Sandinista National Liberation Front Research Articles

‘To Defend the Nicaraguan Revolution is to defend Mexico’: Mexican solidarity with the Sandinista Revolution, 1974-82

ABSTRACT In the 1970s, a broad range of leftist dissidents in Mexico, from labour organisers to communists to gay liberation activists, took inspiration from and expressed their support for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua. This essay examines Sandinista solidarity in Mexico City in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, to shed new light on the contested meanings of ‘revolution’ in Mexico’s politics, society, and culture in the late Cold War period. Sandinismo resonated powerfully in Mexico for activists and politicians alike, for reasons having to do with Mexico’s own revolutionary history, as well as domestic and diplomatic challenges it faced in the present.

Women in leftist rebel movements

In the late twentieth century, women’s significant involvement in leftist rebel movements in Nicaragua and El Salvador challenged traditional gender roles in the male-dominated sphere of guerrilla warfare. This research paper examines the driving forces behind this surge in women’s participation in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN). Structural changes, including shifts in land ownership and economic disparities, created opportunities for women to escape traditional domestic roles and engage in revolutionary activities. Decades of repressive dictatorships and increasing inequality further motivated women to join these movements.

Subjects of Aspirations

Abstract Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Gracias a Dios, an urban informal settlement in the Pacific region of Nicaragua, this article examines the mechanisms by which investments in Sandinista partisan politics are reproduced even as promises of redistribution made by the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front are chronically deferred. Populist governance emerges as the administration of aspirations in the gap between the populist promise and its failure. The residents of Gracias a Dios, who are presumed to be invested in Sandinista politics either by ideological interpellation or pragmatic self-interest, are revealed to be neither deceived nor blindly hopeful. This article argues that the populist promise opens an ambivalent space that animates aspirations and preserves possibility even when experience suggests otherwise. The regime's capacity to foster possibility in lieu of probability is dependent on punctuating everyday life with irregularly timed interventions and on transforming partisan belonging into a stopgap between promise and outcome.

The profile of Nicaragua’s economic elite. The limits of political influence during the presidency of D. Ortega

The article studies the dynamics of Nicaragua’s economic elite which helps to define it and assess its ability to influence political process of the country. The analysis of the evolution of Nicaraguan big business reveals its high adaptability to ever-changing social conditions. As a result, the reaction of economic elite to the Sandinista revolution demonstrates its strategy and tactics concerning restructuring of the assets. The authors pay special attention to the Supreme Council of Private Enterprise (Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada, COSEP) which serves as a main representative of collective interests of the Nicaraguan capital. The article examines the relationship between the left-wing radical partisan Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) and national elite as well. It has transformed from hostile confrontation at the end of 20th century to a tactical alliance in the 2010s. The article concludes with an analysis of existing tensions between Sandinistas and big business as well as the prospects for the transition of power in Nicaragua.

Revolutionary Refugee Policy: Salvadorans and Statecraft in Sandinista Nicaragua (1979–1990)

AbstractDuring the 1980s, more than 20,000 Salvadorans fleeing the violence of the Salvadoran Civil War entered the neighboring country of Nicaragua. Their flight was part of a larger multidirectional migration out of El Salvador in which Salvadorans sought refuge across Central and North America. In response to this unprecedented influx of Salvadoran refugee men, women, and children, the Nicaraguan government—newly under the control of the revolutionary Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)—declared that all refugees would be permitted “the opportunity to survive and produce.” This article argues that the timing of the refugees’ arrival proved mutually beneficial for both the Salvadorans and the FSLN by illustrating how Sandinista officials sought to further agrarian reform projects via refugee integration into agricultural cooperatives. As such, Nicaraguan refugee policy functioned as an integral part of Sandinista statecraft. Through an analysis of refugee-produced sources, government and UNHCR documents, and news reports, this article sheds new light on the entwined histories of Salvadoran refugees and the Sandinista state in the transnational context of the late Cold War period in Central America.

