Introduction
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was named after Augusto César Sandino, a revolutionary and nationalist who led rebellions against the United States from 1927 until his assassination by the Somoza dictatorship in 1934. The FSLN was founded in 1961 and aimed to continue the fight against U.S. military, economic and political intervention in Nicaragua. Over the next several years, the Sandinistas would gain the support of Nicaraguans across class and social lines, especially as widespread poverty, inflation and natural disasters exacerbated Nicaragua’s political problems.
In 1979, the FSLN overthrew President Anastasio Somoza Debayle and ended forty-two years of the U.S.-backed Somoza dynasty. Known for his atrocious human rights abuses against critics of the government, Somoza came increasingly under fire after the 1972 earthquake that struck Managua on December 23rd. It destroyed the city and left 6,000 dead, 20,000 wounded and 300,000 homeless. The National Guard, responsible for dispensing relief aid, hoarded the desperately needed supplies and those who protested against such abuses of power were shot or jailed. This earthquake is often used by many historians to pinpoint the precise moment in which Nicaraguans across class and political lines decided it was time to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship.
The following few years saw protests, strikes and land occupations, energized by a wave of worldwide inflation in 1977. Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, popular editor of the daily newspaper La Prensa and outspoken critic of the Somoza regime, was assassinated in 1978 and his death became a rallying point for Nicaraguans, setting off general strikes and periods of popular insurrection. However, government repression did not squelch public discontent; it served only to fuel anti-Somoza sentiment. In July 1979, after years of fighting and bloodshed which left 50,000 dead and 100,000 wounded, Somoza was finally ousted and the Sandinista government took over.
A brief period of peace followed before a counterrevolution, led by the Contras, erupted and was preceded by continued violence into the late 1980s. Sandinista policies and programs eradicated polio and reduced other diseases, infant mortality rates, and illiteracy from 53 to 13 percent. Unfortunately, many of these initiatives were unable to continue as civil war engulfed the country. After nearly a decade of fighting and 30,000 lives lost, the Sandinistas – once heralded as liberators of the nation – were defeated in the 1990 elections by the National Opposition Union (UNO) and Pedro Chamorro’s widow, Violeta.