<!--Nicarao!--> {{Short description|1961–1990 anti-Somoza revolution and Sandinista rule}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Nicaraguan Revolution | partof = the Central American crisis and the Cold War in Latin America | image = 255px|frameless|center Combatant next to a damaged building {{multiple image | perrow = 2 | caption_align = center | border = infobox | total_width = <!-- 300 320 --> |total_height= <!-- 256 230 --> | image1 = Weapons stash (cropped).jpg | caption1 = Weapons seized by guerrilla forces | width1 =150 | height1 = | image2 = Insurreción de León (27622731145).jpg | caption2 = Sandinistas using an MG-3 | width2 =150 | height2 = | image3 = Insurreción de León (27523396592).jpg | caption3 = Aerial bombing by the National Guard | width3 =150 | height3 = | image4 = Insurreción_de_León_(27012724034).jpg | caption4 = Prisoners executed in León<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2017/04/24/nicaragua-historia-y-revolucion-asi-fue-la-toma-del-fortin-de-acosasco-en-la-insurreccion-el-7-de-julio-de-1979-en-leon-capital-de-la-revolucion-sandinista/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810091124/https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2017/04/24/nicaragua-historia-y-revolucion-asi-fue-la-toma-del-fortin-de-acosasco-en-la-insurreccion-el-7-de-julio-de-1979-en-leon-capital-de-la-revolucion-sandinista/|archive-date=2017-08-10|title=Nicaragua, Historia y Revolución: Así fue la toma del Fortín de Acosasco en la insurrección el 7 de julio de 1979 en León, Capital de la Revolución Sandinista|lang=es|quote=Aquí al lado (del Fortín) estaba el Repollal, donde llevaban todos los chavalos que agarraban presos en León y ahí los mataban.|author=Miriam Emanuelsson |date=24 April 2017}}</ref> | width4 =150 | height4 = }} | image_size = 300px | caption = | date = 19 July 1961 – 25 April 1990 ({{Age in years|month1=07|day1=19|year1=1961|month2=04|day2=25|year2=1990}} years) ---- : 19 July 1961 – 17 July 1979 (first phase: FSLN rebellion) : 17 July 1979 – 25 April 1990 (second phase: Contra insurgency) | place = {{flag|Nicaragua}} | coordinates = | map_type = | latitude = | longitude = | map_size = | map_caption = | territory = | result = <div style="margin-bottom: 1.7em">
* Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to the United States in July 1979, relinquishing control of the government. * A five-member provisional government takes its place.<ref>{{citation|contribution=Daniel Ortega|title=Encyclopædia Britannica|year=1993|edition=15th}}</ref> * The right-wing Contras begin an armed insurgency against the Sandinistas in 1981 which continues until 1990. * The Tela Accord is signed in 1989 and the Sandinista party is defeated in the 1990 election, bringing the armed revolution to an end. * Sandinistas led by Daniel Ortega are re-elected in 2006 and remain in power until today.</div> | combatant1 = {{flagicon|Nicaragua}} Somoza regime (1961–1979) * National Guard frameless|24px Contras (1981–1990) * FDN * UDN * ARDE * MILPAS * Fifteenth of September Legion * KISAN/YATAMA ---- '''Supported by:'''<br/> {{flag|United States}} * 20px|border CIA {{flag|Honduras|1949}} (from 1981)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://irp.fas.org/cia/product/cocaine/background.html|title=Origin and Development of the Contra Conflict|website=Federation of American Scientists|access-date=2025-07-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Doyle|last=McManus|title=Private Contra Funding of $32 Million Disclosed : Leader Shows Secret Bank Data in Effort to Prove Rebels Did Not Get Money From Iran Arms Sales |work=Los Angeles Times |date=6 March 1987 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-06-mn-4962-story.html| access-date=19 August 2019}}</ref> ---- {{collapsible list |title=Other supporters | titlestyle = | framestyle = background: #f5f5f5; | liststyle = margin-left:0.2em; |{{flag|El Salvador}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-17-mn-5580-story.html|title=New Light Falls on a Not-So Secret Secret: Salvador's Help for the Contras|date=1986-10-17|last=Williams|first=Dan|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2025-07-18}}</ref> |{{flag|Guatemala}} (from 1983)<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102172610/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/28/world/the-white-house-crisis-guatemala-aided-contras-despite-denials-panels-says.html|archive-date=2017-11-02|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/28/world/the-white-house-crisis-guatemala-aided-contras-despite-denials-panels-says.html|title=Guatemala aided Contras, despite denials, panel says|last=Meislin|first=Richard|work=New York Times|date=1987-02-28|access-date=2025-07-25}}</ref> |{{flag|Costa Rica|state}} (1982–1986)<ref name="UNHCR">{{cite journal |last1=((Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada)) |title=Participation of Costa Rican government in arms smuggling, for Sandinistas in 1979 and for Contras in mid-1980's |journal=UNHCR |date=1 May 1989 |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ac7f8.html |access-date=4 December 2020}}</ref> |{{flag|Panama}} (1981–1987, under Manuel Noriega)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm#3a|title=The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations|access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref> |{{Flag|Chile}} (from 1973)<ref>The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability. p. 255.