Nicaragua.
Information.
NICARAGUA (officially the Republic of Nicaragua = Spanish: Republica de Nicaragua), is the largest country in the Central American. Area - 129 494 sq.km. Population - 5 742 300 (2009) Capital - Managua. It bordering Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. In pre-Columbian times, in what is now known as Nicaragua, the indigenous people were part of the Intermediate Area, between the Mesoamerican and Andean cultural regions, and within the influence of the Isthmo-Colombian area. At the end of the 15th century, western Nicaragua was inhabited by several indigenous peoples related by culture to the Mesoamerican civilizations of the Aztec and Maya, and by language to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. In 1502, Christopher Columbus was the first European known to have reached what is now Nicaragua as he sailed southeast toward the Isthmus of Panama. On his fourth voyage, Columbus explored the Misquito Coast on the Atlantic side of Nicaragua. The first attempt to conquer what is now known as Nicaragua was by Gil Gonzalez Davila, who arrived in Panama in January 1520. It was not until 1524 that the first Spanish permanent settlements were founded. In 1536, the Viceroyalty of New Spain was established. By 1570, the southern part of New Spain was designated the Captaincy General of Guatemala. The area of Nicaragua was divided into administrative "parties" with Leon as the capital. In 1610, the Momotombo volcano erupted, destroying the capital. During the American Revolutionary War, Central America was subject to conflict between Britain and Spain, as Britain sought to expand its influence beyond coastal logging and fishing communities in present-day Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua. Horatio Nelson led expeditions against San Fernando de Omoa in 1779 and the San Juan in 1780, which had temporary success before being abandoned due to disease. In turn, the Spanish colonial leaders could not completely eliminate British influences along the Mosquito Coast. The Captaincy General of Guatemala was dissolved in September 1821 with the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire, and Nicaragua became part of the First Mexican Empire. After the monarchy of the First Mexican Empire was overthrown in 1823, Nicaragua joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America, which was later renamed as the Federal Republic of Central America. Nicaragua finally became an independent republic in 1838. In the 19th century, Nicaragua attracted many immigrants, primarily from Europe. In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium emigrated to set up businesses with money they brought from Europe. They established many agricultural businesses, such as coffee and sugar-cane plantations, and also newspapers, hotels and banks. U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, except for a nine-month period beginning in 1925. From 1910 to 1926, the conservative party ruled Nicaragua. The Chamorro family, which had long dominated the party, effectively controlled the government during that period. In 1914, the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the U.S. control over the proposed canal, as well as leases for potential canal defenses.[27] Following the evacuation of U.S. Marines, another violent conflict between liberals and conservatives took place in 1926, known as the Constitutionalist War, which resulted in a coalition government and the return of U.S. Marines.[28] From 1927 until 1933, Gen. Augusto Cesar Sandino led a sustained guerrilla war first against the Conservative regime and subsequently against the U.S. Marines, who withdrew upon the establishment of a new Liberal government. Sandino was the only Nicaraguan general to refuse to sign the el tratado del Espino Negro agreement and then headed up to the northern mountains of Las Segovias, where he fought the U.S. Marines for over five years.[29] When the Americans left in 1933, they set up the Guardia Nacional (National Guard),[30] a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans and designed to be loyal to U.S. interests. Anastasio Somoza Garcia, a close friend of the American government, was put in charge. He was one of the three rulers of the country, the others being Sandino and the President Juan Bautista Sacasa. After the U.S. Marines withdrew from Nicaragua in January 1933, Sandino and the newly elected Sacasa government reached an agreement by which he would cease his guerrilla activities in return for amnesty, a grant of land for an agricultural colony, and retention of an armed band of 100 men for a year. But a growing hostility between Sandino and Somoza led Somoza to order the assassination of Sandino. Fearing future armed opposition from Sandino, Somoza invited him to a meeting in Managua, where Sandino was assassinated on February 21 of 1934 by soldiers of the National Guard. Hundreds of men, women, and children from Sandino's agricultural colony were executed later. Nicaragua has experienced several military dictatorships, the longest being the hereditary dictatorship of the Somoza family, who ruled for 43 years during the 20th century.[35] The Somoza family came to power as part of a US-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the Guardia Nacional, or the National Guard, to replace the US marines that had long reigned in the country.[36] Somoza slowly eliminated officers in the National Guard who might have stood in his way, and then deposed Sacasa and became president on January 1, 1937 in a rigged election.[30] Somoza was 35 at the time. In 1961 Carlos Fonseca turned back to the historical figure of Sandino, and along with two others (one of which was believed to be Casimiro Sotelo who was later assassinated) founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). On January 10, 1978, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, the editor of the national newspaper La Prensa and ardent opponent of Somoza, was assassinated.