History and Future | Nicaragua's History

An excerpt of text from Christopher Dodd’s Semillas De Justicia [August 2004]

Independence | U.S. takes interest | Somoza dictatorship | Carlos Fonseca and the FSLN | Rebuilding and the Contra War

Independence and the Early Years

Like all other Central American countries, Nicaragua gained its independence from Spain on September 15, 1821, was part of Mexico for a brief time, was then incorporated into the new Central American Federation, and finally achieved full independence in 1838. As I write this, the cadence of drums can be heard all across the country, from La Conquista to Mulukuku (pronounced moo-loo-ku-ku, and be sure to give that final U a little extra umph), as the nation’s youth prepare to celebrate El Dia De Independencia in fine fashion. From colonial times until 1937, Nicaraguan affairs were led by one of two parties. The conservative party was based in the city of Granada, and was mainly led by members of the wealthy business class. They favored traditional Spanish values of monarchy and Catholic authority. The city of Leon became the center for intellectuals and radical clerics, who together formed the Liberal Party. They supported Central American unification and reforms based on those of the United States and French Revolutions.

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The U.S. Takes Interest: William Walker, a Possible Canal Site, and the Marine Occupation

It was as early as 1838 that the U.S. first took a significant interest in Nicaragua – the idea to connect the two great oceans was already in motion (spurred on by the wealth being generated by the California gold rush), and Nicaragua’s southernmost border was an ideal location to construct a canal. U.S. interest grew as the adventurer William Walker, if that is what you want to call him, a native of Tennessee, became intent on ruling all of Central America. After being driven out of Baja, California shortly after declaring himself President of this “independent area”, he was asked by the Liberal Party of Nicaragua to help them seize power from the Conservatives in Granada. The story goes that Walker, along with 56 seemingly avid followers, successfully attacked Granada in 1855, and soon after he was elected President. I wonder if that was a free and fair election? Within 3 months he had instituted slavery, declared English the official language and seized Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt’s transport company (Vanderbilt was one of the largest US capitalists at the time. Evidently feeling as though he was on a roll, Walker adopted the slogan “Five Or None”, and with it announced his intent to seize control of the remaining Central American countries. Well, as it turned out, Sir William had chosen to toot the whistle of the wrong capitalist. With the support of the Commodore, the other Central American nations united to drive him out. After surrendering to the U.S. Navy in 1857 and being deported back to the U.S., a short 6 months later he was again in the hands of the U.S. Navy. This time, while leading another invading party, he was arrested, and deported once again. In 1860 he led what would be his final attempt to conquer Central America, but this time Walker had forgotten his rabbit’s foot, and the results would prove disastrous for this ‘adventurer’. After being captured by the British Navy near the Honduran coastal city of Trujillo, he was turned over the their authorities, was tried, and then executed on September 12, 1860.

Walker and the Liberal Party lost power to the Conservatives in 1857, who would then govern Nicaragua until 1893, the year the Liberal General, Jose Zelaya, deposed the conservative president and became president himself. After seeking a canal deal with Germany and Japan, as well as ordering the execution of 2 U.S. mercenaries accused of aiding the conservatives, the U.S. forced his resignation. And shortly thereafter, in 1912 (Woodrow Wilson had just taken the reigns in Washington), 2,500 U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to contain a rebellion against the seated conservative government. On a side note, it was only 3 years after the Marines were sent to Nicaragua that they were also sent to another Latin American country, Haiti. The U.S. Marines would occupy both Haiti and Nicaragua for 21 and 18 years respectively. Before being pulled out in 1933, the conservative regime, supported by the U.S. Marines, was having trouble with a group of Liberal rebels, the most important of which would prove to be Augusto C. Sandino, who led a fierce resistance against U.S. troops during the final years of the occupation.

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The Somoza Family Dictatorship

When the marines had safely returned to North American soil in 1933 (and that was also the year the marines arrived home from Haiti), they had left behind a well-trained Nicaraguan National Guard, whose primary objective was to battle the Sandino-led resistance. The leader of the Guard, Anastasio Somoza Garcia, would prove to be one of the most important figures in Nicaraguan history. A few years after engineering the assassination of Sandino and his brother in 1934, Somoza overthrew the sitting president, and became President himself. This was the beginning of a 4-decade long Somoza family dynasty, that would not end until the Sandinista revolution succeeded on the 19th of June, 1979. So what kind of human being was Anastasio Somoza, you might be wondering? After creating a new constitution that granted himself additional power, he or a puppet president ruled Nicaragua for 20 years, during which time he amassed huge personal wealth by corrupt means. During his tenure, the Somoza family landholdings grew to the size of El Salvador. One of the most beloved U.S. Presidents, F.D.R., remarked “he may be a son-of-a-bitch, but at least he’s our son-of-a-bitch”. Over the years, the Somoza family supported the U.S. Government, allowing Nicaragua to become a staging ground for the 1954 overthrow of democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, as well as for the 1961 invasion of Cuba. In return, the U.S. Government supported them. After Somoza’s assassination in Leon in 1956, his eldest son Luis succeeded him. After Luis died in 1967, his younger brother Anastasio assumed the presidency. From what I could gather, there didn’t seem to be too much of a difference between one Somoza and another, a Somoza was a Somoza.

