Sandinista National Liberation Front

:Sandinista! is also the name of a popular music album by The Clash.

Sandinista human rights abuses

Lacking support from the population in that part of the country, Sandinista troops committed their most controversal activities (as far as human rights are concerned) on the Atlantic Coast, including the forcible relocation of 8,500 Miskito from their land to create free-fire zones for combatting the Contras. They also killed and imprisoned several indigenous people suspected of Contra collaboration. On two separate occasions in 1981 and 1982, Sandinista troops committed massacres in which approximately (UNHCR Report) 34 Miskito Indians died. However many Sandinista supporters claim this pales in comparison to the deaths attributed to the Contras. http://www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Miskitoeng/part1.htm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the war Amnesty International and other groups reported that political prisoners in Sandinista prisons, such as in Las Tejas, were beaten, deprived of sleep and tortured with electric shocks. They were denied food and water and kept in dark cubicles that had a surface of less than one square metre, known as chiquitas ("little ones.") These cubicles were too small to sit up in and had no sanitation and almost no ventilation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the mid-1980s, under pressure from human rights organizations and widespread international condemnation, the Sandinista government acknowledged errors in its dealings with the Atlantic Coast and successfully negotiated an end to the southern front of the Contra war. In fulfillment of the terms of that negotiation, the National Assembly unanimously passed an Autonomy Law in 1987 that made Nicaragua the first American nation to recognise its multiethnic nature, guaranteeing the economic, cultural, linguistic and religious rights demanded by the indigenous groups of the Atlantic Coast.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1987

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Reagan administration remained opposed to the Sandinistas, and continued to support the Contras. The administration also funnelled USD $11 million in support of an opposition party, and refused aid to the country after it was devastated by Hurricane Joan in October 1988.

Related Topics:
Hurricane Joan - 1988

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~