BBC News Online: World: Americas

Sandinista anniversary under a cloud

By Mike Lanchin

Twenty years ago, leftist guerrillas of the Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) rolled into the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, driving from power the 46-year dictatorship of General Anastasio Somoza.

During their 11-year rule, the Sandinistas became a beacon for the left throughout Latin America and elsewhere, successfully holding off repeated attempts to overthrow the regime by US-trained and financed Contras.

When I first visited Nicaragua in the mid-1980s, the Sandinista-led revolution was still going strong.

Many ordinary people identified with the ideals of redistributing land to the poor, improving health and education and freeing the country from the feudal system that existed under the Somoza family.

But what was slowly eroding mass support for the Sandinista government was the forced recruitment of youngsters into the army to fight off the Contra guerrillas.

Cuban-style food rationing - a consequence of a US economic embargo - was also very unpopular.

It was these two elements which contributed to the Sandinistas' sudden fall from power in the country's first truly free election held in 1990.

Since then, the former Marxist Sandinista rulers are now only a shadow of their former selves.

Now, as they prepare to celebrate another anniversary of their most triumphant moment, the former revolutionary movement is split by personal infighting.

Ex-President Daniel Ortega - still the best-known Sandinista leader - faces charges of sexual abuse and corruption but refuses to step down.

What has enraged his former supporters even more is that Mr Ortega is now apparently negotiating quotas of power with the right-wing government of President Arnoldo Aleman.

The wranglings have reached such proportions that two separate rallies have been planned to celebrate the Sandinista victory this Monday: one will be held by Mr Ortega's supporters and the other, just one mile across town, by Sandinista dissidents led by Mr Ortega's former vice-president.

Attendance at either rally is not expected to be great. With a crippling economic crisis, most Nicaraguans have other things on their minds.

Relevant Stories

Sandinista leader may face abuse trial (19 Jul 99 | Americas)
Former Sandinista leader denies abuse charges (29 May 98 | Americas)

Internet Links

Sandinista Information (in Spanish)
Nicaraguan National Assembly (in Spanish)

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