[47] This allegedly led to the extreme general disappointment with Somoza. It is alleged that the planners and perpetrators of the murder were at the highest echelons of the Somoza regime and included the dictator's son, "El Chiguin" ("The Kid"), the President of Housing, Cornelio Hueck, the Attorney General, and Pedro Ramos, a Cuban expatriate and close ally, who commercialized blood plasma.[47] The Sandinistas, supported by large parts of the populace, clergy of the Catholic Church, and regional governments (including Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela), took power in July 1979. The Carter administration, refusing to act unilaterally, decided to work with the new government, while attaching a provision for aid forfeiture if it was found to be assisting insurgencies in neighboring countries.[48] A group of prominent citizens known as Los Doce, "the Twelve", denounced the Somoza regime and said that "there can be no dialogue with Somoza ... because he is the principal obstacle to all rational understanding ... through the long dark history of Somocismo, dialogues with the dictatorship have only served to strengthen it", Somoza fled the country and eventually ended up in Paraguay, where he was assassinated in September 1980, allegedly by members of the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers Party.[49] To begin the task of establishing a new government, the Sandinistas created a Council (or junta) of National Reconstruction of five members: the Sandinistas Daniel Ortega, Moises Hassan, and novelist Sergio Ramirez Mercado (a member of Los Doce), businessman Alfonso Robelo Callejas, and Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (the widow of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro). Sandinista supporters thus comprised three of the five members of the junta. The non-Sandinistas Robelo and Chamorro later resigned because they had little actual power in the junta. Sandinista mass organizations were also powerful: including the Sandinista Workers' Federation (Central Sandinista de Trabajadores), the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women (Asociacion de Mujeres Nicaraguenses Luisa Amanda Espinoza), and the National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (Union Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos). On the Atlantic Coast a small uprising occurred in support of the Sandinistas. A group of Creoles led by a native of Bluefields, Dexter Hooker (known as Commander Abel), raided a Somoza-owned business to gain access to food, guns and money before heading off to join Sandinista fighters who had liberated the city of El Rama. The 'Black Sandinistas' returned to Bluefields on July 19, 1979 and took the city without a fight. The Black Sandinistas were challenged by a group of mestizo Sandinista fighters. The ensuing standoff between the two groups, with the Black Sandinistas occupying the National Guard barracks (the cuartel) and the mestizo group occupying the Town Hall (Palacio), gave the revolution on the Atlantic Coast a racial dimension absent from events in other parts of the country. The Black Sandinistas were assisted in their power struggle with the Palacio group by the arrival of the Simon Bolivar International Brigade from Costa Rica. In response to the coming to power of the Sandinistas, various rebel groups collectively known as the Contras were formed to oppose the new government. Under the Reagan Doctrine, his administration authorized the CIA to have paramilitary officers from their elite Special Activities Division begin financing, arming, training and advising Contra rebels, some of whom were the remnants of Somoza's National Guard, as anti-Sandinista paramilitaries that were branded "counter-revolutionary" by leftists (contrarrevolucionarios in Spanish).[51] Eden Pastora and many of the indigenous paramilitary forces unassociated with the "Somozistas" also resisted the Sandinistas. The Contras operated out of camps in the neighboring countries of Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.[51] As was typical in guerrilla warfare, they were engaged in a campaign of economic sabotage in an attempt to combat the Sandinista government and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's Port of Corinto,[52] an action condemned by the International Court of Justice as illegal.[53] The US also sought to place economic pressure on the Sandinistas, and the Reagan administration imposed a full trade embargo.[54] US support for this Nicaraguan insurgency continued in spite of the fact that impartial observers from international groupings such as the European Economic Community, religious groups sent to monitor the election, and observers from democratic nations such as Canada and the Republic of Ireland concluded that the Nicaraguan general elections of 1984 were completely free and fair.[55][56] The Reagan administration disputed these results, despite the fact that the government of the United States never had any observers in Nicaragua at the time. The administration criticized the elections as a "sham" based on the charge that Arturo Cruz, the candidate nominated by the Coordinadora Democratica Nicaraguense, comprising three rightwing political parties, did not participate in the elections. However, the administration privately argued against Cruz's participation for fear his involvement would legitimize the elections. U.S. officials admitted to the New York Times that "The Administration never contemplated letting Cruz stay in the race because then the Sandinistas could justifiably claim that the elections were legitimate, making it much harder for the United States to oppose the Nicaraguan Government."