Sandinista Revolution and the Contra War in Nicaragua
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in July 1979 and established a revolutionary government in Nicaragua. The Carter administration initially attempted a cautious engagement, but the Reagan administration, which took office in January 1981, declared the Sandinistas a Marxist threat and authorised the CIA to organise, train, and fund an armed counterrevolutionary force — the Contras — based in Honduras and Costa Rica. The Contras, who included veterans of Somoza's hated National Guard, waged a brutal guerrilla war against the Sandinista government throughout the 1980s, attacking civilians, economic infrastructure, and rural cooperatives. Congress cut off official funding for the Contras in 1982 and again definitively with the Boland Amendment in 1984, forcing the Reagan administration to seek alternative financing — a search that led directly to the Iran-Contra scandal. Despite years of Contra warfare and a US economic embargo, the Sandinistas survived; the war ended when free elections in 1990 produced a surprise defeat for Daniel Ortega. The Contra war cost some 30,000 lives and devastated Nicaragua's already fragile economy. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1986 that US support for the Contras violated international law.
- Year: 1979 CE
- Category: Military
