gallus shall be known in the West and in the East; and with Gallus his Lycoris shall also be known."

He wrote four books of elegies chiefly on his mistress Lycoris (a poetical name for Cytheris, a notorious actress), in which he took for his model Euphorion of Chalcis; he also translated some of this author's works into Latin. He is often thought of as a key figure in the establishment of the genre of Latin love-elegy, and an inspiration for Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid.

Scholars used to believe, in the absence of any surviving poetry by Gallus and on the basis of his high reputation among his contemporaries, that his poetical gifts were little short of those of Virgil. The classicist Tenney Frank famously declared in 1922: 'What would we not barter of all the sesquipedalian epics of empire for a few pages of Cornelius Gallus, a thousand for each!' The discoveries at Qasr Ibrim have now given us nine lines of Gallus. Coincidentally, one of them mentions Lycoris, ('saddened, Lycoris, by your wanton behaviour'), confirming their authorship.

The surviving poetry of Gallus
Almost nothing by Gallus has survived; until 1978, only one line was known, quoted in Vibius Sequester's De Fluminibus, with regard to the Hypanis river. The line is a dactylic pentameter: ūnō tellūrēs dīvidit amne duās, "with its single stream it divides two continents,"

Then, in 1978 a papyrus was found at Qasr Ibrim, in Egyptian Nubia, containing nine lines by Gallus, arguably the oldest surviving manuscript of Latin poetry.

The first readable line of the manuscript has only four words and appears to be the end of a poem or epigram complaining about Lycoris's treatment of her lover:

trīstia nēquitiā ... Lycori, tuā

"sad because of your bad behaviour, Lycoris".

It has been argued that the next four lines pay homage to Julius Caesar shortly before his assassination in 44 BC, on the eve of his projected campaign against the Parthians:

Fāta mihi, Caesar, tum erunt mea dulcia, quom tū maxima Rōmānae pars eris historiae postque tuum reditum multōrum templa deōrum fīxa legam spolieis deivitiōra tueis.

"I will count myself blessed by fortune, Caesar, when you become the greatest part of Roman history; and when, after your return, I admire the temples of many gods adorned and enriched with your spoils."

This obsequious compliment need not be taken seriously. Later Augustan poets tended to distance themselves from the world of high politics and often drew a humorous contrast between the martial ambition of their ruler and their own ignoble love affairs. The next, missing, stanza may have subverted the sense, e.g. 'As it is, while you're off winning renown by conquering Parthia, I'm stuck here in Rome, with nothing to do but make love to Lycoris.'

A second, incomplete, block of four lines appears to refer to Lycoris. So long as she likes his verses, Gallus seems to be saying, he can ignore any 'peer reviews' they might attract from critics such as Publius Valerius Cato and Viscus:

. . . tandem fēcērunt carmina Mūsae quae possim dominā deicere digna meā. . . . ātur idem tibi, nōn ego, Visce . . . Katō, iūdice tē vereor.

"At last the Muses have made songs which I can utter worthy of my mistress. So long as . . . [they are pleasing?] to you, I am not afraid to be judged by you, Viscus, . . . nor by you, Cato."

The fragments of four poems attributed to him, first published by Aldus Manutius in 1590 and printed in Alexander Riese's Anthologia Latina (1869), are generally regarded as a forgery; and Pomponius Gauricus's ascription to him of the elegiac verses of Maximianus is no longer accepted.

"Gallus or Roman Scenes of the time of Augustus"
Gallus is the central figure in a fictionalised but fact-based account of the private life, manner and customs of the Romans: Gallus, or Roman Scenes of the time of Augustus, written by Professor Wilhelm Adolf Becker of Leipzig and published there in 1838. The work was translated into English by the Rev. Frederick Metcalfe in the 1840s. The 1898 Longmans, Green & Co. edition is available as a scan at the Internet Archive and is (2021) being prepared as an e-book by Project Gutenberg. The story of Gallus's fall from Augustus's favour forms the framework for an extensive learned discourse on what life was like in Rome as evidenced in Latin extracts from a number of writers (Suetonius, Martial, Pliny, Ovid, etc.) but most notably quotations in the Ancient Greek from Cassius Dio. The book contains extensive notes and 'Excursus' on various subjects including: the Roman Family, the Roman House, Books and Letters, Baths and Gymnastics, Dress, Banqueting, Drinking, and the Burial of the Dead.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cornelius Gallus


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User talk:Ggg111

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Sundaland heath forests

The Sundaland heath forests, also known as Kerangas forest, is a type of tropical moist forest found on the island of Borneo, which is divided between Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as on the Indonesian islands of Belitung and Bangka, which lie to the west of Borneo.

