Nicaragua crippled by land disputes

US-backed contra rebels were promised land when the war ended

By Tom Gibb in Managua

A decade ago, Nicaragua's long and bloody civil war came to an end - but the ownership of land still divides the country.

Nicaragua in the 1980s was one of the cold war hotspots.

The left-wing anti-US Sandinista revolution swept to power, nationalised land and gave it to peasant co-operatives.

US President Ronald Reagan made it a priority to overthrow them by arming and funding the Contra rebels.

When the war ended, and the Sandinistas lost the elections, the land conflicts continued.

A decade later the issue is still a cause of endemic violence, undermining possibilities of economic development.

Land issue

The former contra rebels and their families now live in desperate poverty. They were promised land when the war ended.

The police have threatened to expel us. We told them we'll die rather than leave

Santos Petronila Herandez

Members of the Herandez family who owned it in the 1970s also want it back.

"We lost fathers, brothers and sons in the war," says Santos Petronila Herandez.

"We want the government to keep its promise to give us land titles so we can work."

"The police have threatened to expel us. We told them we'll die rather than leave."

Renewed violence

Across Nicaragua, it is the same story. Land seizures and evictions are sparking endemic violence between Contras, Sandinistas and former land owners.

With only five million inhabitants, Nicaragua should have plenty of fertile land to go around.

The trouble is that much of it is overgrown and uncultivated because of all the land disputes.

Since its Socialist revolution, Nicaragua has returned to the US back yard.

Washington has joined the fray, threatening to cut aid unless US citizens who lost land during the revolution are compensated.

Somoza legacy

Luis Sevilla Somoza: No one has ever ... said that the Somozas stole this piece of land

Among those hunting land is the family of Anastasio Somoza, the dictator deposed and killed by the Sandinistas.

The family has got nothing through the courts though as Luis Sevilla Somoza, the nephew of Anastasio Somoza, explains they are hoping to make deals with bankrupt co-operatives.

"The basic thing is that the lower class Nicaraguan farmer, they basically are good people," he says.

"Way down deep inside they feel bad because they are on someone else's land. But they are good people."

The Somoza dictators are accused of abusing four decades of political power to amass more than 350 properties.

They made sure they got titles, as Mr Somoza explains.

The Somoza family want this coffee co-operative near Managua

"The people who say we stole the land are our enemies."

"It is typical Sandinista rhetoric," he says.

"The proof is never there. If anyone has got a gripe about our properties please come to the courts and we'll present our documents and you present yours and no-body has ever done that."

The Somozas are seeking control of a coffee co-operative in the rich hills outside Managua.

The Sandinistas gave the workers the farm - though no title.

That means no credit to plant and pay wages.

'The land is mine'

Dolores Esquivel: Losing this land would be like losing part of my body

Dolores Esquivel is the vice president of the co-operative.

"Losing this land would be like losing part of my body," she says.

"I worked here since I was 14. We won't stand for some outsider, some Yankee taking it away."

"I feel the land is mine. I won it."

Nicaragua is today the poorest country of mainland America. It is still being held back under the weight of decades of internal conflict.