Nicaraguan Civil War of 1977–1989

At issue: U.S.-backed overthrow of the leftist Nicaraguan government, a regime backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba

Date: January, 1977-May, 1989

Location: Rural eastern Nicaragua

Combatants: U.S.-backed counterrevolutionaries vs. the Soviet Union- and Cuba-backed Nicaraguan army

Result: The Contra campaign caused so much damage to the Nicaraguan economy that the president, Daniel Ortega, agreed to open elections in exchange for rebel disarmament

Background

On July 19, 1979, Nicaragua’s president, Anastasio Somoza II, left the country for exile abroad. The Somoza family had controlled Nicaragua for forty-three years. Somoza’s father, the first Anastasio Somoza, had seized control of the country after the departure of an American occupying force. He ruled until 1956, when he was assassinated. His other son, Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle, took over the helm until his death of natural causes in 1967. Luis’s younger brother, Anastasio II, then the commander of the national guard, succeeded him.

The Somoza family ruled with an iron fist. It controlled the country both politically and economically. Any attempt on the part of citizens to seek a democratic revision of the political system failed until, finally, a group of rebels calling themselves the Sandinistas (after a hero of the resistance to the U.S. occupation of the 1920’s, Augusto César Sandino) managed to wrest control away from the Somozas. Part of their success could be attributed to the decision by the United States to stop supporting the Somoza family.

Initially the new Sandinista government received support from both the United States and other Latin American countries, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, and Mexico. Very soon after the Sandinistas’ accession to power, they formed strong alliances with both Cuba and the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of the newly formed Sandinista Directorate, Nicaragua was reorganized along Marxist/Leninist lines.

The Directorate set up a new structure for the army under close party supervision, established a government-controlled economy, and began the takeover of much of the private sector. The Sandinistas excluded non-Marxist opposition leaders from participation in the government. They arrested and imprisoned those they felt had Somocista leanings. The new regime invited hundreds of Cuban doctors, teachers, and military and security advisers to help them rule the country.

Soon an exodus of economically powerful private citizens began. The United States government also looked on the increasingly Soviet-oriented Sandinista government with some concern. It saw another leftist regime like the one that controlled Cuba beginning to take shape.

Action

Opposition developed quickly to the Sandinista regime. Among the immediate targets of the Sandinistas were the former members of Somoza’s National Guard. Some were sought out and killed immediately by vengeful supporters of the new government. Others suffered arrest and imprisonment for serving in the National Guard. Many escaped the country. They then sought to regroup to begin a military campaign against the Sandinista state.

Many noncommunist allies of the new regime, before it took over the government, became disillusioned quickly when they observed the Marxist path chosen by the Sandinistas. They had allied themselves with the leftists, thinking that democracy would be restored to the country following years under the yoke of the Somoza dictatorship. The Sandinista alliance with the Cubans and the Soviets alienated this liberal segment of Nicaraguan society. Business owners also learned that their activities would now be closely controlled by the government. Many lost their business enterprises as a result of the authoritarian approach adopted by the Sandinistas in dealing with the country’s economy.

Nicaragua’s neighbors also became worried by the actions of the government. The Sandinistas publicly supported the leftist rebels in neighboring El Salvador and sent arms across the border to the Salvadoran opposition trying to overthrow the government there. Costa Rica and Honduras, alarmed at the aggressive stance taken by the Sandinistas, began to ignore the military buildup of the Nicaraguan dissidents on their respective borders.

Soon both former National Guard soldiers and disaffected former Sandinistas began a series of raids into Nicaragua’s eastern rural provinces. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency began to furnish both training and arms to what came to be called the Contras. At the same time, the Soviet Union poured a half a billion dollars’ worth of sophisticated military equipment into a massive buildup of the Sandinista Nicaraguan army.

The major successes achieved by the Contras came through the raids of their troops operating out of Honduran bases north of the Nicaraguan border. The American-backed invaders received a great deal of support from the peasants living in the rural areas. The native population living along the Atlantic coast also refused to support the Sandinistas. Despite its heavy weaponry and air superiority, the Sandinista army could not defeat the elusive Contra raiders. Soon the Nicaraguan economy began to crumble, a victim of both the Contras and governmental ineptitude.

Aftermath

Finally, under the auspices of the other Central American governments, the Sandinistas signed a peace treaty with the Contras. In 1989, they agreed to schedule presidential elections monitored by outside independent observers. In February, 1990, in the elections that followed, the Sandinista president, Ortega, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Violeta Chamorro, the candidate of the Unified Nicaraguan Opposition. Although the Sandinistas still represented a powerful political faction in Nicaraguan life, their rule of the country ended with the election of Chamorro.

Bibliography

Christian, Shirley. Nicaragua: Revolution in the Family. New York: Vintage Books, 1985.

Garvin, Glenn. Everybody Had His Own Gringo: The CIA and the Contras. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1992.