Revolucion

Just before the IST we passed a big political holiday here in Nicaragua: The 19th of July, which this year was the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. I know that before I came to Nicaragua I had little or no clue about the history of the country other than a big war in the 80s and since I was born in the 80s I knew almost nothing about that either. So, based on my Peace Corps history packet, here’s some Nica History:

Basically, Nicaragua was ruled for many years by the Somoza family, who were generally backed by the U.S. government. I’ve heard varying reports of the prosperity of the country during that time but a lot of the people I’ve talked to tell me that Nicaragua was generally in good shape and that migrant workers in the region actually came here looking for jobs (today they mostly go to Costa Rica and Panama). In December 1972, a major earthquake virtually destroyed Managua and international aid money poured into the country. It was because of the misuse of those funds, which were largely distributed to rebuild and strengthen businesses owned by the Somozas instead of helping the people, that the revolution happened. Guerilla wars occurred between 1972 and 1979, and the Carter administration in the U.S. began to criticize Somoza’s human rights record in 1977, eventually suspending economic aid. On July 17th, 1979 Anastasio Somoza went into exile in Miami.

So the Sandinistas came to power and the current president, Daniel Ortega, was in charge of the country for pretty much all of the 80s. The Carter administration attempted to make things work with the new Nicaraguan government but when Reagan took over, he decided he didn’t like the new leftist government in his hemisphere so, with the help of Congress, he funded the Contras out of Honduras to re-start the civil war in Nicaragua with a little additional help from the CIA. That lasted until 1984 when Congress decided they didn’t want to fund the Contras anymore which then led to the fun-filled Iran-Contra Affair in which Reagan raised funds for the Contras by illegally selling weapons to Iran and I think we all know how that ended up.

In 1989, the first democratic elections were held and the Sandinista party lost. In fact, it wasn’t until Ortega was reelected President in 2006 that they returned to power. So on the 19th of July there was a big party in Managua, all buses were going that direction with Sandinista flags waving (the infamous red and black) and lots of fireworks & such things going off around town here. It happened to fall on a Sunday so we had Monday off as a national holiday so I ate sopa de mondongo (oh yes, that’s cow stomach soup!) and relaxed on my patio.

Here are some pieces of war history at the scenic look out over Managua:



For my non-Spanish speaking readers, the sign says: “The remains of the horse monument to General Anastasio Somoza that was in front of the National Stadium. It was constructed in 1954 and torn down July 1979.”