Setting
The word Kerangas, which means "land which cannot grow rice", comes from the Iban language. Heath forests occur on acidic sandy soils that are the result of the area's siliceous parent rocks. Permanently waterlogged heath forests are known as kerapah forests. Open-canopied woodlands are known as padang. The sandy soil of the heath forest are often lacking in nutrients; it is generally considered that nitrogen is the nutrient which is most lacking for plant growth in these forests. This is in contrast to many other lowland rain forests where phosphorus is considered to be lacking.

A more recent hypothesis, proposed by Proctor (1999), is that these forests are growing on soils which are highly acidic, such that hydrogen ion toxicity prevents the growth of non-adapted species. Moreover, heath forests' low soil pH hampers organic matter decomposition thus further slowing nutrient cycling.

Flora
The Sundaland heath forests are distinct from the surrounding Borneo lowland rain forests in species composition, structure, texture, and color. The heath forests typically have a low, uniform canopy approximately 20 metres high, with thick underbrush and rich growth of moss and epiphytes. Trees often have closely-spaced trunks. In contrast, padang woodland is relatively open, with shrubs and trees up 5 metres tall, and a ground layer of sparse grasses and sedges.

Leaf sizes are generally smaller than other lowland rain forest trees. As an adaptation to the nutrient-poor conditions, some heath forest species have small, hard, thick sclerophyll leaves which are low in nitrogen. Many tree and plant species in the nutrient-deprived heath forests have developed unconventional ways to get their nutrients. Some tree species (Gymnostoma nobile, for example) utilise rhizobia (nitrogen fixing bacteria) in their root nodules. Myrmecophytes, including Myrmecodia spp. and Hydnophytum spp., are tree species that develop symbiotic associations with ants to get their nutrients. Other plants, including pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.), sundews (Drosera spp.), and bladderwort (Utricularia spp.), are carnivorous, trapping and digesting insects.

Dipterocarps, including species of Shorea and Hopea, are common canopy trees on less barren soils, along with palms. Native trees include both heath forest endemics, typical lowland forest species, and species shared with peat swamp forests like Shorea albida, Shorea pachyphylla, and Shorea scabrida. Heath forests are also characterized by many plants of Australasian origin, including trees of families Myrtaceae and Casuarinaceae and the southern hemisphere conifers Agathis, Podocarpus, and Dacrydium.

Fauna
The heath forests generally have less wildlife and species diversity than the surrounding lowland rain forests, with little or no endemic species.

Protected areas
9.695% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. These include:
 * Sungai Serudong Forest Reserve
 * Bukit Soeharto Grand Forest Park
 * Gunung Lalang Grand Forest Park
 * Gunung Menumbing Grand Forest Park
 * Gunung Mangkol Grand Forest Park
 * Kutai National Park
 * Tanjung Puting National Park
 * Betung Kerihun National Park
 * Danau Sentarum National Park
 * Sebangau National Park
 * Meratus National Park
 * Gunung Maras National Park
 * Dered Krian National Park
 * Jering Menduyung Nature Recreation Park
 * Bukit Tangkiling Nature Recreation Park
 * Bukit Tangkiling Nature Reserve
 * Padang Luway Nature Reserve
 * Muara Kaman Sedulang Nature Reserve
 * Teluk Kelumpang, Selat Laut dan Selat Sebuku Nature Reserve

title: Sundaland heath forests


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Irene Mayer Selznick

Irene Gladys Selznick (née Mayer; April 2, 1907 – October 10, 1990) was an American socialite and theatrical producer.

