World Notes NICARAGUA

In the end, the Sandinistas decided the best thing to do was to send Sam Hall back home. Two months ago Hall, 49, the brother of Ohio Congressman Tony P. Hall, was arrested outside an air force base near Managua with hand-drawn maps and sketches of military installations hidden in his socks. He was promptly accused of spying. The self-styled mercenary, described by former colleagues as having a Rambo complex, claimed that he was the sole surviving member of an anti-Communist fighting force called the Phoenix Battalion.

Hall proved too much for his Sandinista jailers. After examining him, psychiatric experts judged Hall to be an "unstable personality inclined to carry out actions which could endanger his own life." With that, Attorney General Rodrigo Reyes ruled that Hall was not responsible for his acts and last week packed him off to Miami.