</ref> |{{flag|Argentina}} (1976–1983)<ref name="auto2"/> |{{flag|Israel}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995|pp=165, 271, 481}}</ref> |{{flag|Saudi Arabia}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/oig/special/9712/appa.htm|title=CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy|access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1987/05/14/reagan-says-saudi-talked-of-contra-aid/|title=Reagan Says Saudi Talked of Contra Aid|work=tribunedigital-chicagotribune|date=14 May 1987 |access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{cite web|url=http://www.merip.org/mer/mer155/saudi-arabia-reagan-doctrine|title=Saudi Arabia and the Reagan Doctrine – Middle East Research and Information Project|date=December 1988|access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref> |{{Flagicon|Iran|1964}} Imperial State of Iran (until 1979) |{{Flagicon|Iran}} Islamic Republic of Iran (from 1979, indirectly)<ref name="brown.edu">{{Cite web|url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/timeline-nicaragua.php|title=Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs|website=www.brown.edu|access-date=2017-04-09|archive-date=8 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608214954/http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/timeline-nicaragua.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> |{{flag|People's Republic of China}} (allegedly)<ref name="auto5">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/02/us/poland-and-china-reportedly-sent-arms-to-contras.html|title=Poland and China Reportedly Sent Arms to Contras |newspaper=The New York Times|date=2 May 1987|access-date=2023-03-31}}</ref><ref name="auto6">Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988. p. 143.</ref> |{{flag|Polish People's Republic|name=Poland}} (allegedly)<ref name="auto5"/> | {{flag|Socialist Republic of Romania|name=Romania}}<ref name="auto6"/> |{{Flag|Taiwan}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/n-contrasus.php|title = Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs – the Iran-Contra Affairs}}</ref> | {{flag|Colombia}} |{{flagicon|Brazil|1968}} Brazil<ref name="auto6"/> |{{flag|Portugal}}<ref name="auto6"/> |{{flag|Brunei}}<ref name="New York Times">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/22/world/iran-contra-hearings-brunei-regains-10-million.html|title=Iran–Contra Hearings; Brunei Regains $10 Million |newspaper=The New York Times|date=22 July 1987 |access-date=2021-12-05}}</ref> }} | combatant2 = {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.svg}} Sandinista National Liberation Front * Junta of National Reconstruction/Nicaraguan Government (from 1979) **Sandinista Popular Army MAP-ML (1978–1979)<br> MILPAS<br> {{flag|Panama}} (1978–1979, under Omar Torrijos)<ref name=":3">{{cite journal|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/850812/summary|title=Omar Torrijos and the Sandinista Revolution|last=Brown|first=Jonathan C.|journal=The Latin Americanist |year=2022 |volume=66 |pages=25–45 |doi=10.1353/tla.2022.0003 |s2cid=247623108 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite journal|url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5115289/mod_folder/content/0/Aula%2013_Nicaragua_Nateras%202018.pdf|title=The Sandinista Revolution and the Limits of the Cold War in Latin America: The Dilemma of Nonintervention During the Nicaraguan Crisis, 1977–78|last=Sánchez Nateras|first=Gerardo|journal=Cold War History|year=2018|volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=111–129 |doi=10.1080/14682745.2017.1369046 |s2cid=218576606 }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Dinges|1990|pp=100-103}}</ref> ---- '''Supported by:'''<br/> {{flag|Cuba}} * Dirección de Inteligencia {{flag|Soviet Union}}<ref>{{cite web |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=wtebWixsIdYC |page=184 }} |title=The Soviet Union and Revolutionary Warfare: Principles, Practices, and ...|access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref> ---- {{collapsible list |title=Other supporters | titlestyle = | framestyle = background:#f5f5f5; | liststyle = margin-left:0.2em; | {{flag|East Germany}} (until 1989)<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995|p=169}}</ref> | {{flag|Yugoslavia|1946}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995|p=169}}</ref> | {{flag|Hungarian People's Republic|name=Hungary}} (until 1989) |{{flag|Libyan Arab Jamahiriya|name=Libya}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995|pp=216, 485}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_157.shtmlid=VyqOhCUb66AC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=cuba+assistance+fsln&source=bl&ots=p-09UO4MB4&sig=BOTkmO7QFTQBR0ljjXX01NZ_Nac&hl=en&ei=jzkdSv7zKYPR-AavjMTDCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3 | title=Welcome to the Air Combat Information Group }}{{dead link|date=February 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=wtebWixsIdYC |page=184}}|title=The Soviet Union and Revolutionary Warfare: Principles, Practices, and...|publisher=|accessdate=10 April 2015}}</ref> | {{flag|North Korea|1948}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995}}</ref> | {{flag|People's Republic of Bulgaria|name=Bulgaria}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995|p=27}}</ref> |{{flag|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|name=Czechoslovakia}} (until 1989)<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995|p=485}}</ref> | {{flagicon|PLO}} Palestine Liberation Organization<ref>{{Harvnb|Hamilton|Inouye|1995}}</ref> | {{flag|Polish People's Republic|name=Poland}} (until 1989)<ref name="auto5"/> |{{flag|Algeria}}<ref>{{cite news|first=Christopher |last=Dickey |title=Arab States Help Nicaragua Avoid Ties to Superpowers |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=19 July 1981 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/07/19/arab-states-help-nicaragua-avoid-ties-to-superpowers/ac7e83c8-ba23-4f23-a30b-4cb6e9cb6ca3/ | access-date=2 January 2024}}</ref> |{{flag|France|1974}}<ref>{{cite news|first=William |last=Echikson |title=France Warms Up to Nicaragua – As US Fumes |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=15 July 1982 |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0715/071566.html| access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref> |{{flag|Costa Rica|state}} (1978–1982)<ref name="UNHCR" /> |{{flag|Mexico}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/achsc/article/download/23186/23925/|title=Mexico's Support of the Sandinista Revolution|publisher=Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo}}</ref> |{{flag|Sweden}} (medical