Politicized Refuge: Chicago and the Transformation of the Sanctuary Movement

Politicized RefugeChicago and the Transformation of the Sanctuary Movement Nathan Ellstrand (bio) "We are writing to inform you that today our congregation voted to declare our church as a sanctuary for undocumented refugees from El Salvador. On Saturday, July 24, we will openly receive a refugee family into the care and protection of the church. We realize in so doing that we will be in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act Section 274(A)."1 In a letter to United States Attorney General William French Smith dated July 18, 1982, leadership at Chicago's Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ took a public stand on the rampant violence in El Salvador. It was the first place of worship in the Midwest to declare sanctuary, acting in clear defiance of the federal government and its intervention in Central America during the Cold War of the 1980s. The literature on the sanctuary movement concentrates on U.S.-Mexico border region organizers who provided refuge in Tucson and across southeastern Arizona, highlighting the actions of the Manzo Area Council, Jim Corbett, and the Reverend John Fife in declaring public sanctuary through the Tucson Ecumenical Council (TEC) in 1982. Lawyers, journalists, and anthropologists have focused on these individuals, emphasizing their religious and moral convictions.2 Since the 1980s, historical scholarship on the sanctuary movement has evolved from hagiographic accounts of leaders to works that place the movement in a broader context of transnational and borderlands history. Only one work examines the sanctuary movement in Chicago rather than Arizona; it emphasizes the internal organizational structure and gender dimensions of the movement instead of historicizing its politicized origins in the city a decade before.3 Although the initial movement to provide sanctuary—in the form of shelter, aid, and consultation—to Central American refugees emerged out [End Page 25] of the southwestern U.S., the push for expanding sanctuary came from political, solidarity-based organizing centered in the Midwest in Chicago between 1980 and 1983. Chicago sanctuary activists built on both the Central American solidarity movement and sanctuary in Tucson. They moved away from Tucson's localized, defensive approach of providing refuge on the border. Instead, Chicago organizers were steeped in the Central American solidarity movement, creating an interfaith coalition to proactively reject the Cold War priorities of the U.S. government abroad. Chicago activists politically weaponized sanctuary, using it not only to protect refugees, but to turn Central Americans' lived experiences into a sharp critique of U.S. foreign policy. This resulted in more than three hundred sanctuaries created nationwide by 1986, an example still widely invoked by immigrant and refugee advocates today. The Situation in Central America and Sanctuary in Tucson U.S. political involvement in Central America dates back to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. However, starting in the 1960s, Central America became a regional battleground of the Cold War. The U.S. and Soviet Union competed globally for hearts and minds, and a range of "hot wars" occurred within many Central American nations. The U.S. government actively sought to prevent the spread of communism and, ultimately, leftism. Guatemala's civil war between the state and left-wing organizations extended from 1960 to 1996. Ethnicity as well as ideology divided individuals of Spanish descent from the country's Indigenous poor and mixed-race people. The civil war in El Salvador occurred from 1980 to 1991 between the military government and a coalition of leftist organizations known as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. Nicaragua suffered its own prolonged period of revolutionary conflict from 1961–1990, starting with the overthrow of the Somoza family by the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Later, the Sandinistas fought the Contras, a coalition of right-wing paramilitary organizations. During the 1980s, Honduras served as a U.S. training ground for the Salvadoran military and for the Nicaraguan Contras; moreover, the Honduran state combatted its own leftist guerrillas.4 The U.S. intervened in all of these political conflicts, aiming to prevent the rise of leftist regimes in the region during the Cold War. The election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980 heralded U.S. government expansion of intervention in Central America, as the president [End Page...