Early life
Irene Gladys Mayer was born in Brooklyn, the younger of two sisters born to film producer Louis B. Mayer and his first wife, Margaret Shenberg Mayer.

Her sister, Edith (1905–1987), was nicknamed "Edie." In March, 1930, Edith married William Goetz, who became the vice president of 20th Century Fox in 1941 and later became the head of production at Universal-International.

Selznick's paternal and maternal grandparents were Belarusian Jews who immigrated to Canada in the 1880s from Vilnius and Kaunas (then territories belonging to the Russian Empire).

The Mayer family initially lived in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and then moved to Hollywood in 1918. It was there that her father established Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, one of the more successful film studios of its time. She attended Hollywood School for Girls, a private school in Los Angeles. She and her sister Edith both studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills.

Marriage and career
Irene married producer David O. Selznick in 1930. Her husband came from an extremely dysfunctional but talented family, and he was one of the few men who stimulated her intellect. During the marriage, she acted as a hostess to the couple's Hollywood parties. The couple frequently socialized with Hollywood stars, including Ingrid Bergman, Janet Gaynor, and Katharine Hepburn. Selznick was also an executive at her husband's production company. Irene Selznick also did volunteer and charity work and worked as a probation officer for juveniles for Los Angeles County during World War II.

After separating from her husband in 1945, Irene Selznick moved to New York City, where she pursued her love of the theatre. In 1947, she worked with playwright Tennessee Williams and director Elia Kazan and produced her first play, A Streetcar Named Desire, which gave Marlon Brando his break-out role. The play's success brought her a great deal of respect, and she produced four more plays, among them 1955's The Chalk Garden for which she received a Tony Award nomination. She retired in 1961.

Considered by her peers within the entertainment industry as one of the foremost historians of Hollywood and Broadway, Selznick published her autobiography, A Private View, in 1983.

Personal life
Mayer and Selznick had two sons, Lewis Jeffrey (1932–1997) and Daniel Selznick (born 1936), both of whom became film producers. Daniel married Susan Warms Dryfoos, daughter of Orvil E. Dryfoos.

However, David O. Selznick's constant philandering and frequent financial problems as a result of a gambling addiction led to their growing apart, which resulted in her leaving Selznick in 1945. Their divorce became final on January 22, 1949.

She was a close friend of Katharine Hepburn for several decades, but distanced herself from her late in life.

Death
Irene Mayer Selznick died on October 10, 1990, from complications from breast cancer at her apartment at The Pierre in Manhattan. Her remains were returned to California, where she was interred next to her mother in the Mausoleum, Hall of Graciousness, Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Broadway productions

 * A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
 * Bell, Book and Candle  (1950)
 * Flight Into Egypt  (1952)
 * The Chalk Garden  (1955)
 * The Complaisant Lover  (1961)

title: Irene Mayer Selznick


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Elvas

Elvas is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about 200 km east of Lisbon, and about 8 km west of the Spanish fortress of Badajoz, by the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway. The municipality population was 23,078, in an area of 631.29 km2. The city itself had a population of 16,640.

Elvas is among the finest examples of intensive usage of the trace italienne (star fort) in military architecture, and has been a World Heritage Site since 30June 2012. The inscribed site name is Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications.

History
Elvas lies on a hill 8 km northwest of the Guadiana river. The Amoreira Aqueduct 6 km long supplies the city with pure water; it was begun early in the 15th century and completed in 1622. For some distance it includes four tiers of superimposed arches, with a total height of 40 m.

It was wrested from the Moors by Afonso I of Portugal in 1166 but the city was temporarily recaptured before its final occupation by the Portuguese in 1226. In 1570 it became an episcopal see, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Elvas, until 1818. The late Gothic Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral, which has many traces of Moorish influence in its architecture, dates from the reign of Manuel I of Portugal (1495–1521).

It was defended by seven bastions and the two forts of Santa Luzia and the Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort. From 1642 it was the chief frontier fortress south of the Tagus, which withstood sieges by the Spanish in 1659, 1711, and 1801. Elvas was the site of the Battle of the Lines of Elvas in 1659, during which the garrison and citizens of the city assisted in the rout of a Spanish Army. The Napoleonic French under Marshal Junot took it in March 1808 during the Peninsular War, but evacuated it in August after the conclusion of the Convention of Sintra. The fortress of Campo Maior 15 km to the northeast is known for its Napoleonic era siege by the French and relief by the British under Marshal Beresford in 1811, an exploit commemorated in a ballad by Sir Walter Scott.

