Abstract
This article addresses peasant participation in the counter-revolutionary war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Many studies have examined peasant involvement in revolutions; few have looked at peasant participation in counter-revolutions. Nicaragua offers a rare chance to redress this imbalance. Although the counter-revolution in Nicaragua has generated much literature and controversy, insufficient attention has been devoted to the actors in it and too little weight has been given to their views. In this article, peasants speak for themselves, bring their own perspective to events, and give their own reasons for their participation. Their testimony suggests a new approach to understanding the phenomenon of peasant counter-revolution. My research shows that for many peasants the indiscriminate and extensive Sandinista repression of a sector of the rural population was a crucial factor in their decision to join the Contra.(f.1) It is a corrective to the view that peasants are naive and easily manipulated, and it questions traditional assumptions that middle-ranking peasants almost always support revolutions.Field research was carried out in Nicaragua between July and November 1991, at the end of the demobilization process of the Nicaraguan Resistance(f.2) when tensions were high between the Sandinistas, who lost the 1990 election, and the returning demobilized Contras. Violence, threats, aggression, and assassinations, mostly directed against the Contras, were numerous. Consequently, some people declined to be interviewed; others wanted the assurance of a safe place away from their community to deliver their testimony. But some, unafraid of Sandinista reactions and sometimes with defiance, were eager to tell their stories. Generally, all participants were surprisingly open in discussing the details of their personal experience and emotions and their motives for joining the Contra. Fifty-one people were interviewed, mostly rank and file soldiers from the peasant class (83 per cent).(f.3) They were recruited on an individual basis and located through personal investigation in regions where demobilized Contras were to be found. Interviews, which lasted on average about three hours, were conducted under conditions of strict confidentiality, and all witnesses were guaranteed anonymity. Most people used an alias.The north-central area of Nicaragua became the battlefield of the counter-revolutionary war during the 1980s.(f.4) The mountainous landscape contrasted with the much more densely populated low, fertile plains of the Pacific zone. The majority of the people in the north lived in small towns and satellite communities. However, an important segment of the peasantry was isolated in numerous smaller communities (comarcas) dispersed throughout a vast territory connected only by dirt roads which often became inaccessible during the rainy season. A large sector of small-and medium-sized cattle and coffee producers controlled the economy of the region.(f.5) Because they did not challenge the political authority of the regime of the Somoza family, they had been allowed to develop their own economy. There was also an important class of poor peasants who survived on a subsistence living and were subordinated to the producer class through a semi-feudal system. To fulfil their basic needs they had to work for larger landowners either as paid labourers or as sharecroppers. Their dependency was not simply on the wealthy but also on middle-class peasants who gained considerable social and political influence over the poorest peasants.Historically, the Somoza family ignored these regions and devoted its attention to the export-oriented crops of the Pacific lands. The rural Pacific zone was structured around large modern estates, most of them owned by the Somoza family and its supporters, and dependent upon a rural proletariat. The expansion of the family property occurred at the expense of small peasants, who were gradually displaced, often through repressive means, and forced to accept work on the plantations to survive. …
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More From: International Journal: Canada's Journal of Global Policy Analysis
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