Civil War in Nicaragua
- After the Banana Wars in 1912, the Somoza family came into power and ruled until 1978. The reign of the Somoza family relied greatly on U.S. support. Opposition to Somoza dictatorship in the 60’s and 70’s caused Nicaraguans Jose Carlos Fonseca Amador, Thomas Borge Martinez, and Silvio Mayorga to form the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which supported peasants and any form of anti-Somoza ideals, including communism. The FSLN and their ideals soon led to a full-scale revolution against the Somoza family dictatorship in the 1970's. The Soma regime fought back against the rebels using methods including torture and silencing the press, but this act of human rights violation eventually caused the U.S. to cut off all aid to the regime in 1978. After the combined efforts of the Managua riots and of the National Palace kidnappings by the hands of the FSLN, The Organization of American States organized negotiations between the two sides, leading to the FSLN taking control of the government and former president Somoza stepping down from his position.
After the Somoza regime fell, many reforms were introduced to the country, which created a mixed economy system and brought out the Agrarian Reform that redistributed agricultural land amongst Nicaraguan citizens. After disagreements between the Careter Administration, who worked for the FLSLN, and the more right-wing Reagan Administration, which supported anti-communist strategies for handling Latin American affairs, the FSLN fought the contrarevolucion (or the contras) in the Contra War. The contras were supported by the Reagan administration. It ended with the Tela Accord which stabilized both of the armies.