Nicaraguan Revolution

TheNicaraguan Revolution(Spanish:Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista) began with rising opposition to theSomozadictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the ouster of the dictatorship in 1978–79,and fighting between the government and theContrasfrom 1981 to 1990. The revolution revealed the country as one of the majorproxy warbattlegrounds of theCold War.
The initial overthrow of the Somoza dictatorial regime in 1978–79 cost many lives, and the Contra War of the 1980s took tens of thousands more and was the subject of fierce international debate. Because of the political turmoil, failing economy, and limited government influence, during the 1980s both theFSLN(aleftistcollection of political parties) and theContras(arightistcollection of counter-revolutionary groups) received aid from theSoviet Unionand theUnited States.
A peace process started with the Sapoá Accords in 1988 and the Contra War ended after the signing of the Tela Accord in 1989 and the demobilization of the FSLN and Contra armies.A second election in 1990 resulted in the election of a majority of anti-Sandinista parties and the FSLN lost power.
Following theUnited States occupation of Nicaraguain 1912 during theBanana Wars, theSomoza family political dynastytook power, and ruled from 1937 until its ouster in 1979. The Somoza dynasty consisted ofAnastasio Somoza García, his eldest sonLuis Somoza Debayle, and finallyAnastasio Somoza Debayle. The Somoza era was characterized by economic development, albeit with risinginequalityandpolitical corruption, strong US support for the government and its military,as well as a reliance on US-basedmultinational corporations.
In 1961Carlos Fonseca Amador, Silvio Mayorga, andTomás Borge Martínezformed the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) with other student activists at theUniversidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua(UNAN) inManagua. The founders were experienced activists. Amador, first General Secretary, had worked with others on a newspaper "broadly critical" of the Somoza reign titledSegovia.
Consisting of approximately 20 members during the 1960s, with the help of students, FSLN gathered support from peasants and anti-Somoza elements, as well as from the communistCuban government, the socialist Panamanian government ofOmar Torrijos, and the social democratic Venezuelan government ofCarlos Andrés Pérez.
By the 1970s the coalition of students, farmers, businesses, churches, and a small percentage of Marxists was strong enough to launch a military effort against the regime ofAnastasio Somoza Debayle. FSLN focused on guerrilla tactics, inspired byFidel CastroandChé Guevara. They launched an unsuccessful the Río Coco/Bocay-Raití campaign: "when guerrillas did encounter the National Guard, they had to retreat...with heavy losses."Further operations included a devastating loss near the city ofMatagalpa, during which Mayorga was killed.During this time, FSLN reduced attacks, instead focusing on solidifying the organization.
Fonseca died in combat in November 1976. The FSLN then split into three factions that fought separately: theMaoistTendencia GPP (Guerra Popular Prolongada) (English: Prolonged People's War);Marxist-LeninistTendencia Proletaria (English:proletarian); andLeft-wing nationalistTendencia Tercerista (English: third).
In the 1970s, FSLN began a campaign of kidnappings, which led to national recognition of the group in the Nicaraguan media and solidification of the group as a force.The regime, which included theNicaraguan National Guard, trained by the U.S. military, declared a state of siege, and proceeded to use torture, rape,extrajudicial killings, intimidation and press censorship in order to combat the FSLN attacks.This led to international condemnation of the regime and in 1978 theUScut off aid over itshuman rightsviolations. In response, Somoza lifted the state of siege.
Other opposition parties and movements began to consolidate. In 1974, theUnión Democrática Liberal(UDEL; English: Union for Democratic Liberation) was founded byPedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, editor of the Managua newspaperLa Prensa. The alliance included two anti-Somoza liberal parties as well as conservatives and theNicaraguan Socialist Party.
On 10 January 1978 Cardenal was murdered, allegedly by the Somoza regime, andriots broke outin Managua targeting the Somoza regime.Following the riots, a general strike on 23–24 January called for the end of the Somoza regime and was successful at shutting down around 80% of businesses in Managua and the provincial capitals ofLeón,Granada,Chinandega, and Matagalpa.
In the words of William Dewy, aCiti Bankemployee who witnessed the Managua riots:
On 22 August 1978 the FSLN staged a massive kidnapping operation. Led by Éden Pastora, the Sandinistan forces captured the National Palace while the legislature was in session, taking 2,000 hostages. Pastora demanded money, the release of Sandinistan prisoners, and "a means of publicizing the Sandinista cause."After two days, the government agreed to pay $500,000 and to release certain prisoners, a major victory for the FSLN.Revolts against the state and guerrilla warfare continued.
In early 1979 theOrganization of American Statessupervised negotiations between the FSLN and the government. However, these broke down when it became clear that the Somoza regime had no intention of allowing democratic elections.