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Carlos Fonseca, the Birth of the FSLN and the Revolutionary Struggle

In 1961, Carlos Fonseca (a leader in the 1950s student movement that opposed the regime) and Colonel Santos Lopez (an old partner of Sandino’s) joined other activists to found the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN. After 16 more years of corruption, violence, repression, neglect and assassinations (Fonseca was assassinated in 1976), the Nicaraguan public, along with moderate business interests, had had enough. The broad alliance in opposition to the Somoza dictatorship formed a revolutionary government in San Jose, Costa Rica, which was recognized and supported militarily by many other countries. In June, the FSLN and the Sandinista People’s Army began taking city after city, and on July 17, Somoza resigned as president and fled to Paraguay, where he was later assassinated. Two days later, the Sandinistas, along with thousands of civilians, marched victoriously into the capital city of Managua. The people of Nicaragua were finally out from under the human oppression of the Somoza dictatorship, and could finally taste a real future, one without violence and so much unnecessary suffering. Justice had been served.

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Rebuilding After the Revolution and the Contra War

Despite the joy of a Nicaragua without the Somoza family, 50,000 Nicaraguans had been killed in the revolutionary struggle and the Sandinistas had inherited a country shackled by extreme poverty, illiteracy, homelessness and a virtually non-existent health care system, just to name a few of the problems they faced. And to make matters worse, less than a year after the revolution, relations between Nicaragua and the United States had taken a turn for the bad. Then President Ronald Reagan and the United States Congress suspended all aid to Nicaragua, and began funding the Contras, a collection of counter-revolutionary groups, composed mainly of former Somoza National Guard members operating out of Honduras and Costa Rica.

Despite the escalating Contra War and opposition from the World’s wealthiest country, the Sandinista leadership was determined to do more for the people of Nicaragua. For the first time in Nicaraguan history, unions were allowed. Land was distributed to small farming cooperatives, composed of peasants (think Somoza family landholdings), small industries were supported (think disaffected business leaders) and educational and healthcare policies that resembled those in most European countries were put into place. In fact, I was able to see or visit more than a handful of health clinics, primary and secondary schools, as well as universities that had been constructed during the 80s. Illiteracy dropped more than 35% and great advances were made in health care. The numbers prove it – and if one doesn’t believe the numbers, just ask the people of Nicaragua. All children were vaccinated. Pregnant women and children had access to doctors and medicine, infant mortality dropped by 30 deaths per 100,000 and life expectancy was up. These were positive changes for the people of Nicaragua.

During the first half of the 1980s the Reagan administration had the support of the U.S. Congress, but over time, the tide of public opinion began to turn against funding the Contra, and in 1985 Reagan lost Congressional backing to continue sending millions of dollars of aid. It seemed as if the people of the United States were waking up to the fact that funding an armed insurrection (in which thousands of Nicaraguans were dying) against what was now a democratically elected government (in November 1984 63% of voting Nicaraguan’s elected Daniel Ortega President, and the Sandinista Party won 61 of 96 seats in the National Assembly), was the wrong thing to do. Instead, the Congress opted for a trade embargo against Nicaragua, and pressured other countries to do the same.

Welcome to the Iran-Contra Affair ladies and gentlemen. The Reagan administration secretly continued to fund the Contras through a scheme in which the C.I.A. illegally sold weapons to Iran at inflated prices and used the excess money to fund the Contras. Eventually, the necessity of huge military spending to fight the Contra, a trade embargo and falling World prices for leading exports placed a burden on the Nicaraguan economy that it just couldn’t bear. With the strong backing and financing of the United States (the U.S. Government had pledged to remove the trade embargo and provide millions in economic aid), the United National Opposition Party took the 1990 elections, gaining 55% of the Presidential vote and 51 of 92 assembly seats. And shortly after their victory, the Contras turned in their weapons to what was the Sandinista People’s Army (whose leadership to this day remains Sandinista), the trade embargo was lifted and aid began to flow . . .

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