This article is part of the People’s World 100th Anniversary Series.
Forty-five years ago, on July 19, 1979, the Nicaraguan Revolution was victorious. The hated U.S.-backed Somoza family dictatorship was overthrown and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) established a new revolutionary government.
Led by Daniel Ortega, the FSLN governed Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990. It instituted massive public literacy programs, undertook land reform to benefit the peasant population, nationalized many foreign-owned firms, legalized trade unions, and devoted significant public resources to health care, education, and social services.
It also forged economic ties with Cuba, the Soviet Union, and the socialist bloc of countries in Europe. This, along with the expulsion of the Somoza dictatorship, put the new government in the crosshairs of U.S. imperialism. In 1981, the CIA set up the counter-revolutionary Contra group, providing it with funds and arms as part of an attempt to overthrow the Sandinistas.
From 1981 to 1986, the administration of President Ronald Reagan secretly facilitated illegal weapons sales to the Iranian government of Ayatollah Khomeini, despite an international arms embargo. Reagan and his deputies used the profits from the arms deals to fund the Contras in Nicaragua after Congress had cut off further appropriations for the overthrow effort. The secret scheme was exposed, however, and became known as the “Iran-Contra Affair.”
U.S. support for counter-revolutionary elements did not end, however, and in 1990 the FSLN was unseated in elections. It remained Nicaragua’s largest political party and a voice for workers and farmers.
In 2006, FSLN leader Ortega was re-elected president. He and the party won again in the elections of 2011, 2016, and 2021.
The article below, by Daily World international affairs writer Tom Foley, appeared in our pages the morning after the victory of the Sandinista Revolution, on July 20, 1979.
Nicaragua wins, Guard surrenders
Daily World – July 20, 1979
By Tom Foley
Sandinista forces Thursday captured the “bunker” of ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza in Managua. The action followed the surrender of the National Guard and the flight of interim President Francisco Urcuyo into exile.
The capture of the “bunker,” the last bastion of the Somoza dictatorship, was symbolic of the final victory of the patriotic forces led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
“Heroic people of Nicaragua,” a Sandinista radio broadcast said Wednesday, “the collapse of the National Guard is general. The Somoza dictatorship has fallen.”
National Guard surrenders
Ucuyo fled the country Wednesday after National Guard commander Gen. Francisco Mejia flew to Leon, the headquarters of the provisional government, and negotiated the surrender of the National Guard.
There was still a lot of shooting going on in Managua on Thursday, but reporters said they could not tell if it was real fighting or people firing into the air in celebration of the collapse of the 43-year-old U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship.
One U.S. reporter Thursday said his Managua hotel lobby was filled with National Guardsmen, stripping off their uniforms to civilian clothes underneath, flinging away their guns, and then running away. The National Guard Air Force collapses Wednesday, its officers hijacking at least 26 planes and flying them to neighboring Honduras.
Form new army
Sergio Ramirez Mercado, one of the five members of the provisional government in Leon, said that the National Guard would be totally disarmed and disbanded. He said a new Nicaraguan army would be formed of Sandinistas, other patriots, and any former National Guardsmen “not involved in crimes against the people.”
The National Guard was the chief instrument keeping the Somozas in power. It was originally set up by the U.S. Marine invasion force in Nicaragua in the 1920s.
Four of the five provisional government members were in Leon by Wednesday, 55 miles northwest of Managua. More than 20,000 people turned out to cheer Violetta Barrios de Chamorro, Sergio Ramirez Mercado, Alfonso Robelo, and Daniel Ortega. The fifth member, Moises Hassan, was in Masaya, 16 miles south of Managua.
Women are Sandinistas
The Somoza dictators always claimed that “we are the party of machismo.” So it is significant that there is a woman in the five-member provisional government, the widow of editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, murdered by Somoza.
As new photos reveal, there are large numbers of women fighting in the ranks of the Sandinistas. The Sandinista commander of Leon, Dora Maria Tellas, was the first one to welcome the new leaders to the city and proclaim it the capital of free Nicaragua.
Daniel Ortega said Thursday that the U.S. had completely failed in its last-ditch efforts to pressure the Sandinistas into accepting elements that had not taken part in the struggle against Somoza.
BULLETIN: WASHINGTON—A group of about 10 Nicaraguan students and sympathizers with the patriotic forces seized the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington on Thursday and peacefully ousted all its pro-Somoza employees. Scores of city police and State Department security personnel surrounded the embassy.
Other Nicaraguan embassies in other capitals around the world have been similarly seized by groups supporting the new government. Their aim was to guard against the destruction of records by Somoza’s ambassadors or agents.
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