support)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sida.se/English/Countries-and-regions/Latin-America/Nicaragua/Our-work-in-Nicaragua/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615061856/http://www.sida.se/English/Countries-and-regions/Latin-America/Nicaragua/Our-work-in-Nicaragua/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-06-15|title=Our work in Nicaragua|publisher=Swedish International Development Corporation Agency (www.sida.se)|year=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.philly.com/1986-09-12/news/26071915_1_sandinistas-anastasio-somoza-debayle-swedish-labor|archive-url=https://archive.today/20141230060617/http://articles.philly.com/1986-09-12/news/26071915_1_sandinistas-anastasio-somoza-debayle-swedish-labor|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 December 2014|title=Sandinistas Find Economic Ally In Socialist Sweden|work=philly-archives|access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref> |{{flag|Canada}} (1984–1990, developmental aid)<ref>{{cite thesis|url=https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/4681|title=With Them and Against Them: Canada's Relations With Nicaragua, 1979–1990|last=Bishop|first=Adam|date=2 September 2009 |publisher=University of Waterloo |type=Master Thesis }}</ref> |{{flag|Venezuela|1954}} (1978–1979)<ref name=":4"/><ref name=":3"/> |{{flag|Chile}} (1970-1973) }} | commander1 = {{plainlist| * {{flagicon|Nicaragua}} '''Anastasio Somoza Debayle{{Assassinated}}''' * {{flagdeco|Nicaragua}} Luis Somoza Debayle{{Natural causes}} * {{flagdeco|Nicaragua}} Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero * frameless|24px|link=Contras Enrique Bermúdez{{Assassinated}} * frameless|24px|link=Contras Edén Pastora (1982–1986) * frameless|24px|link=Contras Édgar Chamorro{{Turncoat}} * frameless|24px|link=Contras Alfonso Robelo (1982–1988) * frameless|24px|link=Contras Fernando Chamorro (1981–1987) * frameless|24px|link=Contras Adolfo Calero * frameless|24px|link=Contras Aristides Sánchez }} | commander2 = {{plainlist| * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png|link=Sandinista National Liberation Front}} '''Daniel Ortega''' * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png|link=Sandinista National Liberation Front}} {{ill|Bayardo Arce|es}} * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} Carlos Fonseca Amador{{KIA}} * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} Edén Pastora{{Turncoat}} * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} Dora María Téllez * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} Tomás Borge * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} Humberto Ortega * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} Joaquín Cuadra * {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} Henry Ruiz * {{flagicon|Panama}} Hugo Spadafora {{Assassinated}} }} | strength1 = '''1978–1979:'''<br/> {{flagdeco|Nicaragua}} 15,000<ref>{{Harvnb|Caballero Jurado|Thomas|1990|p=20}}</ref><br/><br/><br/><div style="margin-top:0.35em"> ---- </div> '''1981–1990:'''<br/> frameless|24px|link=Contras 16,500<ref name="humancosts">{{cite report|title=Nicaragua: Summary Of Human Costs Of Contra War, 1980-1987|url=https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2267&context=noticen|publisher=University of New Mexico|date=1988-01-29|last=Tyroler|first=Deborah}}</ref> * 10,000–15,000 FDN<ref name=onwar/> | strength2 = '''1978–1979:'''<br/> {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} 20,000<ref>{{Harvnb|Caballero Jurado|Thomas|1990|p=20}}</ref> * 5,000 guerrillas * 15,000 militia ---- '''1981–1990:'''<br/> {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_FSLN.png}} 60,000<ref name=onwar>[https://onwar.com/data/nicaragua1981.html Contra Insurgency in Nicaragua 1981-1990] OnWar</ref> * 40,000 EPS * 20,000 militia {{flagicon|Cuba}} 3,000 military advisors<ref name=UPI>{{cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/07/30/Nicaraguas-military-is-at-its-highest-strength-since-the/6448491544000|title=Nicaragua's military is at its highest strength since the leftist Sandinista government gained power from the U.S.-backed regime six years ago|date=30 July 1985|publisher=United Press International|access-date=2025-07-31}}</ref> {{collapsible list |title=More<ref name=UPI/> | titlestyle = | framestyle = background:#f5f5f5 | liststyle = margin-left:0.2em; |340 tanks and armored fighting vehicles | 70 Soviet howitzers and rocket launchers | 30 helicopters (including Soviet Mi-24 gunships)<ref>{{harvnb|Sullivan|Karreth|2019|p=47}}</ref> | 15 patrol boats }} | units1 = | units2 = | casualties1 = '''1978–1979:'''<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|Karreth|2019|page=41}}</ref><ref name=jung>{{cite journal|url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i117/articles/harald-jung-the-fall-of-somoza.pdf|title=The Fall of Somoza|last=Jung|first=Harald |journal=New Left Review |date=October 1979 |volume=2 |issue=I/117 |pages=69–89 |article-number=761 |doi=10.64590/ak7 }}</ref> {{plainlist| *425–1,200 National Guard dead }} ---- '''1981–1990:'''<ref name=humancosts/><ref>{{harvnb|Sullivan|Karreth|2019|p=48}}</ref> {{plainlist| * 16,800–18,500 Contras dead * 5,900 wounded and captured }} | casualties2 = '''1978–1979:''' {{plainlist| *2,000–6,000 FSLN dead * 500–1,000 POWs killed<ref name=table>[https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB15.1E.GIF Lesser Murdering States , Quasi-States, and Groups (University of Hawaii)] Row 2490, 2520, 2537, 2541, 2543</ref> }} ---- '''1981–1990:'''<ref name=humancosts/> {{plainlist| *2,500–6,500 FSLN dead *6,500 wounded *950 captured }} | casualties3 = '''1978–1979 offensive:''' 10,000–50,000 killed (up to 7,000 civilians)<ref name="Lacina">{{cite web|last=Lacina|first=Bethany|title=The PRIO Battle Deaths Dataset, 1946–2008, Version 3.0: Documentation of Coding Decisions|url=http://www.prio.no/Global/upload/CSCW/Data/PRIObd3.0_documentation.pdf|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171019150641/http://www.prio.no/Global/upload/CSCW/Data/PRIObd3.0_documentation.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 October 2017|publisher=International Peace Research Institute, Oslo|access-date=5 August 2013}}</ref>