Food and Revolution: Fighting Hunger in Nicaragua, 1960–1993

This new book by historian Christiane Berth takes a fresh look at the Nicaraguan Revolution (1979–90) through the lens of food culture and policy. Her study makes a welcome contribution to the existing literature on revolutionary food policy by shedding light on food security matters over the several decades leading up to the revolution and during the revolution itself, explaining how these were consequential for the ultimate success of the revolutionary project. The novelty of Berth's approach is twofold: on the one hand, she broadens the analysis of (pre)revolutionary food politics to include international relief agencies, and, on the other hand, she places Nicaraguan consumers at the center of her analysis.The main premise of the book is that “insufficient access to food contributed to the rise and demise of the Nicaraguan Revolution” (5). Berth develops this thesis over six chronological chapters, followed by a seventh chapter that explores the unique food history of the Caribbean Coast and an epilogue that provides a look at more recent developments in the area of food policy. The first few chapters focus on early efforts by Central American development organizations to document malnutrition and hunger in Nicaragua in the 1950s and 1960s and the failure of the Somoza government to meaningfully respond to growing food insecurity, which ultimately helped to boost opposition to the regime. Access to food became a significant issue in the 1970s, particularly for low-income Nicaraguans, due to a number of factors, including waning Alliance for Progress food aid, low harvests resulting in dependence on expensive food imports, increasing urbanization, and the government's mismanagement of international aid funds following the 1972 earthquake that destroyed much of Managua. Against this backdrop, local food cultures were shifting as middle- and upper-income Nicaraguans increasingly preferred locally produced processed and fast foods and imported luxury foods. Influenced by discourses on US imperialism, revolutionaries rejected the growing influence of Americanized food cultures in favor of personal austerity in solidarity with low-income communities.Upon the success of the revolution in 1979, the revolutionary government, led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), prioritized food security as a critical component of the revolutionary project. Through an innovative package of policy reforms and public programs, the FSLN government sought to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by promoting self-sufficiency and traditional Nicaraguan foods. International cooperation and relief agencies worked with the government and local actors to realize these goals. However, as Berth argues, these measures ultimately underestimated the food preferences and demands of a diverse national constituency that included urban and rural consumers as well as the unique food cultures of Caribbean Coast communities.By the mid-1980s, Nicaragua found itself in a crippling economic crisis, leading to food scarcity and, in response, the increasing importation of food that weakened the revolution's goal of food self-sufficiency. Despite attempts by the revolutionary government to galvanize support for the revolutionary food project, these efforts were derailed by disproportionate access to food across geographic regions and social groups. As Berth notes, “Nicaraguan consumers' dissatisfaction over food insecurity turned into overall disillusionment with the revolutionary project in 1988” (145). With the success of opposition candidate Violeta Chamorro in the 1990 presidential election came the end of the revolution and the beginning of neoliberalism. However, Berth asserts that the period of transition to the new government was one of continuity and not a sharp break, given the FSLN's adoption of austerity policies beginning in 1986 to stabilize the economy. Furthermore, she argues that hunger and malnutrition had been growing during the later years of the revolution and continued to do so into the early 1990s. In this context, Nicaragua remained dependent on food aid while elites promoted US models of consumption, and imported goods once again became popular.A key strength of Berth's analysis is that it provides a comprehensive historical portrait of change (and continuity) in the national food regime as well as a nuanced understanding of the roles of international aid and relief agencies and their interactions with the government and local actors. Furthermore, the chapter on the Caribbean Coast is an appreciated addition because, as Berth points out, it is often overlooked in studies on food policy in Nicaragua. That said, readers may find the structure of the book curious. While the epilogue on more contemporary debates over food security and sovereignty is timely, the book lacks a concluding chapter to pull together the various strands of inquiry examined in the book. This does not diminish the important contribution of this book in terms of its scope of inquiry, however, and the epilogue in fact opens the door for future scholarship that examines, for example, the ways in which history may in fact be repeating itself in Nicaragua.

A discursive-images analysis of political posters in Sandinista Nicaragua (1979-1990)

In July 1979 the Popular Revolution in Nicaragua, led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), became victorious. The first years after the revolutionary insurrection were marked by the implementation of a broad program of social transformations. The struggles and experiences built throughout the 1980s, which marked the construction of a new identity and everyday culture in Sandinista Nicaragua, were promoted and recorded through posters that presented or disseminated values and ideas for the new times to come. The graphic documents that illustrated the political-cultural awakening of the Nicaraguan people reveal the challenges faced and the achievements obtained in their struggle for the right of self-determination and for the conduct of a process of revolutionary transformation of society. In this sense, the objective of this article was to carry out a discursive-imagery analysis of the production of political posters in Sandinista Nicaragua during the 1980s, verifying how a discursive-ideological formation centered on the exaltation of nationalism constituted itself as a driving force for the advancement of the objectives of the Nicaraguan revolution. As a result, we found that the graphic posters used in the context of the great campaigns of the Sandinista government were constituted as communicative practices of ideological propaganda and fulfilled an educational and politicizing function, as well as popular mobilization in defense of the Revolution.

