ABSTRACT
Many analyses of the Nicaraguan revolution erroneously suggest that the liberal democratic consciousness of the Nicaraguan people was exhausted by 1979, and that ideology had to be replaced by a socialist concept. The revolutionary model initially proposed was realistic and without messianic dreams. Part of Nicaragua’s economic and social disaster is caused by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) militarism, which goes back to 1979, before the beginning of the civil war against the Sandinistas and long before the rebels received US aid. The bitter historical relations between the United States and Nicaragua, plus the Leninist doctrine adoped in 1961 by the FSLN, make it impossible, from that party’s point of view, to develop mutually respectful relations with the United States. The original framework of the Nicaraguan revolution was defined by three legal—political instruments: the Government Program of the National Board; the Fundamental Statute of the Republic; and the Statute of Rights and Guarantees for Nicaraguans.
