JoséDaniel Ortega Saavedra is a Nicaraguan politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990,first as coordinator (1979–1985) of the Junta of National Reconstruction,and then as President of Nicaragua (1985–1990). During his first term,he implemented policies to achieve leftist reforms across Nicaragua. In later years,Ortega's left-wing radical politics cooled significantly,leading him to pursue pro-business policies and even rapprochement with the Catholic Church. As a part of this,his government adopted strong anti-abortion policies,and his rhetoric took on a new,strongly religious tenor,despite formerly having professed atheism.
Nicaragua is a nation in Central America. It is located about midway between Mexico and Colombia,bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. Nicaragua ranges from the Caribbean Sea on the nation's east coast,and the Pacific Ocean bordering the west. Nicaragua also possesses a series of islands and cays located in the Caribbean Sea.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a left-wing political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino,who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.
Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro is a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and,as of 2023,only woman to hold the position of president of Nicaragua.
Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan-born novelist and poet known for her contributions to Nicaraguan literature.
Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez was a Nicaraguan politician and guerrilla who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change (AC) party in the 2006 general elections. In the years prior to the fall of the Somoza regime,Pastora was the leader of the Southern Front,the largest militia in southern Nicaragua,second only to the FSLN in the north. Pastora was nicknamed Comandante Cero.
La Prensa is a Nicaraguan newspaper,with offices in the capital Managua. Its current daily circulation is placed at 42,000. Founded in 1926,in 1932 it was bought by Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Zelaya,who had become editor-in-chief. He promoted the Conservative Party of Nicaragua and became a voice of opposition to Juan Bautista Sacasa,for which the paper was censored. He continued to be critical of dictator Anastasio Somoza García,who came to power in a coup d'état.
Women that joined the Sandinista movement in the revolutionary Nicaragua essentially fought a battle:to secure national freedom from the Somoza dictatorship and to advance gender equality.
Dora María Téllez Argüello is a Nicaraguan historian known for her involvement in the Nicaraguan Revolution. As a young university medical student in León in the 1970s,Téllez was recruited by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Téllez went on to become a comandante and fought alongside later president Daniel Ortega in the revolution that ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. In the subsequent FSLN government,she served as Health Minister under Ortega and has also been an advocate for women's rights. She ultimately became a critic of repression and corruption under President Ortega and left the FSLN in 1995 to found the party Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS),later renamed Unamos. Along with several other opposition figures,she was arrested in June 2021 by the Ortega government.
Rosario María Murillo Zambrana is a Nicaraguan politician and poet who has held the position of Vice President of Nicaragua,the country's second highest office,since January 2017 and First Lady of Nicaragua since 2007 and from 1985 to 1990 as the wife of President Daniel Ortega. Murillo has served as the Nicaraguan government's lead spokesperson,government minister,head of the Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers,and Communications Coordinator of the Council on Communication and Citizenry. She was sworn in as vice president of Nicaragua on 10 January 2017. In August 2021,she was made subject to personal sanctions by the European Union,over alleged human rights violations.
Idania de Los Angeles Fernandez Ramirez was a Nicaraguan revolutionary with the Sandinista Front.
The National Nicaraguan Police Force is the national police of Nicaragua. The force is in charge of regular police functions and,at times,works in conjunction with the Nicaraguan military,making it an indirect and rather subtle version of a gendarmerie. However,the Nicaraguan National Police work separately and have a different established set of norms than the nation's military.
Sofía Montenegro Alarcón is a Nicaraguan journalist,social researcher,and feminist. Montenegro's family were militarily aligned with the Somoza forces,but her feminist and Marxist studies moved her to join with the opposition to the regime. She fought in the Sandinista Revolution and though initially supportive of the Sandinista Party,later became an outspoken critic,saying it had moved to the right. She served as an editor of various divisions of the official Sandinista newspaper,Barricada, until 1994,when she founded the Center for Communication Research (CINCO) as an independent research organization free of government influence. She has written broadly on power,gender,and social interaction.
Francisco Javier Díaz Madriz is the Director General of the National Police of Nicaragua. He was appointed by president Daniel Ortega on July 5,2018,following Aminta Granera's resignation from the position in the face of mass protests across Nicaragua and the widespread criticism of the aggressive police response that followed. The appointment became public August 23 and Díaz was officially sworn in on September 5,2018.
Leticia Herrera Sánchez is a Nicaraguan politician and former guerrilla leader. She was one of the first women commanders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) against the dictatorial government of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua from 1974 to 1979.
Violeta Mercedes Granera Padilla is a Nicaraguan sociologist,activist and former candidate for Vice-President. Granera worked for the World Bank,then in government before joining the civic organization Movement for Nicaragua,where she worked for seven years advocating for transparency and election reform. She resigned to run for vice-president in 2016 with the Independent Liberal Party,but the party was barred from the ballot by court decision. In the wake of the 2018 anti-government protests she became involved in the Blue and White National Unity opposition group,and in the run-up to the 2021 Nicaraguan general election,she was among the opposition leaders arrested.
Vilma Núñez de Escorcia is a Nicaraguan lawyer and human-rights activist. Born to a single mother,she developed an early concern for social justice. As an undergraduate studying law at National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in León,she met future senior government officials Carlos Tünnerman and Sergio Ramírez,and became one of the survivors of the 23 July 1959 student massacre by the Somoza National Guard. She joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front around 1975 and in 1979 was imprisoned and tortured by the Somoza regime. She was freed days before the FSLN insurrection succeeded on 19 July 1979. When they took power,she served as vice-president of the Supreme Court of Justice,then as director of the National Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
Hugo Torres Jiménez was a Nicaraguan Sandinista guerrilla and military leader who was a brigadier general in the Nicaraguan Armed Forces. During the Sandinista National Liberation Front effort to overthrow the Somoza family regime,Torres was the only guerrilla who participated in both the 1974 Christmas party raid that freed future President Daniel Ortega among other prisoners,and the 1978 raid on the National Palace,freeing another 60 political prisoners. In the late 1990s he became a critic of Ortega,leaving the FSLN to join the Sandinista Renovation Movement and later its successor the Democratic Renewal Union,serving as vice-president of both parties. In June 2021 he was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures by the Ortega administration. He died the following February.
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios is a Nicaraguan journalist and politician. He began his career in journalism working at La Prensa,following the 1978 assassination of its editor,his father,Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal. Working on the side of the Contras in exile in the 1980s,he returned to the country in 1989 when his mother Violeta Barrios de Chamorro ran for president,and following her election,served as a Nicaraguan ambassador. He later became defense minister. In the 21st century,Chamorro has been a city councilor for Managua and deputy in the National Assembly,also for Managua. On 25 June 2021,he became part of a wave of arrests of opposition and civic figures in Nicaragua.
