Who were the contras? Why did we help them?

Well they were supposedly helping us. Although why don't you read about Iran Contra and learn about them instead of just coming here and asking us to do the work? Long story short is they were supposedly on our side, I believe it was part of the drug war, but we weren't allowed to give them money so Iran Contra is about running an end around to get them the money anyway.
Who were the contras? Why did we help them?
They were the rebels fighting the communist government in the country of Nicaragua. Contra is short for la contrarevolucion meaning counter-revolution. The communist goverment overthrew the goverment with help from Cuba. They were in control until the 1990 election which those in power were voted out of office.
Who were the contras? Why did we help them?
The contras in Nicaragua were fighting to overthrow the Sandanista government. There actually was never a single unified "contra" group, but a mixture of old Samoza regime types and various people who had been duped by the Sandanistas. To understand the former, you need to know a bit about the latter.


Samoza was a brutal dictator who professed a lot more support from the US than he ever actually had. In fact, the more the US pressed for reforms, the more Samoza cracked down on his political opponents. The Sandanistas were a small group, largely urban intellectuals, who failed in trying several of the old standard communist methods of insurrection, but they finally overthrew Somoza and took power themselves by giving themselves cover as a populist and human-rights group, garnering support from "liberation theologists" within the Church and among several international human-rights groups. They even had offices in New York. All groups one cared to look at were heavily populated with nice people who were working for a noble cause. This included many of their best spokesmen. Unfortunately, this was all cover for the Sandanistas, who retained the leadership positions.


When the Sandanistas came to power, of course, there was no longer reason in their eyes for such subterfuge. And of course most of those who'd been working for them were not exactly thrilled at having been duped. About the only person I can think of that never caught on was President Carter. Those who'd been used were an obvious ground for several groups who fought against the Sandanistas.