Sandinista National Liberation Front

decade after the conclusion of the National Literacy Crusade, Deborah Brandt composed an analysis on the history of Sandinista education entitled, “Popular Education” in Nicaragua: The First Five Years (1985, edited by Thomas W. Walker). Brandt argued the symbiotic relationship between the militia members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front or the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) and the historically disenfranchised rural peasants through popular education programs, most notably the National Literacy Crusade. Like Arnove (1981) Brandt argued the interactions between urban and rural Nicaraguans as well as the egalitarian efforts to introduce women to authority positions as teachers provided by the Sandinistas…

population, for the Somoza rule because the dictatorship tended to favor them and discarded the lower classes. Many of the lower class were made up of farmers who had little to no education and the Somoza regime wanted to keep it that way as well (Klerlein). This contributed to the fact that there was a large gap between the “income distribution” and how the elite were starting to take control of land that was owned by the “poorest citizens” (Klerlein). There was political and social unrest…

Her essay, In El Salvador, published in The New York Review of Books, helped carry the message of desperate South American politics into the public eye. While these were positive influences that brought necessary media attention to the West, I find that Joan Didion was unable to fully experience the grittiness and disorder on her two week trip to El Salvador, unlike Unferth who spent months there joining and becoming a “Sandinista” herself. Both of their experiences are completely different but…

indigenous population was decimated except the Miskito Indians that later mixed with the African Slaves. In the early 1900s, Britain and the United States competed for the rights of a transisthmian canal. The United States decision to build the canal in Panama had a significant impact on relations with Nicaragua and led to the deployment of U.S. Marines to deter another nation from building a canal that would compete with the United States’ efforts in Panama. The U.S. Marines who had…

Augusto C. Sandino led this Guerilla war and organized the Ejército Defensor de la Soberanía Nacional de Nicaragua (EDSNN-Army in Defense of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua) (Grossman). This was considered a guerrilla war because the citizens of Nicaragua were trying to fight the U.S Marines who were big authorities. During this time, the US marines tried capturing Sandino but failed. The Marines decided to leave after their mission was unsuccessful. The Guerrilla War affected the Cold War…

There was also a Nicaraguan Revolution, which marked a significant period in Nicaraguan history. Because of the revolution, the country was revealed as one of the major war battlegrounds of the Cold War. During these periods, the FSLN, a Leftist collection of political parties, and the Contras, a rightist collection of counter-revolutionary groups, received large amounts of aid from the Soviet Union and the United States. This allowed both parties to grow financially. The Sandinista government…

communist, guerrilla warfare path to confronting the Cold War. Given the long and painful history Nicaragua has with the United States - U.S. mercenary William Walker invaded and proclaimed himself president of Nicaragua from 1855 to 1858, the United States backed a 1909 rebellion that sparked a civil war, and a prolonged occupation of Nicaragua by U.S. Marines - it is not surprising that the nationalist and anti-imperialist revolutionary movement was necessarily opposed to the U.S. (Gardini and…

“Ronald Reagan owned the first eight years of the 1980’s. He set the national agenda, defined most of the terms of the national dialogue, and dominated what passed for national political debate… he had more pervasive impact on the country than anyone since Franklin D. Roosevelt” (Reagan 1). So when Reagan began supporting the Contras during the Nicaraguan Civil War it was a major political topic. The civil war in Nicaragua became a personal mission for Reagan. Reagan saw the Contras as freedom…

popular Sandinista movement that intended to create a socialist economy. The Reagan administration believed that it was necessary to fight the Sandinista forces because their revolution was considered a communist threat. Consequently, the CIA organized a counter-revolutionary force called the contras to wage a secret war against the Sandinistas, who were in power. After information about the Reagan administration’s actions in Nicaragua was leaked, “...Congress, responding perhaps to public…

understand how Honduras was involved in the Nicaraguan Revolution, research has been done to investigate: the involvement of other countries in Honduras, The military tactics between the borders of Nicaragua and Honduras, and the public opinion concerning Honduras involvement in the Nicaraguan Revolution. The main sources for this investigation are Inside Nicaragua, Young People’s Dreams and Fears by Rita Golden Gelman, a woman who lived in Nicaragua and tells the story of the revolution from…