<P> From an early stage, the rebels received financial and military support from the United States government, and their military significance decisively depended on it . After US support was banned by Congress, the Reagan administration covertly continued it . These covert activities culminated in the Iran--Contra affair . </P> <P> The term "contra" comes from the Spanish contra, which means against but in this case is short for la contrarrevolución, in English "the counter-revolution". Some rebels disliked being called contras, feeling that it defined their cause only in negative terms, or implied a desire to restore the old order . Rebel fighters usually referred to themselves as comandos ("commandos"); peasant sympathizers also called the rebels los primos ("the cousins"). From the mid-1980s, as the Reagan administration and the rebels sought to portray the movement as the "democratic resistance," members started describing themselves as la resistencia . </P> <P> During their war against the Nicaraguan government, the Contras committed a large number of human rights violations and used terrorist tactics, carrying out more than 1300 terrorist attacks . These actions were frequently carried out systematically as a part of the strategy of the Contras . Supporters of the Contras tried to downplay these violations, particularly the Reagan administration in the US, which engaged in a campaign of white propaganda to alter public opinion in favor of the contras . </P> <P> The Contras were not a monolithic group, but a combination of three distinct elements of Nicaraguan society: </P>

The united states sought to counter soviet support of sandinista rebels