'''1981–1990:''' 32,000–43,000 killed (3,800 civilians reported dead)<ref name="Lacina"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Brown|2001|p=119}}</ref>
'''Total:''' 42,000–78,000 killed (incl. 4,000–22,000 civilians)<ref name=Lacina/><ref name=table/> | notes = More than 600,000 left homeless and 150,000 refugees fled to Costa Rica, Honduras, and the United States.<ref name="Lacina"/> }} {{History of Nicaragua}}
The '''Nicaraguan Revolution''' ({{langx|es|Revolución nicaragüense|link=yes}}), or '''Sandinista Revolution''' ({{langx|es|Revolución popular sandinista}}) was an armed conflict that took place in the Central American nation 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,<ref>Louis Proyect, ''Nicaragua'', discusses, among other things, the reforms and the degree to which socialism was intended or achieved.</ref> 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.<ref name=esteli>{{cite web|url=https://nicaraguainvestiga.com/memoria/80735-infierno-esteli-somoza-bombardeo-operacion-limpieza|title=El infierno de Estelí, cuando Somoza bombardeó la ciudad ocupada por la guerrilla|date=April 19, 2022|publisher=Nicaragua Investiga|lang=es}}</ref><ref name=masaya>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2018/07/22/masaya-de-la-revolucion-sandinista-a-la-dictadura-de-su-comandante|title=Masaya, de la revolución sandinista a la dictadura de su comandante|lang=es|publisher=Infobae|date=22 July 2018}}</ref> 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.<ref>Timothy Brown, The Real Contra War: Highlander Peasant Resistance in Nicaragua</ref>
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=== {{Main|Somoza family}} 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1985/04/nicaragua.html|title=Taking Care of Business in Nicaragua|access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref>
=== Sandinista National Liberation Front === {{Main|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''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Nicaragua: The Imagining of a Nation – From Nineteenth-Century Liberals to Twentieth-Century Sandinistas|last=Baracco|first=Luciano|publisher=Algora Publishing|year=2005|location=New York|pages=61}}</ref>
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."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nicaragua: The Imagining of a Nation – From Nineteenth-Century Liberals to Twentieth-Century Sandinistas|last=Baracco|first=Luciano|publisher=Algora Publishing|year=2005|location=New York|pages=66}}</ref><ref>[https://diariobarricada.com/2022/10/27/gesta-heroica-de-raiti-y-bocay/ Gesta heroica de Raití y Bocay] Diario Barricada</ref> Further operations included a devastating loss near the city of Matagalpa, during which Mayorga was killed.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nicaragua: The Imagining of a Nation – From Nineteenth-Century Liberals to Twentieth-Century Sandinistas|last=Baracco|first=Luciano|publisher=Algora Publishing|year=2005|location=New York|page=67}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Caballero Jurado|Thomas|1990|p=19}}</ref><ref>[https://socialistworker.org/2016/07/28/encarna-ortega-al-sandinismo Encarna Ortega al Sandinismo?] (2016-07-28)</ref>
====Cuban assistance==== {{main|Cuban assistance to the Sandinista National Liberation Front}}
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brands |first=Hal |title=Latin America's Cold War |date=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-05528-5 |location=Cambridge (Mass.)}}</ref>
==Revolution== [[File:Combatiente_con_RPG.jpg|thumb|right|A woman aiming a Soviet-made RPG-2]] {{Revolution sidebar}}
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.<ref name="brown.edu" />
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.<ref>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.</ref>
On 10 January 1978, Cardenal was murdered, allegedly by the Somoza regime, and riots broke out in Managua targeting the Somoza regime.<ref name="Stage and Regime in US Policy">Washington, Somoza and the Sandinistas: [{{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=FJe87T4G0w0C |page=657 }} Stage and Regime in US Policy toward Nicaragua 1969–1981], Author: Morris H. Morley, Published: 2002, {{ISBN|978-0521523356}}, p. 106</ref> 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.<ref name="Stage and Regime in US Policy"/>
In the words of William Dewy, a Citibank employee who witnessed the Managua riots:
{{blockquote|"Our offices at the time were directly across the street from ''La Prensa'' and in the fighting that followed part of our branch was burned, but not intentionally. They were going after the Somoza-owned bank. In the turmoil they torched the [Somoza] bank and our building also burnt down. It was clear [to the U.S. business community] that the Chamorro assassination had changed things dramatically and permanently for the worse." — Interview with Morris H. Morley, 17 October 1987<ref name="Stage and Regime in US Policy"/>}}
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."<ref name="brown.edu" /> 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.<ref name="brown.edu" />
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.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
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.<ref>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.</ref>
==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.<ref>evolution of demography in Nicaragua (1961–2003), Data FAOSTAT, http://faostat.fao.org/faostat/help-copyright/copyright-e.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719110524/http://faostat.fao.org/faostat/help-copyright/copyright-e.htm |date=19 July 2006 }} (last updated 11 February 2005)</ref>
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.<ref name="brown.edu" />
===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.<ref>Solá Monserrat, Roser. "Geografía y Estructura Económicas de Nicaragua" (Nicaragua's Geography and Economical Structure). Universidad Centroamericana. Managua, 1989. 2nd ed.</ref> thumb|Somoza Debayle during a press conference in 1979 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.).<ref name="Solá">"Agrarian Productive Structure in Nicaragua", ''Solá Monserrat, Roser. 1989. Pag 69 and ss''.</ref>
