The Nicaraguan Revolution (), or Sandinista Revolution () was an armed conflict that took place in the Central American country of Nicaragua between 1961 and 1990.
It began with rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the overthrow of the dictatorship in 1978–1979,Louis Proyect, Nicaragua, discusses, among other things, the reforms and the degree to which socialism was intended or achieved. and fighting between the new government and the Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution revealed the country as one of the major proxy war battlegrounds of the Cold War.
The initial overthrow of the Somoza dictatorial regime in 1978–79 cost thousands of lives, with major battles and insurrections taking place in Managua, León, Estelí, and Masaya. The Contra War of the 1980s that followed took tens of thousands more and was the subject of fierce international debate.
Because of the political turmoil, failing economy, and limited influence of the new socialist government, both the Sandinista Army, the armed wing of the FSLN government that was supported by the Soviet Union, and the Contras, a newly-formed resistance movement supported by the U.S., fought a bloody insurgency that may have taken more lives than the overthrow of the Somoza regime itself.Timothy Brown, The Real Contra War: Highlander Peasant Resistance in Nicaragua
In 1988, a peace process began with the Sapoá Accords, and the Contra War ended the following year following the signing of the Tela Accord and demobilization of the FSLN and Contra armies. A second election in 1990 resulted in the election of the UNO, which the Sandinistas lost. The Sandinistas were out of power in Nicaragua until 2006.
Background
Somoza dictatorship
Following the United States occupation of Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 during the Banana Wars, a hereditary military dictatorship led by the Somoza family took power, and ruled from 1937 until its collapse in 1979. The Somoza dynasty consisted of Anastasio Somoza García, his eldest son Luis Somoza Debayle, and finally Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The Somoza era was characterized by economic development, albeit with rising inequality and political corruption, strong US support for the government and its military, as well as a reliance on US-based multinational corporations.
Sandinista National Liberation Front
In 1961, Carlos Fonseca Amador, Silvio Mayorga, and Tomás Borge Martínez formed the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) with other student activists at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua (UNAN) in Managua. The founders were experienced activists. Amador, first General Secretary, had worked with others on a newspaper "broadly critical" of the Somoza family titled Segovia.
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 communist Cuban government, the socialist Panamanian government of Omar Torrijos, and the social democratic Venezuelan government of Carlos 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 of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The FSLN focused on guerrilla tactics, inspired by Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara. They launched an unsuccessful campaign in 1963 known as the Raití-Bocay campaign in rural, northern Jinotega Department, where "when guerrillas did encounter the National Guard, they had to retreat...with heavy losses."Gesta heroica de Raití y Bocay Diario Barricada Further operations included a devastating loss near the city of Matagalpa, 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: the Maoist Tendencia GPP ("Guerra Popular Prolongada" or Prolonged People's War), the Marxist-Leninist Tendencia Proletaria ("Proletarian Faction"), and the Left-wing nationalist Tendencia Tercerista ("Third Faction"). The latter was the most popular and was led by Daniel Ortega, who eventually became the FSLN's General Secretary in 1984.Encarna Ortega al Sandinismo? (2016-07-28)
Cuban assistance
Cuban intervention in Nicaragua under the leadership of Fidel Castro was critical in the military success of the FSLN. The arms, funding, and intelligence that the Sandinistas received from the Cuban government helped them overcome the National Guard's superior training and experience. Castro's support of the revolution at the same time the Somoza government (and later the Contras) received help from the U.S. is one reason why the conflict is considered a proxy war of the Cold War.
Revolution
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 perception of the group as a threat. The ruling regime, which included the Nicaraguan National Guard, trained and influenced 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 the US cut off aid over its human rights violations. In response, Somoza lifted the state of siege.
Other opposition parties and movements began to consolidate. In 1974, the Unión Democrática Liberal (UDEL; English: Union for Democratic Liberation) was founded by Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, editor of the Managua newspaper La Prensa. The alliance included two anti-Somoza liberal parties as well as conservatives and the Nicaraguan Socialist Party.María Dolores Ferrero Blanco La Nicaragua de los Somoza : 1936–1979. Managua: Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica de la Universidad Centroamericana; Huelva : Universidad de Huelva, 2012. p. 132.
On 10 January 1978, Cardenal was murdered, allegedly by the Somoza regime, and riots broke out in Managua targeting the Somoza regime.Washington, Somoza and the Sandinistas: [ Stage and Regime in US Policy toward Nicaragua 1969–1981], Author: Morris H. Morley, Published: 2002, , p. 106 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 of León, Granada, Chinandega, and Matagalpa.
In the words of William Dewy, a Citibank employee who witnessed the Managua riots:
On 22 August 1978 the FSLN staged a massive kidnapping operation. Led by Éden Pastora, the Sandinista forces captured the National Palace while the legislature was in session, taking 2,000 hostages. Pastora demanded money, the release of Sandinista 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 the Organization of American States supervised 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, Somoza Debayle resigned, and on 19 July the FSLN entered Managua. Somoza Debayle fled to Miami, ceding control to the revolutionary movement. His Nationalist Liberal Party became practically defunct, and many government functionaries and business figures overtly compromised with somocismo chose exile. The Catholic church and the professional sectors generally approved of the new reality.María Dolores Ferrero Blanco La Nicaragua de los Somoza : 1936–1979. Managua: Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica de la Universidad Centroamericana; Huelva : Universidad de Huelva, 2012. p. 273.
Sandinista government Immediately following the fall of the Somoza regime, Nicaragua lay largely in ruins. The country had suffered both a bloody war and the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake just 6 years earlier. In 1979, approximately 600,000 Nicaraguans were homeless and 150,000 more were either refugees or in exile, out of a total population of 2.8 million.evolution of demography in Nicaragua (1961–2003), Data FAOSTAT, http://faostat.fao.org/faostat/help-copyright/copyright-e.htm (last updated 11 February 2005)
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.
Agrarian reform The Somoza family had managed to build and rebuild Managua into a large, modern city during the 20th century, but it was surrounded by an almost semifeudal rural economy with few productive outputs outside of 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 Debayle 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.Solá Monserrat, Roser. "Geografía y Estructura Económicas de Nicaragua" (Nicaragua's Geography and Economical Structure). Universidad Centroamericana. Managua, 1989. 2nd ed.
The Nicaraguan Revolution brought immense restructuring to all three sectors of the economy, directing it towards a mixed economy. The biggest economic impact was on agriculture, in the form of agrarian reform, which was proposed as a process that would develop pragmatically along with other changes (economic, political, etc.)."Agrarian Productive Structure in Nicaragua", Solá Monserrat, Roser. 1989. Pag 69 and ss.
Economic reforms overall needed to restart the economy. As a developing country, Nicaragua had an agriculture-based economy, susceptible to commodity market prices. 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:
state property (confiscated land from Somocistas) cooperative property (confiscated land, but without individual certificates of ownership, to be used efficiently) communal property (for people and communities from Miskito regions in the Atlantic) individual property (as long as it was efficiently used and integrated to national development plans)
The principles that defined the reform matched those of the Revolution: pluralism, national unity, and economic democracy.
Agrarian reform developed in four phases: 1st phase (1979): confiscation of property owned by Somocistas and its partners 2nd phase (1981): Agrarian Reform Law of 19 July 1981 3rd phase (1984–85): massive cession of land individually 4th phase (1986): Agrarian Reform Law of 1986, or "reform to the 1981 Law"
In 1985, the Agrarian Reform distributed 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 the campesinos, and guaranteeing ample food delivery into the cities. During 1985, ceremonies were held throughout the countryside in which Daniel Ortega gave each peasant title to land and a rifle to defend it.Louis Proyect, Nicaragua, about 4/5 of the way down.