The Nicaraguan Revolution's Challenge to the Monroe Doctrine: Sandinistas and Western Europe, 1979–1990

AbstractThis article analyzes the revolutionary diplomacy of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) through the prism of Nicaraguan and Western European relations during the final decade of the Cold War. It contends that —despite the FSLN's ideological affiliation with Third World national liberation movements, Cuba, and the socialist bloc—the campaign to influence Western European foreign policies was central to the Sandinista government's international strategy. By pushing Western European governments to play a prominent role in Central America's violent Cold War conflicts, the Sandinistas sought to undermine US power in the isthmus and alter the inter-American dynamics that shaped their region's history up to the late 1970s. Furthermore, by building financial ties with Western European countries, the FSLN could avoid complete financial dependency on the Soviet bloc and strengthen Nicaragua's image as a nonaligned state. The Sandinistas’ campaign to challenge US hegemony in Central America through a pragmatic outreach to Western Europe was largely successful, but it came at the cost of implementing domestic reforms that ran counter to their own ambitions. Ultimately, this prompted the FSLN to hold elections in 1990, which resulted in their removal from power.

Changes in support for Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Liberation Front during democratic backsliding

This article examines changes in the determinants of support for Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a party that has achieved dominant status during democratic backsliding. Using three waves of Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) surveys from 2006 to 2016, we present binary logit models to test four hypotheses on the evolution of support for the FSLN. Following the theory of how the elite’s cues and messages impact public opinion, we find substantial shifts in the determinants of support for the former guerrilla group as democratic backsliding deepened. We report that the FSLN turned into an ideologically pragmatic party after initially appealing to leftist supporters. Economic views also profoundly impact the party’s support – before and after voters elected it to the presidency in 2006.

Repoliticizing the Nicaraguan Army: Civil-Military Relations Under Daniel Ortega (2007–2017)

The Nicaraguan army grew out of leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) guerrilla forces and served as the military arm of the Revolution until Sandinista President Daniel Ortega was defeated in the 1990 election. From 1990 to 2006, the army evolved into a non-partisan, professional force respected across the political spectrum. Since returning to the presidency in 2007, however, Ortega has built an authoritarian regime and has attempted to repoliticize the armed forces by reviving the army’s Sandinista sympathies, co-opting senior officers with material rewards, and expanding the military’s role and resources. This study describes the army’s evolution, analyzes President Ortega’s three-part strategy to regain control, and evaluates his relative success.

Discurso de paz del Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional

Los partidos políticos nacen con el propósito de lucha por el poder en un determinado país bajo una u otra doctrina que determina la forma de este poder. La democracia y los gobiernos que buscan bienestar de todos los pobladores sin excepción, son los nuevos enfoques de nueva sociedad de convivencia pacífica y armónica de todos sus miembros. En este ensayo se pretende realizar una interpretación del Discurso de paz del Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN); el presente ensayo se ha estructurado en tres partes: En la primera parte se presenta una revisión teórica sobre los conceptos de la paz y el discurso político; en la segunda parte se describe el contexto político y socio-económico del nacimiento de FSLN; la tercera parte narra sobre la necesidad de la paz sentida por el pueblo nicaragüense, y de la pérdida y recuperación del poder de FSLN en las últimas décadas y la relación del fracaso y triunfo con el discurso de paz.

Los talleres de poesía para niños con cáncer en Nicaragua: Una experiencia terapéutica y de animación a la lectoescritura

The poetry workshops that Ernesto Cardenal ran in the community of Solentiname, Nicaragua during the Sandinist Revolution (1979) and even before at the end of the 60s, did not completely disappear with the abolition of the Ministry of Culture in Nicaragua, of which Cardenal was in charge. Nor did it disappear with the later defeat of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in the elections of 1990. Nonetheless, it did end as a global project, though the seeds of the workshops continued, and not just in Nicaragua. Cardenal himself noted in an interview. What is interesting is that when these workshops ended, they began to influence in the United States in a great number of workshops for children and young people of different languages and ethnicities. Read more

