"Contras" (1980s) by Vyacheslav Muromtsev is a caricature published in *Tashkentskaya Pravda*, part of a satirical tradition in *Mushtum* magazine and other Uzbek outlets.
A smug stork, wearing a cowboy hat decorated with the American flag, dangles a dollar coin from its beak and looms over three baby birds labeled “Контрас” (“Contras”)—a direct reference to the U.S.-funded right-wing militias who waged anti-communist guerrilla warfare in Nicaragua during the 1980s.
Backed by U.S. military aid, the Contras gained political cover and battlefield strength. But their war against the Sandinista government was marked by civilian massacres, executions, and torture. In response, Congress passed the Boland Amendment to block further funding. The Reagan administration continued supporting the Contras in secret, triggering the Iran–Contra affair.
Muromtsev’s cartoon strips away any claim to moral high ground. The United States isn’t portrayed as a defender of democracy, but as a force engineering violence for its own ends. The dollar isn’t aid—it’s leverage. The chicks’ wide-open beaks and eager posture mock the idea that the Contras were independent actors. They’re shown as helpless and hungry, conditioned to receive orders—and money—from their patron.
The stork, a symbol of birth and care, is twisted into a figure of ideological control. In the U.S., the war was packaged as a fight for freedom. But from Muromtsev’s perspective, it looked like chaos—engineered, funded, and delivered under the banner of American power.
The composition is tight, the linework spare and deliberate. There’s no background, no extraneous detail—just a stark image of cause and effect. Like much of Soviet political cartooning, it doesn’t aim for subtlety. It aims to expose the mechanics of power with blunt, satirical force.
