Sandinista National Liberation Front

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

Sandinista rule (1979–1990)

The Sandinistas inherited a country in ruins, with a debt of 1.6 billion dollars (US), an estimated 50,000 war dead, 600,000 homeless, and a devastated economic infrastructure. To begin the task of establishing a new government, they created a Council (or junta) of National Reconstruction, made up of five members – Sandinista militants Daniel Ortega and Moises Hassan, novelist Sergio Ramírez Mercado (a member of "the Twelve"), businessman Alfonso Rebelo Callejas, and Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (the widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro). The preponderance of power, however, remained with the Sandinistas and their mass organisations, including the Sandinista Workers' Federation (Central Sandinista de Trabajadores), the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Nicaraguan Women's Association (Asociación de Mujeres Nicaragüenses Luisa Amanda Espinoza), and the National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (Unión Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos).

Related Topics:
Billion - Dollars (US) - Daniel Ortega - Moises Hassan - Sergio Ramírez Mercado - Alfonso Rebelo Callejas - Violeta Barrios de Chamorro

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While prominent rebel leaders such as Daniel Ortega were strongly Marxist, the new junta initially contained a broad spectrum of ideology. Upon assuming power, its political platform included the following:

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• Nationalisation of property owned by the Somozas and their collaborators.
• Land reform.
• Improved rural and urban working conditions.
• Free unionisation for all workers, both urban and rural.
• Control of living costs, especially basic necessities (food, clothing, and medicine).
• Improved public services, housing conditions, education (mandatory, free through high school; schools available to the whole national population; national literacy campaign).
• Nationalisation and protection of natural resources, including mines.
• Abolition of torture, political assassination and the death penalty.
• Protection of democratic liberties (freedom of expression, political organisation and association, and religion; return of political exiles).
• Equality for women.
• Free, non-aligned foreign policy and relations.
• Formation of a new, democratic, and popular army under the leadership of the FSLN.
• Pesticide controls
• Rain forest conservation
• Wildlife conservation
• Alternative energy programs

One of the most notable successes of the revolution was the literacy campaign, which saw teachers flood the countryside. Within six months, half a million people had been taught to read, bringing the national illiteracy rate down from over 50 per cent to just under 13 per cent. Over 100,000 Nicaraguans participated as literacy teachers. One of the stated aims of the literacy campaign was to create a literate electorate which would be able to make informed choices at the promised elections. The great success of the literacy campaign was recognised by UNESCO with the award of a Nadezhda Krupskaya International Prize.

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The FSLN also created neighbourhood groups, similar to the Cuban Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, called Sandinista Defence Committees (Comités de Defensa Sandinista or CDS). Especially in the early days following the overthrow of Somoza, the CDSs served as de facto units of local governance, distributing food rations, organising neighbourhood cleanup and recreational activities, and policing to control looting and apprehend remnants of the National Guard. During the subsequent Contra war, they also organised civilian defence efforts against Contra attacks. Critics of the Sandinistas decried the CDS as a system of local spy networks for the government, and a means of political control.

Related Topics:
Committees for the Defence of the Revolution - Comités de Defensa Sandinista - Contra

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By 1980, conflicts began to emerge between the Sandinista and non-Sandinista members of the governing junta. Violeta Chamorro and Alfonso Robelo resigned from the governing junta in 1980, and the governing role of the Sandinistas became obvious as Ortega and his allies consolidated power. Allegations spread among critics that the Ortega clique were planning to turn Nicaragua into a Communist state like Cuba. In 1981, the U.S. administration of Ronald Reagan began organising remnants of Somoza's National Guard into guerrilla bands known as "Contras" (short for "contrarrevolucionarios", or counter-revolutionaries) that conducted attacks on economic, military, and civilian targets. During the Contra war, the Sandinistas arrested suspected Contras and censored La Prensa as well as other publications that they accused of collaborating with the U.S. and the Contras to destabilise the country.

Related Topics:
Communist - Cuba - 1981 - Ronald Reagan - Contras

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In contrast to the Cuban revolution, the Sandinista government practised political pluralism throughout its time in power. A broad range of new political parties emerged that had not been allowed under Somoza. Following promulgation of a new constitution, Nicaragua held national elections in 1984. Daniel Ortega and Sergio Ramírez were elected president and vice-president, and the FSLN won 61 out of 90 seats in the new National Assembly, having taken 63 per cent of the vote on a turnout of 74%. Independent electoral observers from around the world, including the UN, stated that the elections had been free and fair. However, the U.S. refused to recognise them, alleging that the opposition had been marginalised in the media and elsewhere by the government; President Reagan denounced the elections as a sham.

Related Topics:
1984 - National Assembly

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