A little information on Nicaragua

Here are some points about Nicaragua (infomation taken from http://www.iexplore.com/)

Basic Information

• Area120,254 sq km (46,430 sq miles).


• Population5.7 million (UN estimate 2005).


• Current President: Daniel Ortega (elected in 2007)


• Capital: Managua


• Language: Predominately Spanish

Geography

Nicaragua borders Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. To the east lies the Caribbean, and to the west the Pacific. In the north are the Isabella Mountains, while the country’s main feature in the southwest is Lake Nicaragua, 148km (92 miles) long and about 55km (34 miles) at its widest. The island of Ometepe is the largest of the 310 islands on the lake. These islands have a reputation for great beauty and are one of the country’s main tourist attractions. Lake Managua is situated to the northwest. Volcanoes, including the famous Momotombo, protrude from the surrounding lowlands northwest of the lakes. The country’s main rivers are the San Juan, the lower reaches of which form the border with Costa Rica, and the Rio Grande. The Corn Islands (Islas del Maiz) in the Caribbean are two small beautiful islands fringed with white coral and palms. They are very popular as holiday resorts with both Nicaraguans and tourists. The majority of Nicaragua’s population lives and works in the lowland between the Pacific and western shores of Lake Nicaragua, the southwestern shore of Lake Managua and the southwestern sides of the range of volcanoes. It is only in recent years that settlers have taken to coffee growing and cattle farming in the highlands around Matagalpa and Jinotega.

History

• In 1838, Nicaragua declared itself a sovereign state with a democratic system of government. The fledgling nation was slow to stabilize and immediately became prey to what were now the most powerful foreign influences in the region – the British and the Americans. The Americans first appeared in the form of the freebooting William Walker. In 1855, one of the ‘liberal’ factions disputing power in Nicaragua invited the American mercenary to come and aid their cause. Walker took effective control of the government by taking over the national army. However, he was no liberal and planned to remodel Nicaragua as a slave colony annexed to the US. Walker was eventually defeated after a bitter struggle. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-invade Nicaragua, Walker was captured by the British, handed over to the Nicaraguan government and executed in 1865.


• From this point on, the struggle between supporters and opponents of the US – along with the propensity of Washington to intervene when it felt its interests threatened – came to dominate the political landscape of Nicaragua. In 1912, after 50-odd years of relative quiet, it was the conservatives who called upon US intervention to resolve serious domestic upheaval. This revolved around a number of issues, including the failure of Nicaragua to secure the construction of an Atlantic-Pacific canal, which was built in Panama instead, as well as the historic conflict between conservatives and liberals. The Americans maintained a constant military presence in Nicaragua for the next two decades. For the first 14 years, it was nominal, however, in 1926, worried about a possible radical election victory similar to what had occurred in Mexico, US marines arrived in force. Most Nicaraguan politicians acquiesced to American will. However, a radical group, led by Augusto César Sandino – who gave his name to the Sandinista movement – launched an effective guerrilla campaign that forced the Americans’ departure in 1933. Sandino’s guerrillas had agreed to stop fighting when the Americans left. This they did.


• However, a new power had arisen during the course of the campaign, in the form of the paramilitary National Guard, led by General Anastasio Somoza Garcia. Against the wishes of the government, Sandino and his senior commanders were arrested by Somoza and executed in February 1934. Two years later, Somoza – a wily and vicious politician – was elected president and duly established a military dictatorship. Characterised by brutality, despotism and systematic corruption, this lasted for almost half a century. Somoza was assassinated in 1956, at which point his son, Luis Somoza Delbaye, took over.


• At the turn of the 1960s, a rebel movement called the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) began a guerrilla campaign, which finally overthrew the Somozas after 17 years, in 1979. The ‘Sandinistas’ established a Junta of National Reconstruction and began a program of agrarian reform, nationalization of industry and massive health and literacy schemes. However, in 1981, following the election of Ronald Reagan as US President, the Americans – under the banner of fighting communism – began a program of destabilization in Nicaragua, helping the ‘Contra’ guerrilla forces in Honduras and Costa Rica and mounting an economic boycott. The Contra war caused serious difficulties for the FSLN government. Repeated attempts to negotiate a settlement foundered upon the opposition of the USA, which was determined to bring down the Sandinistas. Finally, in 1989, a deal was agreed with Honduras – where most of the Contra bases were located – to end the insurgency. Elections in February 1990 showed how much Sandinista popularity suffered during the years of turmoil and austerity. Violeta Chamorro, widow of the publisher, Pedro Chamorro – who was killed by the Somoza regime – defeated Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega when she stood on behalf of the combined opposition UNO Alliance representing 14 of the 21 opposition parties in Nicaragua. Once in government, much of Chamorro’s energy was consumed by holding together the fractious UNO coalition. The President herself had little to do with the day-to-day business of government, which was mostly in the hands of her son-in-law, Antonio Lacayo Oyanguren. The new government found it difficult to handle the most pressing domestic issue: land reform. Neglect of claims of ownership, some of which dated back to the Somoza era, provoked a series of armed uprisings by disaffected soldiers from both Contras and Sandinistas. However, new legislation passed in 1998 put an effective end to the matter. The disintegration of the artificially-created UNO coalition in the mid-1990s was to be expected. More of a surprise was the split in the traditionally disciplined Sandinistas. In the summer of 1995, a moderate faction led by ex-Vice-President Sergio Ramirez broke away. Despite a further decline in his fortunes, including a sex scandal involving alleged abuse of his stepdaughter, Ortega survived as leader of the rump Sandinista party and has stood, unsuccessfully, at both the 1996 and 2001 presidential elections. In 1996, Ortega was defeated by Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo leading an alliance of liberal and centrist parties, and then in the most recent poll in 2001 by Aleman’s vice-president, Enrique Bolanos Geyer. By this time, the Sandinistas had restyled themselves as Convergencia and adopted a Blairite Christian Democrat program. The Bolanos government which took office in 2001 has a tiny majority in the national assembly, and its work was initially hamstrung by a dispute over the fate of his predecessor, Arnoldo Aleman. The former president had been arraigned for corruption during his term of office, but was protected by his parliamentary immunity. His immunity was eventually removed in September 2002. 14 months later, Aleman was convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. The government received some welcome good news at the start of 2004 however, when, following protracted negotiations, the World Bank agreed to write off 80 per cent of the country’s debt to the institution – a sum of around $3 billion.