By June 1979, following a successful urban offensive, the FSLN militarily controlled all of the country except the capital. On 17 July President Somoza resigned, and on 19 July the FSLN entered Managua,ceding control to the revolutionary movements. Somoza fled to Miami; his Nationalist Liberal Party became practically defunct, and many government functionaries and business figures overtly compromised withsomocismochose exile. The Catholic church and the professional sectors generally approved of the new reality.
Immediately following the fall of the Somoza regime, Nicaragua lay largely in ruins. The country had suffered both war and, earlier, natural disaster in the devastating1972 Nicaragua earthquake. In 1979, approximately 600,000 Nicaraguans were homeless and 150,000 more were either refugees or in exile,out of a total population of just 2.8 million.
In response, a state of emergency was declared. The US sent US$99 million in aid. Land and businesses of the Somoza regime were expropriated, the courts were abolished, and workers were organized into Civil Defense Committees. The new regime declared that "elections are unnecessary", which led to criticism from the Catholic Church and others.
The Somocista regime had created a big and modern center, Managua, surrounding an almost semifeudalrural economywith few productive outputs, including cotton, sugar and other agricultural products. All sectors of the economy of Nicaragua were determined, in great part, by the Somozas or their supporters, whether by directly owning agricultural brands/trusts, or actively choosing their owners (local or foreign). Somoza himself was (incorrectly) alleged to have owned 1/5 of all profitable land in Nicaragua. Somoza or his people did own or give away banks, ports, communications, services and massive amounts of land.
The Nicaraguan Revolution brought immense restructuring to all three sectors of the economy, directing it towards amixed economy. The biggest economic impact was on agriculture, in the form ofagrarian reform, which was proposed as a process that would develop pragmatically along with other changes (economic, political, etc.).
Economic reforms overall needed to restart the economy. As a developing country, Nicaragua had an agriculture-based economy, susceptible tocommodity marketprices. The rural economy was far behind in technology and devastated by the guerrilla warfare.
Article 1 of the Agrarian Reform Law says that property is guaranteed if it is used efficiently and described different forms of property:
The principles that defined the reform matched those of the Revolution: pluralism, national unity, and economic democracy.
Agrarian reform developed in four phases:
In 1985, the Agrarian Reform distributed 950 square kilometres (235,000 acres) of land to the peasantry. This represented about 75 percent of all land distributed to peasants since 1980. The reform had the twofold purpose of increasing support for the government among thecampesinos, and guaranteeing ample food delivery into the cities. During 1985, ceremonies were held throughout the countryside in whichDaniel Ortegagave each peasant title to land and a rifle to defend it.
The Revolution brought many cultural developments. TheNicaraguan Literacy Campaign(Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización)focused on secondary school and university students drafting teachers as volunteer teachers. Within five months they claimed to have reduced the overallilliteracyrate from 50.3% to 12.9%.In September 1980,UNESCOawarded Nicaragua the "Nadezhda K. Krupskaya" award. This was followed by literacy campaigns of 1982, 1986, 1987, 1995 and 2000, each of which was also awarded by UNESCO.
The Sandinistas established a Ministry of Culture, one of only three inLatin Americaat the time, and established a new editorial brand, calledEditorial Nueva Nicaraguaand, based on it, started to print cheap editions of basic books rarely seen by Nicaraguans. It founded anInstituto de Estudios del Sandinismo(Institute for Studies ofSandinismo) where it printed the work and papers ofAugusto C. Sandinoand those that reflected the ideologies of FSLN, such asCarlos Fonsecaand Ricardo Morales Avilés.
Such programs received international recognition for improvingliteracy,health care,education,childcare,unions, andland reform.
Amnesty Internationalnoted numerous human rights violations by the Sandinista government. They contended that civilians "disappeared" after their arrest, that "civil and political rights" were suspended, due process was denied detainees, detainees were tortured, and "reports of the killing by government forces of those suspected of supporting the contras".
The Sandinistas were accused of mass executions.TheInter-American Commission on Human Rightsinvestigated abuses by Sandinista forces, including an execution of 35 to 40Miskitosin December 1981,and an execution of 75 people in November 1984.TheLos Angeles Timesnoted that "...the Miskitos began to actively oppose the Sandinistas in 1982 when authorities killed more than a dozen Indians, burned villages, forcibly recruited young men into the army and tried to relocate others. Thousands of Miskitos poured across theCocointoHonduras, and many took up arms to oppose the Nicaraguan government."
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative American think tank with close ties to theRonald Reaganadministration,charged the Sandinista government with human rights violations, including press censorship. It charged that the government censored the independent newspaperLa Prensa.French journalist Viktor Dedaj, who lived in Managua in the 1980s, contended thatLa Prensawas generally sold freely and that the majority of radio stations were anti-Sandinista.The Heritage Foundation claimed that the Sandinistas instituted a "spy on your neighbor" system that encouraged citizens to report any activity deemed counter-revolutionary, with those reported facing harassment from security representatives, including the destruction of property.Heritage also criticized the government for its treatment of theMiskito people, stating that over 15,000 Miskitos were forced to relocate, that their villages were destroyed, and that their killers were promoted rather than punished.