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)<ref name="Solá" />
The principles that defined the reform matched those of the Revolution: pluralism, national unity, and economic democracy.<ref name="Solá" />
Agrarian reform developed in four phases: # phase (1979): confiscation of property owned by Somocistas and its partners # phase (1981): Agrarian Reform Law of 19 July 1981 # phase (1984–85): massive cession of land individually # phase (1986): Agrarian Reform Law of 1986, or "reform to the 1981 Law"
In 1985, the Agrarian Reform distributed {{convert|235000|acre|km2|order=flip}} 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.<ref>Louis Proyect, ''Nicaragua'', about 4/5 of the way down.</ref>
===Cultural revolution=== [[File:Nicaragua inflation rate 1980-1993.webp|thumb|310px|The inflation rate of the córdoba rose to over 10,000% in 1988, leading to rationing]] The Revolution brought many cultural developments. The Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign ''(Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización)'' focused on high school and university students drafting teachers as volunteer teachers. Within five months they claimed to have reduced the overall illiteracy rate from 50.3% to 12.9%.<ref name="NLC">{{cite news |first=Ulrike |last=Hanemann |title=Nicaragua's Literacy Campaign |url=http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/file_download.php/67b39f3aaf8f20da06be3c6a4e4c6dfeHanemann_U.doc|work=UNESCO|access-date=2 July 2007 |format=DOC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703020810/http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/file_download.php/67b39f3aaf8f20da06be3c6a4e4c6dfeHanemann_U.doc<!--Bot retrieved archive-->|archive-date=3 July 2007}}</ref> In September 1980, UNESCO awarded 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.<ref>{{cite news|first=Juan|last=B. Arrien|title=Literacy in Nicaragua |publisher=UNESCO |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001459/145937e.pdf| access-date=1 August 2007 }}</ref>
The Sandinistas established a Ministry of Culture, one of only three in Latin America at the time, and established a new editorial brand, called ''Editorial Nueva Nicaragua'' and, based on it, started to print cheap editions of basic books rarely seen by Nicaraguans. It founded an ''Instituto de Estudios del Sandinismo'' (Institute for Studies of Sandinismo) where it printed the work and papers of Augusto C. Sandino and those that reflected the ideologies of the FSLN, such as Carlos Fonseca and Ricardo Morales Avilés.
Such programs received international recognition for improving literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform.<ref>[http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/history/background.html Background History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422185323/http://stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/history//background.html |date=22 April 2017 }} of Nicaragua</ref><ref>[http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/NicaraguaReportOct2001.html globalexchange.org] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930032055/http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/NicaraguaReportOct2001.html |date=30 September 2006 }} Report on Nicaragua</ref>
=== Human rights controversies ===
Amnesty International noted 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".<ref>{{cite book|author=Amnesty International|title=Nicaragua: The human rights records 1986–1989|publisher=Amnesty International Publications|year=1989|isbn= 978-0939994502}}</ref>
The Sandinistas were accused of committing mass executions.<ref>Moore, John Norton (1987) ''The Secret War in Central America''. University Publications of America. p. 143. {{ISBN|978-0890939611}}</ref><ref>Miranda, Roger and Ratliff, William (1993) ''The Civil War in Nicaragua''. Transaction. p. 193. {{ISBN|978-1412819688}}</ref> The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights investigated abuses by Sandinista forces, including an execution of 35 to 40 Miskitos in December 1981,<ref>{{Cite news|title=OAS Study Says Miskito Indians Suffered Abuse From Sandinistas |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/06/08/oas-study-says-miskito-indians-suffered-abuse-from-sandinistas/5a034db2-11ad-4142-80d8-2c4fe611c8a6/|access-date=2021-07-21|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en}}</ref> and an execution of 75 people in November 1984.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/92eng/chap.4b.htm|title=Annual Report 1992–1993|date=1993-03-12|publisher=Inter-American Commission on Human Rights|access-date=2009-03-30}}</ref> The ''Los Angeles Times'' noted 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 the Coco into Honduras, and many took up arms to oppose the Nicaraguan government."<ref>{{cite news|first=Douglas|last=Farah|title=Miskito Indians Forced to Flee : Their Dreams of Returning to Nicaragua Fade |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2 August 1987 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-02-mn-738-story.html#| access-date=2 December 2020}}</ref>
