continued from san juan del sur HOME

BY FERNANDO J. RODRÍGUEZ S. (Special for Del Sur)

July 19, 1979 marked a milestone in Latin-American and World History. From 1937, Nicaragua had been governed by a totalitarian, corrupt and bloodthirsty dynasty - the Somoza family. The dictatorship of Somoza was imposed and supported by the old Bourgeois oligarchy of “Democratic-Conservatives,” and by some foreign policies of the United States in different forms.

The landscape of Latin America was on the verge of changing, so the nascent Nicaraguan revolution, was given new breath, as were other leftist movements in the rest of the region. The United States was shoring up their economic, political, and military power in the region, while the once powerful Soviet Union was beginning its decline.

At the end of the seventies, Nicaragua had one of the largest rates of illiteracy in Latin America and probably in the world - more than 40 per cent of the population could neither read nor write, more than 45 per cent of the agricultural production was under the control of the Somoza family, as were the banks. Their fortune was worth over 30-billion Córdobas.

President Somoza's (Tacho) and his son's, Colonel Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero (the Chigüin), chief of the National Guard, interest to continue being in power began turning allies away. Among them the Bourgeois oligarchy, The White House and even the Catholic Church.

At the end of the seventies, groups defending human rights began denouncing the transgressions and abuses committed by the government and the National Guard (GN). From September, 1978 up to the day he was overthrown, President Somoza Debayle and his son (the “Chigüín”, an indigenous word that means the junior or the youngest) provoked a civil war. They arranged the murder of civilians, began air bombardments and artillery fire in the principal cities of Nicaragua that had fallen to the popular rebellion directed by the Sandinista guerrillas. Under the command of a father and son, the GN murdered 50,000 Nicaraguan citizens. In 1978 one guerrilla command led by the legendary Commander Zero (Edén Pastora) occupied the National Palace of Managua.

The situation became increasingly tense and there exploded a popular insurrection that, finally, was squashed by GN. However, in June, 1979 the FSLN launched the final offensive. Once again the insurrection exploded in the whole of Nicaragua and once again the GN did not hesitate to obey the orders to bombard the civil population and to murder any person under suspicion of conspiring with the guerrillas. After several weeks of intense combat and on July 17th 1979, abandoned by his allies and with the biggest
political, military and popular pressure in the Nicaraguan history, Somoza abandoned his presidency and fled on a plane to Miami, Florida, USA.

On July 19th, the GN surrendered. On July 20th 1979 the overjoyed people of Nicaragua went to Managua to the Plaza of the Revolution to proclaim that Nicaragua was free of the dictatorship. With the Revolution began a new period full of hope but also full of difficulties. Nicaragua remained destroyed by the war. The victims had been numerous.

The White House, in Washington D.C. was also changing. President James (Jimmy) Carter had promised millions of dollars in aid to the new government to reconstruct Nicaragua.

On January 10th, 1985 the FSLN came to power with great national and international legitimacy, nevertheless, when Ronald Reagan took the chair of the oval office in the White House, the tone of Washington changed. The Reagan Administration clearly distrusted the new Nicaraguan government.

The biggest lesson the Nicaraguans and our new generations have learnt is undoubtedly this spirit of popular unity, where the people of all creed and race, fought for a common purpose, one goal. The revolution was not the work of a few; it was the work of the whole people. We were born under the blue and white flag. Only together as one people will we advance Nicaragua.