Nicaragua

Nicaragua The largest Central American country, which gained independence from Mexico in 1839 after the end of Spanish control in 1821. However, the whole country was not unified until the rule of the liberal dictator José Santos Zelaya (1893–1909). His independent policies attracted the hostility of the USA, which forced him to resign; to end the chaos which ensued, US marines occupied the country 1912–33. In the light of Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, US forces withdrew in 1933, leaving the country under the charge of President J. B. Sacasa and the leader of the US- trained National Guard, Anastasio Somoza Garcia. The liberal rebel leader, Sandino, continued to oppose the new order, which he regarded as a puppet regime of the USA, but he was murdered on Somoza's orders.

In 1937 Somoza toppled Sacasa and inaugurated a ruthless family dictatorship that lasted for 42 years, though some of the time the family installed puppet presidents to hide their real power. The Somoza dynasty was backed by the personal loyalty of the National Guard and by the USA in recognition of its rabid anti-Communism. During the dictatorship, overall economic performance improved, though the benefit of this accrued to some big plantation owners (not least the Somozas themselves) and loyal elites rather than the mass of the population, which suffered from government neglect of traditional farming. Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in 1956, to be succeeded by his oldest son, Luis. During the 1960s various guerrilla groups emerged in opposition to the regime, combining in 1961 to form the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN). Following Luis's death in 1967, power passed to his brother, Anastasio Somoza Debayle. His regime became even more corrupt and ruthless, which offended many who had previously been willing to tolerate the dynasty for the sake of stability, including the USA under Carter.

In 1979 the Somoza regime collapsed and the Sandinistas took over. Initially helped by the USA as well as Cuba, they immediately proceeded to carry out land reform, vaccination programmes, and a determined drive against illiteracy. Fearing the emergence of a second Communist regime after Cuba, however, Reagan stopped US aid to the government and gave it to the opposing Contra rebels instead, who were led in part by former leading officers under the Somoza regime. (To this he added illegal funds from the secret sale of arms to Iran, thus causing the Iran–Contra affair.) While it was true that human rights offences were committed in the Sandinistas' efforts to gain control over the state and society, these never approach the scale or the character of the human rights violations of the Somozas and other (US- backed) dictators (for example in neighbouring Guatemala or El Salvador).

As a result of Reagan's policies, Nicaragua became highly dependent on Cuban and Soviet aid. The civil war rendered the government's reform programmes impossible by ruining the economy, so that output declined by 8 per cent in 1988, with inflation being at 33,000 per cent. On the advice of ex- President Carter, the Sandinista President, Daniel Ortega, accepted his surprise electoral defeat in 1990 against Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who headed a fragmented anti- government coalition (Unión Nacional Opositora, UNO). This facilitated the end of US sanctions and the civil war as part of the Arias peace plan. Most Contras had laid down their arms by 27 June 1990, though a small band of Contra guerrillas held out until February 1994. Nicaraguan politics remained inherently unstable with the continued predominance of the Sandinistas in the military and administration. In July 1995 the constitution was amended to strengthen the role of parliament. In that year the Sandino movement split into a Marxist wing led by Ortega and a reformist breakaway party, led by Sergio Ramírez. The 1997 elections were won by Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo, whose anti- Sandinista Liberal Alliance won 42 seats against 37 seats for the Sandinistas. The Liberal Alliance proved relatively unstable, and lost heavily in the 2000 local elections, in which the Sandinistas won a resounding victory. The government's main problem, however, was caused by the devastating effects of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which set back Nicaragua's efforts to overcome the poverty caused by the civil war. At the same time, in 2000 it benefited from a substantial reduction in debt under the HIPC Initiative.