UNESCO site
The Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2012.

The site, extensively fortified from the 17th to 19th centuries, represents the largest bulwarked dry ditch system in the world. Within its walls, the town contains barracks and other military buildings as well as churches and monasteries. While Elvas contains remains dating back to the 10th century, its fortification began during the Portuguese Restoration War. The fortifications played a major role in the Battle of the Lines of Elvas in 1659. The fortifications were designed by Dutch Jesuit Padre João Piscásio Cosmander and represent the best surviving example of the Dutch school of fortifications anywhere. The site consists the following:

 * 1) Amoreira Aqueduct, built to withstand long sieges.
 * 2) Historic Centre
 * 3) Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way
 * 4) Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort
 * 5) Fortlet of São Mamede
 * 6) Fortlet of São Pedro
 * 7) Fortlet of São Domingos

Civil parishes
Administratively, the municipality is divided in seven civil parishes (freguesias):
 * Assunção, Ajuda, Salvador e Santo Ildefonso
 * Barbacena e Vila Fernando
 * Caia, São Pedro e Alcáçova
 * Santa Eulália
 * São Brás e São Lourenço
 * São Vicente e Ventosa
 * Terrugem e Vila Boim

Sister cities

 * 🇪🇸 Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain
 * Olivença, Disputed
 * 🇵🇹 Campo Maior, Alentejo, Portugal

Notable people

 * Manuel Rodrigues Coelho (ca. 1555 – 1635) a Portuguese organist and composer.
 * João de Fontes Pereira de Melo (1780–1856) a politician, a general and twice colonial governor of Cape Verde
 * José Travassos Valdez, 1st Count of Bonfim (1787–1862) a Portuguese soldier and statesman.
 * Fortunato José Barreiros (1797–1885) a colonial governor of Cape Verde and military architect.
 * Adelaide Cabete (1867–1935) a Portuguese feminist and republican.
 * Virgínia Quaresma (1882–1973) an early radical, feminist, lesbian journalist
 * Sofia Pomba Guerra (1906–1976) a feminist, opponent of the Estado Novo government in Portugal and an activist in the anti-colonial movements of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.
 * José António Rondão Almeida (born 1945) a Portuguese politician & Mayor of Elvas
 * Toni Vidigal (born 1975), Jorge Vidigal (born 1978) & André Vidigal (born 1998) Angolan football brothers
 * Raquel Guerra (born 1985) a Portuguese singer and actress.
 * Henrique Sereno (born 1985) a Portuguese former footballer with 236 club caps

title: Elvas


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Miguel Obando y Bravo

Miguel Obando y Bravo, SDB (2 February 1926 – 3 June 2018) was a Nicaraguan prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the Archbishop of Managua from 1970 to 2005. Pope John Paul II created him a cardinal in 1985.

Life
Obando was born in La Libertad in the department of Chontales. He was appointed Titular Bishop of Puzia di Bizacena and appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Matagalpa on 18 January 1968. He was consecrated on 31 March 1968 by Marco Antonio García y Suárez, Bishop of Granada, assisted by Clemente Carranza y López, Bishop of Estelí, and Julián Luis Barni Spotti, O.F.M., Prelate of Juigalpa. His episcopal motto was Omnibus omnia factus. He was promoted to the metropolitan see of Managua on 16 February 1970 by Pope Paul VI. He was elected as president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, 1971–1974; and 1979–1983. He was also elected as president of the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America and Panamá serving from 1976 to 1980.

Obando was created Cardinal-Priest of San Giovanni Evangelista a Spinaceto on 25 May 1985, becoming the first Nicaraguan cardinal. He participated in the 2005 papal conclave which elected Pope Benedict XVI. Obando was president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua from December 1999 to November 2005.

