Nicaragua had a free-market economy before 1979 only in the strictest legal sense, because the dictatorship used major central planning. Since the Revolution, Nicaragua has had a mixed economy, with more than half of production being privately owned. The marginal and underground economies are also highly interrelated with the regular economy. Furthermore, the illegal activities with the most serious economic consequences are those committed by people in the wealthy private sector. Moreover, major structural economic problems have prevented the government from making farreaching economic improvements, and the military and economic aggression of the Reagan administration must be viewed as criminal activity in itself. The contra war sponsored by the United States aims not only to restore an unjust economy but also to prove that revolution can never produce justice. Even if the Arias Plan for Central American peace is adopted, structural injustice and active economic aggression will continue in the effort to prove that revolution does not work. Tables, notes, and 63 references.