On July 19, 1979, rebels of the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front entered Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, where huge crowds welcomed them as liberators. Two days earlier, July 17, President Anastacio Somoza fled the country into Paraguay, where he was assassinated by Sandinista commandos the following year. The Sandinistas had waged a lengthy struggle (the Nicaraguan Revolution) since 1961.
The Sandinistas took over power, allowing a civilian junta that had been set up earlier by the opposition coalition to rule the country. The junta represented a cross-section of the political opposition and was structured as a power-sharing government.
Non-Sandinista members of the junta soon resigned, as they felt powerless against the Sandinistas (who effectively controlled the junta) and feared that the government was moving toward adopting Cuban-style socialism.
(Excerpts taken from Nicaraguan Revolution 1961-1979 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)
By 1980, the Sandinistas had taken full control of the government. The country had been devastated by the war, as well as by the corruption and neglect by the previous dictatorial regimes. Using the limited resources available, the Sandinista government launched many social programs for the general population. The most successful of these were in public education, where the country’s high illiteracy rate was lowered significantly, and in agrarian reform, where large landholdings, including those of ex-President Somoza, were seized and distributed to the peasants and poor farmers. The Sandinista government also implemented programs in health care, the arts and culture, and in the labor sector.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter was receptive to the Sandinista government. But President Ronald Reagan, who succeeded as U.S. head of state in January 1981, was alarmed that Nicaragua had allowed a communist toehold in the American continental mainland, and therefore apparently posed a threat to the United States. Reagan believed that the Sandinistas intended to spread communism across Central America. As evidence of this perception, he pointed out that the Sandinistas were arming the communist insurgents in El Salvador. Consequently, Reagan prepared plans for a counter-revolution in Nicaragua that would overthrow the Sandinista government. The Nicaraguan Counter-Revolution would last until 1990.
Background of the Nicaraguan Revolution In 1961, the revolutionary movement called the Sandinista National Liberation Front was formed in Nicaragua with two main objectives: to end the U.S.-backed Somoza regime, and to establish a socialist government in the country. The movement and its members, who were called Sandinistas, took their name and ideals from Augusto Sandino, a Nicaraguan rebel fighter of the 1930s, who fought a guerilla war against the American forces that had invaded and occupied Nicaragua. Sandino also wanted to end the Nicaraguan wealthy elite’s political and financial stranglehold on society. He advocated for social justice and economic equality for all Nicaraguans.
By the late 1970s, Nicaragua had been ruled for over forty years by the Somoza family in a dynastic-type succession that had begun in the 1930s. In 1936, Anastacio Somoza seized power in Nicaragua and gained total control of all aspects of the government. Officially, he was the country’s president, but ruled as a dictator. Over time, President Somoza accumulated great wealth and owned the biggest landholdings in the country. His many personal and family businesses extended into the shipping and airlines industries, agricultural plantations and cattle ranches, sugar mills, and wine manufacturing. President Somoza took bribes from foreign corporations that he had granted mining concessions in the country, and also benefited from local illicit operations such as unregistered gambling, organized prostitution, and illegal wine production.
President Somoza suppressed all forms of opposition with the use of the National Guard, Nicaragua’s police force, which he had used to turn the country into a militarized state. President Somoza was staunchly anti-communist and received strong military and financial support from the United States, which was willing to take Nicaragua’s repressive but right-wing government as an ally in the ongoing Cold War.
In 1956, President Somoza was assassinated and was succeeded by his son, Luis, who also ruled as a dictator until his own death by heart failure in 1967. In turn, Luis was succeeded by his younger brother, Anastacio Somoza, who had the same first name as their father. As Nicaragua’s new head of state, the younger Anastacio outright established a harsh regime much like his father had in the 1930s. Consequently, the Sandinistas intensified their militant activities in the rural areas, mainly in northern Nicaragua. Small bands of Sandinistas carried out guerilla operations, such as raiding isolated army outposts and destroying government facilities.
By the early 1970s, the Sandinistas comprised only a small militia in contrast to Nicaragua’s U.S.-backed National Guard. However, the Sandinistas struck great fear on President Somoza, because of their ’ symbolic association to Sandino. Somoza wanted to destroy the Sandinistas with a passion that bordered on paranoia. He ordered his forces to the countryside to hunt down and kill Sandinistas. But these military operations greatly affected the rural population, who began to fear as well as detest the government.
The end of the Somoza regime began in 1972 when a powerful earthquake hit Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. The destruction resulting from the earthquake caused 5,000 human deaths and 20,000 wounded, and left half a million people homeless (nearly half of Managua’s population). Managua was devastated almost completely, and all government services were cut off. But in the midst of the widespread destruction, President Somoza diverted the international relief money to his personal bank account, greatly curtailing the government’s meager resources. As a result, thousands of people were deprived of food, clothing, and shelter.