Sandinista Nicaragua Research Articles

Socialist scenarios, power, and state formation in Sandinista Nicaragua

Drawing on the concept of “scenario,” I examine the ideological construction of an agricultural cooperative in a “model” village in revolutionary Nicaragua (1979–90). I argue that the state's modernist project of development placed the burden of cooperative members' transformation into model revolutionaries on individual will rather than on national and global political–economic relations. This resulted in Tuleños' inability to live up to Sandinista expectations and authorized the production of Sandinista and academic discourses that cast these producers as failed revolutionaries. These discourses helped constitute and naturalize the vanguardist relationship established by the state's modernist project between the state and the cooperative sector.

Rights and Revolution: The Rise and Fall of Nicaragua's Sandinista Movement

This book (Vandeplas 2013 available now at Amazon.com) argues that during the decade long rule of the Sandinista movement in 1980s' Nicaragua, discussion of the origins and development of that nation's revolution was greatly hindered by a polarization between two basic points of view. On the one hand, an anticommunist worldview rooted in the Cold War fueled outright opposition to the Sandinista movement. On the other, a defense of the politics of the Sandinistas was motivated by a tendency on the left and within some currents of liberalism to support, almost without criticism, any third world political movement which stood up to the United States government. There were many shades of opinion between these two poles - but no third pole opposed to both. This study is an attempt to break through the intellectual stalemate that is a legacy of the Cold War. By reconsidering the dynamics of the Nicaraguan revolution I believe it is possible to come to a deeper understanding of conflicts in the developing world. In particular, I believe a close study of the relationship between democratic rights and revolutionary movements within the revolutionary process itself is a fruitful means to achieve this understanding.

Revolution, Revival, and Religious Conflict in Sandinista Nicaragua

Revolution, Revival, and Religious Conflict in Sandinista Nicaragua

Bandits and blanket thieves, communists and terrorists: the politics of naming Sandinistas in Nicaragua, 1927 – 36 and 1979 – 90

This article examines the politics of naming Sandinistas in Nicaragua during two periods of intense political and military struggle: the era of the Sandinista Revolution and Contra War (1979 – 90) and the era of the Sandino rebellion against the US Marines and Nicaraguan National Guard (1927 – 36). Focusing principally on the rhetorical and narrative strategies used by the USA and its Nicaraguan allies, the article explores the delegitimising master narratives concocted by these dominant groups and the efforts of two generations of Sandinistas and their allies to challenge these narratives. It argues that the politics of naming was embedded within a larger politics of storytelling, and that effective challenges to dominant groups' epithets must be grounded in historically informed challenges to the larger narratives from which they spring.

Civil-Military Relations in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua

When Nicaragua's Sandinista Revolution ended in 1990 with the electoral victory of an opposition coalition, the Sandinista Popular Army remained under the control of its revolutionary officers. This study examines the subsequent evolution of civil-military relations in postrevolutionary Nicaragua under the governments of Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) and Arnoldo Alemdn (1997-2002). It then assesses the level of civilian control achieved by combining for the first time Alfred Stepan's widely used military prerogatives indicators with an alternative measurement system recently designed by his ciitic Samuel Fitch. This analysis reveals that the Nicaraguan military has become a nonpartisan force exercising little influence in civilian politics, but it still enjoys wide de facto institutional autonomy and a margin of political independence. The Nicaraguan case falls between the “conditional subordination” and “democratic control” categories in Fitch's civil-military relations typology. Although Latin American armed forces are invariably blamed for most of the difficulties of democractizing civil-military relations in the region, this article concludes by arguing that Nicaragua's civilian political class not its military' leaders-is most responsible for the failure to complete the process of subordinating the armed forces to democratic authority.

Action and Aftermath

Over the past two decades, Nicaragua's Sandinista Revolution-its causes, inner dynamics, and consequences-has been the target of much scholarly work. What factors led to the revolution and its success? What factors led to the buildup of the contra movement in the 1980s? What are the implications of the 1990 Sandinista electoral defeat and the implementation of neoliberal reforms? Three recent books focusing on different stages of the Nicaraguan revolution and its aftermath attempt to answer these questions. In States, Ideologies, and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, Misagh Parsa attempts to explain why three similar revolutionary movements had such different outcomes. Looking at the subsequent period in Nicaraguan history, in Peasants in Arms: War and Peace in the Mountains of Nicaragua, 1979-1994 Lynn Horton shows us why some Quilali villagers supported the Sandinistas while others took up arms with the contras. Finally, in Women and the State in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua Cynthia Chavez Metoyer focuses on the period following the war and the revolution and examines the structural adjustments imposed by the state and the impact of these policies on the position of women in Nicaraguan society. While these writers are analyzing three very different periods in Nicaragua's history and employing different methods, their theoretical approaches are similar in their emphasis on the potential autonomy of the state and its importance as a key actor in determining the outcomes of these situations. They are also similar in that they deemphasize class analysis and treat the international system and the United States as contextual but not active variables.

