Abrams, Elliott

(1948– )

   United States assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under the administration of President Ronald Reagan, replacing Langhorne A. (“Tony”) Motley, who resigned in 1985. Abrams was a neoconservative lawyer who, since 1981, had been the assistant secretary of state for human rights, also under Reagan. By mid-1985, Abrams and other officials in the Reagan administration adopted a consistently critical stance toward the regime of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte in Chile. Abrams feared that the regime’s continuing repression jeopardized a peaceful return to democracy. In addition, the Reagan administration opposed the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, and failing to pressure the rightist regime in Chile would lead to charges of inconsistency. Abrams’s efforts against the Sandinistas resulted in his indictment in the Iran- Contra scandal and a temporary departure from government service.