NICARAGUAN REVOLUTION: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2025

The Nicaraguan revolution was known as an “open process” that lasted from 1978 to 1990 and succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship of the Somoza dynasty by establishing a progressive left-wing government.

The revolution was carried out by the Sandinista National Liberation Front at a time when Latin America experienced a period of great political uncertainty dominated by constant struggles between factions of the left and right, and US interference.

Sandinista National Liberation Front in the taking of the National Palace

Faced with the constant presence of the United States in the politics and economy of Nicaragua, together with the existence of a right-wing dictatorial government that has been in power since 1937, many left-wing leaders began to react.

One of them was the nationalist leader Augusto Sandino who would strongly reject the active participation of the United States and the support given to the dictatorial government of Anastasio Somoza, thus giving rise to the famous Nicaraguan revolution.

Origins of the revolution in Nicaragua

The story goes back to the year 1926 when the resistance hero Augusto Sandino began to carry out a revolution against the North American occupation and the mandate of Anastasio Somoza García.

His followers became a leftist guerrilla that was involved in the massacre of several US Marines, thus initiating a fight that would continue until 1934 when Somoza suggested establishing a peace agreement and in that meeting he assassinated the leftist leader..

Somoza plunged the country into institutional chaos and at that time civil society did not have the capacity or freedom to organize, opposition political parties were non-existent, and peasant unions and leagues lacked political representation.

Hence, Nicaragua was governed by two successive generations of the Somoza family, first, Luis Somoza Debayle and later, Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

Starting in 1959, the administration of the United States, under the figure of President Eisenhower, initiated a state policy that aimed to overthrow all the left-wing governments in the hemisphere

Hence, in the case of Nicaragua, the United States were the main allies of the Somoza dictatorship and those in charge of destroying any leftist revolutionary force.

The rise of the Sandinista National Liberation Front

However, by 1970 the Sandinista National Liberation Front (named after the late leader Sandino), had grown in popularity and threatened Somoza's hegemony.

The front developed a democratic proposal that convinced not only the peasant, rural and lower classes of Nicaragua, but also the middle class that was excluded and affected by the economic policies of the Somoza regime.

This proposal sought to establish a democratic republican system where there was universal suffrage and citizen participation, together with economic equality and an equitable distribution of wealth, promising an agrarian revolution and job security.

In August 1978, 24 Sandinista guerrillas took the National Palace in Managua, and by 1979 the Sandinistas seized political power in the country.

They drafted a provisional constitution focused on respect for human rights and freedom of expression, abolishing torture.

They carried out a national literacy crusade that improved the education of Nicaraguans, but they did not hold elections but instead formed an authoritarian junta with five Sandinista officials, among them Daniel Ortega and Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

They also established strong international alliances with Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Beginnings of the civil war

By carrying out the Agrarian Reform Law, the Sandinistas dispossessed multiple landowners of their lands, who went to the northern rural region along the border with Honduras and the Atlantic coast, becoming an armed resistance called "La Contra" and which, supported by the United States under the Ronald Reagan administration, was transformed into an armed guerrilla army.

From that moment on, a civil war began between the Sandinista forces and those of the contra, so in 1985 Ortega created a national assembly and focused all his political and economic forces in the fight against the resistance.

Hence, democratic ideals and their social and economic proposals went into the background.

The guerrillas increased and the presence of political oppression and constant human rights violations were present for ten years, so in 1990, when the situation became untenable, Ortega decided to hold elections.

After Violeta Barrios de Chamorro won with the National Opposition Union party, a new peaceful democratic period was established.

Causes of the Nicaraguan Revolution

Assassination of Augusto Sandino

After the leftist leader Sandino was assassinated in 1934 by the US army and the dictator Somoza, the Sandinista National Liberation Front emerged with all the left-wing leaders who wanted to establish a new government and start the revolution.

Triumph of the Cuban Revolution

After the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown in 1959, the Sandinistas found a stimulus for their struggles against the dictatorship.

The ideas of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Augusto Sandino, and Marxist liberation theology sustained his revolution.

Managua earthquake

Happened in 1972, it brought serious economic and social consequences for the country's middle and especially lower classes.

After more than 10,000 people died and 75% of the houses were destroyed, the Nicaraguans and especially the Sandinista National Liberation Front held various protests when they saw the weak response from the government.

This generated a wave of demonstrations that would continue until the revolution and that managed to damage the international image of the Somoza government.

Death of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro

An American journalist who wrote against the dictatorship and editor of the famous newspaper "La Prensa", he was the main political opponent of the regime and a great ally of the Sandinista forces.

His death brought great confusion and encouraged the Sandinistas to continue their revolution.

Economic instability

Throughout the Somoza dictatorship, the economy in Nicaragua was structured on the basis of North American interests, who supplied their market with raw materials from the country.

This situation affected many peasants due to the rapid expansion of coffee and cotton cultivation, generating losses of land and crops and a generalized increase in unemployment.

By 1975 private investment weakened and there was a serious crisis of financial insolvency, economic imbalances and low growth.

Consequences of the Nicaraguan revolution

Loss of life

Between 1972 and 1991 in Nicaragua there were approximately 65,000 deaths, due to the strong civil war between the Sandinistas and the Contra.

Critical socio-economic situation

When Victoria Chamorro became president, she inherited a country in crisis, having to rebuild the entire social system and invest considerable amounts of the budget in establishing extensive control over the economy, the legal system, and political institutions.

Unstable Civil Society

After the 1990 elections, hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans were still armed, which created a climate of violence among the population.

Political culture destroyed

After the dictatorship and the revolution, the political culture of Nicaragua was submerged in a lack of institutional trust and a marked tendency to personalize political projects, the systematic elimination of the opponent and the arbitrary exercise of politics.

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