Contras and Comandantes

Summary In the 1980s, Nicaragua's Sandinista government faced armed mestizo and indigenous insurgencies in much of the nation's central and eastern regions. After the Sandinistas lost the 1990 elections, the in-coming government signed peace agreements with the insurgents and facilitated their return to civilian life. With the war over, the Nicaraguan army greatly reduced its troop strength, leaving tens of thousands of people unemployed. Within a few years, however, many former insurgents and soldiers took up arms again for multiple and complex reasons. This paper examines how three groups that rearmed influenced forest conservation in the buffer zone of Nicaragua's Bosawas Biosphere Reserve between 1991 and 1999. The three groups were the mestizo Northern Front 3-80 (FN 3-80) and the Andrés Castro United Forces (FUAC), made up of former ‘Nicaraguan Resistance’ and Sandinista soldiers respectively, and the Miskito YATAMA movement. The presence of these armed groups impeded the government from taking coercive action to remove farmers from the reserve's nucleus. It also limited the advance of cattle ranching. At times, the groups favored logging, at times they did not. The armed conflicts have tended to keep out prudent foreign investors and encourage the presence of smaller companies willing to take greater risks.

Women's movements in international perspective: Latin America and beyond

This wide-ranging collection of essays, written over some twenty years, engages fully the general debates over the politics of gender and appraises women's movements in widely varying societies. Most chapters deal directly with Latin American issues and experiences, including anarchist feminism in nineteenth century Argentina; the politics of gender and those of abortion in Sandinista Nicaragua; the role of the official Cuban women's movement in the 1990s; and an appraisal of the relations between gender and state in twentieth century Latin America. The remaining chapters extend beyond the region to provide comparative analysis and an international context, paying particular attention to women's interests and rights, the law and the role of the state.

Becoming a Contra

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. …

Community radio in Sandinista Nicaragua, 1979–1992: participatory communication and the revolutionary process

(1996). Community radio in Sandinista Nicaragua, 1979–1992: participatory communication and the revolutionary process. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 221-241.

Making the economy scream: Us economic sanctions against Sandinista Nicaragua

From 1981 to 1990, the USA engaged in a concerted and multifaceted campaign to overthrow the government of Nicaragua-a policy that was highly controversial domestically and culminated in the Iran-contra scandal. In the history of US attempts to destabilise other governments, the effort against Nicaragua stands out as one of the most intensive and long-lasting. The covert paramilitary dimension of Washington's policy is well known and quite comprehensively documented, in part because of the investigations resulting from the Iran-contra affair. The economic dimension of the policy has received less attention, even though it was arguably more effective. The 'contra' war failed to achieve its aim of overthrowing the Sandinista government by military means, whereas economic sanctions, combined with the costs of the war, succeeded in devastating the economy. Amid widespread privation, the Sandinistas' popular support fell severely, and they were soundly defeated in the 1990 elections. The weight of scholarly op...

The fall and rise of the market in Sandinista Nicaragua

The ideology of the Sandinista leadership the legacy of the Somoza era and initial Sandinista strategy reconstruction and consolidation, 1979-81 stagnant economy, paralysed policy, 1982-84 hesitant turn to the market, 1985-7 triumph of the market, 1988-89 reflections on the Sandinista decade.

Democracy and Socialism in Sandinista Nicaragua

Democracy and Socialism in Sandinista Nicaragua

Response to Phil Ryan’s “Duet for Peasant and Socialist Revolutionary”

Phil Ryan's lively and well-informed critique of the agrarian reform policies of Nicaragua's Sandinista Front for National Liberation makes an important contribution to the debate on the peasant question. I have often found myself amazed, frustrated, and disheartened by the grandiose schemes that Marxists - and liberals also - concoct to modernize agriculture and backward peasants. Nevertheless, it seems to me that Ryan's critique would have been strengthened if he had further explored the relevance of scale economies for different types of agriculture.

