ABSTRACT
The flip side of the postelectoral US strategy of neutralizing the influence of Sandinistas at every level was the reversal of the social and economic transformations carried out under the revolution, such as agrarian reform, subsidies for the poor, and health and educational opportunities. Events suggested that US objectives in the postelectoral period were to root out any vestige of Sandinista influence in state and society and to fully reestablish US hegemony over Nicaragua. "The Endowment must have some input" on the ground in Nicaragua in the immediate postelectoral transition, stated an internal National Endowment for Democracy (NED) memorandum drafted two weeks after the vote in response to the Agency for International Development directives. The clear purpose of these postelectoral NED programs was to deepen and extend US penetration of Nicaraguan civil and political society and particularly to consolidate influence over the organs of the new Nicaraguan government.
