During the 1980s in Nicaragua, the Sandinista government nationalized lucrative timber and seafood concessions held by U.S. companies on the country’s Atlantic coast.

They accused the Americans of exploiting the resources and leaving the region in poverty.

Now, with the Sandinistas out of power, American investors are coming back. But thousands of Miskito Indians who fought for their Atlantic Coast homeland in the decade-long Contra war against the Sandinistas have also returned. With their villages wrecked and no jobs, many now pin their hopes on foreign investment.

But the reappearance of American businessmen has touched off a battle over who should develop the rich resources of the Miskito Coast – and for whose benefit.

Narration is by Edward James Olmos, who hosted a series of 13 half-hour Vanishing Homelands specials.