Duet for Peasant and Socialist Revolutionary, with Obbligato Feminism: Lessons of the Nicaraguan Case

In 1795, Beethoven wrote short piece with the whimsical title, Duet for Viola, Cello, and Two Eyeglasses. Obbligato denotes a part which must not be omitted, part which is essential to the structure, or at least to the effect. This essay is about another duet: between the peasantry and the socialist revolutionaries of Nicaragua's Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN). The duet was, unfortunately, much less harmonious than those created by Beethoven. After losing power in 1990, many Sandinista leaders concluded that relations with the peasantry had been one of the great failures of the revolutionary process.

The collapse ‐ An internal or external problem? A critique of Frank's approach

I have three main objections to Frank's paper which are as follows: First, the author's description of the development of the socialist system is extremely one-sided. In fact, he completely rejects any explanations and factors related to the internal nature and characteristics of socialism, and overemphasizes the significance of external factors related to the world economy. For him, 'socialism' is only the less developed, backward area of the global economic system. He makes a few general remarks about internal factors and their possible significance; this does not, however, change my assessment of his position, as they only make it somewhat less extreme. Second, Frank seeks to give an account of 'real world economic factors' and refrains from analysing ideological or political ones; nowhere does he explain his understanding of the relations between economy, polity and ideology. Therefore, it seems that for him these spheres of reality exist in complete isolation and there is no need to consider the economic consequences of ideological phenomena. Third, Frank very often makes general statements (for example, concerning similarities between the development of some part of Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe, or the impact of 'socialist development' on the economic standing of various East European regions in relation to each other and to Western Europe) without providing any proof or statistical evidence. Some of these statements may perhaps be intellectually stimulating, but they lack scientific rigour. I am especially doubtful about comparisons between Eastern Europe and the Third World (Latin America, Africa). For example, it is certainly wrong to claim that the economic policy of the Jaruzelski regime like that of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua involved the implementation of an IMF-style programme. I doubt the relevance of this comparison and the validity of this claim with respect to Poland. Let me elaborate upon my arguments, which concern in particular Frank's approach. Reductionism is one of the main errors to be avoided in describing the socialist system with only one factor (or group of

Neutrality and Bias in the 1990 Nicaraguan Preelection Polls: A Comment on Bischoping and Schuman

The 1990 democratic election in Sandinista Nicaragua attracted international attention.' Among scholars of Nicaragua, one of the most surprising aspects of that election was that so many of the publicized preelection polls incorrectly predicted the outcome. Most polls published in both the United States and Nicaragua forecast a Sandinista victory, but, in fact, the Sandinistas suffered a resounding defeat.2 Many election watchers were surprised by this outcome, especially since some of the most experienced and reputable pollsters were wrong in their predictions. Both the surprise election result itself and the polling debacle have attracted attention among political scientists and survey researchers in the United States and Europe. Ever since 1990, we have endeavored to uncover why so many polls were so wrong. One of the best-known studies that attempts to answer this question is the pen experiment conducted by Howard Schuman, the results of which appear in an earlier issue of this journal (Bischoping and Schuman 1992). In that study, Schuman deliberately manipulated the appearance of interview bias, thereby exposing survey respondents to three different treatments that were meant to represent two different types of bias and a neutral situation.3 As a result of this study, Bischoping and Schuman conclude that interview bias explains the incorrect poll predictions and that only a deliberate interviewer bias in favor of the opposition

Industrialization in Sandinista Nicaragua: Policy and Practice in a Mixed Economy

Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews with government officials and industry executives, this book is the first to examine Nicaragua's industrial sector. Using a comparative systems approach, the author first offers a theoretical overview of the relation between economic order and industrialization policy. She then presents a detailed description of the course of industrialization in Nicaragua during the Somoza regime. This is followed by an analysis of the character of the mixed economy under the Sandinista leadership - particularly the development of relative shares of private and state ownership of the means of production and the extent to which state planning influences decisions in the private sector. In the final chapters Dr. Dijkstra examines the possibilities for further industrialization within the mixed economy especially with regard to state accumulation and industrialization strategies.

Industrialization in Sandinista Nicaragua: Policy and Practice in a Mixed Economy.

Industrialization in Sandinista Nicaragua: Policy and Practice in a Mixed Economy.

Democracy and socialism in Sandinista Nicaragua

Democracy and socialism in Sandinista Nicaragua