Pope John Paul accepted Obando's resignation as Archbishop of Managua on 1 April 2005. On 14 March 2007 Obando announced at a press conference held at Unica Catholic University that he had accepted a request made in January by Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega to preside over the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, which is charged with ensuring the implementation of signed agreements with Nicaraguans who were affected by the civil war of the 1980s. He said it was not a partisan or government position. When asked if the Holy See approved, he said that Pope Benedict in a recent audience had told him to "work for the reconciliation of the Nicaraguan family".

Obando died in Managua on 3 June 2018 at the age of 92.

Honors
In 1979 Obando received the Bruno Kreisky Award for peace and freedom, Vienna, Austria, the Plaque for Peace and Freedom of the Nicaraguan People, San Francisco, United States of America, 1980; the Letter of Brotherhood of the Piarist Society, Managua, 1980; the Venezuelan Order of Francisco Miranda, 1981; the Distinction of Loyalty to the Pope, the Church and the Nicaraguan People, Central of Nicaraguan Workers (CTN), 1982. In 1986 Universidad Francisco Marroquín honored Obando with an honorary doctoral degree.

Somoza regime
Obando became a vocal opponent of the corruption of the Anastasio Somoza regime in the late 1970s by expressing criticism in his pastoral letters as well as through the columns he wrote for the Boletín de la Arquidiócesis de Managua. He was critical of the corruption of the regime as it manifested itself through the government's mismanagement of relief funds after the 1972 Managua earthquake, and became an outspoken critic of the human rights abuses carried out by the National Guard. He helped to delegitimize the regime by refusing to accept the Mercedes automobile Somoza gave him and rejecting invitations to attend official state ceremonies.

Sandinistas in opposition
Obando served as an intermediary between the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the Somoza government on two occasions during Sandinista staged hostage-taking incidents. In a pastoral letter written in June 1979 he spoke in favor of the Sandinistas' use of armed force to overthrow the Somoza regime and encouraged Nicaraguans not to fear socialism. As a result of his criticism of the Somoza regime, government officials sometimes referred to him in private as "Comandante Miguel", as if he were a Sandinista leader.

Sandinistas in power
Obando's relationship with the Sandinistas altered dramatically by the early 1980s; he ultimately became one of the most vocal domestic opponents of the revolutionary government. He opposed the "people's church" (radical clergy who supported liberation theology) and banned the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense (Nicaraguan peasants' mass). He insisted that clergy adhere to canon law and refuse to undertake the exercise of civil power.

Obando opposed what he called the "godless communism" of the Sandinistas. He criticized many of their policies, including military conscription and restrictions of press freedoms, and accused the Sandinistas of human rights violations. The Sandinistas, in turn, complained that he should have attacked United States aid to the Contras. Initially, Obando had promised to the public that if human rights abuses on the part of the Contras were verifiably reported, he would denounce them. When many such abuses were reported by organizations (including Human Rights Watch and several human rights groups established by clergy of the Catholic Church itself), however, he did not denounce them as he had pledged. Instead, he travelled to the United States in January 1986 and declared his support for the Contras, thereby encouraging the U.S. Congress to provide them with military aid. This set the stage for a sharp confrontation between Obando and the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas, who already in July 1984 had expelled ten foreign priests (who had expressed solidarity with another religious figure who had been accused of being a contrarevolutionary), responded by rebuking Obando repeatedly in public forums. Despite the popular support the Sandinistas enjoyed at the time, this episode certainly damaged that support, as Obando was (as reported by journalist Stephen Kinzer) enduringly popular among Christian Nicaraguans.

Volte-face and Support for Daniel Ortega
In 2004 Obando suddenly and unexpectedly announced reconciliation with Daniel Ortega in a deal which offered support for the FSLN in return for Ortega's acquiescence to extending the ban on abortion to all cases, as the then government subsequently legislated, and for not pushing for corruption charges against Obando's protege Roberto Rivas (who was subsequently appointed head of the Supreme Electoral Council).

Obando continued to support Ortega in the 2006 and 2011 presidential elections, despite increasing claims by opposition figures that Ortega had manipulated the electoral system (with the help of Rivas). Obando also presided over the 2005 marriage of Ortega and Rosario Murillo

title: Miguel Obando y Bravo