ABSTRACT

In September 1979, two months after the end of the armed revolution that deposed Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the interim government for the reconstruction of Nicaragua ordered the termination of the Guardia Nacional (National Guard) and the creation of a civil police.1 is project, ocially begun with a symbolic “payment” of 500 córdobas to the group of former guerrillas that became the founders of the new organization, provided the basis for a democratic police, a novel institution in a country where militarized police was the norm.