User:Axel Flores-Cruz/Sandinista National Liberation Front

Precursor to Revolution
The second U.S intervention in Nicaragua ended when Juan Bautista Sacasa of the Liberal Party won the elections. By the 1st of January 1933 there wasn’t a single US soldier left on Nicaraguan soil, however in 1930 the US had formed a group for national security known as the National Guard. The National Guard remained after the exit of the U.S under the leadership of Anastasio Somoza Garcia who was supported by the U.S. On the 21 of February of 1934 Somoza, using the National Guard, assassinated Sandino who opposed and fought against US intervention. This was the first act of a series that Somoza, with help from the U.S, would take that would culminate in his election as president in 1936. The result of his election was the start of the U.S sponsored dictatorship of the Somoza family.

During the 1960’s  leftist ideas began spreading throughout the world sparking independence movements in different colonial territories. On the 1st of January 1959 in Havana, Cuba revolutionaries fought against dictator Fulgencio Batista. In Algeria the Algerian National Liberation Front was founded to fight against French colonial control. In Nicaragua different movements that opposed the Somoza dynasty began to unite, forming the Nicaraguan National Liberation Front which would later be renamed the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

The economic situation of Nicaragua, in the middle of the 20th century, had deteriorated as the prices of agricultural exports such as cotton and coffee dropped. Politically the conservative party of Nicaragua split and one of the factions, the Zancudos, began collaborating with the Somoza regime.

Anastasio Somoza Garcia is assassinated by poet Rigoberto Lopez Perez in 1956

In 1957 Carlos Fonseca Amador, Silvio Mayorga, Tomás Borge, Oswaldo Madriz y Heriberto Carrillo formed the first cell of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Committee who identified with the issues of the proletariat. Later that October the Mexican cell is formed with members such as Edén Pastora Gómez, Juan José Ordóñez, Roger Hernández, Porfirio Molina y Pedro José Martínez Alvarado.

On October 1958 Ramon Raudales begins his guerilla war against the Somoza dynasty beginning the armed conflict

June 1959 the event known as "El Chaparral" occurred in Honduran territory bordering Nicaragua. The guerrilla fighters "Rigoberto López Pérez" under the command of Rafael Somarriba (in which Carlos Fonseca was integrated) was found and annihilated by the Honduran Army in coordination with the intelligence services of the Nicaraguan National Guard.

After "El Chaparral" several more armed rebellions took place. In August the journalist Manuel Díaz y Sotelo died, in September Carlos "Chale" Haslam died; in December Heriberto Reyes (Colonel of the Defensive Army of National Sovereignty) died. The following year the events of "El Dorado" (February 28, 1960) took place where several events occurred leading to several deaths including Luis Morales, Julio Alonso Leclair (head of the September 15 column), Manuel Baldizón and Erasmo Montoya.

The conventional opposition, up to that point led by the Nicaraguan Communist Party, had not been able to form a common front against the dictatorship. The opposition to the dictatorship was established around various student organizations. Among its leaders, Carlos Fonseca Amador in the early 1960s.

At the start of 1961 the New Nicaragua Movement (NNM) is founded by prominent leaders of the education world like  Carlos Fonseca, Silvio Mayorga, Tomás Borge, Gordillo, Navarro y Francisco Buitrago; prominents leaders on workers issues such as Jose Benito Escobar; countryside leaders like Germán Pomares and small business leaders such as Julio Jerez Suárez. Legendary guerilla veteran Santos Lopez, who fought with Augusto Cesar Sandino, also participated in the NNM

The New Nicaragua Movement was established in three cities Managua, Leon and Estelí, however they were generally stationed in Honduras. Their first public activity was held in March 1961, in support of the Cuban revolution and in protest of the position that the Nicaraguan government held with Cuba. The NNM later dissolved to make way for the National Liberation Front.

Founding (1961-1970)
The New Nicaragua Movement soon dissolved with its members forming the National Liberation Front, FLN. Which takes its name from the Algerian National Liberation Front, which led the fight for the independence of Algeria from France.

A congress or assembly is not formed as the preparation would have required a prior theoretical process in order to create them.

The FSLN was not prepared for its own formation. Different discussions took place within the group as they came to a consensus on political ideas. Even in 1963, while still under the name of FLN, there was a lack of internal coherence in political ideas (this can be seen in the publication of the newspaper Trinchera). The first few years were carried by some basic shared values of all the forces that were being integrated. Some of these basic shared ideas was to imitate the success of the Cuban Revolution, the ineffectiveness of the conventional opposition to the Somoza regime and the need to remain independent of them (referring to the from the conservative, liberal and communist parties), the need for a revolutionary movement that would use the armed struggle as opposition to the Somoza dictatorship, and after some discussion, identification with Sandino's struggle. It was not until 1969 that any programmatic document was published.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front was supposedly founded in a meeting in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) between Carlos Fonseca, Tomás Borge, and Silvio Mayorga. It's even been said that the meeting was held on July 19, 1961. In reality, there is no documentary reference that supports this affirmation, with the first news about it this meeting and date surfacing after the revolutionary triumph of 1979.