The Nicaraguan Revolution

The uprising that toppled the Somoza family's dictatorship and brought the Sandinistas to power.

Background

The Somoza family had ruled Nicaragua since the 1930s with American support and enormous personal wealth. The Sandinista National Liberation Front formed in 1961, and the assassination of the newspaper editor Pedro Joaquín Chamorro in January 1978 turned many people against the government.

Course of events

Strikes and uprisings spread through 1978 and 1979. The Sandinistas and their allies advanced on Managua, and Anastasio Somoza Debayle left the country in July 1979. The new government launched literacy and health campaigns, while the United States backed the Contra rebels in a war that lasted through the 1980s.

Legacy

The Sandinistas lost the election of 1990 to Violeta Chamorro and handed over power peacefully. The revolution and the war left a mixed record of social reforms, conflict and economic hardship.