Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America excluding Mexico, but still smaller than the state of New York. It rivals Haiti as the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and the distribution of wealth is one of the most unequal in the world. The United States has been deeply involved politically and economically in the history of Nicaragua’s history.

In 1926, the U.S. Marines were present in Nicaragua and actively defending a rightist government against an uprising. Augusto Cesar Sandino and a group of men waged guerilla war against the rightist government and the Marines’ presence. The fighting continued until 1934 when General Anastasio Somoza of the rightists invited Sandino for peace talks in Managua, but instead executed Sandino.

In 1937, Somoza became dictator of Nicaragua, beginning a family rule that lasted until 1979. The United States supported the Somoza dictatorship and maintained access to Nicaraguan land and resources as well as good trade relations. During the 1960s and 1970s, many Nicaraguans began organizing against the dictatorship. They were often brutally attacked by Somoza’s National Guard.

The struggle against the Somoza government was organized largely under the banner of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN.) As the fighting increased, Somoza began carrying out wholesale attacks on the Managua populace. By June of 1979, Somoza’s National Guard was bombing residential neighborhoods in Managua. Even with its influence, the United States decided that criticizing Somoza’s attacks would interfere with keeping Somoza in power and the Sandinistas out.

On July 19, 1979, the Sandinistas were successful in ousting Somoza. Somoza and many National Guard commanders fled to Miami with the help of the United States government. The Carter administration immediately began rebuilding the National Guard to fight the Sandinistas and this became the Contra army. The Sandinistas immediately began a literacy program sending youth from the cities into the countryside to teach. Illiteracy fell from 56 percent to 12 percent, winning the program international acclaim and attention. Agrarian, education, health, legal and social reform also followed.

The Sandinistas spent the next 10 years attempting to build a new society while simultaneously defending advancements and the populace against Contra attacks. It was a part of the Cold War. Fearing that Nicaragua would be an example to other Latin American countries as well as a threat to U.S. economic interests, the United States suspended all aid to Nicaragua in 1981. The blend of socialism, Christian liberation theology and Nicaragua’s own political history was considered threat to the anti-Communist agenda of the 1980’s.

In the end, 30,000 people were killed in the Contra War. Many communities were ripped apart and destroyed. Much of the country’s infrastructure was wiped out. Many of the ideas that fueled the Sandinistas were lost during the Contra War. Freedom of speech and the press was taken away by the government to curb critique as the population dealt with rations, inflation and increasing poverty. Social movements, including the women’s movement and the LGBT movement, were stifled.

Nicaraguans were tired of the war, bloodshed, hunger and poverty. In the 1990 election, the U.S.-backed candidate, Violeta Chamorro, defeated the Sandinista candidate by a very close margin. Her presidency began a new period of reconciliation and economic stabilization, but also privatization, land conflicts and globalization.

Today, with the governments of Arnoldo Aleman and Enrique Bolaños, poverty and hunger are major problems. Government corruption is a never-ending problem and Aleman is serving time for corruption and extortion of government funds. Nicaragua is buckling under a $6.6 billion external debt with the government spending as much on foreign debt repayment as it does on health and education combined.

For more information:
• North American Congress on Latin America, www.NACLA.org
• “Beyond Revolution: Nicaragua and El Salvador in a New Era,” Volume 37, May/June 2004
• “Sandino’s Daughters” by Margaret Randall
• “Sandino’s Daughters Revisited” by Margaret Randall

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