Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas (Spanish pronunciation: [sandiˈnistas]) in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.[19]
"Sandinista" redirects here. For the Clash album, see Sandinista!
Sandinista National Liberation Front Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional
FSLN
Gustavo Porras Cortés [es]
- Carlos Fonseca
- Silvio Mayorga [es]
- Tomás Borge
- Casimiro Sotelo
19 July 1961
<95,700[1]
Official:
Red
Black
Customary:
Carmine red
The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in its place.[20][21] Having seized power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981. They instituted literacy programs, nationalization, land reform, and devoted significant resources to healthcare, but came under international criticism for human rights abuses, including mass execution and oppression of indigenous peoples.[22][23] They were also criticized for mismanaging the economy and overseeing runaway inflation.[24]
A US-backed group, known as the Contras, was formed in 1981 to overthrow the Sandinista government and was funded and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.[25] The United States sought to place economic pressure on the Sandinista government by imposing a full trade embargo[26] and by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's ports.[27] In 1984, free and fair elections were held,[28][29] but were boycotted by opposition parties. The FSLN won the majority of the votes,[30] and those who opposed the Sandinistas won approximately a third of the seats. The civil war between the Contras and the government continued until 1989. After revising the constitution in 1987, and after years of fighting the Contras, the FSLN lost the 1990 election to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in an election marked by US interference,[31] but retained a plurality of seats in the legislature.
The FSLN is now Nicaragua's sole leading party. In the 2006 Nicaraguan general election, former FSLN President Daniel Ortega was reelected President of Nicaragua with 38.7% of the vote to 29% for his leading rival, bringing in the country's second Sandinista government after 17 years of other parties winning elections. In October 2009, the Supreme Court, which has a majority of Sandinista judges, overturned presidential term limits that were set by the constitution. Ortega and the FSLN were reelected in the presidential elections of 2011, 2016, and 2021, although these elections have been criticized by international observers.[32][33][34]
History[edit]
Origin of the term Sandinista[edit]
The Sandinistas took their name from Augusto César Sandino (1895–1934), the leader of Nicaragua's nationalist rebellion against the US occupation of the country during the early 20th century (ca. 1922–1934). The suffix "-ista" is the Spanish equivalent of "-ist".
Sandino was assassinated in 1934 by the Nicaraguan National Guard (Guardia Nacional), the US-equipped police force of Anastasio Somoza, whose family ruled the country from 1936 until they were overthrown by the Sandinistas in 1979.[19]
Precursor to Revolution (1933–1961)[edit]
The second U.S intervention in Nicaragua ended when Juan Bautista Sacasa of the Liberal Party won the elections. By 1 January 1933 there wasn't a single US soldier left on Nicaraguan soil, however in 1930 the US had formed a group for national security known as the National Guard. The National Guard remained after the exit of the U.S under the leadership of Anastasio Somoza Garcia who was supported by the U.S. On 21 February 1934, Somoza, using the National Guard, assassinated Sandino who opposed and fought against US intervention. This was the first act of a series that Somoza, with help from the U.S, would take that would culminate in his election as president in 1936. The result of his election was the start of the U.S sponsored dictatorship of the Somoza family.[35]
During the 1960s, leftist ideas began spreading worldwide, sparking independence movements in different colonial territories. On 1 January 1959 in Havana, Cuban revolutionaries fought against dictator Fulgencio Batista. In Algeria the Algerian National Liberation Front was founded to fight against French colonial control. In Nicaragua, different movements that opposed the Somoza dynasty began to unite, forming the Nicaraguan National Liberation Front which would later be renamed the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
The economic situation of Nicaragua in the mid-20th century had deteriorated as the prices of agricultural exports such as cotton and coffee dropped. Politically, the conservative party of Nicaragua split and one of the factions, the Zancudos, began collaborating with the Somoza regime.
Anastasio Somoza Garcia was assassinated by poet Rigoberto Lopez Perez in 1956.
In 1957 Carlos Fonseca Amador, Silvio Mayorga, Tomás Borge, Oswaldo Madriz y Heriberto Carrillo formed the first cell of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Committee who identified with the issues of the proletariat. Later that October, the Mexican cell was formed with members such as Edén Pastora Gómez, Juan José Ordóñez, Roger Hernández, Porfirio Molina y Pedro José Martínez Alvarado.
On October 1958 Ramon Raudales began his guerilla war against the Somoza dynasty beginning the armed conflict.
June 1959 the event known as "El Chaparral" occurred in Honduran territory bordering Nicaragua. The guerrilla fighters "Rigoberto López Pérez"[36] under the command of Rafael Somarriba (in which Carlos Fonseca was integrated) was found and annihilated by the Honduran Army in coordination with the intelligence services of the Nicaraguan National Guard.
After "El Chaparral", several more armed rebellions took place. In August the journalist Manuel Díaz y Sotelo died; in September Carlos "Chale" Haslam died; in December Heriberto Reyes (Colonel of the Defensive Army of National Sovereignty) died. The following year the events of "El Dorado" (February 28, 1960) took place where several events occurred[37] leading to several deaths including Luis Morales, Julio Alonso Leclair (head of the September 15 column), Manuel Baldizón and Erasmo Montoya.
The conventional opposition, up to that point led by the Nicaraguan Communist Party, had not been able to form a common front against the dictatorship. The opposition to the dictatorship was established around various student organizations. Among its leaders, Carlos Fonseca Amador in the early 1960s.