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative American think tank with close ties to the Ronald Reagan administration,<ref name="Reagan Heritage">{{Cite web|title = Reagan and Heritage: A Unique Partnership|url=http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2004/06/reagan-and-heritage-a-unique-partnership|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805034448/http://www.heritage.org/Research/Commentary/2004/06/REAGAN-AND-HERITAGE-A-Unique-Partnership|url-status=unfit|archive-date=5 August 2011|website = The Heritage Foundation|access-date = January 29, 2016|language = en-US}}</ref><ref>Arin, Kubilay Yado (2013): ''Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy''. Wiesbaden: VS Springer.</ref> charged the Sandinista government with human rights violations, including press censorship. It charged that the government censored the independent newspaper ''La Prensa.''<ref name="heritage.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/americas/report/the-sandinista-war-human-rights|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410213848/http://www.heritage.org/americas/report/the-sandinista-war-human-rights|url-status=unfit|archive-date=10 April 2017|title=The Sandinista War on Human Rights|last=L.|first=Melanie|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=9 April 2017}}</ref> French journalist Viktor Dedaj, who lived in Managua in the 1980s, contended that ''La Prensa'' was generally sold freely and that the majority of radio stations were anti-Sandinista.<ref>Que faire si vous lisez le journal "Le Monde", Viktor Dedaj, 2004</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=July 2025}} 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.<ref name="heritage.org" /> Heritage also criticized the government for its treatment of the Miskito 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.<ref name="heritage.org" /><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952200-1,00.html|title=Nicaragua: Nothing Will Stop This Revolution|last=Russell |first=George|date=17 October 1983|magazine=Time|access-date=11 April 2017|issn=0040-781X}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/americas/report/the-sandinista-war-human-rights|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410213848/http://www.heritage.org/americas/report/the-sandinista-war-human-rights|url-status=unfit|archive-date=10 April 2017|title=The Sandinista War on Human Rights|last=L.|first=Melanie|website=The Heritage Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=11 April 2017}}</ref>
The United Nations, the Organization of American States and Pax Christi disputed Heritage's allegations of anti-Semitism. According to them, individual Nicaraguan Jews had their property expropriated due to their connections with the Somoza regime, rather than because they were Jewish. They cited the fact that there were prominent Sandinista officials of Jewish descent.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/world/americas/herty-lewites-66-exsandinista-dies.html | title=Herty Lewites, 66, Ex-Sandinista, Dies | work=The New York Times | date=4 July 2006 | last1=Kinzer | first1=Stephen }}</ref> In contrast to these organizations, the Anti-Defamation League supported allegations of Sandinista antisemitism. It worked closely with Nicaraguan Jewish exiles to reclaim a synagogue that had been firebombed by Sandinista militants in 1978 and expropriated in 1979.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/joshua-muravchik/sandinista-anti-semitism-and-its-apologists/ | title=Sandinista Anti-Semitism and Its Apologists | date=September 1986 }}</ref>
==Contra war== {{Main|Contras}}
[[File:Contra commandas 1987.jpg|thumb|Contra group from FDN and ARDE Frente Sur in the Nueva Guinea area in 1987]] The Carter Administration attempted to work with FSLN in 1979 and 1980, while the Reagan Administration supported an anti-communist strategy for dealing with Latin America, and attempted to isolate the Sandinista regime economically and politically. As early as 1980–1981, anti-Sandinista forces known as Contras began forming along the Honduras–Nicaragua border. Many of the initial Contras were former members of Somoza's National Guard and still loyal to him, then in exile in Honduras.
thumb|Contras taking a break after routing an FSLN garrison In addition to Contra units loyal to Somoza, the FSLN began to face opposition from members of ethnic minority groups that inhabited Nicaragua's remote Mosquito Coast region along the Caribbean. These groups were demanding self-determination, autonomy, and freedom from persecution, but the FSLN refused to grant these and began using forced relocations and armed force in response.
Upon taking office in January 1981, Reagan cancelled U.S. economic aid to Nicaragua,<ref name="justice.gov">U.S. Department of Justice, Appendix A: Background on United States Funding of the Contras, http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/9712/appa.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121064750/http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/9712/appa.htm |date=21 January 2015 }}</ref> 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.<ref>University of Texas, National Security Decision Directive number 7, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/Scanned%20NSDDS/NSDD7.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004030005/http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/Scanned%20NSDDS/NSDD7.pdf |date=4 October 2012 }}</ref> On 17 November 1981, President Reagan signed National Security Directive 17, authorizing covert support to anti-Sandinista forces.<ref name="justice.gov"/>
Armed conflict soon erupted, further destabilizing the region upset by civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala. The CIA-backed Contras secretly opened a "second front" on Nicaragua's eastern coast and Costa Rican border. {{Citation needed|date=August 2013}} 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. A compulsory draft called the ''Servicio Militar Patriótico'' (Patriotic Military Service) was also established.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://legislacion.asamblea.gob.ni/normaweb.nsf/($All)/4316A8EDC3B3CC37062570D50076E915?OpenDocument|title=Ley del Servicio Militar Patriótico |website=legislacion.asamblea.gob.ni|access-date=20 May 2018}}</ref>
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. The CIA was helping them to plant mines in Nicaragua harbors to inhibit foreign weapons shipments.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=L.A. Times|title=Setback for Contras: CIA Mining of Harbors 'a Fiasco'", Last in a series|date=5 March 1985|first1=Doyle|last1=McManus|first2=Robert C.|last2=Toth|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-03-05-mn-12633-story.html}}</ref> The 1987 Iran–Contra affair placed the Reagan Administration again at the center of secret support for the Contras.
