José Daniel Ortega Saavedra is a Nicaraguan politician who has been 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. However, in 2022, Ortega resumed repression of the Church, and has imprisoned prelate Rolando José Álvarez Lagos.
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 Nicaraguan Democratic Force was one of the earliest Contra groups, formed on August 11, 1981 in Guatemala City. It was formed to oppose Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government following the 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. It merged the 15th of September Legion, which comprised mostly former members of Somoza's National Guard, with the Nicaraguan Democratic Union, an organization of émigrés from the business and professional classes. The new FDN also began assimilating the MILPAS movement, bands led by disenchanted former MAP-ML guerrillas. The FDN military was under the command of former National Guard colonel Enrique Bermúdez. The FDN was heavily backed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Reagan administration. The FDN was also alleged to be engaged in drug trafficking in order to finance its war against the Sandinista government.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 5 November 2006. The country's voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and 90 members of the National Assembly. Daniel Ortega (FSLN) won the election with 37.99% of the vote, Eduardo Montealegre (ALN) trailing with 28.30%, José Rizo (PLC) with 27.1%, Edmundo Jarquín (MRS) with 6.29%, and Edén Pastora (AC) with 0.29%.
Tomás Borge Martínez, often spelled as Thomas Borge in American newspapers, was a cofounder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and was Interior Minister of Nicaragua during one of the administrations of Daniel Ortega. He was also a renowned statesman, writer, and politician. Tomás Borge also held the titles of "Vice-Secretary and President of the FSLN", member of the Nicaraguan Parliament and National Congress, and Ambassador to Peru. Considered a hardliner, he led the "prolonged people's war" tendency within the FSLN until his death.
The Sandinista Renovation Movement is a Nicaraguan political party founded on 21 May 1995. It defines itself as a democratic and progressive party, made of people of all genders, that promotes the construction of a Nicaragua with opportunities, progress, solidarity, democracy, and sovereignty.
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.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 25 February 1990 to elect the President and the members of the National Assembly. The result was a victory for the National Opposition Union (UNO), whose presidential candidate Violeta Chamorro surprisingly defeated incumbent president Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). This led to a historic peaceful and democratic transfer of power in Nicaragua.
In 1979, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in Nicaragua. Following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas ruled the country first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 6 November 2011. The incumbent president Daniel Ortega, won a third term in this election, with a landslide victory.
Berenice Xuyami Quezada Herrera is a Nicaraguan model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Nicaragua 2017 and represented Nicaragua at the Miss Universe 2017 pageant.
Félix Alejandro Maradiaga Blandón is a Nicaraguan academic and political activist. From 2002 to 2006, he was Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense under President Enrique Bolaños. Maradiaga is the founding co-director of the Civil Society Leadership Institute.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 7 November 2021 to elect the President, the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament.
George Patrick Henriquez Cassayo is a Nicaraguan activist. Hailing from Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast, Henriquez is a former YATAMA party activist and served on its behalf as a member of the executive committee unified National Coalition opposition group in 2020. In 2021 he was a pre-candidate for president in the Nicaraguan general election with the Citizens for Liberty Alliance (ACxL).
Juan Sebastián Chamorro García is a Nicaraguan economist, businessman and politician. He was a pre-candidate for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election until he was detained in a wave of arrests of opposition candidates and other civic leaders.
Oscar Manuel Sobalvarro Garcia is a former commander in the Nicaraguan Resistance fighting the Sandinista National Liberation Front, of which he was a former army soldier. Professionally he was a farmer and salesman. His nom-de-guerre was "Commandante Ruben."
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.
Victor Hugo Tinoco Fonseca is a Nicaraguan politician and former Sandinista guerilla. He was Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs with the Sandinista National Liberation Front, ambassador to the United Nations and a deputy in the National Assembly. In the late 1990s he grew critical of Daniel Ortega and was expelled from the party in 2005, joining the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) instead and later its successor, the Democratic Renewal Union (Unamos) party. In June 2021, he was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures, including seven aspiring opposition candidates for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election.
Medardo Mairena Sequeira is a Nicaraguan farmer and coordinator of the peasant (campesino) movement. Mairena has worked in the peasant anti-canal movement since 2013 and has been an active opposition leader since the national protests broke out in late April 2018, participating in the National Dialogue between protestors and the government of Daniel Ortega, mediated by the Catholic Church. Two months later he became one of a large number of dissidents arrested and prosecuted for terrorism; Mairena was sentenced to 261 years in prison, serving one year before he was released under a negotiated Amnesty Law.
The political history of North America in the 2020s covers political events on the continent, other than elections, from 2020 onwards.
