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The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the socialist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance.
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The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas[sandiˈnistas] 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.
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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.
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Sandinista ideology or Sandinismo is a series of political and economic philosophies championed and instituted by the Nicaraguan Sandinista National Liberation Front throughout the late twentieth century. The ideology and movement acquired its name, image and, most crucially, military style from Augusto César Sandino, a Nicaraguan revolutionary leader who waged a guerrilla war against the United States Marines and the conservative Somoza National Guards in the early twentieth century. Despite using the Sandino name, the principals of modern Sandinista ideology were mainly developed by Carlos Fonseca, who, in likeness to the leaders of the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s, sought to inspire socialist populism among Nicaragua's peasant population. One of these main philosophies involved the institution of an educational system that would "free" the population from the perceived historical fallacies spouted by the ruling Somoza family. By awakening political thought among the people, proponents of Sandinista ideology believed that human resources would be available to not only execute a guerrilla war against the Somoza regime but also build a society resistant to economic and military intervention imposed by foreign entities.
Enrique Bermúdez Varela, aka. Comandante 380, was a Nicaraguan who founded and commanded the Nicaraguan Contras. In this capacity, he became a central global figure in one of the most prominent conflicts of the Cold War.
José Aristides Sánchez Herdocia served as a key political figure among the Nicaraguan Contras. Early on, he joined Enrique Bermúdez in efforts to start a rebel opposition to the new Sandinista government, a hand-picked choice of the CIA for this position. As the conduit between political leader Adolfo Calero in Miami and rebel base camps in Honduras, he spent more time in the camps than other Contra politicians and had the trust of the rebel field commanders. After working largely behind the scenes, in 1987 he joined the directorate of the Nicaraguan Resistance.
Jorge Salazar Argüello, a Nicaraguan coffee grower and popular leader of UPANIC, seemed poised to become the leader of the opposition to the Sandinista government, until his death at the hands of State Security forces.
Frente Obrero was a national trade union centre in Nicaragua. It was founded c. 1972-74, as the trade union wing of the MAP-ML.
The Fifteenth of September Legion was an anti-communist guerrilla group founded in Guatemala by exiled former junior officers of the defeated Nicaraguan National Guard, which was committed to overthrowing the Sandinista National Liberation Front government.
El Pueblo was a revolutionary newspaper published in Nicaragua. El Pueblo was the organ of Frente Obrero, the trade union wing of the Marxist–Leninist Popular Action Movement (MAP-ML). The newspaper began publication in March 1979.
Carlos Domingo Cuadra Cuadra is a Nicaraguan politician and publicist.
Isidro Ignacio Téllez Toruño is a Nicaraguan politician and trade unionist. He served as general secretary of the Marxist–Leninist Popular Action Movement (MAP-ML) and is a veteran leader of Frente Obrero.
References
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- ↑ Baltodano, Mónica (2010). Memories of the Sandinista struggle. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung publishers, footnote 4.
- ↑ The Workers' Advocate (April 20,1984 Volume 14, Number 5) Section: The Insurrection https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/workers-advocate/14-5.html#article1144
- ↑ Prensa Proletaria, July 1987 https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/workers-advocate/17-9.html#article2797
- ↑ Prensa Proletaria, April 1984 https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/workers-advocate/14-8.html#article1256
- ↑ Prensa Proletaria, May 1987 https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/workers-advocate/17-7.html#article2699
- Dillon, Sam (1991). Comandos: The CIA and Nicaragua's Contra Rebels. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-1475-6. OCLC 23974023.
- Horton, Lynn (1998). Peasants in Arms: War and Peace in the Mountains of Nicaragua, 1979-1994. Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies. ISBN 0-89680-204-3. OCLC 39157572.
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