The Undermining Of The Sandinista Revolution

The Sandinista revolution brought dramatic social, economic and political changes to Nicaragua in the 1980s, but in the wake of the electoral defeat of the FSLN in 1990 the revolution has struggled to survive in the face of challenges from the Chamorro administration, the US government, and the International Monetary Fund. Gains of the revolution in health care, education, Atlantic Coast autonomy, agrarian reform, and other areas have been systematically eroded. However, significant efforts have also been mounted, especially in grass roots organizing and by women's organizations, to protect the revolution's achievements. Through a series of articles based on current research, seven experts on contemporary Nicaragua draw a balance sheet on the gains of Sandinista revolution achieved by 1990 and assess the current status of the revolutionary project.

Sandinista Narratives is an analysis of the role of agency in the Nicaraguan Revolution and its aftermath. Jean-Pierre Reed argues that the insurrection in Nicaragua was shaped by political contingency, action-specific subjectivity, and popular culture. He also examines how Sandinista ideology contributed to state-building in Nicaragua while tracing the role of post-revolutionary Sandinismo as a political identity.

With characteristic clarity and insight, historian and activist Paul Le Blanc offers a sweeping survey of the key contributions of Marxist theory, exploring its relevance to twentieth-century revolutionary movements and figures. Paul Le Blanc Has written on and participated in the US labor, radical and civil rights movements, and is author of numerous books.

Together with his brother Humberto, Daniel Ortega Saavedra masterminded the only victorious Latin American revolution since Fidel Castro's in Cuba. Following the triumphant 1979 Nicaraguan revolution, Ortega was named coordinator of the governing junta, and then in 1984 was elected president by a landslide in the country's first free presidential election. The future was full of promise. Yet the United States was soon training, equipping, and financing a counterrevolutionary force inside Nicaragua while sabotaging its crippled economy. The result was a decade-long civil war. By 1990, Nicaraguans dutifully voted Ortega out and the preferred candidate of the United States in. And Nicaraguans grew poorer and sicker. Then, in 2006, Daniel Ortega was reelected president. He was still defiantly left-wing and deeply committed to reclaiming the lost promise of the Revolution. Only time will tell if he succeeds, but he has positioned himself as an ally of Castro and Hugo Ch&ávez, while life for many Nicaraguans is finally improving. Unfinished Revolution is the first full-length biography of Daniel Ortega in any language. Drawing from a wealth of untapped sources, it tells the story of Nicaragua's continuing struggle for liberation through the prism of the Revolution's most emblematic yet enigmatic hero.

This book traces the process through which Nicaraguans defeated US aggression in a highly unequal confrontation.

"Metoyer first analyzes women's social gains and losses during the Sandinista era. She then turns to the impact of Chamorro's structural adjustment programs. Considering the position of women in post-Sandinista society, she provides a nuanced discussion of Nicaragua's economic and social reality, as well as a rethinking of the ideology that underlies much development policy."--BOOK JACKET.

We know very little about political dynamics in states that have just experienced an internal war, despite the increasing need to deal with such states in the post-Cold War world. Matthew Krain examines what prompts leaders in post-revolutionary states to employ repression or accommodation. Through statistical analysis and case studies of Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, he also examines the effects of these choices on how the domestic opposition reacts, what type of political system develops in the new state, and whether or not the leaders who institute these policies survive in power in the long run. Krain concludes with a series of policy recommendations.