“That We Should All Turn Queer?”

In a broad sense, the Sandinista revolution was undermined by an all-round war of aggression. On the military front, the U.S.-sponsored contra war had left thirty thousand people dead in a country of some three million. Contra attacks targeted schools, clinics, electrical facilities, bridges, and farms, traumatizing the country's economic infrastructure and disrupting social services. On the economic front, the U.S. economic embargo deprived Nicaragua of its historical market for agricultural products and, more importantly, of direct access to spare parts for its U.S.-manufactured machinery. And on the international front, U.S. vetos deprived Nicaragua of any relief it might have received from lending agencies.