17 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers cannot be
deployed until the age of 18 (2001)

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 1,033,464 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 868,984 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 27,157 (2004 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$1.147 billion (FY03/04)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1% (FY02)

Transnational Issues New Zealand

Disputes - international:
territorial claim in Antarctica (Ross Dependency)

This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005

======================================================================

@Nicaragua

Introduction Nicaragua

Background:
The Pacific Coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from
Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was
declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in
1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the
19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in
subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation
and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a
short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas
to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador
caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through
much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and again in 2001
saw the Sandinistas defeated. The country has slowly rebuilt its
economy during the 1990s, but was hard hit by Hurricane Mitch in
1998.

Geography Nicaragua

Location:
Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North
Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras

Geographic coordinates:
13 00 N, 85 00 W

Map references:
Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
total: 129,494 sq km
water: 9,240 sq km
land: 120,254 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than the state of New York

Land boundaries:
total: 1,231 km
border countries: Costa Rica 309 km, Honduras 922 km

Coastline:
910 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 200 nm
continental shelf: natural prolongation

Climate:
tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands

Terrain:
extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior
mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain int