Revolutionary Government and the Contra War
A Government Assembly for the National Reconstruction was organized, and eventually a new constitution was written which is still seen today as one of the most progressive in the world. The Sandinista government was comprised of priests, poets, philosophers, and artists, and for the first time a government’s main focus was the plight of the majority, the impoverished people of the country. Reforms started to be held in order to take the country out of the post war disaster and to promote social justice at all levels. Banks were nationalized and properties were expropriated from the Somoza family and their allies. Furthermore, as a sign of total victory a National Crusade of Alphabetization (an illiteracy campaign) was organized, reducing the illiteracy rate from 53% to 12%. This program was admired worldwide.
The Sandinistas also carried out a massive land reform, giving land to peasants and setting up farming cooperatives. The government promoted education and healthcare, setting up a nationalized system where healthcare and education were free, including the university. The Sandinistas also set up working farms for ex-National Guard members in hopes that they could be reintegrated into society. Diseases were eradicated from Nicaragua and the government won a UN prize for its environmental work.
After decades of crippling debt caused by loans by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, that were granted to Somoza at very high interest rates, in exchange for access to Nicaragua’s natural resources, the Sandinista government cut ties with these financial institutions. They saw this debt as unjust, given that it was granted to Somoza and pocketed by Somoza and was never used for the development of Nicaragua.
While the Sandinistas approached the U.S. government in hopes of setting up political relations, the leftist characteristics of the new Nicaraguan government were not accepted by the United States, due to its affinities with the Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro. Consequently, an economic blockade started in 1981. This further united Nicaragua and the socialist block of the Soviet Union, creating a harsh attitude of their powerful northern neighbor. Despite this situation, Nicaragua had won huge international sympathy and several countries (also from Europe) started to collaborate with the reconstruction of Nicaragua. Schools and clinics were constructed through this aid.
The remnants of the National Guard, who settled in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Miami, soon received enormous financial clandestine support from the government of the United States and organized the so called “Contrar revolución Nacional” (the National Counterrevolution). Their army was known as “La Contra” and war started once again, hurting the fragile Nicaraguan economy as a result of war expenses.
The Contras, who were trained and armed at a military base set up by the U.S. in Honduras, began to infiltrate Nicaragua from the Honduras border and carry out terrorists tactics. They began targeting the schools and clinics that the Saninistas had constructed, and also began assassinating doctors, nurses and teachers who were working for the Sandinistas.
In 1985, the government of the United States dictated a commercial embargo to Nicaragua. The US threatened the Nicaraguan government several times with military intervention. Nevertheless, the international opinion discreetly supported the revolutionary government when the secret Contra funding by the US government was discovered (Iran-Contra affair). Moreover, the International Court in The Hague ruled that the United States had to stop any indirect hostility and it had to pay a multi-million indemnification for its part in supporting terrorist acts against Nicaragua, including mining its harbors. However, this turned out to be a merely symbolic victory as the United States refused to pay.
The FSLN called for national elections and their leaders formed a leftist political party, that later, in 1984, won the election by a comfortable gap. However, the war incremented the public distress, particularly the mandatory military service that forced young people to fight for the Sandinistas at age 16. Also, errors committed by the Sandinista government caused the enrollment of many ‘campesinos’ (peasants) to the Contra (mainly in the Caribbean coast where populations of indigenous people were re-located by the Sandinistas).
Nicaragua was gradually being destructed and consumed by war; the victims were numerous. In 1989, the Sandinista government signed an agreement that stated that elections where going to be held the following year.