===1984 general election=== {{Main|1984 Nicaraguan general election}}
The 1984 Nicaraguan general election took 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",<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/newsid_2538000/2538379.stm|title=BBC on This Day-5-1984: Sandinistas claim election victory|date=5 November 1984|access-date=10 April 2015}}</ref> although the Reagan administration denounced it as a "Soviet style sham". The national share of valid votes for president were: * Daniel Ortega, Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) – 67.0% * Clemente Guido, Democratic Conservative Party (PCD) – 14.0% * Virgilio Godoy, Independent Liberal Party (PLI) – 9.6% * Mauricio Diaz, Popular Social Christian Party (PPSC) – 5.6% * Allan Zambrana, Nicaraguan Communist Party (PCdeN) – 1.5% * Domingo Sánchez Sancho, Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN) – 1.3% * Isidro Téllez, Marxist–Leninist Popular Action Movement (MAP-ML) – 1.0%
===Esquipulas Peace Agreement=== {{Main|Esquipulas Peace Agreement}}
The Esquipulas Peace Agreement was a mid-1980s initiative to settle the military conflicts that had plagued Central America for years, sometimes decades. It built upon groundwork laid by the Contadora Group from 1983 to 1985. The agreement was named for Esquipulas, Guatemala, where the initial meetings took place. US Congress efforts were helped by Capitol Hill lobbyist William C. Chasey.
In May 1986, summit meeting Esquipulas I took place, attended by the five Central American presidents. On 15 February 1987, Costa Rican President Óscar Arias submitted a Peace Plan that evolved{{Clarify|date=August 2009}} from 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 in Guatemala City by 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 to irregular forces, negotiations on arms controls, and assistance to refugees. It laid the ground for international verification procedures and provided a timetable for implementation.
The Sapoá Accords, held on 23 March 1988, represented the beginning of a peace process in Nicaragua. The name of the accords comes from Sapoá, a Nicaraguan town near the border with Costa 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 by João Clemente Baena Soares at the time as Secretary General of the Organization of American States and then Archbishop of Managua Miguel Obando y Bravo<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3135|title = Revista Envío – Sapoá – A New Benchmark}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.enriquebolanos.org/articulo/acuerdo-sapoa|title = Acuerdos de Sapoá – 23 de marzo de 1988}}</ref> Management of the peace process relied on Soviet ambassador Vaino Väljas' mediation (based on recent US-Soviet agreements), since the U.S. did not have an Ambassador to Nicaragua from 1 July 1987 until 4 May 1988.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2642p3/revision/3 |title = Proxy wars in Nicaragua and Angola – The Cold War, 1972–1991 – OCR A – GCSE History Revision – OCR A – BBC Bitesize}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.err.ee/1608156826/toomas-alatalu-vaino-valjas-eestlane-kes-alustas-kulma-soja-lopetamist|title = Toomas Alatalu: Vaino Väljas – eestlane, kes alustas külma sõja lõpetamist|date = 28 March 2021}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB238/index.htm|title = The INF Treaty and the Washington Summit: 20 Years Later}}</ref>
===National Opposition Union (UNO)=== {{Main|National Opposition Union (Nicaragua, 1990)}}
{{blockquote|Since the very moment of inception, under the political guidance and technical and financial support from the government of the U.S., the existence of UNO was marked by grave structural deformations, derived from its own nature. In its conformation concurred the most diverse currents of the Nicaraguan political and ideological range: from the liberal-conservative -traditionally anticommunist and pro-U.S., to Marxist-Leninists from moscovian lineage, openly declared supporters of class struggle and enemies of capitalism in its superior development stage.<ref name="Cajina">"Paradoxes from an heterogeneous and fragile electoral Alliance", ''CAJINA, Roberto, Pag. 44 and ss.''</ref>|Roberto J. Cajina }}
In the 1990 Nicaraguan general election, the UNO Coalition included:<ref name="Cajina"/> <!--(exact transcription and translation of the names of these political parties needed)--> *3 Liberal factions: PLI, PLC and PALI *3 Conservative: ANC, PNC and APC *3 Social-Christians: PPSC, PDCN and PAN *2 Social democrats: PSD and MDN *2 Communists: PSN (pro-Moscow) and PC de Nicaragua (pro-Albania) *1 Central American Unionist: PIAC
===Maps of Contra activity=== {{Gallery |title=Militias in Nicaragua (1984–1988) |width=160 | height=170 |noborder=yes |align=center |File:Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1984).png |{{center|1984}} |alt1=Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1984) |File:Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1985).png |{{center|1985}} |alt2=Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1985) |File:Nicaragua FDN.jpg |{{center|Regional commands of the FDN (1985)}} |File:Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1986).png |{{center|1986}} |class3=bg-transparent |alt3=Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1986) |File:Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1988).png |{{center|1988}} |class4=bg-transparent |alt4=Insurgency area in Nicaragua (1988) }}