Sposoby obejścia konstytucyjnego zakazu reelekcji — kazus Nikaragui

The exclusion of the constitutional ban against reelection — example of NicaraguaThe Nicaraguan Constitution of 1987 in its original version guaranteed the free presidential re-election. The limits clause has been introduced by the amendment of 1995. Daniel Ortega who returned as the president in 2006 was directly interested in removing the restriction. The Sandinista National Liberation Front has no required majority in Parliament to carry out the amendment procedure. They seek the alternative solution, such as judicial instrument. The Nicaraguan Supreme Court sentence emitted on 19th of October 2009, declared the inapplicability of 147 of ConstitutionThe way to unlimited re-election has been opened. The purpose of the article is to analyse the process of changes of Nicaraguan Constitution between 1995 and 2014, regarding the re-election clause. The judicalization of this process shall be emphasized. In particular, the author will present legal analyse of both sentences of Nicaraguan Supreme Court i.e.emitted in October 2009 and September 2010It will be assessing in the context of the president-election’s regulation in Latin America presidentialism.

The Sandinista revolution and the limits of the Cold War in Latin America: the dilemma of non-intervention during the Nicaraguan crisis, 1977–78

This paper seeks to understand the construction of a broad alliance between the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a socialist inspired guerrilla group, and various Latin American liberal and authoritarian governments, mainly Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama and Cuba, between 1977 and 1979. I will seek to understand the construction of this unusual partnership, as well as the deep conflicts and mistrust that existed between the parties during the revolutionary upheaval in Nicaragua. This process will be examined by analysing the way Cold War politics and Latin American regional tensions shaped the events leading to the Sandinista revolution.

Historias de dictadura. Primeros cuentos de Sergio Ramírez

Los primeros textos del escritor nicaragüense Sergio Ramírez presentan algunos elementos que conforman, a manera de mosaico, los principales rasgos de la vida individual y social durante la larga dictadura somocista (1936 – 1979). Poder, violencia, dependencia política, social y económica son algunas de las problemáticas que asoman y su tratamiento se acentúa o modifica entre una publicación y otra más allá del orden de aparición. Asimismo, en el marco de las luchas por la liberación encabezadas por el Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), se cuestiona la función del arte y del intelectual. Propongo una serie de cuentos incluidos en Cuentos (1963), Nuevos Cuentos (1969) y Charles Atlas también muere (1976) en la que reviso, en primera instancia, la postura en torno al arte y al intelectual que exponen mediante la autofiguración del autor. Luego, exploro algunos elementos que conforman esos mundos narrativos y que funcionan como denuncia político-social al mismo tiempo que imaginan y reivindican una nueva nación en sintonía con los postulados presentes en las luchas revolucionarias.

Vanguardism and the Vanguardist Organization: A Study of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and its Rise to Power

Vanguardism has generally been studied in the context of the Cuban Revolution, as a guiding framework for revolutionary movements around the world. In Guevara's conception, the vanguard group is ideologically more advanced than the masses; the masses understand the new values, but not sufficiently, while among the vanguard group there has been a qualitative change that allows it to make sacrifices in its capacity as an advance guard. A vanguardist organization exhibits distinctive characteristics; it is capable of rapid change; it has the necessary tactics and can plan insurrection and military operations; and it requires a centralized authority and discipline of the highest order and strong leadership developed over a long period. Historical context and legitimacy are central elements in vanguardism. The vanguardist organization seeks social fitness and legitimacy that is compatible with the dominant social class to gain political control and governmental power. This study describes the vanguardist organization through an examination of the rise of the Sandinista National Liberation Front to power in Nicaragua during the 1970s. En general, el vanguardismo ha sido estudiado dentro del contexto de la revolución cubana, como una guía para los movimientos revolucionarios alrededor del mundo. Según Guevara, el grupo vanguardista es ideológicamente más avanzado que las masas, quienes carecen la capacidad de comprender en su totalidad nuevas ideas o valores. Dentro de un grupo vanguardista se observan cambios cualitativos que posicionan al grupo como una guarda avanzada. Una organización vanguardista exhibe características distintas; es capaz de cambio rápido, cuenta con tácticas necesarias, la capacidad de planificar insurrección y operaciones militares, y requiere de una autoridad centralizada, con altos niveles de disciplina y liderazgo a través del tiempo. El contexto histórico y la legitimidad son elementos centrales en el vanguardismo. La organización vanguardista desea lograr la afinidad social y la legitimidad que sea compatible con la clase social dominante, con el objetivo de lograr control político y poder gubernamental. Este estudio describe la organización vanguardista, examinando el ascenso al poder del Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional en Nicaragua durante la década de 1970. 关于先锋主义的研究一般都在古巴革命背景下进行, 该主义被视为世界各地革命运动 的指导框架。在格瓦拉的构想中, 先锋团体的意识形态比普通民众的要先进；后者虽然理解新价值, 却不能充分理解, 而前者存在质变, 允许自身以先锋的能力做出牺牲。先锋组织具有鲜明的特色；它能掌握快速变化, 拥有必要的策略, 能计划起义和军事行动, 并且要求经过长期发展的中央集权、最高纪律和强有力领导。具备历史背景和正确性是先锋主义的重要元素。先锋组织寻求与最高社会阶层兼容的社会适应和正确性, 用以获取政治控制和政府权力。本文通过检验20世纪70年代尼加拉瓜桑地诺民族解放阵线的崛起和掌权, 对先锋组织进行了描述。

