The Nicaraguan Revolution and Transition to Democracy

Abstract

From 1937 to 1979, the country of Nicaragua was effectively ruled by one family, the Somoza family, approximating a hereditary dictatorship. Although members of the family ruled under the title of “President,” the regime was a far cry from any semblance of a democracy. In his article “Sandinista Nicaragua as a Deweyan Social Experiment,” Joseph Betz emphatically characterizes the Somoza family as “cruel and greedy autocrats” (Betz 25). As unrest with systematic oppression grew, so did the strength of the primary opposition campaign, fronted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a leftist party founded on socialist theories. In July 1979, the Junta of National Reconstruction, a five-member committee of FSLN leaders officially became the ruling power of Nicaragua by removing Somoza from office. In the Presidential election of November 1984, called “the cleanest held in Nicaragua since 1928” by the U.S. Latin American Studies Association, the Junta ceded power without protest to President-elect Daniel Ortega (Betz 26). In