==See also== {{Portal|Nicaragua}}
*Dirty War *CIA activities in Nicaragua *Iran–Contra affair *La Penca bombing * Operation Golden Pheasant *Murals of revolutionary Nicaragua *''Nicaragua v. United States'' *''Under Fire'' (film) *United States embargo against Nicaragua *Women in the Nicaraguan Revolution
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book|last=Brown|first=Timothy|year=2001|isbn=9780806132525|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_8b60uPMyFwC|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|title=The Real Contra War: Highlander Peasant Resistance in Nicaragua}} * {{cite book|first1=Carlos|last1=Caballero Jurado|first2=Nigel|last2=Thomas|title=Central American Wars 1959–89|series=Men-at-Arms series, No. 221|publisher=Osprey Publishing|location=London|year=1990|isbn=978-0-85045-945-6}} * {{cite book|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-8129-1950-9|last=Dinges|first=John|title=Our Man in Panama|date=1990|url=https://archive.org/details/ourmaninpanamaho00ding|url-access=registration}} *Emily L Andrews, ''Active Marianismo: Women's social and political action in Nicaraguan Christian base communities and the Sandinista revolution''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070206200536/http://web.grinnell.edu/LatinAmericanStudies/this.html The Marianismo Ideal] Grinnell College research project, 1997. Retrieved November 2009. *Enrique Bermudez (with Michael Johns), "The Contras' Valley Forge: How I View the Nicaragua Crisis", ''Policy Review'' magazine, Summer 1988. *David Close, Salvador Marti Puig & Shelley McConnell (2010) "The Sandinistas and Nicaragua, 1979–2009" NY: Lynne Rienner. {{ISBN?}} *Dodson, Michael, and Laura Nuzzi O'Shaughnessy (1990). ''Nicaragua's Other Revolution: Religious Faith and Political Struggle''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|0-8078-4266-4}} * {{cite book|last1=Hamilton |first1=Lee H.|last2=Inouye |first2=Daniel K.|title=Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran/Contra Affair|publisher=DIANE Publishing Company|year=1995|isbn=9780788126024}} * {{cite journal|last1=Head|first1=Michael|last2=Viglietti|first2=Brian|year=2012 |title=Question 35/48: Nicaraguan 'Contra' Mining Campaign|journal=Warship International|volume=LXIX |issue=4 |pages=299–301 |issn=0043-0374|name-list-style=amp}} * {{cite journal|last1=Sullivan|first1=PL|last2=Karreth|first2=J|url=https://plsullivan.web.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1570/2019/09/STAC-Case-Notes-Vol-1_-401961-to-5171997.pdf|year=2019|title= Strategies and Tactics in Armed Conflict (STAC): Case Notes vol. 1|journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution}} *Schmidli, William Michael, "'The Most Sophisticated Intervention We Have Seen': The Carter Administration and the Nicaraguan Crisis, 1978–1979," ''Diplomacy and Statecraft,'' (2012) 23#1 pp 66–86. *Sierakowski, Robert. ''Sandinistas: A Moral History.'' University of Notre Dame Press, 2019.
===Primary sources=== *Katherine Hoyt, ''Memories of the 1979 Final Offensive'', Nicanet, Retrieved November 2009. This is a first-hand account from Matagalpa; also contains some information on the general situation. Has photographs showing considerable damage to Matagalpa. [http://www.nicanet.org/?p=734 News and Information] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091204153707/http://www.nicanet.org/?p=734 |date=4 December 2009 }} *Salvador Martí Puig, "Nicaragua. La revolución enredada", Libros de la Catarata: Madrid. {{ISBN?}} *Oleg Ignatiev, "The Storm of Tiscapa", in Borovik and Ignatiev, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120710213607/http://www.leninist.biz/en/1980/AD158/index.html#00-Memo.to.the.Reader ''The Agony of a Dictatorship'']}}. Progress Publishers, 1979; English translation, 1980.
==Further reading== *Meiselas, Susan. ''Nicaragua: June 1978 – July 1979''. Pantheon Books (New York), 1981. 1st ed. {{ISBN?}} *"Nicaragua: A People Aflame." ''GEO'' (Volume 1 charter issue), 1979. *Teixera, Ib. "Nicarágua: A Norte de um pais." ''Manchete'' (Rio de Janeiro). 7 July 1979.
==External links== *Library of Congress (United States), [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/nitoc.html#ni0023 ''Country Study: Nicaragua''], especially Chapter 1, which is by Marisabel Brás. Retrieved November 2009. *Louis Proyect, [http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/nicaragua.htm ''Nicaragua'']. Retrieved November 2009. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120728041441/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552661 Nicaragua : Whose Side Are We On?] from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160115205405/https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives] {{Nicaragua topics}} {{Cold War}} {{Cuban conflicts}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Nicaraguan Revolution Category:1960s in Nicaragua Category:1970s in Nicaragua Category:1980s in Nicaragua Category:1990 in Nicaragua Category:1960s revolutions Category:1970s revolutions Category:1980s revolutions Category:1990s revolutions Category:Cold War conflicts Category:Communist revolutions Category:Revolution-based civil wars Category:Proxy wars Category:Cold War in North America Category:Military history of Nicaragua