From the Governmentality of Mobility to the Flaws of Income-Distribution Data Used in Distributive Public Policies

This first issue of Latin American Policy (LAMP) for 2017 addresses a myriad of topics encompassing theoretical perspectives, regional debates, and sectoral-specific policy analyses. Readers will find in this issue seven leading articles dealing with different subjects and perspectives. Marianne Marchand's article invites the reader to think of cross-border migration in terms of the governmentality of mobility and the creation of new “securitized” subjectivities. This idea contrasts greatly with Mexico's persistent “sovereignty” performance, even though Washington insists on considering the country as a “buffer” state. Gabriel Telleria explains the rise to power of the Sandinista National Liberation Front from the perspective of the Cuban tradition of “Vanguardism.” Meanwhile, Saidi Flores and Amado Villarreal elaborate a comparative analysis of the aerospace industry in Brazil, Canada, and Mexico, highlighting the shortcomings in Mexico. Mark Unger's contribution argues that the two pillars of environmental prosecution, the state and the law, are also its two main weaknesses. The three articles in the Policy Analysis section deal with the flaws and underestimations in the study of income inequality in Mexico. The three studies, submitted and discussed during a major workshop in Mexico City, shed new information on and offer methodologies for a more-accurate estimation of social inequalities in the country. At the end of this issue, readers will find our book-review section. We hope that the articles presented here will be useful for both scholars and policy practitioners. Isidro Morales is a researcher and professor in the School of Government and Public Transformation at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and an external fellow at the Mexico Center at Rice University's Baker Institute.

Why Splinter? Parties that Split from the FSLN, FMLN and URNG

AbstractFollowing the ends to the civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, the revolutionary coalitions that had led the fight against authoritarian regimes began to fracture. However, none of the splinter parties that broke from the Sandinista National Liberation Front, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, and Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit has succeeded on their own as political parties. In this article, I argue that there is no single reason to explain the poor performances of the Democratic Party (PD), the Renovating Movement (MR), and the Democratic Front Party (FDR) in El Salvador, the Sandinista Renovation Movement (Renovate-MRS) and the Movement to Rescue Sandinismo (Rescue-MRS) in Nicaragua, and the New Nation Alliance (ANN) in Guatemala. However, their limited financial resources, alliances with non-revolutionary centrist and centre-right parties, and voter tendency to overlook internal ideological and personal debates within the original political parties, especially the FSLN and FMLN, have not helped.

El diseño de las instituciones en el Estado Sandinista (1979-1982): la revolución como fuente de derecho

While the institutions of the new revolutionary state were emerging in Nicaragua, an element which would remain constant throughout the 1980s was taking shape: the pre-eminence of the executive power and the loss of the initial support of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). At the same time, the understanding between Nicaragua and the US, which was already complicated within the context of the Cold War, worsened during this period. This paper aims to elucidate the various factors which caused the imbalance in the distribution of powers within Sandinista institutions.