[57] Other criticisms of the election, according to a detailed study by Martin Kriele, included that the election was “no more subject to approval by vote than the Central Committee of the Communist Party is in countries of the East Bloc,” since the 1984 election was for posts subordinate to the Sandinista Directorate. Also by evading the secret ballot, “the authorities had had the opportunity to check on how individuals had voted.” Also, “the finally announced results of the election were determined through administrative manipulation – that is, they were rigged,” according to Martin Kriele.[58][59][60] After the U.S. Congress prohibited federal funding of the Contras in 1983, the Reagan administration continued to back the Contras by covertly selling arms to Iran and channeling the proceeds to the Contras (the Iran–Contra affair).[61] When this scheme was revealed, Reagan admitted that he knew about the Iranian "arms for hostages" dealings but professed ignorance about the proceeds funding the Contras; for this, National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Oliver North took much of the blame. In the Nicaraguan general election, 1990, a coalition of anti-Sandinista parties (from the left and right of the political spectrum) led by Violeta Chamorro, the widow of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, defeated the Sandinistas. The defeat shocked the Sandinistas, as numerous pre-election polls had indicated a sure Sandinista victory, and their pre-election rallies had attracted crowds of several hundred thousand people.[64] The unexpected result was subject to extensive analysis and comment. Commentators such as Noam Chomsky and Brian Willson attributed the outcome to the U.S./Contra threats to continue the war if the Sandinistas retained power, the general war-weariness of the Nicaraguan population, and the abysmal Nicaraguan economic situation.[65] Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported Chamorro's victory over Ortega was achieved with a 55% majority. Violeta Chamorro was the first female President of Nicaragua, and also the first woman to be popularly elected for this position in any nation of the Americas. Exit polling convinced Daniel Ortega that the election results were legitimate, and were instrumental in his decision to accept the vote of the people and step down rather than void the election. Ortega vowed that he would govern desde abajo (from below).[67] Given his party's widespread control of institutions and many Sandinista individuals in all government agencies, he would maintain control and govern even without being president. Chamorro came to office with an economy in ruins. The per capita income of Nicaragua had been reduced by over 80% during the 1980s, and a huge government debt had ascended to US$12 billion, primarily due to the financial and social costs of the Contra war with the Sandinista-led government.[68] Much to the surprise of the U.S. and the contra forces, Chamorro did not dismantle the Sandinista Popular Army, although the name was changed to the Nicaraguan Army. Chamorro's main contribution to Nicaragua was the disarmament of groups in the northern and central areas of the country. This provided the stability which the country had lacked for over ten years. In the next election, the Nicaraguan general election, 1996, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas of the FSLN were defeated again, this time by Arnoldo Aleman of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). 11 years after toppling the Sandinistas, Nicaragua remained the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere next to Haiti, its 5 million residents beset by hunger, crime, and unemployment. For much of the campaign, Ortega had been leading in the polls, and many observers expected him to regain the presidency. In the 2001 elections, the PLC again defeated the FSLN, with Enrique Bolanos winning the Presidency. The Washington Post explained the victory with the following: the U.S.-supported candidate "focused much of his campaign on reminding people of the economic and military difficulties of the Ortega era."[69] President Bolanos subsequently alleged that former President Aleman had undertaken money laundering, theft and corruption. The ex-president was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzlement, money laundering, and corruption.[70] Liberal members loyal to Aleman and also members of Congress reacted angrily and, together with Sandinista parliament members, stripped the presidential powers of President Bolanos and his ministers, calling for his resignation and threatening impeachment. The Sandinistas said they no longer supported Bolanos after the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Bolanos to keep his distance from the FSLN.[71] This "slow motion coup d'etat" was averted partially due to pressure from the Central American presidents, who vowed not to recognize any movement that removed Bolanos; the U.S., the OAS, and the European Union also opposed the "slow motion coup d'etat".[72] The proposed constitutional changes, to be introduced in 2005 against the Bolanos administration, were delayed until January 2007 after the entrance of the new government. One day before they were due to be enforced, the National Assembly postponed their enforcement until January 2008. Before the general elections on 5 November 2006, the National Assembly passed a bill further restricting abortion in Nicaragua 52-0 (9 abstaining, 29 absent). President Enrique Bolanos supported this measure, and signed the bill into law on 17 November 2006.[73] As a result, Nicaragua is one of five countries in the world where abortion is illegal with no exceptions, along with Chile, Malta, El Salvador,[74] and the Vatican City. Legislative and presidential elections took place on November 5, 2006. Daniel Ortega returned to the presidency with 37.99% of the vote. This percentage was enough to win the presidency outright, due to a change in electoral law which lowered the percentage requiring a runoff election from 45% to 35% (with a 5% margin of victory).[75] Nicaragua's 2011 general election resulted in re-election of Daniel Ortega. Currency : Cordoba (NIO).