At the start of 1961 the New Nicaragua Movement (NNM) was founded by prominent leaders in education like Carlos Fonseca, Silvio Mayorga, Tomás Borge, Gordillo, Navarro y Francisco Buitrago; prominents leaders on workers issues such as Jose Benito Escobar; countryside leaders like Germán Pomares and small business leaders such as Julio Jerez Suárez. Legendary guerilla veteran Santos Lopez, who fought with Augusto Cesar Sandino, also participated in the NNM.
The New Nicaragua Movement was established in three cities Managua, Leon and Estelí, however they were generally stationed in Honduras. Their first public activity was held in March 1961, in support of the Cuban revolution and in protest of the position that the Nicaraguan government held with Cuba. The NNM later dissolved to make way for the National Liberation Front.
The New Nicaragua Movement soon dissolved with its members forming the National Liberation Front, FLN.
Through the media and the works of FSLN leaders such as Carlos Fonseca, the life and times of Augusto César Sandino became its unique symbol in Nicaragua. The ideology of Sandinismo gained momentum in 1974, when a Sandinista-initiated hostage situation resulted in the Somoza government adhering to FSLN demands and publicly printing and airing work on Sandino in well known newspapers and media outlets.
During the struggle against Somoza, the FSLN leaders' internal disagreements over strategy and tactics were reflected in three main factions:
Nevertheless, while ideologies varied between FSLN leaders, all leaders essentially agreed that Sandino provided a path for the Nicaragua masses to take charge, and the FSLN would act as the legitimate vanguard. The extreme end of the ideology links Sandino to Roman Catholicism and portrays him as descending from the mountains in Nicaragua knowing he would be betrayed and killed. Generally however, most Sandinistas associated Sandino on a more practical level, as a heroic and honest person who tried to combat the evil forces of imperialist national and international governments that existed in Nicaragua's history.
An important part of the Sandinista ideology is Christian socialism and liberation theology. This connection was so strong that Catholic priest Ernesto Cardenal who served as the Minister of Culture in the Sandinista government, remarked: "I think Nicaraguans who separate Christianity from Revolution are mistaken. Here they are the same thing."[118] In response to the growing radicalization and opposition to Somoza amongst the Church, the FSLN incorporated a Catholic message into its program; this was augmented by left-wing Catholic organizations such as the Movimiento Cristiano Revolucionario joining the FSLN, whose members would assume high responsibilities within the Sandinista government.[119] Sandinista activists infiltrated folk and religious imagery - on one such instance, they distributed paintings of the resurrection of Christ, where Christ appeared in a black and red cape (Sandinista colours), which bore the letters FSLN. As the FSLN lacked party structures which could be used for organizing, they relied on friendly clergymen instead; according to Peter Marchetti, this relationship became so intimate that "the parish replaced Lenin's idea of a cell".[118] Sandinista Minister of Education Carlos Tünnerman argued that Sandinismo "is deeply rooted in Christianity" and "came about through a process of Christian self-reflection".[120]
As Sandinistas relied on churches to built their structures, their ideological relationship to Catholicism was not just based on mutual support, but on active incorporation of Political Catholicism. Sandinista musician Carlos Mejía Godoy composed "Misa Campesina Nicaraguense" (Nicaraguan peasant mass) which replaced the traditional mass in Nicaraguan churches, with Catholic hymns praising "worker Christ". The FSLN provided churches with decals of Virgin Mary and Catholic saints next to portraits of Augusto Sandino, Che Guevara and Camilo Torres Restrepo.[118] Sandinistas openly promoted the Catholic concept of "preferential option for the poor",[121] and the Secretary-General of FSLN Carlos Fonseca remarked: "Since I began working with the Sandinista Front I have never—never! at any moment met anything which contradicts my Christian faith, nor which clashes with my Christian morality. Never. Just the opposite. For me the Sandinista Front has been the channel that has enabled me to live my Christian faith more authentically, that is, with actions."[118] Sandinismo offered a blend of the Marxist notion of class struggle and liberation theology, presenting their ideology as an 'extension' of Catholicism. Tomás Borge argued that the Sandinista revolution "was on behalf of all human beings, but as with Christ above all for the poor."[122]
United States government allegations of support for foreign rebels[edit]
The United States State Department accused the Sandinistas of many cases of illegal foreign intervention.[188]
The first allegation was supporting the FMLN rebels in El Salvador with safe haven, training, command-and-control headquarters, advice, weapons, ammunition, and other vital supplies. Captured documents, testimonials of former rebels and Sandinistas, aerial photographs, the tracing of captured weapons back to Nicaragua, and captured vehicles from Nicaragua smuggling weapons were cited as evidence.[188] El Salvador was in a civil war in the period in question and the US was heavily supporting the Salvadoran government against the FMLN guerrillas.
There were also accusations of subversive activities in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Colombia, and in the case of Honduras and Costa Rica outright military operations by Nicaraguan troops.[188]
In 2015, Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell claimed during an interview with CNN that John Kerry, then Secretary of State, had visited Nicaragua and met Daniel Ortega and denounced the Reagan Administration's support for the Contras as supporting terrorism during Kerry's tenure as a United States senator.[189]
During the Nicaraguan Revolution in the 1980s, American Democratic politician and then mayor Bernie Sanders expressed support for the Sandinistas and condemned US support for the Contras, he wrote letters to the group denouncing the US media portrayal of the conflict, and also visited Nicaragua during the war where he attended a Sandinista rally where anti-American chants were reportedly being done.[190][191]
The party has given the following Presidents of the Republic, namely: