Nicaragua, which derives from the name of the chief of the tribe indigenous to the area at the time of the Spanish conquest, was colonized by the Spanish in 1522. The country gained its independence in 1838. In the 20th century, Nicaragua policy was dominated by the competition of power between the Liberals, which focused on the city of León, and the Conservatives, centered in Granada.
To encourage the support of the new Conservative government in 1909, the U.S. sent a small detachment of marines to Nicaragua from 1912 to 1925. The Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1916 (finished in 1970) gave the U.S. installing naval bases in Nicaragua. The U.S. Marines were sent back to end the disorder after the 1924 elections. A guerrilla leader, General Augusto César Sandino, fought U.S. troops from 1927 until his retirement in 1933.
The dictators of Nicaragua and the struggle for power:
After ordering the assassination of Sandino, General Anastasio Somoza García was dictator from 1936 until his own assassination in 1956. He was succeeded by his son Luis, who alternated with trusted friends of the family in the presidency until his death in 1967.Fue succeeded by his brother, Maj. Gen. Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Somoza ruled Nicaragua with an iron hand took over banana exports, exiling political foes, and amassed a fortune with his family.
Sandinista guerrillas, leftists who took their name from Sandino, launched an offensive in 1979. After seven weeks of fighting, Somoza fled the country on July 17, 1979. The Sandinistas assumed power two days later. On January 23, 1981, the Reagan administration suspended U.S. aid, then Nicaragua, with the help of Cuba and the Soviet Union, he supplied weapons to rebels in El Salvador. The Sandinistas denied the charges against them. Later that year, Nicaraguan guerrillas known as contras, started a war to overthrow the Sandinistas. The elections were finally held on November 4, 1984, with Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista junta coordinator, who won the presidency. The war intensified between 1986-1987. Negotiations sponsored by the Contadora (neutral Latin American) Nations failed, but the Costa Rican president Oscar Arias promoted a treaty signed by Central American presidents in August 1987.
The article ends Sandista
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, and owner opposition paper La Prensa, led a broad anti-Sandinista coalition to victory in the 1990 elections, ending 11 years of Sandinista rule. The excitement gradually faded Chamorro. Business groups were dissatisfied with the pace of reforms; Sandinistas, upset with what they regarded as the dismantling of its past achievements, they threatened to take up arms again, and many people were disillusioned with government corruption.
The former mayor of Managua and Conservative candidate Arnoldo Alemán won the 1996 elections. The former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega was his nearest rival.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed more than 9,000 people, left 2 million homeless and caused $ 10 billion in damages. Many people fled to the U.S., which offered Nicaraguans immigration amnesty program until July 1999. Nicaragua remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
In November 2001 presidential elections, Enrique Bolaños, the Liberal Party party leader, defeated Ortega, who was attempting a comeback.
In August 2002, former President Arnoldo Aleman was charged with fraud and embezzlement, and in 2003 was sent to prison for 20 years. Bolanos, current president triumphantly called the “frying the big fish.” The watchdog against corruption, Transparency International, Arnoldo Alemán I consider among the most corrupt leaders of the past two decades.
International Participation
The country received an enormous show of support from the international community in 2004 when the IMF and World Bank forgave 4.5 billion U.S. dollars of the debt of Nicaragua. In April 2006 a free trade agreement with U.S. (CAFTA) came into force.
Former Sandinista president Daniel Ortega won the presidential election in November 2006 with 38% of the vote and took office in January 2007.
On March 7, 2008, during a summit in the Dominican Republic, the leaders of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua ended their diplomatic dispute over Colombia’s raid into Ecuador, which occurred on March 1, 2008.