TheUnited Nations, theOrganization of American StatesandPax Christidisputed Heritage's allegations of anti-Semitism. According to them, individual Nicaraguan Jews had their property expropriated due to their connections with theSomozaregime, rather than because they were Jewish. They cited the fact that there were prominent Sandinistas officials of Jewish descent.In contrast to these organizations, theAnti-Defamation Leaguesupported allegations of Sandinistaantisemitism. It worked closely with Nicaraguan Jewish exiles to reclaim a synagogue that had been firebombed by Sandinista militants in 1978 and expropriated in 1979.
TheCarter Administrationattempted to work with FSLN in 1979 and 1980, while theReagan Administrationsupported ananti-communiststrategy for dealing with Latin America, and attempted to isolate the Sandinista regime economically and politically.As early as 1980–1981, anti-Sandinista forces known asContrasbegan forming along the Nicaragua/Hondurasborder. Many of the initial Contras were former members of Somoza's National Guard and many were still loyal to Somoza, then in exile inHonduras.
In addition to Contra units loyal to Somoza, FSLN also began to face opposition from members of ethnic minority groups that inhabited Nicaragua's remoteMosquito Coastregion along theGulf of Mexico. These groups were demandingself-determinationand/orautonomy, but the FSLN refused to grant this and began using forced relocations and armed force in response.
Upon taking office in January 1981, Reagan cancelled U.S. economic aid to Nicaragua,and on 6 August 1981 he signed National Security Decision Directive 7, which authorized the production and shipment of arms to the region but not their deployment.On 17 November 1981, President Reagan signed National Security Directive 17, authorizing covert support to anti-Sandinista forces.
Armed conflict soon erupted, further destabilizing the region upset by civil wars inEl SalvadorandGuatemala. TheCIA-backed Contras secretly opened a "second front" on Nicaragua's eastern coast and Costa Rican border.As the civil war opened cracks in the national revolutionary project, FSLN's military budget grew to more than half of the government's annual budget.TheServicio Militar Patriótico(Patriotic Military Service), a compulsory draft, was also established.
By 1982, Contra forces had begun carrying out assassinations of members of the Nicaraguan government, and by 1983 the Contras had launched a major offensive. TheCIAwas helping them to plant mines in Nicaragua harbors to inhibit foreign weapons shipments.The 1987Iran–Contra affairplaced theReagan Administrationagain at the center of secret support for the Contras.
The1984 Nicaraguan general electiontook place on 4 November. Of the 1,551,597 citizens registered in July, 1,170,142 voted (75.4%). Null votes were 6% of the total. International observers declared the elections free and fair,although theReagan administrationdenounced it as a "Soviet style sham". The national share of valid votes for president were:
TheEsquipulas Peace Agreementwas a mid-1980s initiative to settle the military conflicts that had plaguedCentral Americafor many years, and in some cases (notablyGuatemala) for decades. It built upon groundwork laid by theContadora Groupfrom 1983 to 1985. The agreement was named forEsquipulas,Guatemala, where the initial meetings took place. US Congress efforts were helped by Capitol Hill lobbyistWilliam C. Chasey.
In May 1986, summit meeting Esquipulas I took place, attended by the five Central American presidents. On 15 February 1987,Costa RicanPresidentÓscar Ariassubmitted a Peace Plan that evolvedfrom this meeting. During 1986 and 1987, the Esquipulas Process was established, in which the Central American heads of state agreed on economic cooperation and a framework for peaceful conflict resolution. The Esquipulas II Accord emerged from this and was signed inGuatemala Cityby the five presidents on 7 August 1987.
Esquipulas II defined measures to promote national reconciliation, an end to hostilities,democratization,free elections, the termination of all assistance toirregular forces, negotiations on arms controls, and assistance torefugees. It laid the ground for international verification procedures and provided a timetable for implementation.
The Sapoá Accords at March 23, 1988 represented the beginning of a peace process in Nicaragua. The name of the accords comes from Sapoá, a Nicaraguan town near the border withCosta Rica. Sandinismo in 1988 was coming to an end as the Soviet Union began limiting its support. This in turn limited Sandinista government options to continue the conflict, forcing them to negotiate for peace. The accord was mediated byJoão Clemente Baena Soaresat the time asSecretary General of the Organization of American Statesand thenArchbishop of ManaguaMiguel Obando y BravoSince Nicaraguan conflict was aproxy warbetween the USSR and the US. Peace process management relied on then Soviet ambassadorVaino Väljas' mediation depending on recentUS-Soviet agreementssince US did not have an Ambassador to Nicaragua from July 1, 1987 till May 4, 1988.
In the1990 Nicaraguan general election, the UNO Coalition included: