The Nicaraguan Revolution, also referred to as the Sandinista Revolution, was a late twentieth century regime change in Latin America.Locally known as Revolucion . The Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, during which time they were subjected to a CIA-backed counter revolutionary war. The other distinctive feature of the Somoza regime was that it was a huge family business. There were three political tendencies within the Sandinista leadership. The UNAG was an organization which split off from the ATC in the very early years of the revolution and was made up of mainly small and middle-sized producers, and also landless peasants. Throughout the decade the FSLN and the state gradually merged into a single entity that represented the interests of the National Directorate, the FSLNs leadership structure. In the past he had a little more than that, but the non-Sandinista political parties were united, so he was defeated in the last few elections by 55% to 45% of the votes. Their ideology emerged from a particular nationalist background with Marxist-Leninist and Cuban influences woven into it. By democratic Im not talking about elections, but rank-and-file democracy. Are either of those accounts convincing, or do we need a more nuanced vision of the revolution? The Revolutionary Victory: Insurrection. As violence and protests against Nicaragua's despotic government increased, the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS) tried to hasten Anastasio Somoza's exit from power and broker a peaceful transition to a more democratic form of government. his getaway car was a public bus. In an interview that aired on Channel 17/Town Meeting Television, Sanders called Nicaraguan President . The Sandinistas shored up their grassroots support and equipped their military, with help from the USSR. And that is when the Sandinista Front initiated the revolutionary struggle, against the dictatorship of [Anastasio] Somoza, in the year 1961. The Sandinistas called for a national uprising on September 9, which kicked off the Nicaraguan Revolution. The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza DeBayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in its place. Having seized power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. But also, all of the original Sandinista leaders the famous nine comandantes all subscribed to some version or another of Marxism-Leninism. Even nowadays, the place where the body of this hero is buried remains unknown. Further afield in South America, the Sandinistas encouraged some of the clandestine guerrilla groups to launch resistance operations against military dictatorships. Of course it was very much a top-down model concerned with loyalty to the regime. (Archived document, may contain errors) 277 July 19, 1983 TU SANDINISTA WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS Four years ago today, the Sandinista revolution toppled the Somoza regime, which had ruled Nicaragua. seek to cripple the Sandinista government's ability to provide for its population. So looking at the Contra War forces us to review the Sandinistas mistakes in dealing with the Catholic Church and in its conception of land reform in the highlands. That opposition to liberation theology was fundamental both in the sense that it affected the way that the Sandinista leadership dealt with the official Catholic Church and in how that played out in the Central Highlands countryside, where the Contras had so much support. There were flagship programs like the literacy campaign, land reform, nationalization of industry, and more. The Church, then Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, and Congressional Democrats mediated a political transition and the organization of free elections in 1990. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. What did the Sandinistas do? Not, of course, with classic repressive measures, but enough to put a stop to those movements. Few examples remain as memorable as the conflict in Nicaragua, where the Frente Sandinista de Liberation Nacional (FSLN), a left-wing revolutionary party, seized power in the small Central American nation of Nicaragua in July 1979, toppling four decades of dictatorial rule perpetrated by the Somoza dynasty. In September 2018, in a move that increasingly paints Ortega as a dictator, his government outlawed protest, and human rights violations, from illegal detention to torture, have been reported. On November 4, 1984, the FSLN and its presidential candidate, Daniel Ortega Saavedra, won 63 percent of the vote in an election that international observer teams deemed fair. "History of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua." In June, the Sandinistas called for a general strike and named members of a post-Somoza government, including Ortega and two other FSLN members. In 1987, after intense international efforts to end the civil war and bring democracy to the country, a regional peace agreement was signed between the Sandinista government and the Contras, who had stopped receiving military aid from the United States. Ronald Reagan authorized funds for the recruiting, training, and arming of Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, who, like others already organized by the Argentine army, would engage in irregular military operations against the Sandinista regime. Where did the Sandinistas get their name from? It attempted to redress the enormous inequality and poverty in the country with a range of programs designed to improve the lives of the poor. Having come from a family of modest means, he identified with the revolution . It was an 18-year guerrilla struggle, which culminated with the triumph of the revolution. . Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza waves to his supporters behind a bullet-proof glass during a meeting in Managua in 1978, a few months before being overthrown by leftist Frente Sandinista de Liberacion National movement 20 July 1979. The Sandinistas are a Nicaraguan political party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front or FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacin Nacional in Spanish). As a law student in the 1950s, Fonseca organized protests against the Somoza dictatorship, following Fidel Castro's fight against the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista closely. Word Frequency. The absolute bankruptcy of the Somoza regime bred resistance across Nicaragua. Upon taking power, the Sandinistas implemented welfare, health, education, agrarian, and housing programs to improve the quality of life for Nicaragua's people. So it was the new generation of the peasant movement that formed the closest bonds with the Frente Sandinista. What are some examples of how providers can receive incentives? In a way there is a slight analogy with Somoza, in that he did have his base of popular support and the opposition had a very hard time cracking it, in part based on social class. In June 1979 Secretary of State Cyrus Vance called . In other words, I think its important to realize that the Sandinistas mistakes also fed into the Contra War. Although ideologically the Sandinistas were Marxist, they did not impose Soviet-style centralized communism, but rather retained elements of a free-market economy. And that began to be more and more the case as the Contra War heated up, as everything turned towards defense. Peter Kornbluh states of the Reagan administration's covert war, "The strategy was to force the Sandinistas to become in reality what [U.S.] administration officials called them rhetorically: aggressive abroad, repressive at home, and hostile to the United States." In 1990, however, the Nicaraguan populace, weary of war and economic depression, voted for the 14 parties of the National Opposition Union, which formed a government while the Sandinistas relinquished power. Jeffrey L. Gould is Distinguished Professor and Rudy Professor of History at Indiana University and the author of several books, including most recently Solidarity Under Siege: The Salvadoran Labor Movement, 1970-1990 (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Entre el Bosque y los Arboles: Utopas Menores en El Salvador, Nicaragua, y Uruguay (Editorial Universidad de Guadalajara, 2020). It was a triumph that changed the course of Latin American history. Government programs in health, education, housing, and nutrition were drastically curtailed. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Updates? How did the Sandinista National Liberation Front get its name? From 1978 onward there was a sudden upsurge and tremendous identification with the Frente Sandinista. The Sandinista Front became an opposition party, and many members were left disillusioned with the leadership. The 1990 general elections were held under careful international observation. N atividad Vargas shifted his weight from one foot to the other, awkwardly . The United States cooperates with the Panamanian government in promoting economic, political, security, and social development through U.S. and international agencies. Nicaraguans Discuss Their Improved Quality Of Life, President Ortega Condemns The Dictatorial US "Empire That Wants To Dominate All Countries," And Vice President Murillo Declares Poverty An Imperialist "Crime Against Humanity.". The Contra were backed by the United States and its allies, while the FLSN was supported by the Soviet Union and its allies. The Sandinistas took their name from Augusto Csar Sandino (18951934), the leader of Nicaraguas nationalist rebellion against the US occupation of the country during the early 20th century (ca. Why did the Sandinistas want relations with the Soviet Union? This included the offer of free land titles to peasants and supporters of the state in exchange for government service or for establishing agricultural cooperatives. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Draper writes that the Sandinistas signed "economic, technical, scientific, and cultural agreements with the Soviet Union." In 1982, the Soviets increased their financial and military support to the FSLN, and again in 1983 after the arrival of General Ochoa, when it provided tanks, transport trucks, helicopters, and other materiel. Definition and List of Dictators, Totalitarianism, Authoritarianism, and Fascism, The Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagans Arms Sales Scandal. The Contra army grew to about 15,000 soldiers by the mid-1980s. In the 1940s, there were a lot of shifting alliances within the Somoza government, and the Left represented by the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (basically, the Communist Party) had a kind of tacit alliance with the regime. It crosses various genres including funk, reggae, jazz, gospel, rockabilly, folk, dub, rhythm and blues, calypso, disco, and rap. Her work has been published by CNN Opinion, Pacific Standard, Poynter, NPR, and more. In the latter part of the 1980s, something like over 60 percent of the Sandinistas budget was devoted to defense, and the great programs that were prevalent at the start of the revolution in literacy, education, and general health had suffered tremendously as a result of the war. In 1967, the FSLN planned their next insurgency in the remote Pancasn region. Tellez also did a wonderful job in the Health Ministry in the 1980s. With over $20,000 in his pockets, he refused to take a taxi because he did not want "to squander" the organization's precious resources. This was tricky, as many of the peasants had relatives in the National Guard, and the Sandinistas' strategy depended upon their movements being clandestine. All that combined to backfire and give large degrees of support to the Contra, which, again, really affected the course of the revolution on every level, not just in terms of democracy. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). I think the repression 2018 really tarnished the symbolic value of the FSLN because the Frente Sandinista, as Ortegas organization, validated and supported the repression. The number of Contra soldiers continued to grow as well. In fairness to the Sandinista leadership, I think that their broad objectives played a key role in the greatest successes of the revolution: the literacy campaign and the incredible growth of education possibilities for people in general, including the university levels. Definition and Examples, What Is Interventionism? And here its important to clarify something. Before 1979, the goal of the local bourgeoisie and the State Department was to eliminate Somoza while preserving the system he helped to install. There were organizations like the CDS (Sandinista Defense Committee) that were very vibrant, inspirational community organizations. During 1979's Sandinista Revolution, a group of Nicaraguan women shatter barriers to lead rebel troops in battle and reshape their country with landmark social reforms. And then there was Tendencia Proletaria (Proletarian Tendency), which focused more on the urban and rural proletariat as the key to the revolution. Some argue that the Sandinistas sought relations with the Soviet Union only after the war with the contras and U.S. attempts to cut off Western aid to the Sandinistas made such relations necessary. So there was a confusing and not entirely clear boundary pitting Somoza at times allied with the Left and with a significant base in the artisanal working class and the peasantry against middle-class students who continued to consider themselves Sandinistas (following the anti-imperialist legacy of Augusto Sandino) and right-wing oligarchs. The November 7 th elections revealed the will of the Nicaraguan people; but because this will does not align with U.S. preferences, the elections are marred as "illegitimate," a "sham," and "authoritarian.". These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. But in this discussion of the Contra Wars internal effects on the FLSN, its important to also realize that the war had a life of its own and that the Contra Army was filled up with recruits, most of whom were volunteers drawn from the peasantry of the Central Highlands. Ive never seen any good, serious efforts to try and come to grips with that issue; most accounts usually just say something about government assistance and how they use whatever state largesse they have to appease the populace. The elections brought an end to more than. His goals were two-fold: in the vein of Sandino, national liberation and sovereignty, particularly in the face of U.S. imperialism, and secondly, socialism, which he believed would end the exploitation of Nicaraguan workers and peasants. In those Central American countries, the example of the Sandinistas led to a massive surge in new recruits among the guerrillas, who believed that they could achieve victory relatively quickly thanks to the Nicaraguan example. And, on the other hand, the influence of the Iglesia popular, or liberation theology, was much stronger in Guatemala and especially in El Salvador than in Nicaragua. There were huge gaps of. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The U.S. also leaned on international organizations, such as the World Bank, to cut off loans to Nicaragua. From 1979 to 1981, there were still groups involved in the revolution that could be called ultra-leftists: groups like the Brigada Simn Bolvar, made up of Trotskyists from Latin America who were eventually expelled. Bodenheimer, Rebecca. By awakening political thought among the people, proponents of Sandinista ideology believed that human resources would be available to not only execute a guerrilla war against the Somoza regime but also build a society resistant to economic and military intervention imposed by foreign entities. October 4, 1984. During the early 1970s, many Sandinista leaders were jailed, including eventual president Daniel Ortega, or killed, and the National Guard employed torture and rape. By July, over 300 people were reported killed during the demonstrations. Rebecca Bodenheimer, Ph.D. is the author of "Geographies of Cubanidad: Place, Race, and Musical Performance in Contemporary Cuba." The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza in 1979, ending 42 years of military dictatorship by the Somoza family and ushering in a socialist revolution. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Between 1976 and 1978, there was virtually no communication between the factions. The cheekbones are high, with a wisp of blue shadow about dark brown eyes. Fonseca entered the region and began to identify peasant families who would provide food and shelter. [1] The ideology and movement acquired its name, image and most crucially, its military style from Augusto Csar Sandino, a Nicaraguan revolutionary leader . Many of Nicaragua's institutionsbanks, railroads, customshad been turned over to American bankers. Most prominently, the US was advancing economic, political, and military interests in order to maintain its sphere of influence and to secure the Panama Canal (which opened in 1914). 5 How did the Sandinista National Liberation Front get its name? Moreover, the Sandinistas created several organizations that were responsible for indoctrinating Nicaraguans into the partys belief system regarding the revolution and for reporting critics of the revolution as counterrevolutionaries. Typical of the governments political and ideological reach were Sandinista Defense Committees (Comits de Defensa Sandinista; CDS), which served as the eyes and ears of the revolution. In 1981 the administration also enacted the Agrarian Reform Law, which formalized what could be done with Somozas property. The Sandinista government confiscated the Somoza familys vast landholdings and nationalized the countrys major industries, but the central planning typical of Soviet-style socialist economies was never adopted, and small and medium-sized private farms and businesses were tolerated. There existed anti-Sandinista newspapers such as the . Sadly, Sandino was betrayed, captured and executed. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. (sndnist ) noun. 8 Curious Facts About Nicaragua's Sandinista Revolution The Sandinista revolution of 1979, led by the FSLN, overthrew the U.S. backed dictatorship of the Somoza family. That show of courage gave them a tremendous advantage over the bourgeois opposition who, as the Sandinistas used to say, were always looking for a way to build a Somocismo sin Somoza (Somocism without Somoza). National funding for social programs was cut and redirected toward defense (to take on the Contras). However, according to Arturo Cruz, the absence of investment by the private sector made it clear that it would be hard to implement socialism in Nicaragua. After just one month of steep inflation, that amount had fallen in value to just under $50. Could you say a little about the groups founding ideals and its main figures? The embargo and the damage and economic dislocation brought about by the civil war combined with Sandinista economic errors to cause Nicaraguas economy to plummet from 1985 onward. This was not a revolutionary government conducted, in the classical sense, by a dictatorship of the proletariat. Againnot de Blasio. (2020, October 30). Those were very radical transformations, and those initiatives came from on top. I also share that confusion. Accusing the Sandinista government of being dictators. Cultural ties between the two countries are strong and many Panamanians go to the United States for higher education and advanced training. Contra activity increased during the electoral period. Is that a fair account? In both Guatemala and El Salvador, there were much more substantial rank-and-file union and peasant movements than the FSLN ever had so its definitely not as if they were copying the Sandinistas. So those actions saw a massive increase in organizational depth, from February until July 1978. Despite summary executions of Sandinista soldiers and other brutal measures, the Contras often found support among the people in the countryside. Bendaa suggests this marriage of convenience can be explained by both parties wanting to evade criminal chargesOrtega has been accused of sexual assault by his stepdaughterand as an attempt to shut out all other political parties. By 1984, the Contras numbered 15,000 and U.S. military personnel were becoming directly involved in acts of sabotage against Nicaraguan infrastructure. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Thirty years later, he doesn't seem to have . They established a temporary (provisional) government. They could have stimulated those everywhere, including in the indigenous areas, both in the Central Highlands and on the Atlantic coast, where they lost tremendous amounts of support. In my opinion, there were two things that were particularly distinctive about the Somoza regime. For the first time, the band's traditional songwriting credits of Strummer and Jones . But once the revolution triumphed, those different tendencies coalesced to a certain degree: the people belonging to the Tendencia Proletaria or Terceristas who came out of that liberation theology wing shared a lot in common. The Sandinistas governed Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990. Tomas Borge, who controlled the secret police while the Sandinistas held power, paid 99 million cordobasthe equivalent of just $200for his house. In some way those debates seem to maintain two contradictory versions of history: that the revolution was either too indulgent with bourgeois political and economic institutions, leaving the class power of Nicaraguan oligarchs untouched and then holding presidential elections prematurely in 1984; or that the top-down tendency destroyed internal party life and undermined popular support. Origin of the term Sandinista. U.S. policy on Nicaragua began to favor support for anti-Sandinista "contras," because most people involved in the U.S. intelligence operations, including Richard Nixon feared that "defeat for the rebels would probably lead to a violent Marxist guerrilla movement in Mexico and in other Central American countries." Who opposed the Sandinistas? The vast property holdings of the Somoza family were confiscated and turned into state farms and cooperatives with the intent of making the country more self-sufficient in food production. The first event that attracted academic attention toward Sandinismo was the conflict between the FSLN and the Somoza regime (There are 3 Somoza's during the "Somoza Regime" The first was Anastasio Somoza Garca (the father) 1937-1956, the second Luis Somoza DeBayle 1956-1963, the third Anastasio Somoza DeBayle, 1967-1972 and 74-79 . The original plan involved setting up camps in Honduras, on the border with Nicaragua, right after the 1979 revolution. Sandinista, member of Sandinista National Liberation Front, Spanish Frente Sandinista de Liberacin Nacional (FSLN), one of a Nicaraguan group that overthrew President Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending 46 years of dictatorship by the Somoza family. Democratization, however, was halted by two key obstacles. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. The Somoza regime was forced to meet the FSLN's demands and recruitment skyrocketed. Nicaragua became a magnet for Latin American exiles, particularly from Argentina and Chile. Eventually, the Nicaraguan government also expanded its military forces, acquired crucial equipment such as assault helicopters, and implemented counterinsurgency strategy and tactics, which enabled it in the late 1980s to contain and demoralize the Contras but not defeat them. On February 25, 1990, the U.S.-endorsed and U.S.-financed National Opposition Union (Unin Nacional Opositor; UNO) coalition and its presidential candidate, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the widow of the martyred newspaper editor, won an upset victory, and a peaceful transfer of administrations took place on April 25. Perhaps because the class position of the Sandinista opposition in the 1990s was made up of middle-class or professional groups [regardless of class origin], they could not find a way to break through the wall of support that the Ortega group had established. Nicaragua's Sandinista government has repeatedly violated the basic rights of Miskito Indians living there, including instances of "illegal killings" and torture, according to a report released. Then began the first stage of the revolution, in the '80s,when imperialism imposed a . The Grayzone Reports From Nicaragua On The 42nd Anniversary Of The Sandinista Revolution. I guess the question is: how revolutionary were those first years? In 1981 the junta was reduced to three members and the council increased to 51. That being the case, I still want to emphasize the individual greatness of some of those people and their courage throughout their lives. What Im trying to suggest here is that the three tendencies pretty much collapsed into two, especially as the Ortega group the Terceristas came to dominate. O. Having ousted Somoza, there were even moments when the Sandinistas were truly ready to share the government with the bourgeois opposition. By almost any metric those early groups were ultra-leftist, but whats important about them is that they were keyed into a lot of mass and semi-spontaneous movements that were set off by the revolutionary process. But in the end, they saw that it wasnt necessary and they basically just took over the National Junta, until they eventually won elections in 1984. At the same time, its important to realize that the Sandinistas had divided themselves into three tendencies by the mid 1970s, and that there were probably under one hundred militants in each of those three tendencies when the first insurrections began against the Somoza government in 1978, there were no more than a couple hundred militants involved. [55] The Sandinistas were also accused of mass executions. Nevertheless, all those militants continued to have a certain informal network, even though the movement was largely stalled.
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