The Sandinista Revolution and the Contra War (1979-1990)

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was founded in 1961 by a small group of Nicaraguan revolutionaries, among them Carlos Fonseca Amador and Tomas Borge, drawing on the legacy of Augusto Cesar Sandino, the nationalist guerrilla leader assassinated by the Somoza regime in 1934. The new movement committed itself to the armed overthrow of the Somoza family dictatorship, which had ruled Nicaragua since the 1930s with United States support. For years the FSLN remained a marginal guerrilla force, suffering devastating setbacks in the 1960s and operating from bases in Honduras and the Nicaraguan mountains. Over the following two decades it evolved from a tiny foco into a broad movement, splitting into three tendency groups in the mid-1970s before reuniting around a strategy of mass insurrection. Its founding marked the start of the long revolutionary process that would culminate in the fall of Somoza in 1979.

Location: Tegucigalpa, Honduras

On 23 December 1972, a devastating earthquake struck Managua, destroying most of the city center and killing an estimated 10,000 or more people. Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the head of state and commander of the National Guard, directed the emergency response and oversaw the reconstruction effort, but massive international aid was embezzled by the regime and its associates. The scandal crystallized public anger at the dictatorship, and the National Guard's looting and profiteering became a symbol of the Somoza family's predatory rule. Business elites, the Catholic hierarchy, and ordinary Nicaraguans began to turn against the regime in growing numbers. The earthquake thus accelerated the political crisis that would lead to the revolution, pushing much of the middle class into opposition and strengthening the armed resistance.

Location: Managua, Nicaragua

On 10 January 1978, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, editor of the opposition newspaper La Prensa and a leading figure of the anti-Somoza opposition, was assassinated in Managua. Chamorro had been a tireless advocate for democracy and a severe critic of the Somoza dynasty, and his killing was widely blamed on the regime despite official denials. His funeral drew one of the largest crowds in Nicaraguan history and sparked strikes, riots, and a nationwide uprising that shook the government. The assassination united previously rival opposition forces behind a common demand for Somoza's removal. Within months, the country had entered a full insurrectionary phase that would end the dictatorship within the year.

Location: Managua, Nicaragua

After a final offensive launched in May 1979, the FSLN's forces, supported by a mass urban and rural insurrection, overwhelmed the National Guard in a war that cost tens of thousands of lives. Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigned on 17 July 1979 and fled to Paraguay, where he was assassinated the following year. On 19 July 1979, the Sandinista forces entered Managua, and the Junta of National Reconstruction, headed by figures including Violeta Chamorro, Daniel Ortega, and Sergio Ramirez, took power. The revolutionary government promised a mixed economy, political pluralism, and non-alignment, while undertaking massive social reforms. The fall of Somoza marked the end of a dynastic dictatorship of more than four decades and the beginning of one of the most consequential revolutionary governments in Latin American history.

Location: Managua, Nicaragua

In March 1980, the Sandinista government launched the National Literacy Crusade, mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteer students, workers, and peasants to teach rural Nicaraguans to read and write. The campaign reached remote villages across the country and reduced illiteracy dramatically within a few months, a result widely hailed internationally and recognized with a UNESCO prize. For many participants the experience of teaching in the countryside deepened their revolutionary commitment and their connection to the country's rural poor. The literacy crusade became one of the revolution's signature achievements and a model of mass civic mobilization. It also drew the hostility of the revolution's opponents, as some volunteers were killed by counter-revolutionary groups during the campaign.

Location: Managua, Nicaragua

On 23 November 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed a secret presidential finding authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to support anti-Sandinista guerrilla forces, the Contras, operating from bases in Honduras and Costa Rica. The Contras drew heavily on former members of Somoza's National Guard and included later formations led by figures such as Eden Pastora and Adolfo Calero. US assistance grew steadily in the following years, as the Reagan administration regarded the Sandinista government as a Soviet client and a threat to Central America. The war created a brutal insurgency that targeted rural infrastructure, cooperative farms, and civilian communities, killing thousands and displacing many more. US funding, direct and indirect, became the central force sustaining the counter-revolutionary war for nearly a decade.

Location: Washington, D.C., USA

In early 1984, US forces secretly mined several Nicaraguan harbors, including Corinto, damaging shipping and endangering civilian lives. Nicaragua responded by filing suit against the United States in the International Court of Justice on 9 April 1984, seeking a ruling on the legality of US military and paramilitary activities. In its landmark judgment of 27 June 1986, the ICJ found that the United States had violated international law through its support for the Contras, its mining of harbors, and other acts, and ordered reparations. The United States, which had already withdrawn its acceptance of the court's jurisdiction in the case, vetoed the UN Security Council resolution calling for compliance. The case remains one of the most important modern rulings on the law of armed force and non-intervention.

Location: The Hague, Netherlands

In November 1986, US media and officials revealed that the Reagan administration had secretly sold weapons to Iran, then under an arms embargo, and diverted the proceeds to fund the Contras despite a congressional ban on such aid. The scheme had been run by a small network within the National Security Council, led by officials such as Oliver North, and had been exposed when one of its supply planes was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986. The revelation triggered the appointment of the Tower Commission, congressional investigations, and criminal prosecutions of several officials, though many were later pardoned or had convictions overturned. The affair became one of the most significant constitutional crises of the late twentieth century, testing the limits of presidential power and congressional oversight. It also demonstrated the lengths to which the US government would go to sustain the Contra war in the face of legal restrictions.

Location: Washington, D.C., USA

On 7 August 1987, the five Central American presidents signed the Esquipulas II agreement in Guatemala City, a regional peace plan sponsored chiefly by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias. The accord called for ceasefires, democratization, amnesty, and the withdrawal of foreign forces from the region, providing a diplomatic framework for ending the wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The Sandinista government accepted the plan's commitment to elections, while the United States continued to support the Contras for a time despite the treaty's provisions. Arias received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his role in the process. Esquipulas II proved to be a decisive diplomatic turning point, creating the conditions under which the Nicaraguan conflict could be resolved at the ballot box rather than on the battlefield.

Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala

On 25 February 1990, Nicaraguans went to the polls in elections overseen by international observers, in which the opposition National Opposition Union (UNO), led by Violeta Chamorro, defeated the FSLN's Daniel Ortega. The result reflected the exhaustion of a decade of war, economic collapse, and the country's longing for peace, as well as the influence of the US embargo and the continuation of the Contra war. Chamorro took office on 25 April 1990, presiding over the demobilization of the Contras and the reduction of the Sandinista army, and reversed many revolutionary policies while retaining the Sandinistas as a major political force. The election marked the peaceful end of the Contra war and a rare example of a revolutionary government leaving power through a democratic vote. Nicaragua's subsequent history would be shaped by the unresolved legacy of the revolution and the persistent political role of both the Sandinistas and the Chamorro family.

Location: Managua, Nicaragua