ABSTRACT
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) toppled the regime of Nicaraguan dicatator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. Nicaragua’s geography, history, and socioeconomic conditions all have provided a rich medium for guerrilla warfare. The most significant geographic feature bearing on Nicaragua’s history is its close proximity to the United States. The oppressive rule of the Somoza dynasty established conditions favorable to revolution, as did, to a lesser extent, Nicaragua’s subservient client relationship with the United States. After the FSLN’s 1979 victory, it was fashionable in the United States and Western Europe to view the revolutionaries as nationalists or, at worst, confused socialist radicals. In Nicaragua, such an evolution seems precluded by the rule of an FSLN regime that has internalized Soviet and Cuban models of repression and is intent on consolidating its real power through coercive mechanisms. The FSLN leadership later revived and refurbished the image of Sandino, making him the embodiment of their “antiimperialist” revolution.
